the biography of george washington carver

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George Washington Carver

By: History.com Editors

Updated: April 24, 2023 | Original: October 27, 2009

George Washington Carver was an agricultural scientist and inventor who developed hundreds of products using peanuts (though not peanut butter, as is often claimed), sweet potatoes and soybeans. Born into slavery before it was outlawed, Carver left home at a young age to pursue education and would eventually earn a master’s degree in agricultural science from Iowa State University. He would go on to teach and conduct research at Tuskegee University for decades, and soon after his death his childhood home would be named a national monument—the first of its kind to honor a Black American.

Born on a farm near Diamond, Missouri , the exact date of Carver’s birth is unknown, but it’s thought he was born in January or June of 1864.

Nine years prior, Moses Carver, a white farm owner, purchased George Carver’s mother Mary when she was 13 years old. The elder Carver reportedly was against slavery , but needed help with his 240-acre farm.

When Carver was an infant, he, his mother and his sister were kidnapped from the Carver farm by one of the bands of slave raiders that roamed Missouri during the Civil War era. They were resold in Kentucky .

Moses Carver hired a neighbor to retrieve them, but the neighbor only succeeded in finding George, whom he purchased by trading one of Moses’ finest horses. Carver grew up knowing little about his mother or his father, who had died in an accident before he was born.

Moses Carver and his wife Susan raised the young George and his brother James as their own and taught the boys how to read and write.

James gave up his studies and focused on working the fields with Moses. George, however, was a frail and sickly child who could not help with such work; instead, Susan taught him how to cook, mend, embroider, do laundry and garden, as well as how to concoct simple herbal medicines.

At a young age, Carver took a keen interest in plants and experimented with natural pesticides, fungicides and soil conditioners. He became known as the “the plant doctor” to local farmers due to his ability to discern how to improve the health of their gardens, fields and orchards.

At age 11, Carver left the farm to attend an all-Black school in the nearby town of Neosho.

He was taken in by Andrew and Mariah Watkins, a childless Black couple who gave him a roof over his head in exchange for help with household chores. A midwife and nurse, Mariah imparted on Carver her broad knowledge of medicinal herbs and her devout faith.

Disappointed with the education he received at the Neosho school, Carver moved to Kansas about two years later, joining numerous other Blacks who were traveling west.

For the next decade or so, Carver moved from one Midwestern town to another, putting himself through school and surviving off of the domestic skills he learned from his foster mothers.

He graduated from Minneapolis High School in Minneapolis, Kansas, in 1880 and applied to Highland College in Kansas (today’s Highland Community College ). He was initially accepted at the all-white college but was later rejected when the administration learned he was Black.

In the late 1880s, Carver befriended the Milhollands, a white couple in Winterset, Iowa , who encouraged him to pursue a higher education. Despite his former setback, he enrolled in Simpson College , a Methodist school that admitted all qualified applicants.

Carver initially studied art and piano in hopes of earning a teaching degree, but one of his professors, Etta Budd, was skeptical of a Black man being able to make a living as an artist. After learning of his interests in plants and flowers, Budd encouraged Carver to apply to the Iowa State Agricultural School (now Iowa State University ) to study botany.

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Carver Makes Black History

In 1894, Carver became the first African American to earn a Bachelor of Science degree. Impressed by Carver’s research on the fungal infections of soybean plants, his professors asked him to stay on for graduate studies.

Carver worked with famed mycologist (fungal scientist) L.H. Pammel at the Iowa State Experimental Station, honing his skills in identifying and treating plant diseases.

In 1896, Carver earned his Master of Agriculture degree and immediately received several offers, the most attractive of which came from Booker T. Washington (whose last name George would later add to his own) of Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University ) in Alabama .

Washington convinced the university’s trustees to establish an agricultural school, which could only be run by Carver if Tuskegee was to keep its all-Black faculty. Carver accepted the offer and would work at Tuskegee Institute for the rest of his life.

Tuskegee Institute

Carver’s early years at Tuskegee were not without hiccups.

For one, agriculture training was not popular—Southern farmers believed they already knew how to farm and students saw schooling as a means to escape farming. Additionally, many faculty members resented Carver for his high salary and demand to have two dormitory rooms, one for him and one for his plant specimens.

Carver also struggled with the demands of the faculty position he held. He wanted to devote his time to researching agriculture for ways to help out poor Southern farmers, but he was also expected to manage the school’s two farms, teach, ensure the school’s toilets and sanitary facilities worked properly, and sit on multiple committees and councils.

Carver and Washington had a complicated relationship and would butt heads often, in part because Carver wanted little to do with teaching (though he was beloved by his students). Carver would eventually get his way when Washington died in 1915 and was succeeded by Robert Russa Moton, who relieved Carver of his teaching duties except for summer school.

What Did George Washington Carver Invent?

By this time, Carver already had great successes in the laboratory and the community. He taught poor farmers that they could feed hogs acorns instead of commercial feed and enrich croplands with swamp muck instead of fertilizers. But it was his ideas regarding crop rotation that proved to be most valuable.

Through his work on soil chemistry, Carver learned that years of growing cotton had depleted the nutrients from soil, resulting in low yields. But by growing nitrogen-fixing plants like peanuts, soybeans and sweet potatoes, the soil could be restored, allowing yield to increase dramatically when the land was reverted to cotton use a few years later.

To further help farmers, he invented the Jessup wagon, a kind of mobile (horse-drawn) classroom and laboratory used to demonstrate soil chemistry.

Carver: The Peanut Man

Farmers, of course, loved the high yields of cotton they were now getting from Carver’s crop rotation technique. But the method had an unintended consequence: A surplus of peanuts and other non-cotton products.

Carver set to work on finding alternative uses for these products. For example, he invented numerous products from sweet potatoes, including edible products like flour and vinegar and non-food items such as stains, dyes, paints and writing ink.

But Carver’s biggest success came from peanuts.

In all, he developed more than 300 food, industrial and commercial products from peanuts, including milk, Worcestershire sauce, punches, cooking oils, salad oil, paper, cosmetics, soaps and wood stains. He also experimented with peanut-based medicines, such as antiseptics, laxatives and goiter medications.

It should be noted, however, that many of these suggestions or discoveries remained curiosities and did not find widespread applications.

In 1921, Carver appeared before the Ways and Means Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives on behalf of the peanut industry, which was seeking tariff protection. Though his testimony did not begin well, he described the wide range of products that could be made from peanuts, which not only earned him a standing ovation but also convinced the committee to approve a high protected tariff for the common legume.

He then became known as “The Peanut Man.”

Fame and Legacy

In the last two decades of his life, Carver lived as a minor celebrity but his focus was always on helping people.

He traveled the South to promote racial harmony, and he traveled to India to discuss nutrition in developing nations with Mahatma Gandhi .

Up until the year of his death, he also released bulletins for the public (44 bulletins between 1898 and 1943). Some of the bulletins reported on research findings but many others were more practical in nature and included cultivation information for farmers, science for teachers and recipes for housewives.

In the mid-1930s, when the polio virus raged in America, Carver became convinced that peanuts were the answer. He offered a treatment of peanut oil massages and reported positive results, though no scientific evidence exists that the treatments worked (the benefits patients experienced were likely due to the massage treatment and attentive care rather than the oil).

Carver died on January 5, 1943, at Tuskegee Institute after falling down the stairs of his home. He was 78 years old. Carver was buried next to Booker T. Washington on the Tuskegee Institute grounds.

Soon after, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed legislation for Carver to receive his own monument, an honor previously only granted to presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln .

The George Washington Carver National Monument now stands in Diamond, Missouri. Carver was also posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

“Where there is no vision, there is no hope.”

“How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.”

“When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.”

George Washington Carver; American Chemical Society . George W. Carver (1865? – 1943); The State Historical Society of Missouri . George Washington Carver; Science History Museum . George Washington Carver, The Black History Monthiest Of Them All; NPR . George Washington Carver And The Peanut; American Heritage .

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• Scientific Biographies

George Washington Carver

Known to many as the Peanut Man, Carver developed new products from underappreciated Southern agricultural crops and taught poor farmers how to improve soil productivity.

