George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver was an agricultural chemist and agronomist, recognized for finding and promoting alternative crops to cotton and methods of preventing soil depletion. In addition to his work to improve the lives of farmers, Carver was also a leader in promoting environmentalism.

Born into slavery in Missouri, Carver studied at Simpson College and Iowa State Agricultural College (now Iowa State University), and was hired by the latter as the first Black faculty member while completing his Master’s degree. When he completed the degree in 1896, Booker T. Washington hired Carver to head the Agriculture Department at Tuskegee Institute (now University), where he remained to the end of his life. From 1915 to 1923, Carver concentrated on researching and experimenting with new uses for peanuts, sweet potatoes, soybeans, pecans, and other crops. Seeking to assist Black farmers through the development of new products derived from these crops, Carver is credited with helping to transform the declining agricultural economy of the South following the Civil War. In 1916, Carver was made a member of the Royal Society of Arts in London, one of only a handful of Americans at that time to receive this honor.