The%20Story%20of%20George%20Washington%20Carver%20by%20Eva%20Moore

1
The Story of George Washington Carver by Eva Moore

• By Diane Olive Braun for Education 330
• Literature for the Elementary and Adolescent Child

2
Diorama of the Carver cabin in the Visitor Center
at the George Washington Carver National Monument
near Diamond, Missouri. The diorama depicts
George and Jim Carver playing marbles, around
1870. Courtesy of the George Washington Carver
National Monument
Son of a slave during the Civil War Not sure of
his birth date He thinks it was 1864 Night
Riders kidnap baby George, his sister, and
mother Mary to take and sell up north Carver -
his owner agrees to pay Bentley his best horse
and 40 acres of his land to go after them
Bentley comes back with George, but not Mary or
his sister and accepts only the horse. No one
knows if George will survive he is hardly
breathing
3
The Civil War is over. Now Moses Carver says
George and Jim are free
But George and his brother Jim decide to stay
because they love Aunt Susan and Uncle Moses Jim
is 3 years older and works in the corn
fields George is small, and is often sick. His
voice is high like a birds, and he stutters when
he talks. He stays in the house with Aunt
Susan George walks in the woods and listens to
the birds. All living things! he thought.
Where do they come from? Why are they here?
What makes them live and grow?
4
Seven years old and George is already known
asThe Plant Doctor
He liked to put his cheek against the soft petals
of the roses. What are you doing to those
flowers? Jim asked Loving them, said
George George had a lovely rose garden. Mrs.
Baynham took George to her house and showed him
her garden. Please m-move them, maam, he said.
Take them out of the shade. R-roses want sun.
5
Quote by Dr. Carver And many are the tears I
had shed because I would break the roots or
flowers of some of my pets while removing them
from the ground, and strange to say all sorts of
vegetation seemed to thrive under my touch until
I was styled the plant doctor, and plants from
all over the country would be brought to me for
treatment.
He learned to crochet
He kept his little shapes he whittled out of wood
in a small box
6
At Mrs. Baynhams home, George sees paintings for
the first time

• George learned to make his own paints and drew
  what he loved flowers
• George became a Christian when he was 8 years
  old. He loved to sing. When he sang he did not
  stutter.
• When he was 11 years old, George heard of a
  school in Neosho, 8 miles from Diamond Grove.
• Aunt Susan made corn dodgers - corn bread with
  wild onion and bacon for Georges trip. He
  walked all the way.

7

• Mariah Watkins influence in the life of George
  Washington Carver is well known. Carver came to
  Neosho to live with Aunt Mariah.
• She taught him homemaking skills of washing,
  ironing and cooking. He used these skills to earn
  food and lodging while he struggled for an
  education.
• When he learned to read, he read the Bible to
  Aunt Mariah and Uncle Andy every evening.

8

• Soon George learned all that could be taught him
  at the school in Neosha
• So George went to Fort Scott in Kansas
• He packed his Bible, his box with rocks and wood
  carvings (over 500), and his blue spelling book
• In Fort Scott, George had to look after himself
• He had to work so much he could not go to school
  very often
• When he did go to school he learned fast
• George saw a mob of white men murder a black man
• The next day he left Fort Scott for good

9

• In Kansas George would stay in one town until he
  learned all he could. Then he would travel to
  another town.
• He worked at each place and saved until he had an
  accordion. He loved music
• He met Christopher and Lucy Seymour.
• Aunt Lucy had a laundry business. He was so good
  with his hands that soon he could iron as well as
  Aunt Lucy. He would spend half a day ironing a
  ladys dress so it would be just right. He was
  now 13
• He moved to Minneapolis with the Seymours and in
  one year he grew to be 6 ft tall!