In the post–Civil War South, one man made it his mission to use agricultural chemistry and scientific methodology to improve the lives of impoverished farmers.

George Washington Carver (ca. 1864–1943) was born enslaved in Missouri at the time of the Civil War. His exact birth date and year are unknown, and reported dates range between 1860 and 1865. He was orphaned as an infant, and, with the war bringing an end to slavery, he grew up a free child, albeit on the farm of his mother’s former master, Moses Carver. The Carvers raised George and gave him their surname. Early on he developed a keen interest in plants, collecting specimens in the woods on the farm.

At age 11, Carver left home to pursue an education in the nearby town of Neosho. He was taken in by an African American couple, Mariah and Andrew Watkins, for whom he did odd jobs while attending school for the first time. Disappointed in the school in Neosho, Carver eventually left for Kansas, where for several years he supported himself through a variety of occupations and added to his education in a piecemeal fashion.

He eventually earned a high school diploma in his twenties, but he soon found that opportunities to attend college for young black men in Kansas were nonexistent. So in the late 1880s Carver relocated again, this time to Iowa, where he met the Milhollands, a white couple who encouraged him to enroll in college.

Carver briefly attended Simpson College in Indianola, studying music and art. When a teacher there learned of his interest in botany, she encouraged him to transfer to Iowa State Agricultural College (now Iowa State University), dissuading him from his original dream of becoming an artist. Carver earned his bachelor’s degree in agricultural science from Iowa State in 1894 and a master’s in 1896. While there he demonstrated a talent for identifying and treating plant diseases.

Around this time Booker T. Washington was looking to establish an agricultural department and research facility at his Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama. Washington, the leading black statesman of the day, and two others had founded the institute in 1881 as a new vocational school for African Americans, and the institute had steadily grown.

As Carver was the only African American in the nation with an advanced degree in scientific agriculture, Washington sought him out. Carver joined the faculty of Tuskegee in 1896 and stayed there the rest of his life. He was both a teacher and a prolific researcher, heading up the institute’s Agricultural Experiment Station.

Crop Rotation

Carver’s primary interest was in using chemistry and scientific methodology to improve the lives of impoverished farmers in southeastern Alabama. To that end he conducted soil studies to determine what crops would grow best in the region and found that the local soil was perfect for growing peanuts and sweet potatoes. He also taught farmers about fertilization and crop rotation as methods for increasing soil productivity. The primary crop in the South was cotton, which severely depleted soil nutrients, but by rotating crops—alternating cotton with soil-enriching crops like legumes and sweet potatoes—farmers could ultimately increase their cotton yield for a plot of land. And crop rotation was cheaper than commercial fertilization. But what to do with all the sweet potatoes and peanuts? At the time, not many people ate them, and there weren’t many other uses for these crops.

New Uses for “Undesirable” Crops

Carver went to work to invent new food, industrial, and commercial products—including flour, sugar, vinegar, cosmetic products, paint, and ink—from these “lowly” plants. From peanuts alone he developed hundreds of new products, thus creating a market for this inexpensive, soil-enriching legume. In 1921 Carver famously spoke before the House Ways and Means Committee on behalf of the nascent peanut industry to secure tariff protection and was thereafter known as the Peanut Man.

When he first arrived at Tuskegee in 1896, the peanut was not even a recognized U.S. crop; by 1940 it had become one of the six leading crops in the nation and the second cash crop in the South (after cotton). Both peanuts and sweet potatoes were slowly incorporated into Southern cooking, and today the peanut especially is ubiquitous in the American diet.

Carver also developed traveling schools and other outreach programs to educate farmers. He published popular bulletins, distributed to farmers for free, that reported on his research at the Agricultural Experiment Station and its applications.

Recognition

Through chemistry and conviction Carver revolutionized Southern agriculture and raised the standard of living of his fellow man. In addition to the popular honor of being one of the most recognized names in African American history, Carver received the 1923 Spingarn Medal and was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. The George Washington Carver National Monument was the first national monument dedicated to a black American and the first to a nonpresident.

Featured image: George Washington Carver, Tuskegee Institute, 1906. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-J601-302/Frances Benjamin Johnston.

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George Washington Carver: Biography, Inventions & Quotes

George Washington Carver was a prominent American scientist and inventor in the early 1900s. Carver developed hundreds of products using the peanut, sweet potatoes and soybeans. He also was a champion of crop rotation and agricultural education. Born into slavery, today he is an icon of American ingenuity and the transformative potential of education.

Carver was likely born in January or June of 1864. His exact birth date is unknown because he was born a slave on the farm of Moses Carver in Diamond, Missouri. Very little is known about George’s father, who may have been a field hand named Giles who was killed in a farming accident before George was born. George’s mother was named Mary; he had several sisters, and a brother named James.

When George was only a few weeks old, Confederate raiders invaded the farm, kidnapping George, his mother and sister. They were sold in Kentucky, and only George was found by an agent of Moses Carver and returned to Missouri. Carver and his wife, Susan, raised George and James and taught them to read.

James soon gave up the lessons, preferring to work in the fields with his foster father. George was not a strong child and was not able to work in the fields, so Susan taught the boy to help her in the kitchen garden and to make simple herbal medicines. George became fascinated by plants and was soon experimenting with natural pesticides, fungicides and soil conditioners. Local farmers began to call George “the plant doctor,” as he was able to tell them how to improve the health of their garden plants.

At his wife’s insistence, Moses found a school that would accept George as a student.  George walked the 10 miles several times a week to attend the School for African American Children in Neosho, Kan. When he was about 13 years old, he left the farm to move to Ft. Scott, Kan., but he later moved to Minneapolis, Kan., to attend high school. He earned much of his tuition by working in the kitchen of a local hotel. He concocted new recipes, which he entered in local baking contests. He graduated from Minneapolis High School in 1880 and set his sights on college.

College years

George first applied to Highland Presbyterian College in Kansas. The college was impressed by George’s application essay and granted him a full scholarship. When he arrived at the school, however, he was turned away — they hadn’t realized he was black. Over the next few years, George worked at a variety of jobs. He homesteaded a farm in Kansas, worked a ranch in New Mexico, and worked for the railroads, always saving money and looking for a college that would accept him.

In 1888, George enrolled as the first black student at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. He began studying art and piano, expecting to earn a teaching degree. Carver later said, “The kind of people at Simpson College made me believe I was a human being.”  Recognizing the unusual attention to detail in his paintings of plants and flowers his instructor, Etta Budd, encouraged him to apply to Iowa State Agricultural School (now Iowa State University) to study Botany.

At Iowa State, Carver was the first African American student to earn his Bachelor of Science in 1894. His professors were so impressed by his work on the fungal infections common to soybean plants that he was asked to remain as part of the faculty to work on his master’s degree (awarded in 1896). Working as director of the Iowa State Experimental Station, Carver discovered two types of fungi, which were subsequently named for him. Carver also began experiments in crop rotation, using soy plantings to replace nitrogen in depleted soil. Before long, Carver became well known as a leading agricultural scientist.

Tuskegee Institute

In April 1896, Carver received a letter from Booker T. Washington of Tuskegee Institute, one of the first African American colleges in the United States. “I cannot offer you money, position or fame,” read this letter. “The first two you have. The last from the position you now occupy you will no doubt achieve. These things I now ask you to give up. I offer you in their place: work – hard work, the task of bringing people from degradation, poverty and waste to full manhood. Your department exists only on paper and your laboratory will have to be in your head.” Washington’s offer was $125.00 per month (a substantial cut from Carver’s Iowa State salary) and the luxury of two rooms for living quarters (most Tuskegee faculty members had just one). It was an offer that George Carver accepted immediately and the place where he worked for the remainder of his life.

Carver was determined to use his knowledge to help poor farmers of the rural South. He began by introducing the idea of crop rotation. In the Tuskegee experimental fields, Carver settled on peanuts because it was a simple crop to grow and had excellent nitrogen fixating properties to improve soil depleted by growing cotton. He took his lessons to former slaves turned sharecroppers by inventing the Jessup Wagon, a horse-drawn classroom and laboratory for demonstrating soil chemistry. Farmers were ecstatic with the large cotton crops resulting from the cotton/peanut rotation, but were less enthusiastic about the huge surplus of peanuts that built up and began to rot in local storehouses.

