George Washington Carver in the Laboratory

George Washington Carver in the Laboratory, ca. 1930
Silver Gelatin
Paul R. Jones Collection, Atlanta, GA

Born a slave in Diamond Grove, Missouri, George Washington Carver (b.1864-d.1943) was orphaned during a confederate raid on the area. Moses and Susan Carver, owners of the plantation on which Carver's family lived, raised George and his brother James as children of their own, providing private tutoring for their education. When Carver had surpassed the qualifications of his tutor and after numerous moves between schools in racially divided Missouri and Kansas, Carver entered Simpson College in Iowa intending to study art. dissuaded from his aim by a concerned professor, Carver instead enrolled at Iowa State College (now University) and pursued bachelor's and master's degrees in botany and agriculture. Though he spent a brief period as a junior member of Iowa State's faculty, In 1896 Carver accepted Booker T. Washington's invitation to join Tuskegee Institute's faculty. He would subsequently be named as Director of the Institute's Department of Scientific Agriculture and Dairy Science.

George Washington Carver in the Laboratory, ca. 1930 Silver Gelatin Paul R. Jones Collection, Atlanta, GA
	Born a slave in Diamond Grove, Missouri, George Washington Carver (b.1864-d.1943) was orphaned during a confederate raid on the area. Moses and Susan Carver, owners of the plantation on which Carver's family lived, raised George and his brother James as children of their own, providing private tutoring for their education. When Carver had surpassed the qualifications of his tutor and after numerous moves between schools in racially divided Missouri and Kansas, Carver entered Simpson College in Iowa intending to study art. dissuaded from his aim by a concerned professor, Carver instead enrolled at Iowa State College (now University) and pursued bachelor's and master's degrees in botany and agriculture. Though he spent a brief period as a junior member of Iowa State's faculty, In 1896 Carver accepted Booker T. Washington's invitation to join Tuskegee Institute's faculty. He would subsequently be named as Director of the Institute's Department of Scientific Agriculture and Dairy Science.