10
With Dr. Milhollands help he rented a little
house and opened up a laundry business

• George was now ready for college. Highland
  College in Minneapolis accepted him.
• He rode the Jim Crow car for Negroes
• When he arrived he was rejected they did not
  know he was black
• In western Kansas the government gave away land
  and at 22 he moved there to start a farm. But
  the land was dry and sandy. 2 years later he
  moved east again.
• When he got to Winterset, Iowa he stayed. At
  church he met Dr. John Milholland

11
Simpson College Campus Indianola, Iowa

• He would go to the woods every morning at 4 a.m.
  to fellowship with God and to be with nature.
• He would take samples from the woods and go to
  the library and try to identify them
• The Millhollands encouraged George to go to
  college
• On September 9, 1890 George became the 2nd black
  student at Simpson College
• George was 26 and all the other students were 16
  or 17 years old
• But George was happy to be learning

12

• He loved art but he believed he could help his
  people come out of poverty if he became a
  scientist
• He went to Ames, Iowa in 1891 and began to study
  at Iowa State College
• He was barred from the student dining room and
  had to eat with the kitchen staff.
• He suffered this indignity patiently, telling
  himself that ignorant people would not keep him
  from his duty.
• The school quickly changed its mind when, Mrs.
  Liston, a prominent white woman who admired
  George's paintings, came to visit him and
  insisted on eating with him in the kitchen.

13

• In 1892, George took four of his paintings to an
  art show in Chicago. All 4 were chosen at the
  State Fair Art Show. But George could only
  afford to send one to the State Fair
• He sent a large painting of a desert yucca plant
  he had seen when he lived in western Kansas

14

• George graduated in 1894. He was the 1st black
  to be graduated from Iowa State College. Then he
  was hired to work at the college in the botany
  lab. He was also the first black to be on the
  college staff
• In the woods he found fungus. He classified
  hundreds of different kinds of fungus
• George did not stutter anymore. He went with the
  head of the Agriculture Dept to give speeches.
  People loved to hear him
• Every day he wore a different flower in his
  buttonhole of his jacket.

15

• In 1896 George got a letter from Booker T.
  Washington inviting him to be the head of a
  college for black people Tuskegee Normal School
• It has always been the one great ideal of my
  life to be of the greatest good to the greatest
  number of my people and to this end I have been
  preparing myself these many years. I feel that
  this line of education is the key to unlock the
  golden door of freedom to our people.

16

• Cotton crops were not good for the soil. They
  used up nitrogen a nutrient that plants need to
  grow. When the nitrogen is used up the soil
  cannot grow healthy plants.
• At Tuskegee there was a lot of work to do. His
  1st year he had 13 students but no lab.
• Dr. Carver took his students out to find anything
  that would be of use in a laboratory old
  bottles and jars, boxes, pieces of string,
  rubber, tin, and wire. Soon they had a homemade
  lab
• Dr. Carver set up a farm on the school grounds

17

• It was hard to grow anything in the soil of his
  farm he called an Experiment Station. He had his
  students enrich the soil with garbage of every
  sort, and cut grass, leaves, and manure. His
  students added rich soil from the woods and
  swamps. When it had all rotted he spread it on
  the plowed land.
• Then he planted cowpeas, beans, sweet peas and
  peanuts. These legumes take nitrogen from the
  air and add it to the soil through their roots as
  they grow.

Cowpeas
Sweet peas
Peanuts
18

• Dr. Carver taught the poor black farmers how
  important it was to grow legumes. He taught them
  to have a vegetable garden. He read the bible to
  them. He taught them to pray. He taught them to
  cook and sew
• Dr. Carver discovered the benefits of the sweet
  potato and showed his students and the farmers
  how to grow this versatile plant
• When they planted cotton on the fertile soil it
  was the best crop they had ever seen.
• In 1906 he built a school on wheels. This wagon
  held tools, boxes of seeds and fertilizer

19

• In 1906, George Washington Carver of Tuskegee
  University developed a plan for the first
  movable schoola mule-drawn wagon that would
  carry farm machinery, seeds, and dairy equipment
  to demonstrate improved methods to farmers. This
  wagon, later named the Jesup Wagon in honor of
  the New York businessman who provided the
  original funding, became the forerunner of the
  Cooperative Extension System and its efforts to
  take the university to the people. The Jesup
  Wagon is now stationed outside the U.S.
  Department of Agriculture as a reminder of one of
  the strongest coalitions for sustainable economic
  progress in rural areasthe continuing
  partnership between USDA, the 1890 institutions,
  and Tuskegee University.