Peanut products

Carver heard the complaints and retired to his laboratory for a solid week, during which he developed several new products that could be produced from peanuts. When he introduced these products to the public in a series of simple brochures, the market for peanuts skyrocketed. Today, Carver is credited with saving the agricultural economy of the rural South.

From his work at Tuskegee, Carver developed approximately 300 products made from peanuts; these included: flour, paste, insulation, paper, wall board, wood stains, soap, shaving cream and skin lotion. He experimented with medicines made from peanuts, which included antiseptics, laxatives and a treatment for goiter.

What about peanut butter?

Contrary to popular belief, while Carver developed a version of peanut butter, he did not invent it. The Incas developed a paste made out of ground peanuts as far back as 950 B.C. In the United States, according to the National Peanut Board , Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, of cereal fame, invented a version of peanut butter in 1895.

A St. Louis physician may have developed peanut butter as a protein substitute for people who had poor teeth and couldn't chew meat. Peanut butter was introduced at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904.

Aiding the war effort

During World War I, Carver was asked to assist Henry Ford in producing a peanut-based replacement for rubber. Also during the war, when dyes from Europe became difficult to obtain, he helped the American textile industry by developing more than 30 colors of dye from Alabama soils.

After the War, George added a "W" to his name to honor Booker T. Washington. Carver continued to experiment with peanut products and became interested in sweet potatoes, another nitrogen-fixing crop. Products he invented using sweet potatoes include: wood fillers, more than 73 dyes, rope, breakfast cereal, synthetic silk, shoe polish and molasses. He wrote several brochures on the nutritional value of sweet potatoes and the protein found in peanuts, including recipes he invented for use of his favorite plants. He even went to India to confer with Mahatma Gandhi on nutrition in developing nations.

In 1920, Carver delivered a speech to the new Peanut Growers Association of America. This organization was advocating that Congress pass a tariff law to protect the new American industry from imported crops. As a result of this speech, he testified before Congress in 1921 and the tariff was passed in 1922.  In 1923, Carver was named as Speaker for the United States Commission on Interracial Cooperation, a post he held until 1933. In 1935, he was named head of the Division of Plant Mycology and Disease Survey for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. By 1938, largely due to Carver’s influence, peanuts had grown to be a $200-million-per-year crop in the United States and were the chief agricultural product grown in the state of Alabama.

Carver's legacy

Carver died on Jan. 5, 1943. At his death, he left his life savings, more than $60,000, to found the George Washington Carver Institute for Agriculture at Tuskegee. In 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated funds to erect a monument at Diamond, Missouri, in his honor.

Commemorative postage stamps were issued in 1948 and again in 1998. A George Washington Carver half-dollar coin was minted between 1951 and 1954. There are two U.S. military vessels named in his honor.

There are also numerous scholarships and schools named for him. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Simpson College. Since his exact birth date is unknown, Congress has designated January 5 as George Washington Carver Recognition Day.

Carver only patented three of his inventions. In his words, “It is not the style of clothes one wears, neither the kind of automobile one drives, nor the amount of money one has in the bank that counts. These mean nothing. It is simply service that measures success.” 

Carver quotes

"Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses."

"Fear of something is at the root of hate for others, and hate within will eventually destroy the hater."

"Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom."

"When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world."

"Where there is no vision, there is no hope."

"Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise."

"There is no short cut to achievement. Life requires thorough preparation - veneer isn't worth anything."

"Learn to do common things uncommonly well; we must always keep in mind that anything that helps fill the dinner pail is valuable."  

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George Washington Carver

How this scientist nurtured the land—and people’s minds

To George Washington Carver, peanuts were like paintbrushes: They were tools to express his imagination. Carver was a scientist and an inventor who found hundreds of uses for peanuts. He experimented with the legumes to make lotions, flour, soups, dyes, plastics, and gasoline—though not peanut butter!

Carver was born an enslaved person in the 1860s in Missouri . The exact date of his birth is unclear, but some historians believe it was around 1864, just before slavery was abolished in 1865. As a baby, George, his mother, and his sister were kidnapped from the man who enslaved them, Moses Carver. The kidnappers were slave raiders who planned to sell them. Moses Carver found George before he could be sold, but not his mother and sister. George never saw them again.

After slavery was abolished, George was raised by Moses Carver and his wife. He worked on their farm and in their garden, and became curious about plants, soils, and fertilizers. Neighbors called George “the plant doctor” because he knew how to nurse sick plants back to life. When he was about 13, he left to attend school and worked hard to get his education.

In 1894 he became the first Black person to graduate from Iowa State College, where he studied botany and fungal diseases, and later earned a master’s degree in agriculture. In 1896, Booker T. Washington offered him a teaching position at Tuskegee Institute, a college for African Americans.

There, Carver’s research with peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans flourished. He made agricultural advancements to help improve the lives of poor Black farmers like himself. With the help of his mobile classroom, the Jesup Wagon, he brought his lessons to former enslaved farmworkers and used showmanship to educate and entertain people about agriculture.

On January 5, 1943, Carver died after falling down some stairs. But his contributions to the field of agriculture would not be forgotten. Carver became the first Black scientist to be memorialized in a national monument, which was erected near his birthplace in Diamond Grove, Missouri.

Read this next!

African american pioneers of science, black history month, 1963 march on washington.

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George Washington Carver

“The Primary idea in all my work was to help the farmer and fill the poor man’s empty dinner pail … My idea is to help the ‘man farthest down’; This is why I have made every process as simple as I could to put it within his reach.”

George W. Carver

George Washington Carver, Born a slave around 1864, became a famous artist, teacher, scientist, and humanitarian. From childhood, he developed a remarkable understanding of the natural world. Carver devoted his life to improving agriculture and the economic conditions of African-Americans in the south.

In 1896, Booker T Washington hired Carver to teach agriculture at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Over a 40-year career, Carver taught many generations of Tuskegee students. He emphasized increasing the independence of local farmers. He believed that a practical education would both make African-Americans and white farmers self-sufficient.

“It has always been the one ideal of my life to be of the greatest good to the greatest number of my people possible and to this end I have been preparing myself for these many years, feeling as I do that this line of education is the key” 

Struggle and Triumph: The Legacy of George Washington Carver  (NPS Movie 28min) 

The Early Years

“Day after day I spent in the woods… to collect my floral beauties… all sorts of vegetation seemed to thrive under my touch until I was styled the plant doctor, and plants from all over the county would be brought to me for treatment”

 George Washington Carver

Born as a slave on a small farm in Diamond Grove, Missouri; the best information suggest he was born in 1864, near the end of the civil war. To appreciate nature and to assist his learning, George began a lifelong habit of taking long walks to observe nature and collect specimens.

Religion also played an important role in Carver’s life. It broke down social and racial barriers and was the inspiration for his research and teachings. Yet, he did not allow his beliefs to conflict with his scientific knowledge.

“The Great Creator… permit(s) me to speak to Him through… the animals, mineral and vegetable kingdoms…”

The School Days of G.W. Carver

“If you love it enough, anything will talk to you”  

In the 1880s, local white schools did not allow African American students. Therefore, even though he had a great desire for knowledge, carver attended school whenever he could.

  In 1890, Carver went to Simpson College Iowa to study art. Although African Americans were not allowed to register eventually Carver was admitted to class and he proved to be a talented artist. He paid for his tuition by doing laundry, cooking, and selling his paintings. Carver switched to agriculture studies because he saw this as a better way to contribute to his people. Carver set out to find practical ways to benefit African American farmers.

That led to enrolling at Iowa Agricultural College at Ames, Iowa. His teachers commented that Carver was “a brilliant student and collector.” He worked at the colleges’ experimental station until graduating with a Master of Science degree. He became an expert in field collecting, plant breeding, and plant diseases.

An Artistic Side

“When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world” 

When young, Carver loved to draw and paint pictures. Originally an art student in college, he switched to agricultural studies. Yet, Carver continued to paint all of his life and one of his paintings won Honorable Mention at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.

Carver also would crochet, knit, and do needlework. Always practical, this enabled him to produce useful items for his friends. He learned how to dye his own thread and fibers with local trees, plants, and clay.

