Viewing page 38 of 355
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
[[image - black & white photograph of George Washington Carver]] [[image - black & white photograph of George Washington Carver working in the laboratory]] chemistry, led to the wonders which he was to eventually produce from the peanut, sweet potato, and southern clay. He Gains Recognition George Washington Carver's main ambition throughout his young life was to become a painter, and have his works hang in the famous galleries of Paris. His first hand scientific study of flowers and plants, as well as his love of them was expressed in many of his paintings. His art work progressed along with his other studies, and he won state fame at an exhibition of Iowa artists held in Cedar Rapids in 1892. His favorite painting, Yucca Gloriosa, won national acclaim at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, in 1893. At the close of the school year in 1894, George received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Agriculture. Then, while teaching college courses, he himself took advanced courses in his major field of study, and obtained his Masters Degree in Science in 1893. He Becomes A Giant At Tuskeegee Booker T. Washington, having founded Tuskeegee Institute in 1881, attracted the attention of many people, including Professor Carver, who had begun to think of the South as a place to invest his abilities in Humanitarian service. After the two men met in April, 1861, Dr. Carver agreed to accept the position of Director and Instructor in Scientific Agriculture and Dairy Science, at Tuskeegee Institute. It was to become a long and fruitful association for both the ment and the University. For forty-seven years, until his death in 1943, Dr. Carver was a mighty factor in helping to make Tuskeegee Institute the prestigious and famous center of higher learning it was to become. He Achieves World-Wide Acclaim Doctor Carver endeared himself to the world by the merits of his work. Among his many outstanding achievements was his elevation the lowly peanut from circus-chaw to a highly nutritious, and industrially versatile cash crop; which could be grown in the cotton ravaged soil of the Southern United States. It was largely due to Carver's research that some one hundred new food and industrial uses for the peanut were developed. The peanut now ranks among the top ten most important crops grown in the United States today; some $350 million annually. It is increasingly becoming important on a world-wide basis as another answer for a man's nutritional problems: Peanuts are a cheap, high protein energy food. In recognition of his many extraordinary contributions, Dr. Carver was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Great Britain in 1916; a Spingarn Medalist in 1922; awarded an honorary Doctorate Degree from Simpson College in 1928; and received, in 1939, the Roosevelt Medal for Distinguished Service in the field of Science. Dimensions OF A Humble Man Perhaps the most telling measure of the Greatness of George Washington Carver lies in his humble acceptance of his truly remarkable achievements. He regarded his genius as little more than an instrument of God, intended to unlock the secrets of nature for the benefit of mankind. True to his belief, as remarkable as it may seem, Carver never took out a patent on any of his processes, and he never made a cent in profit from any of the new uses he devised for the peanut and the sweet potato. Later on in life, after having reached a level of success and world fame achieved by very few mortals, Carver, when asked to pen the story of his life chose to write it in his own hand, in pencil, on the backs of four sheets of used mimeograph paper. 36
