American educator and an outstanding innovator in the agricultural sciences. Carver was born of slave parents near Diamond, Missouri. He left the farm wherehe was born when he was about ten years old and eventually settled inMinneapolis, Kansas, where he worked his way through high school.
Following hisgraduation in 1894 from Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (nowIowa State University), Carver joined the college faculty and continued hisstudies, specializing in bacteriological laboratory work in systematic botany. In 1896 he became director of the Department of Agricultural Research atTuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (now Tuskegee University), where hebegan an exhaustive series of experiments with peanuts. Carver developed severalhundred industrial uses for peanuts, sweet potatoes, and soybeans and developeda new type of cotton known as Carver’s hybrid. His discoveries induced southernfarmers to raise other crops in addition to cotton. He also taught methods ofsoil improvement.
In recognition of his accomplishments, Carver was awarded theSpingarn Medal in 1923 by the National Association for the Advancement ofColored People. In 1935 he was appointed collaborator in the Division of PlantMycology and Disease Survey of the Bureau of Plant Industry of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. In 1940 he donated all his savings to theestablishment of the George Washington Carver Foundation at Tuskegee forresearch in natural science. Carver died at Tuskegee, on January 5, 1943.
Hisbirthplace was established as the George Washington Carver National Monument in1943.Science .