Carver collected local clays and extracted their pigments to make paints good enough to attract commercial paint companies. These paints were displayed in his laboratory and at county fairs. He used these paints in his artwork. He also developed house paint colors to encourage local farmers to improve the appearance of their homes. He arranged different paints into pleasing combinations for ceiling, cornices, and walls. Many buildings on the Tuskegee campus and throughout the area used these paint combinations.

Teaching Others

“Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom”

Booker T. Washington hired the best and brightest African American professionals to Tuskegee Institute. In 1896, he hired a young teaching assistant, George Washington Carver. They both believed a practical education was the best path to self-sufficiency for African Americans. Hired to head its Agriculture Department, Carver taught for 47 years, developing the department into a strong research center.

Carver spread the self-sufficiency message at schools, farms, and county fairs. Carver believed students learned best by doing. He expected students to “figure it out for themselves and to do all the common things uncommonly well.” Carver developed close personal relationships with his students, farmers, and powerful philanthropist with his engaging and charming talks and publications.

Booker T. Washington realized that Carver was a “great teacher, a great lecturer, and a great inspirer of young men and old men.”

Useful Bulletins by G.W. Carver

“In painting, the artist attempt to produce pleasing effects through the proper blending of colors. The. Cook must blend her food in such a manner as to produce dishes which are attractive. Harmony in food is just as important as harmony in colors.”   

Carver was a talented and innovative cook. He developed recipes for tasty and nutritious dishes that used local and easily-grown crops. He trained farmers to successfully rotate and cultivate new crops and encouraged better nutrition in the South. Carver developed an agricultural extension program for Alabama that used Tuskegee Institute bulletins. In these bulletins, Carver shared his recipes with farmers and housewives.

During his more than four decades at Tuskegee, Carver published 44 practical bulletins for farmers. His first bulletin in 1898 was on feeding acorns to farm animals. His final bulletin in 1943 was about the peanut. Other individual bulletins dealt with sweet potatoes, cotton, cowpeas, alfalfa, wild plums, tomatoes, ornamental plants, corn, poultry, dairying, hogs, preserving meats in hot weather, and nature study in schools.

His most popular bulletin, How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it for Human Consumption ,  was first published in 1916 and was reprinted many times. Carver’s bulletins were not the first American agricultural bulletins devoted to peanuts, but his bulletins were more popular and widespread than others.

Agricultural School On Wheels

Booker T Washington directed his faculty to “take their teaching into the community”

To take lessons to the community, Carver designed a “movable school.” Students built a wagon named for Morris k Jesup, a New York financier who gave Carver the money to equip and operate the movable school. The first one was a horse-drawn agricultural wagon called a Jesup Wagon. Later, a truck still called a Jesup Wagon carried agricultural exhibits to county fairs and community gatherings.

By 1930, the “Booker T Washington Agricultural School on Wheels” carried a nurse, a home demonstration agent, an agricultural agent, and an architect to share the latest techniques with rural people. Eventually, educational films and lectures were presented at local churches and schools. These vehicles were the foundation of Tuskegee’s extension services. 

Research For Practical Applications

“Soil enrichment, natural fertilizer use, and crop rotation” were Carvers message to students and farmers

From 1915 to 1923, Carver developed techniques to improve soils depleted by repeated planting of cotton. Also, in the early 20th century, the boll weevil destroyed much of the cotton crops, and planters and farm workers suffered. Together with other agricultural experts, he urged farmers to restore nitrogen to their soils by practicing systematic crop rotation: alternating cotton crops with the planting of sweet potatoes, peanuts, or soybeans. These alternative crops restored nitrogen to the soil and were also good for human consumption. Following the crop rotation practice resulted in improved cotton yield and gave farmers alternative cash crops. He also began research into crop products (chemurgy), and taught generations of black students farming techniques for self-sufficiency. In these years, he became one of the most well-known African Americans of his time.

Always looking for practical solutions from his wide-ranging research, Carver experimented with seeds, soils, soil enrichment, and feed grains. All of his efforts were geared to increasing the self-sufficiency of African American farmers. Ahead of his time, Carver used plant hybridization and recycling the use of locally available technology.

Carver’s research also looked to provide a replacement for commercial products, which were generally beyond the budget of the small one-horse farmer. George W. Carver reputedly discovered three hundred uses for peanuts and hundreds more for soybean, pecans, and sweet potatoes. These alternative products included adhesives, axel grease, bleach, buttermilk, chili sauce, fuel briquettes, ink, instant coffee, linoleum, mayonnaise, meat tenderizer, metal polish, paper, plastic, pavement, shaving cream, shoe polish, synthetic rubber, talcum powder, and wood stain.

Later Years

“Professor Carvers Advice” – George W Carver’s syndicated newspaper column

During the last two decades of his life, Carver seemed to enjoy his celebrity status. He was often on the road promoting the Tuskegee Institute, peanut, and racial harmony. Although he only published six agricultural bulletins in 1922, he published articles in peanut industry journals and wrote a syndicated newspaper column., “Professor Carver’s Advice.” Business leaders came to seek his help, and he often responded with free advice.

From 1933 to 1935, Carver worked to develop peanut oil massages to treat polio. Ultimately researchers found the massages, not the peanut oil, provided the benefits of maintaining some mobility in paralyzed limbs.

Carver had been frugal in his life, and in his 70s, he established a legacy by creating a museum on his work and the George Washington Carver Foundation at Tuskegee to continue agricultural research. He donated $60,000 in his savings to create the foundation.

G.W. Carver Last Days

Inscribed on Mr. Carver’s tombstone are the words, “He could have added fortune to his fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world”

Upon returning home one day, Carver took a bad fall down a flight of stairs; he was found unconscious by a maid who took him to the hospital. Carver died January 5, 1943, at the age of 78 from complications (anemia) resulting from his fall. He was buried next to Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee Institute.

National Recognition and Naming

His work, which began for the sake of the poorest farmers, paved the way for a better life for the entire South and became an inspiration to all.

George Washington Carver was born a slave. Since his owner was Moses Carver and given the first name of George, Carver referred to himself as Carver’s George. This was more a property description than a name. When George left to attend school, he slept in a barn owned by the Watkins family. Of hearing how George referred to himself, Mrs. Watkins told him that was no proper name and declared that henceforth he would be George Carver.

Like the man, Carver High school did not start with that name. The Phoenix Union High School district opted to officially embrace segregation. In 1925, to accommodate African American high school students, a bond issue was passed to erect a new high school building. The new school was named the Phoenix Union Colored High school until 1940 when the school became the Phoenix Colored High School. On January 5, 1943, George Washington Carver Died and a few months later the school took on the name of this distinguished educator, scientist, and innovator. In 1953, educational segregation was ruled unconstitutional in Arizona and the school closed the following year.

Why are so many schools, parks, and other landmarks named in honor of Carver? Carver came to stand as a symbol of the intellectual achievements of African Americans. He brought about a significant advance in agricultural training in an era when agriculture was the largest single occupation of Americans. It is so often said that Carver saved Southern agriculture and helped feed the country. His great desire was simply to serve humanity; and his work, which began for the sake of the poorest black sharecroppers, pave the way for a better life for the entire South and became an inspiration to all.

GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER NATIONAL MONUMENT

George Washington Carver National Monument orientation video. (NPS Movie 5min)

Our Monument to George Washington Carver

“How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.”

The George Washington Carver statue greeting visitors to the Carver Museum is an exhibit all to itself. The sculpture, Mr. Ed Dwight, is an internationally acclaimed sculptor whose works grace various venues around the United States. Among his works are major African American historic figures.

The Carver Statue was unveiled on February 15, 2004, in a ceremony where Governor Janet Napolitano, among many others, addressed the crowd. The artist, Ed Dwight, spoke movingly before the unveiling. There were musical presentations and acknowledgments of many distinguished guests. Visitors who have viewed and photographed the statue have praised its artistry.

The Carver Statue is an artistic achievement and a worthy monument to its namesake. This exquisite work faithfully captures Carver’s delicate features and somehow reflects the genius and hope that defined the man.

