It is rare to find a man of the caliber of George Washington Carver. A man who would decline an invitation to work for a salary of more than $100,000 a year (almost a million today) to continue his research on behalf of his countrymen.

Agricultural chemist, Carver invented three hundred uses for peanuts and hundreds more uses for soybeans, pecans and sweet potatoes. Countless products we enjoy today come to us by the way of Carver. Only three patents were every issued to him, but among his listed discoveries are: 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.
 
 

Carver, George Washington (Born 1861- Died 1943), agricultural chemist, educator, and botanist, was born on a farm near Diamond Grove, Mo., the second son and youngest of three children of Negro slave parents. When he was an infant his father was killed in an accident. Shortly thereafter George, his mother, and a sister were stolen and carried into Arkansas by raiders. He was taken back by his former owner Moses Carver, and it was done at a hefty price. As a child he had exceptional observational skills and a keen curiosity and it was on the Moses' farm where George first fell in love with nature, where he earned the nickname 'The Plant Doctor'. At about the age of fourteen he left the Carver family to acquire formal education not then available to his race within the Diamond Grove community. Over the next few years he worked at odd jobs and attended grade schools in Neosho, Fort Scott, Paola, Missouri and Olathe, Kansas; in Olathe he went to the Presbyterian church, the beginning of a lifelong affiliation. He received his high school training in Minneapolis, Kansas, and there took the middle name "Washington" to distinguish himself from another George Carver. As he grew older he displayed skill in cooking, knitting, and crocheting, learned to do laundry work, became adept in growing plants, and developed talent for music and painting.

While working as a farm hand, Carver managed to obtain a high school education. In 1885 Carver because of his race was refused admission to Highland College in northeast Kansas. He next became a homesteader near Beeler, Kans., where for nearly two years he attempted to farm, but he eventually found the blizzards and burning sun of the Kansas plains too unfriendly to his small agricultural enterprise. After mortgaging his homestead in 1888, he moved to Winterset, Iowa. Here he was encouraged by a friendly white family to make another effort to attend college. Taking their advice, he sought and won admission to Simpson College at Indianola, Iowa, in September 1890. He was admitted as the first black student of Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa. He then attended Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) where, while working as the school janitor, he received a degree in agricultural science in 1894. After short years he then gained a Masters degree at the same school. After that event a still more monumentous event happen. He was accepted on to their faculty. Shortly after this had happened his grew and spread. Another famous black scientist, Booker T. Washington, invited him to join at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. In his early 30s, George Washington Carver became  director of Tuskegee Institute's new Department of Agriculture in  Alabama. In 1923, the national association for the  Advancement of Colored People awarded him the  Spingarn  medal for Distinguished service in the  Field of Agriculture.

Carver revolutionized the southern agricultural economy by showing that 300 products could be derived from the peanut. By 1938, peanuts had become a $200 million industry and a chief product of Alabama. Carver also demonstrated that 100 different products could be derived from the sweet potato. Although he did hold three patents, Carver never patented most of the many discoveries he made while at Tuskegee, saying "God gave them to me, how can I sell them to someone else?" George Washington Carver died in 1943 and was buried at his beloved Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where he had revolutionized American southern agriculture.
 
 

 
 
 

Adhesives
Axle Grease
Bleach
Buttermilk
Chili Sauce
Face Cream
Face Lotion
Fuel Brique
Hand Lotion
Ink
Instant coffee
Laundry Soap
Linoleum
Mayonnaise
Meat Tenderizer
Metal Polish
Paper
Plastic
Pavement
Peanut Butter
Shaving Cream
Shoe Polish
Synthetic Rubber
Talcum Powder
Wood Stain
 
 

 George Washington Carver's biography

 George Washington Carver's Official Biography

 Another Carver Biography

 A Carver Essay

 A short but good Carver Biography
 
 
 
 

 
 

Attention!!!

Major portions of the above text were directly copied from public domain documents
found on the internet. I have listed those Internet addresses beneath for your
convenience.

http://www.george-washington-carver.com/george-washington-carver/

http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa041897.htm

http://allsands.com/History/People/georgewashingto_yue_gn.htm

http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/bhm/bio/carver_g.htm

http://afgen.com/carver2.html
 

*note: these above web addresses are not links