George Washington Carver
(1865 - 1943)
Former Slave, Educator, Scientist, Businessperson, Service Industry Employee, Agriculturist, Medical Worker, Artist, Author.
George Washington Carver was the greatest agricultural researcher in American history. He showed you could make almost anything from farm products and agricultural waste. Carver developed hundreds of products out of the peanut. Henry Ford was a friend and used Carver's ideas in building his early Ford cars. Carver also cultivated marijuana and hemp. He found that there were several uses for hemp including a way to make a fuel from it.
George Washington Carver was born on a Missouri farm near Diamond Grove (now called Diamond), Newton County in Marion Township, Missouri. He received a B.S. from the Iowa Agricultural College in 1894 and a M.S. in 1896. He became a member of the faculty of Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in charge of the school's bacterial laboratory work in the Systematic Botany department. His work with agricultural products developed industrial applications from farm products, called chemurgy in technical literature in the early 1900s. His research developed 325 products from peanuts, 108 applications for sweet potatoes, and 75 products derived from pecans. He moved to Tuskegee, Alabama in 1896 to accept a position as an instructor at the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute and remained on the faculty until his death in 1943. His work in developing industrial applications from agricultural products derived 118 products, including a rubber substitute and over 500 dyes and pigments, from 28 different plants. He was responsible for the invention in 1927 of a process for producing paints and stains from soybeans, for which three separate patents were issued.
U.S. 1,522,176 Cosmetics and Producing the Same. January 6, 1925.
George W. Carver. Tuskegee, Alabama.
U.S. 1,541,478 Paint and Stain and Producing the Same June 9, 1925.
George W. Carver. Tuskegee, Alabama.
U.S. 1,632,365 Producing Paints and Stains. June 14, 1927.
George W. Carver. Tuskegee, Alabama.
George Washington Carver was honored by U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in July 14, 1943 dedicating $30,000 for a national monument to be dedicated to his accomplishments. The area of Carver's childhood near Diamond Grove, Missouri has been preserved as a park, with a bust of the agricultural researcher, instructor, and chemical investigator. This park was the first designated national monument to an African American in the United States. George Washington Carver was bestowed an honorary doctorate from Simpson College in 1928. He was made a member of the Royal Society of Arts in London, England. He received the Spingarn Medal in 1923, which is given every year by the National Association for the Advancement of colored People. The Spingarn Medal is awarded to the black person who has made the greatest contribution to the advancement of his race. Carver died of anemia at Tuskegee Institute on January 5, 1943 and was buried on campus beside Booker T. Washington.
Some of the synthetic products developed by Dr. Carver: *
Adhesives
Axle Grease
Bleach
Buttermilk
Cheese
Chili Sauce
Cream
Creosote
Dyes
Flour
Fuel Briquettes
Ink
Instant Coffee
Insulating Board
Linoleum
Mayonnaise
Meal
Meat Tenderizer
Metal Polish
Milk Flakes
Mucilage
Paper
Rubbing Oils
Salve
Soil Conditioner
Shampoo
Shoe Polish
Shaving Cream
Sugar
Synthetic Marble
Synthetic Rubber
Talcum Powder
Vanishing Cream
Wood Stains
Wood Filler
Worcestershire Sauce
* Source: Hattie Carwell. Blacks in Science: Astrophysicist to Zoologist.
(Hicksville, N.Y.: Exposition Press), 1977.
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