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Over the course of his lifetime, Carver rose from slavery to become a renowned educator and research scientist. For over 40 years, he worked endlessly to find practical alternatives to improve the agricultural practices and thus the economic status of African Americans. He is regarded as one of the most prominent black scientists of the early 20th century.

Carver was born enslaved in Missouri near the end of the Civil War. From a young age, Carver’s intellectual curiosity was quickly recognized by those around him. By the age of thirteen, he was encouraged to go to Kansas where there were greater educational resources for black students. 

George lived briefly in several small towns before settling in Minneapolis, Kansas and enrolled in school there in September 1880. By 1883, George was celebrated as “…one of the most intelligent colored men of this part of the state…” (The Progressive Current, 22 Dec 1883). 

Carver was accepted into Highland College in 1885, but his admission was withdrawn when the college discovered he was black. He then found work with a family that was in the process of platting a new town in western Kansas and, in the summer of 1886, relocated to Ness County in search of land to homestead.

From 1886 to 1889 he homesteaded on a quarter section of land where he built a sod house and worked the land.  The following spring, George moved onto his land and began clearing it, ultimately taming 17 acres. He planted 800 forest trees, mulberries, plums, and apricots and, in the field, sowed corn, vegetables, and rice. He also built a conservatory that housed 500 plant specimens and a large geological collection. 

After several years of drought, he decided not to complete the homesteading process. Carver purchased it outright in December 1889 rather than complete the five-year residency requirement. Carver sold his homestead a year later to Fred Borthwick to fund his education.

In 1890, Carver started studying art and piano at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. His art teacher, Etta Budd, recognized Carver's talent for painting flowers and plants; she encouraged him to study botany at Iowa State Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) in Ames. When he began there in 1891, he was the first black student at Iowa State. He continued his education at  Iowa State Agricultural College, earning a Master of Science degree in 1896.

He departed Iowa for a position at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama where he worked for 47 years. The Tuskegee Institute was a college established for black students by Booker T. Washington. He taught methods of crop rotation, introduced several alternative cash crops, and taught generations of black students farming techniques for self-sufficiency.

Carver made great strides in developing both agricultural and industrial products. He created 325 uses for peanuts, 108 applications for sweet potatoes and 75 products derived from pecans. Some of the products he created include chili sauce, meat tenderizer, instant coffee, shaving cream, and Worcestershire sauce.

George Washington Carver died on January 5, 1943. That July, Congress authorized the creation of George Washington Carver National Monument to celebrate his life.

Sources and Additional Reading:

• Find a Grave. "George Washignton Carver.  George Washington Carver (1864-1943) - Find a Grave Memorial
• Gart, Jason H. "He Shall Direct Thy Paths: The Early LIfe of George W. Carver" Historic Resource Study. National Park Service. 2014.  Microsoft Word - Document2 (nps.gov)
• General Land Office Records. Bureau of Land Management. U.S. Department of the Interior.  Patent Details - BLM GLO Records
• Toogood, Anna Coxe. Historic Resource Study and Administrative History George Washington Carver National Monument. National Park Service. July 1973.  472757 (nps.gov)
•   "George Washington Carver".  Dunn Library Archives & Special Collections . Simpson College.  Archived  from the original on October 16, 2008.
• Report of Minneapolis Public Schools , Minneapolis Messenger (Minneapolis, Kansas), 8 Oct 1880, p. 8. Newspapers.com.
• The Progressive Current (Minneapolis, Kansas) 22 Dec 1883, p. 5, col. 4. Newspapers.com.
• Highland University , The Kansas Chief (Troy, Kansas), 3 Dec 1885, pg. 3. Newspapers.com.
• From Ness County , Kansas Chief (Troy, Kansas) 16 Aug 1886, p. 3. Newspapers.com.
• Ness County News (Ness City, Kansas), 31 Mar 1888, p. 5. Newspapers.com.
• Friends of Old Days in Kansas Saw Budding Genius of Negro Scientist , Kansas City Times, 9 Sep 1942, p. 16, newspapers.com.
• Kansas Marker Honors Famous Negro Scientist , The Wichita Eagle (Wichita, Kansas) 17 Mar 1956, p. 28. Newspapers.com.
• Detour in Scientist’s Life Led Him to a Ness County Sod House , The Salina Journal (Salina, Kansas), 22 May 1960, p. 25. Newspapers.com.

George Washington Carver National Monument , Homestead National Historical Park , Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site

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This 28-minute film explores the life of the George Washington Carver. The film features Altorro Prince Black as the adult George Washington Carver and Tyler Black as the young Carver, narration by Sheryl Lee Ralph, and music by Bobby Horton.

Last updated: February 8, 2023

Biography of George Washington Carver, Discovered 300 Uses for Peanuts

He also found many uses for soybeans, pecans, and sweet potatoes

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George Washington Carver (January 1, 1864–January 5, 1943) was an agricultural chemist who discovered 300 uses for peanuts as well as hundreds of uses for soybeans, pecans, and sweet potatoes. His work provided a much needed boost to southern farmers who benefited economically from his recipes and improvements to adhesives, axle grease, bleach, buttermilk, chili sauce, fuel briquettes, ink, instant coffee, linoleum, mayonnaise, meat tenderizer, metal polish, paper, plastic, pavement, shaving cream, shoe polish, synthetic rubber, talcum powder, and wood stain.

Fast Facts: George Washington Carver

• Known For : Agricultural chemist who discovered 300 uses for peanuts as well as hundreds of uses for other crops
• Also Known As : The Plant Doctor, The Peanut Man
• Born : January 1, 1864 in Diamond, Missouri
• Parents : Giles and Mary Carver
• Died : January 5, 1943 in Tuskegee, Alabama
• Education : Iowa State University (BA, 1894; MS, 1896)
• Published Works : Carver published 44 agricultural bulletins laying out his findings while at the Tuskegee Institute, as well as numerous articles in peanut industry journals and a syndicated newspaper column, "Professor Carver's Advice."
• Awards and Honors : The George Washington Carver Monument was established in 1943 west of Diamond, Missouri on the plantation where Carver was born. Carver appeared on U.S. commemorative postal stamps in 1948 and 1998, as well as a commemorative half dollar coin minted between 1951 and 1954, and many schools bear his name, as well as two United States military vessels. 
• Notable Quote : "No books ever go into my laboratory. The thing I am to do and the way are revealed to me the moment I am inspired to create something new. Without God to draw aside the curtain, I would be helpless. Only alone can I draw close enough to God to discover His secrets."

Carver was born on Jan. 1, 1864 near Diamond Grove, Missouri on the farm of Moses Carver. He was born into difficult and changing times near the end of the Civil War. The infant Carver and his mother were kidnapped by Confederate night-raiders and possibly sent away to Arkansas.

Moses found and reclaimed Carver after the war, but his mother had disappeared forever. The identity of Carver's father remains unknown, although he believed his father was an enslaved man from a neighboring farm. Moses and his wife reared Carver and his brother as their own children. It was on the Moses' farm that Carver first fell in love with nature and collected in earnest all manner of rocks and plants, earning him the nickname "The Plant Doctor."

Carver began his formal education at the age of 12, which required him to leave the home of his adopted parents. Schools were segregated by race at that time and schools for Black students weren't available near Carver's home. He moved to Newton County in southwest Missouri, where he worked as a farmhand and studied in a one-room schoolhouse. He went on to attend Minneapolis High School in Kansas.

College entrance was also a struggle because of racial barriers. At the age of 30, Carver gained acceptance to Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, where he was the first Black student. Carver studied piano and art but the college did not offer science classes. Intent on a science career, he later transferred to Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) in 1891, where he gained a Bachelor of Science degree in 1894 and a Master of Science degree in bacterial botany and agriculture in 1896.

Carver became a member of the faculty of the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanics (he was the first Black faculty member at the Iowa college), where he taught classes about soil conservation and chemurgy.

Tuskegee Institute

In 1897, Booker T. Washington , founder of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute for Negroes, convinced Carver to come south and serve as the school's director of agriculture, where he remained until his death in 1943. At Tuskegee, Carver developed his crop rotation method, which revolutionized southern agriculture. He educated farmers on methods to alternate the soil-depleting cotton crops with soil-enriching crops such as peanuts, peas, soybeans, sweet potato, and pecans.

