George Washington Carver National Monument Established (1943)

The founding of this national monument provides an opportunity to discuss the life and accomplishments of George Washington Carver, pioneering African-American plant scientist and conservationist.

George Washington Carver in 1910 (photo from Tuskegee University Archives, restored by Adam Cuerden)

            Carver was born during the Civil War, but the date is unknown—because he was a slave.  He and his family lived and worked on the farm of Moses Carver (hence, his last name), a Missouri farm that grew mostly cotton.  After slavery was abolished, Carver continued to live on the farm for several years.  The Moses family cared for the sickly boy, never expecting him to live past his teen years. Carver later wrote, “…my body was very feble and it was a constant warfare between life and death to see who would gain the mastery.”

            The young Carver reveled in nature.  “Day after day,” he said, “I spent in the woods alone in order to callect my floral beauties…”  He had the proverbial green thumb, musing that “strange to say all sorts of vegetation seemed to thrive under my touch until I was styled the plant doctor….  At this time I had never heard of botany and could scerly read.”

The Jessup Wagon, designed and built by Carver to provide mobile education to Alabama farmers (photo by Alabama Cooperative Extension Service)

            He did learn to read.  For two decades, he roamed around Missouri, Kansas and Iowa, earning a living however he could and attending whatever school was nearby.  He eventually landed at what is now Iowa State University, graduating with both B.S. and M.S. degrees in agricultural sciences in his 30s.  He served as an agricultural teacher there before heading to the Tuskegee Institute in 1896.

            At Tuskegee, he led the new agriculture program and developed the innovations for which he is famous.  Realizing that more than a century of cotton farming had depleted the Alabama soils, Carver taught farmers to plant soil-nourishing crops of peanuts and soybeans.  He performed research on the university’s experimental farm, developing more than 300 products from peanuts and 100 from sweet potatoes, basically establishing both plants as the major crops they are today.  He designed and built the “Jessup Wagon,” a mobile classroom that he took around Alabama to demonstrate new techniques and crops to farmers.  To accompany his tours, he wrote simple booklets for farmers, the precursor of today’s “extension bulletins.” He taught methods to reduce soil erosion and improve soil productivity, rejuvenating southern agriculture.

Carver holding soil from an experimental field (photo by Frances Benjamin Johnston)

            Carter was a humble and spiritual man.  His critics saw him as capitulating to white dominance in the South, but Carter cared nothing for politics and strife.  As Tuskegee describes him, “Always modest about his success, he saw himself as a vehicle through which nature, God and the natural bounty of the land could be better understood and appreciated for the good of all people.”  He is considered one of America’s greatest agricultural leaders, and when he died in 1943, it took only months for the U.S. to create a national monument of his birthplace.

            The monument itself is noteworthy.  It encompasses the entire 240-acre Moses farm in the far southwestern corner of Missouri.  It was the first birthplace memorial in the National Park Service not honoring a U.S. president.  And it was the first national park unit to celebrate the life of an African-American.  The congressional hearings to establish the monument included this homage to Carver:

“Occasionally there moves across the stage of time a historic figure, a creative teacher, a profound thinker, a humble servant, or an inspiring teacher. George Washington Carver was all of these. The memorial we create only indicates to the world that once there was a man named George Washington Carver, whose life was a source of inspiration to all men, a pillar of hope to his race, a fountain of service to his fellows, a tower of devotion to his God; and that this man achieved a worthy and enduring stature in the memories of men.”

Amen to that.

References:

Encyclopedia Britannica.  George Washington Carver.  Available at:  https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Washington-Carver. Accessed March 25, 2020.

National Park Service.  George Washington Carver National Monument.  Available at:  https://www.nps.gov/places/george-washington-carver-national-monument.htm. Accessed March 25, 2020.

National Park Service.  George Washington Carver National Monument, History & Culture.  Available at:  https://www.nps.gov/gwca/learn/historyculture/index.htm. Accessed March 25, 2020.

Tuskegee Institute.  The Legacy of Dr. George Washington Carver.  Available at:  https://www.tuskegee.edu/support-tu/george-washington-carver. Accessed March 25, 2020.

Williams, Wendi.  2020.  The Jessup Wagon:  Rooted in History, Still Used Today.  Alabama Cooperative Extension Service, February 6, 2020.  Available at:  https://www.aces.edu/blog/topics/news/the-jesup-wagon-rooted-in-history-still-used-today/.  Accessed March 25, 2020.

This Month in Conservation

September 1
Martha, the last Passenger Pigeon, Died (1914)
September 2
President Roosevelt Dedicated Great Smoky National Park (1940)
September 3
Wilderness Act passed (1964)
September 4
Fort Bragg, Home of Red-cockaded Woodpeckers, Established (1918)
September 5
UNESCO Established First World Heritage Sites (1978)
September 6
Alcide d’Orbigny, French Naturalist, Born (1802)
September 7
Edward Birge, Father of Limnology, born (1851)
September 8
UN Millennium Declaration ratified (2000)
September 9
First “Bug” Found in Computer (1945)
September 10
Henry Hardtner, Father of Southern Forestry, Born (1870)
September 11
World Wildlife Fund Began Operations (1961)
September 12
Canyonlands National Park Established (1964)
September 13
Walter Reed born (1851)
September 14
Marc Reisner, Author of Cadillac Desert (1948)
September 15
Darwin reaches the Galapagos Islands (1835)
September 16
Ed Begley Jr., Environmental Advocate, born (1949)
September 17
Edgar Wayburn, Wilderness Advocate, Born (1906)
September 18
Grey Owl, Pioneering Conservationist in Canada, Born (1888)
September 19
Urmas Tartes, Estonian Nature Photographer, born (1963)
September 20
AAAS Founded (1848)
September 21
Assateague Island National Seashore Created (1965)
September 22
Peace Corps becomes law (1961)
September 23
Rose Selected as U.S. National Flower (1986)
September 24
President Kennedy Dedicated Pinchot Institute (1963)
September 25
Pope Francis Addressed the UN on the Environment (2015)
September 26
Johnny Appleseed Born (1774)
September 27
“Silent Spring” Published (1962)
September 28
National Public Lands Day
September 29
Steinhart Aquarium opens (1923)
September 30
Hoover Dam Dedicated (1935)
January February March April May June July August September October November December