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Carver's Parents
Moses Carver, was a German American immigrant, who had purchased George's parents, Mary and Giles, from William P. McGinnis for $700. -
Birth
Carver's actual date of birth is unknown but it is thought to be in January or June of 1864. He was born into slavery. -
Kidnapped and Separated
Sometime in 1865, George and his mother were captured by the Klu Klux Klan who were resentful because of the recent abolition of slavery. Fortunately, George was recovered by a neighbor and was returned to his masters, Moses and Susan Carver, along with his older brother Jim. -
High School Graduation
He graduated from Minneapolis High School in Minneapolis, Kansas. He was then accepted into an all-white college but was later rejected when administration found out he was an African American. -
Bachelor's Degree
Carver became the first African American to earn a Bachelor's of Science degree from the Iowa State Agricultural School. -
Masters Degree
Carver earned his Masters of Agriculture Degree at Tuskegee University in Alabama. -
Jesup Wagon
The Jesup Wagon was a mobile classroom that allowed Carver to teach farmers and sharecroppers how to grow crops, such as sweet potatoes, peanuts, soybeans and pecans. -
Innovations with Peanuts
After his extensive work with peanuts and their many uses, George Washington Carver was invited to speak in front of the big producers of peanuts at the time and showed them over 100 of his peanut products. This included peanut milk, peanut medicine, and even the most popular peanut product today, peanut butter. While the industry had reservations about his skin color, the convention was a great success. -
Endless Possibilities
The United Peanut Associations of America invited Carver to speak at their 1920 convention. He discussed "The Possibilities of the Peanut" and exhibited 145 peanut products. -
Tariff protection
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. He then became known as “The Peanut Man.” -
Recognition from the President
Until now, the general public was not very much aware of Carver and his work. When Theodore Roosevelt publicly admired George Washington Carver's work, he became a household name and was boosted into scientist stardom. -
Peanut Oil Massages
After winning a myriad of different awards throughout his career, George tried to reliven it by claiming peanut oil massages were a cure for polio. Many parents turned to him to help their paralyzed children but were disappointed when he realized that it was not the miracle cure that he had thought it to be earlier. -
Film of Carver
A film of Carver shot in 1937 at the Tuskegee Institute by African American surgeon Allen Alexander was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2019. It includes 12 minutes of footage of Carver in his apartment, office and laboratory, as well as images of him tending flowers and displaying his paintings. -
George meets Henry Ford
This was when George Washington Carver met the famed Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan. There, they worked on plastics made out of soybeans to be used inside cars. It was rumored that they even built a full automobile just out of these plastics. Along with plastics, they developed a synthetic rubber made out of soybeans -
Death
He was 78 years old when he died. -
George Washington Carver National Monument
George Washington Carver National Monument is a unit of the National Park Service in Newton County, Missouri. It was the first national monument dedicated to an African American and first to a non-president.