America's economy was heavily dependent upon agriculture during this era, making Carver's achievements very significant. Decades of growing only cotton and tobacco had depleted the southern region of the United States. The economy of the farming South had also been devastated during the Civil War years and by the fact that the cotton and tobacco plantations could no longer use the stolen labor of enslaved people. Carver convinced southern farmers to follow his suggestions and helped the region to recover.

Carver also worked at developing industrial applications from agricultural crops. During World War I, he found a way to replace the textile dyes formerly imported from Europe. He produced dyes of 500 different shades and was responsible for the invention of a process for producing paints and stains from soybeans. For that, he received three separate patents.

Later Years and Death

After finding fame, Carver toured the nation to promote his findings as well as the importance of agriculture and science in general for the rest of his life. He also wrote a syndicated newspaper column, "Professor Carver's Advice," explaining his inventions and other agricultural topics. In 1940, Carver donated his life savings to establish the Carver Research Foundation at Tuskegee for continuing research in agriculture.

Carver died on Jan. 5, 1943, at the age of 78 after falling down the stairs at his home. He was buried next to Booker T. Washington on the Tuskegee Institute grounds. 

Carver was widely recognized for his achievements and contributions. He was given an honorary doctorate from Simpson College, named an honorary member of the Royal Society of Arts in London, England, and received the Spingarn Medal given every year by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People . In 1939, he received the Roosevelt medal for restoring southern agriculture.

On July 14, 1943, The George Washington Carver Monument was established west of Diamond, Missouri, on the plantation where Carver was born and lived as a child. President Franklin Roosevelt provided $30,000 for the 210-acre complex, which includes a statue of Carver as well as a nature trail, museum, and cemetery. Additionally, Carver appeared on U.S. commemorative postal stamps in 1948 and 1998, as well as a commemorative half dollar coin minted between 1951 and 1954. Many schools bear his name, as do two United States military vessels.

Carver did not patent or profit from most of his products. He freely gave his discoveries to mankind. His work transformed the South from being a one-crop land of cotton to a region of multi-crop farmlands, with farmers having hundreds of profitable uses for their new crops. Perhaps the best summary of his legacy is the epitaph that appears on his gravesite: "He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world."

• “ Distinguished Alumni | Iowa State University Admissions. ”  Admissions , iastate.edu.
• “ George Washington Carver. ”  Biography.com , A&E Networks Television, 17 Apr. 2019.
• “ George Washington Carver Publications from the Tuskegee Institute Bulletin, 1911-1943 3482. ”  George Washington Carver Publications from the Tuskegee Institute Bulletin, 1911-1943.
• “ Learn About the Park. ”  National Parks Service , U.S. Department of the Interior.
• Kettler, Sara. “ 7 Facts on George Washington Carver. ”  Biography.com , A&E Networks Television, 12 Apr. 2016.
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• George Washington Carver Biography

George Washington Carver was born around 1864 in Diamond, Missouri . Although the date of his birth is unknown, we do know that it was before Missouri abolished slavery. George Washington Carver is best-known for his contributions to the agricultural sciences, as well as for his environmental work. Through his research, he came up with over 300 derivative products for peanuts and 118 uses for sweet potatoes. This was key in helping impoverished black farmers rotate crops (thereby adding nutrients to the soil via restored nitrogen) and added an income source other than cotton.

George Washington Carver was born to Mary and Giles Carver, who had been purchased by Moses Carver in 1855 for $700. George was an infant when he, his mother, and his sister were kidnapped by slave traders. His brother, James, was hidden away and not captured. Moses Carver sent someone to recover them, however, only George was brought back from Kentucky , where the kidnappers had sold the slaves.

The George Washington Carver Monument preserves the scientist's childhood home in Diamond, Missouri. 

Susan and Moses raised the two boys after slavery had ended. Susan taught George how to read and they both encouraged him in his academic pursuits. Because black children were not allowed to attend the local school in Diamond Grove, George walked to Neosho when he was between 11 and 12 years old. Here, he stayed with Andrew and Mariah Watkins and studied at the school. The couple was black and childless and in exchange for help with the household chores, they allowed Carver to stay. Mariah was a midwife and taught Carver much of her knowledge of medicinal herbs and plants.

For several years, Carver traveled around the Midwest , supporting himself with his domestic skills while learning whatever he could in school. In 1880, after graduating from high school George applied to Highland College in Kansas and was initially accepted, but when the administration realized he was black, they rescinded the acceptance to the all-white school. In 1890 he began to study piano and art at Simpson College in Iowa. He then moved on to studying botany at the Iowa State Agricultural School - known today as Iowa State University - and received both his Bachelor’s (1894) and his Master’s (1896) degrees from the school. He was the first African-American to earn a Bachelor’s of Science. Upon graduation with his Master’s degree, he received several offers of work. He decided to accept Booker T. Washington’s invitation to join the Tuskegee Institute.

Tuskegee Institute

Carver came to the Institute and built his department and laboratory from the ground up; he would teach there for 47 years, until the day he died. To entice him, Booker T. Washington offered him two private rooms as well as a higher salary than most other staff received. It was unusual for an unmarried professor to have one private room, let alone two.

George Washington Carver taught classes and did research. Much of his research was around soil and plants. He is credited with introducing the idea of planting peanuts as a crop; he discovered that the boll weevil, which was attacking cotton plants, did not eat peanuts. Peanuts and soy beans both belong to the legumes family and alternating them (and sweet potatoes) with other crops would enable the soil to heal by returning nitrogen to it. Then, when the cotton plants were reintroduced, the soil would be healthier and yield stronger crops. Carver took the classroom to the farms by traveling to the farms in a “Jesup wagon” which was a sort of mobile laboratory and classroom that he invented.

The rotation of crops led to a surplus of peanuts, soy, and sweet potatoes. So Carver investigated and experimented with ways to use these products. He is credited with discovering over 300 products using peanuts and 118 using sweet potatoes. Some of the products included flour, vinegar, stains, dyes, paints, cosmetics, cooking oils and salad oils, medicines, and soaps. Due to his work in peanuts, he was asked to speak in 1920 to the Peanut Grower’s Association and to testify before Congress in 1921 in support of a tariff on imported peanuts.

Recognition and Awards

During his lifetime and posthumously, Carver received many honors and accolades. He was honored by Time Magazine, who named him a “Black Leonardo” and featured him in a 1941 issue. He was made a member of the Royal Society of Arts (in England) in 1916. Carver received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP in 1923. George Washington Carver was the first African-American to be honored with the naming of a national park – and the movement for this to occur began before his death. It is located in Missouri, in Diamond. There is also not one, but two postage stamps that were issued with his image and name on it. One in 1948 and the second in 1998. A half dollar also was in circulation from 1951-1954 with his image.

A postage stamp honoring George Washington Carver, circa 1998. Editorial credit: Olga Popova / Shutterstock.com. 

George Washington Carver died in 1943 at the age of 78 after falling down a flight of stairs and having complications from the fall. He is buried at Tuskegee Institute, right next to Booker T. Washington.

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George Washington Carver (1864-1942) was an inspirational African American leader who popularized the twentieth-century transformation in Southern agriculture from cotton monoculture to a diverse polyculture that included crops such as peanuts and sweet potatoes. This January, Documenting the American South celebrates George Washington Carver Day by reviewing the life and accomplishments of the man who helped make the peanut a staple crop of the South.

Born just before the end of the Civil War, George Washington Carver (1864-1942) spent one year in slavery, a year that altered the course of his life. Carver's father died shortly after his birth, and his mother was kidnapped by slave raiders when he was only six weeks old, leaving him a nameless orphan. Moses Carver, the owner of George Washington Carver's parents, sent "out a rescuing party, which recovered him in exchange for a race horse valued at $300" (p. 13 ). Unsure if the sick, motherless child would live, Moses Carver and his wife waited until the baby was old enough to talk and work before naming him George Washington Carver "because of his faithful devotion to his work, and also his habitual truthfulness about everything" (p. 14 ).

