Have you heard that George Washington Carver (1864-1943) invented peanut butter? Well, that’s not quite true. A version of peanut butter was created by the Incas as early as 950 BC and Dr. John Harvey Kellogg also developed a version in 1895. The truth is that George Washington Carver was a famous agricultural scientist and inventor who came up with 300 uses for peanuts. Read on to learn more about his life and legacy.
- George Washington Carver was born into slavery (likely in January or June 1864), kidnapped as an infant, rescued by his master and raised as his own son.
2. At a young age he learned about herbal medicines, pesticides, and fungicides.
3. Carver was accepted into an all-white college but turned away when the administration learned that he was black.
4. He later attended Iowa State College and in 1894 became the first African American to earn a Bachelor’s of Science degree.
5. Carver spent his career at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, both researching and teaching in the field of agriculture.
6. His greatest accomplishment may have been teaching poor farmers how to rotate crops; growing cotton depleted the soil but growing peanuts, soybeans, and sweet potatoes made a vast improvement.
7. The new surplus of peanuts led to Carver inventing more than 300 uses for them, including food (soup, candy, cookies, oil, coffee substitute), animal feed, stains and paints, paper (from the peanut plant), cosmetics, glue, and much more.
8. Carver patented only three of his inventions.
9. In 1929 Mahatma Gandhi wrote to Carver to discuss nutrition and they kept up a correspondence until at least 1935.
10. Carver was the first non-president to receive his own national monument (posthumously).
Sources
- “George Washington Carver” via History.com
- “George Washington Carver: Biography, Inventions & Quotes” by Mary Bagley via LiveScience.com
- “List of Things Dr. George Carver Invented With Peanuts” by Laura Leddy Turner via Sciencing.com
- “A remarkable little role for Iowa in India’s freedom” by Kenneth Quinn via Des Moines Register
I appreciate him because I appreciate peanut butter, but he’s also very impressive for everything else in his life. A great man even without the peanut butter.