20

• Dr. Carver was no longer teaching. He liked to
  be with young people. He held a Bible Class for
  the students every Sunday after dinner. He read
  his favorite verses to them and talked about God
  and nature.
• He sometimes held a special nature class for
  young children. He thought that every child
  should have a little garden of his own, and a
  small animal to take care of.
• Once, a little boy brought Dr. Carver a present
  a fluffy baby bird he had taken from its nest in
  the woods.
• Dr. Carver took the bird and held it in his big
  hand. He told the boy all about the bird and
  then said Now take it back and turn it loose,
  my boy. It is terrible when a young bird is
  taken from its mother.

Was George thinking about when he was taken from
his own mother?
21
The boy Carver statue is a nine-foot high bronze
statue by Robert Amendola. It depicts George
Washington Carver as a boy and is mounted on a
large limestone rock. The boy Carver statue was
dedicated at the George Washington Carver
National Monument on July 17, 1960. The George
Washington Carver National Monument near Diamond,
Missouri, was approved by Congress in 1943. It
was the first national memorial to an African
American. The chief sponsor of the legislation to
create the monument was Missouri native Harry S.
Truman. He was a senator from Missouri at the
time. A dedication ceremony of the monument was
held on July 13, 1953. A bust of Carver by Audrey
Corwin, mounted on a brick base, was also
dedicated at this ceremony.
22

• People asked him what gave him the idea to do
  experiments with the peanut. He told this story
• One morning I was talking to God. Mr. Creator,
  what was the universe made for? I asked Him.
  You want to know too much, He answered. Your
  mind is too small to know that much. Then I
  asked Him, Mr. Creator, what was man made for?
  Little man, He said, you still want to know
  too much. Then I asked Him to tell me about the
  peanut, Mr. Creator, what is the peanut for?
  Thats more like it, He said. Then I went into
  my laboratory and tried to find out what the
  peanut was and why God had made it.

• Dr. Carver was one of the few Americans to be
  voted into the famous Royal Society of the Arts
  by the scientists who belonged to this society.

23

• "I never have to grope for methods. The method is
  revealed at the moment I am inspired to create
  something new. . . Without God to draw aside the
  curtain I would be helpless."
• George Washington Carver died in 1943. He was 79
  years old. He had lived his life to help others,
  and that is the best a person can do.

On Success"It is not the style of clothes one
wears, neither the kind of automobile one drives,
nor the amount of money one has in the bank, that
counts. These mean nothing. It is simply service
that measures success."
24
George Washington Carver demonstrates his peanut
oil-based paint (that he developed). (Prentice
Herman Polk) ca 1927
25
Among the products created by Carver from various
foods are the following (there were over 300) for
the peanut alone
Adhesives Axle Grease Bleach Buttermilk Chili Sauce Cream Instant Coffee Linoleum Mayonnaise Meat Tenderizer Metal Polish Paper Peanut Butter Rubbing Oils Shampoo Shaving Cream Shoe Polish Sugar
26

• Dr. George Washington Carver died at Tuskegee
  Institute on January 5, 1943. He lay with lovely
  flowers stacked all around him. The Ozark
  Mountains claimed him as their own. In the
  simple service of few words the Tuskegee choir
  sang the songs he loved so much. The President
  and Vice President, among many others, sent
  words. The chaplain said simply For God so
  loved the world He gives His most beloved sons
  that men shall live. None of the many products
  of his brain can be used to destroy not one!
  They gave a ship his name The Liberty Ship,
  George Washington Carver.