As a boy, George Washington Carver spent most of his free time "roving the woods, and acquainting himself with every queer flower and peculiar weed" he found, filling his pockets with insects and other interesting natural artifacts (p. 14 ). At night, after his work was completed, Carver taught himself to read and write by memorizing "an old blue-back speller by the dim light of the burning logs in the fire place" (p. 16 ). When he finished with the speller at age ten, Carver left his home in Diamond Grove, Missouri, and walked eight miles to the nearest town that had a school in order to satisfy his "continuous desire of acquiring knowledge." He spent "the first few nights in an old horse barn" until he befriended "a Mr. and Mrs. Watkins, who adopted him into their family" (pp. 18-19 ).

Carver quickly discovered that his schoolmaster knew little more than he did and traveled to Fort Scott, Kansas, in search of better teachers. He completed his secondary education by age nineteen and applied to Highland College in Highland, Kansas, where he was accepted. After Carver had spent all of his savings to relocate to Highland, he attempted to enroll at the college but was rejected despite his letter of admission "because he was a Negro" (p. 21 ). Undaunted, Carver saved his money again and matriculated successfully at Simpson College in Iowa, where he excelled not only in academic subjects but also in extracurricular activities such as painting and singing.

Carver thrived at Simpson College, but an instructor "profoundly impressed with his talents and his ability . . . frankly told George that there was not much that he could hope for [at Simpson] in the way of developing his talents" (p. 22 ). In 1890, Carver transferred to the college now known as Iowa State, where he studied agricultural chemistry while supporting himself as the school janitor until earning his masters degree in 1896. After graduating, Carver taught briefly at Iowa State but left almost immediately to accept Booker T. Washington's (1856-1915) offer of a position at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.

Carver inherited dilapidated facilities in the Tuskegee agricultural department but immediately began "carving something out of nothing." Since the college could not afford necessary laboratory equipment, Carver created it out of "old bottles, broken china, and bits of rubber and wire" that his students gathered for him from local alleys (p. 27 ). Carver also collected samples of the local flora, roaming "over the hills with his case, stopping here and there and gathering plants" (p. 28 ). This was unusual behavior to the local residents, who came to him "for treatment and for medicine" because they believed "that he was a 'root doctor,'" a common term for nineteenth-century practitioners of hoodoo, a kind of magic.

Carver's walks served dual purposes: they allowed him to collect scientific specimens and to commune with God at the same time. Though Carver received advanced scientific degrees during an era in which Darwinian theories prompted conflicts between scientists and theologians, he sought to reconcile the differences between the two opposing systems of belief. In a Sunday evening Bible class, Carver taught students by illustrating "stories out of the Bible out of his own experience either as a boy or out of his laboratory work" (p. 52 ). Carver believed in accepting truth wherever he found it, and he told his students that "Science is Truth, and all Truth is of God," even paraphrasing a well-known Bible verse with the words "Ye shall know science and science shall make you free" (pp. 60 , 56-57 ).

Hoping that science would free Southern farmers from poverty, Carver promoted peanuts as a cash crop, accelerating the resurgence of Southern agriculture after an infestation of boll weevils devastated Alabama cotton farmers in 1915. In 1916, Carver issued one of his many agricultural bulletins for the instruction of local farmers on the practical uses of the peanut, including recipes for peanut soup and peanut carrot fudge, and demand for his recipes was such that he reprinted the bulletin repeatedly. In 1915, slightly more than half a million acres were devoted to peanut cultivation; three years later, in 1918, peanut fields covered eight times as much territory, more than four million acres.

Carver both promoted the peanut and benefited from an explosion of interest in the plant. After testifying before Congress in 1921 about different products he had extracted from peanuts, including "soap and soap-sticks, face powder, face bleach, washing powder, milk, as good or better than cow's milk, several kinds of wood stains and dyes," Carver received national attention and was paid to lecture to diverse audiences (pp. 33-34 ). In addition to his work with peanuts, Carver also claimed to have discovered a number of new uses for the sweet potato, but he filed only three patents (none of which were commercially successful) and rarely documented his work with either crop.

Modern science has found flaws in Carver's work, but the practical agricultural advice in his bulletins did achieve his "primary object . . . of being the greatest assistance to the Southern Farmers; in helping them to have better farms, and happier homes, with plenty of food raised on the farms, and also a surplus to sell" (p. 30 ). Perhaps most importantly, Carver's example and innovative leadership inspired generations of poor African American farmers to aspire to more than a life of tenant farming. At his death in 1943, Carver bequeathed his estate of more than $60,000 to found the George Washington Carver Foundation, an institution that continues to benefit Southern farmers by funding practical agricultural research.

Works Consulted : Carver, George Washington, "1897 or Thereabouts—George Washington Carver's Own Brief History of His Life," George Washington Carver National Monument , The National Park Service, 4 Dec. 2008, ; Edwards, Linda McMurry, George Washington Carver, Scientist and Symbol , New York: Oxford University Press, 1981; Merritt, Raleigh H., From Captivity to Fame or The Life of George Washington Carver , Boston: Meador Publishing Company, 1929; Smith, Andrew F., Peanuts: The Illustrious History of the Goober Pea , Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002.

George Washington Carver

• Occupation: Scientist and educator
• Born: January 1864 in Diamond Grove, Missouri
• Died: January 5, 1943 in Tuskegee, Alabama
• Best known for: Discovering many ways to use the peanut

• Growing up George had been known as Carver's George. When he started school he went by George Carver. He later added the W in the middle telling his friends it stood for Washington.
• People in the south at the time called peanuts "goobers".
• Carver would sometimes take his classes out to the farms and teach farmers directly what they could do to improve their crops.
• His nickname later in life was the "Wizard of Tuskegee".
• He wrote up a pamphlet called "Help for Hard Times" that instructed farmers on what they could do to improve their crops.
• It takes over 500 peanuts to make one 12-ounce jar of peanut butter.
• Listen to a recorded reading of this page:

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Big History Project

Course: big history project   >   unit 9.

• ACTIVITY: The Appetite for Energy
• ACTIVITY: Unit 9 Vocab Tracking
• ACTIVITY: DQ Notebook 9.1
• WATCH: Coal, Steam, and the Industrial Revolution
• READ: The Industrial Revolution
• WATCH: How Did Change Accelerate?
• READ: Acceleration

READ: George Washington Carver - Graphic Biography

• ACTIVITY: Threshold Card — Threshold 8: The Modern Revolution
• Quiz: Acceleration

First read: skimming for gist

Second read: understanding content.

• What are some challenges that George Washington Carver faced as a young man?
• In what ways did cotton have a negative impact on Southern famers?
• How did Carver work to improve both the quality of the soil and the quality of life for Black farmers?
• In the graphic biography, Carver and the plants he is working with are represented with bright colors and light, while the images get darker as you move away from the central image. Why do you think the artist chose to depict the scene in that way?

Third read: evaluating and corroborating

• What does George Washington Carver's story tell you about the economic, social, and environmental impacts of industrialization? Who faced the biggest changes from industrialization?

George Washington Carver - Graphic Biography

Want to join the conversation.

