George Washington Carver Essay Example

George Washington Carver was an a agricultural chemist who played an important role in agricultural advancements in the U.S. He was the son of slaves, and was born around the year 1860, near Diamond Grove, Missouri. Carver was an outstanding student in high school, and later went on to Simpson College, in Iowa, in 1891. He graduated from the Iowa Agricultural College in 1894 with a B.S. degree, and taught agriculture and bacterial botany while working on his M.S. in agriculture, which he received in 1896. After receiving his masters, he landed a job as the director of agriculture in the Tuskegee Institute, in Alabama. He continued to work there for the duration of his life, which ended on January 5, 1943, due to anemia.
Throughout his lifetime, Carver made numerous significant agricultural discoveries, such as his discovery of new species of fungi, which were later named after him. He introduced the concept of crop rotation and the use of legumes, which led to the popularity of the peanut. The peanut had grown to be one of the biggest money-yielding crops in the south. He discovered hundreds of products that could be made from the peanut, sweet potato, and the pecan nut. He also utilized the soybean to make a plastic material that was used in Henry Ford's cars, and received three patents between 1925 and 1927. Along with being a well-known scientist, he was an excellent artist as well, receiving various awards for his outstanding artwork. Although he received many awards for his artistic ability, the majority of his awards were granted on behalf of his outstanding achievement in the field of agricultural chemistry. He was truly a man of his time, as his reputation has shown, and has successfully gained the title of being "one of the nation's greatest educators and agricultural