Unshelled: George Washington Carver's Real Legacy Gravy

In “Unshelled: George Washington Carver's Real Legacy," producers Ishan Thakore and Katie Jane Fernelius explore a lesser-known aspect of Dr. George Washington Carver’s legacy: his role as a conservationist and a practitioner of sustainable agriculture. Carver’s life defies easy explanation. He was born enslaved and rose to the heights of American academia. Long a painter before he became a botanist, Carver’s art was even accepted into the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. After his death, evangelicals, the LGBTQ community, and the NAACP all heralded him as a pioneer. The military even named a ship after him during World War II. But today, most listeners might only vaguely recall him as “the peanut guy,” who makes a recurring, albeit one-dimensional appearance during Black History Month. Mark Hersey, an environmental historian and author of My Work is that of Conservation: An Environmental Biography of George Washington Carver, argues that most people have considered Carver in the wrong light for years. Carver advocated for seeing connections between animals and the land, and articulated tenets of organic and sustainable agriculture well before they entered the mainstream. Carver’s deep Christian convictions informed his conservationist thinking. He saw the world as something to be revered, studied, and protected from degradation. And ultimately, he thought his life’s work was to uplift the lot of Black farmers in the South. But, it was his peanut work which ultimately catapulted him to fame. For years, Carver worked at Tuskegee Institute (now University), under the direction of Booker T. Washington. At Tuskegee, Carver headed up an experimental agriculture station, where he wrote research bulletins and brought demonstrations to the countryside to help impoverished Black sharecroppers and tenant farmers in Macon County, Alabama. In an effort to find a low-cost, high-calorie plant which could be grown for food by sharecroppers, Carver began to promote peanuts. He collated recipes and uses, and enthusiastically espoused the hardy legume. And in Carver, the peanut lobby found a perfect spokesperson to testify in front of the House Ways and Means Committee in 1921, to push for a protective tariff. Carver’s role as an expert witness brought fame and stardom, but distorted his impact for generations. Hersey argues that Carver’s other work, as a conservationist, should be at the forefront of his legacy. In examining Carver’s legacy today in practice, farmers like Nick Speed are reacquainting people with Carver’s relationship with the land. Speed runs the nonprofit Ujima and its related entity, the George Washington Carver Farms in St. Louis, Missouri. GWC Farms aims to honor Carver’s legacy as a farmer who thought holistically about the land he tended. In understanding Carver as a pioneering Black conservationist, listeners might finally be able to move beyond Carver and the peanut. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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George Washington Carver: An American Biography Kindle Edition

• Carver was born a slave?
• Carver was the first Black student and the first Black faculty member at Iowa State University?
• Carver was the first Black American to earn a masters degree in agriculture?
• Carver had his paintings exhibited at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair as his a college student?
• Albert Einstein once called him second among the 10 greatest living scientists of their time?
• Henry Ford said Carver was America's greatest living scientist?
• Mahatma Gandhi sought his advice on nutrition?
• Carver created a successful treatment for muscle atrophy during the polio epidemic?
• Carver was the first American who was not a president and the first Black American to have a National Monument established at his birthplace?
• Print length 376 pages
• Language English
• Sticky notes On Kindle Scribe
• Publication date September 21, 2023
• File size 1971 KB
• Page Flip Enabled
• Word Wise Enabled
• Enhanced typesetting Enabled
• See all details

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Editorial Reviews

"As a farmer, I knew Carver's association with peanuts and sweet pota-toes, but now I understand his genius and gentleness. Born a slave and buried with every scientific honor imaginable, Carver did not wait for fairness but carried on with heart and charity. Written in 1943, this bi-ography is profoundly raw and direct about American racial prejudice but will move you like no ordinary biography because it captures the heart of a man who never let Jim Crow stand in his way. His life's con-tribution to humanity knows no racial divide."

-Joel Salatin, You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise , co-owner Polyface Farm

"Rackham Holt's biography of George Washington Carver is his life story as he wanted it told. Although the book appeared in print after Carver's death, he had a chance to read the manuscript before it went to press. In a 1940 letter to Holt, he told her, 'I started in and I confess I could not lay it down until I had finished it.' Of all the many things written about him, Carver thought that Holt's account was the best."

-Gary R. Kremer, Race and Meaning: The African American Experience in Missouri

"Distinguished by its literary flair no less than the personal access Carver himself afforded its author, Rackham Holt's artful and engaging biography is essential reading for serious students of Carver-and a lively and pleasurable read to boot."

-Mark D. Hersey, My Work Is That of Conservation: An Environmental Biography of George Washington Carver

"My father, a white Southerner who lived most of his life during the Jim Crow era, was mentored by George Washington Carver in the early 1930s. He told his children that he believed Dr. Carver was the greatest influence on his life in excellence of study, spiritual awakening, and the realization of, appreciation of, and acceptance of, racial equality. Rack-ham Holt's authorized biography aptly describes that period of our American history and illustrates how George Washington Carver pro-vides us all with worthy guidelines for life itself regardless of age, gen-der, race, background, or occupation if only we would take these guidelines and commit them to practice."

-John H. Pickle Jr., PhD., One of His Boys: The Letters of Johnnie Pickle and His Mentor, George W. Carver

"This is the book that made the American public aware of and delighted in one of our own: a man who devoted his life to educating people on self-reliance and connecting to our common humanity. Dr. Carver was famous before his death in 1943 due to hundreds of admiring news-paper articles, and Holt's book, appearing just after his death, spread that respect and affection for him among a very broad spectrum of U.S. citizens."

-Peter D. Burchard, Carver: A Great Soul

About the Author

Product details.

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CJMV4ZWX
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Greenwoman Publishing (September 21, 2023)
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 21, 2023
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• File size ‏ : ‎ 1971 KB
• Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
• Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
• Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
• Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
• Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 376 pages
• #745 in Black & African American History (Kindle Store)
• #1,761 in Historical U.S. Biographies
• #1,952 in 20th Century History of the U.S.

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Did George Washington Carver Invent Peanut Butter?

The African American scientist is known as the "Peanut Man," but did he actually create the popular spread?

Carver helped farmers find alternate uses for popular crops

Born into slavery in Missouri, near the end of the Civil War , Carver displayed a curiosity for learning and delicate touch for plant life from his earliest years. Rejected from one college, which had accepted him before realizing he was Black, Carver eventually entered Iowa's Simpson College and then the school that became Iowa State University, where he earned his master's in agriculture in 1896.

As director of the agricultural department at Booker T. Washington's Tuskegee Institute, Carver worked to develop sustainable farming practices when he wasn't bogged down by more menial tasks like actually teaching. Generations of cotton planting and the intrusion of the boll weevil had decimated Southern farms by the early 1900s, and Carver encouraged farmers to develop other crops that revitalized the soil, like cowpeas, beans, sweet potatoes and peanuts.

One of his earliest known achievements was the development of the Jesup Wagon, a school on wheels that paid visits to poor farmers in remote areas beginning in 1906. Carver also sought to give growers additional incentive by devising alternate uses for the crops he championed, producing an array of items that included medicines, lotions and soap.

John Harvey Kellogg filed a patent for peanut butter in 1895

Meanwhile, the product that Carver supposedly invented had already made its way onto dining room tables by the mid-1890s. As detailed in Jon Krampner's Creamy & Crunchy: An Informal History of Peanut Butter, the All-American Food , credit for its existence can either go to physician John Harvey Kellogg, who filed its first patent, or snack food entrepreneur George A. Bayle, whose creation bears a stronger resemblance to today's ubiquitous spread.

After making a celebrated appearance at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, Missouri, peanut butter began appearing in stores under the names of national brands like Beech-Nut and Heinz. By 1919, according to Creamy & Crunchy , companies had churned out 158 million pounds of peanut butter, nearly five times the number from 1907.

Carver didn't get the nickname 'Peanut Man' until after World War I

Carver's association with the legume began with his 1916 pamphlet "How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it For Human Consumption," but it wasn't until after the war that his reputation as the "Peanut Man" took root.

In 1920, Carver was invited to share his discoveries with the United Peanut Association of America, which was seeking a protective tariff from international competitors. He then appeared on the UPAA's behalf before the House Ways and Means Committee in early 1921 and won over a hostile audience with his clear enthusiasm for the peanut dyes, milk, powders and the like arranged on the table.

Thanks in large part to his presentation, the UPAA got their tariff, and Carver became a celebrity.

READ MORE: George Washington Carver’s Powerful Circle of Friends

Despite not inventing peanut butter, Carver still created hundreds of peanut products, many of which he did not patent

He eventually earned more attention for promoting peanut oil massages as a means for curing polio, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt reportedly among those who touted its benefits. Altogether, the agricultural scientist came up with hundreds of peanut products before his death in 1943, though many of them are novelty items that are more easily made from other substances.

So how is that Carver became known as the man who invented peanut butter?

It helps that his life story was already being described in mythological terms while he was still alive. Creamy & Crunchy cites a 1921 article in Success Magazine that called Carver the "Columbus of the Soil." And for all his renown, Carver's actual innovations are harder to pin down, as he filed for very few patents and refused to document most of his research.

While he didn't invent peanut butter, Carver still deserves kudos for the attention and aid he brought to the peanut industry as it was still expanding, particularly at a time when the contributions of African Americans were often overlooked.

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