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BY MOLLY WOULFE
TIMES FEATURES WRITER
(219) 852-4329
mwoulfe@nwitimes.com | Friday, February 01, 2008 | (6 comment(s))
George Washington Carver did not invent peanut butter.
The creamy-crunchy condiment, a staple of bag lunches, originated in preColumbian America. The Incas ground peanuts into a protein-rich paste.
Not that the legendary researcher corrected the Father-of-Peanut Butter tag when he landed on the cover of Time in 1941.
Carver's genius for science and ecology extended to media relations on behalf of his Alabama college.
"He felt it was good publicity for Tuskegee University," Field spokesman Franck Mercurio said.
The Field is spreading the news in a new exhibit devoted to the slave-turned-scholar, which opens today and runs through July 6.
Curated by the museum with Tuskegee University and the National Park Service, the show features more than 100 artifacts, videos and items that yield an intimate portrait of the late 19th century Renaissance man as a scientist, artist and humanitarian. As exhibit developer Mercurio puts it, Carver "did much more than work with peanuts."
Relics include the trailblazer's glasses, lab equipment and Underwood typewriter. His six-string guitar, a still-life of peaches and elaborate pencil drawings document an eye for beauty and detail.
The largest showpiece: A life-size recreation of his Jesup wagon, a horse-drawn mobile classroom. One film clip shows the great man knitting, a hobby that helped him relax.
The 4,500-square-foot show charts Carver's rise as champion of southern agriculture from humble roots. Born a slave in Missouri in 1864, he and his mother were kidnaped by Confederate bushwhackers when Carver was 9 months old. His captors abandoned the baby, and owners Moses and Susan Carver raised Carver and his brother as their own children. Slavery was abolished the next year.
The Carvers gave their blessing when their surrogate son set out at 13 to further his education in the post-Civil War era. Despite rampant racism, he worked his way through schools in Missouri, Kansas and Iowa by doing odd jobs and giving music lessons. He eventually enrolled as the first black student at Iowa State Agricultural College, where he earned his undergraduate degree and a master's. His reputation as a gifted botanist flowered during the 1890s.
Booker T. Washington invited Carver to head the agriculture department at the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (later Tuskegee University) in 1896. Carver accepted, remaining at the private university for 47 years until his death in 1943.
The all-black faculty initially considered him a prima donna for demanding modern lab equipment.
"He had spent most of his life among whites who treated him as gifted," Mercurio explained.
"So it was a shock when the faculty at Tuskegee met him with suspicion."
The adjustment was hard, but Carver felt a calling. As years passed, he grew on his colleagues as he championed "green" techniques like crop rotation and composting.
One of his most significant contributions: Urging southern farmers to plant soil-enriching crops like peanuts and sweet potatoes as alternatives to cotton. His advice saved the farming industry when the boll weevil nearly ruined cotton growers.
Though Carver devised hundreds of new uses for peanuts, from buttermilk to bleach, few were commercially viable. His reputation as the "peanut man" was sealed when he testified at a peanut tariff hearing in Congress in 1921. The scientist was given 10 minutes to speak, a deadline forgotten as he mesmerized his audience with his intelligence and charm.
His eloquence won him a standing ovation -- and a political coup. Congress passed the tariff on imported peanuts. By his death at 78, Carver was a beloved equal-opportunity mentor for students and farmers.
"You'd think," he once complained, "I knew nothing about anything but peanuts and sweet potatoes."
The Carver exhibit is the latest in a Field series that spotlights legendary thinkers. Organized in connection with Black History Month, the collection -- the first to spotlight a black and an American scientist -- will tour nationally.
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"George Washington Carver," at the Field Museum in collaboration with Tuskegee University and the National Park Service
When: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily today through July 6
Where: Field Museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago
Admission: Free with general entrance fee, $12 adults, $7 for seniors, students and children ages 4 to 11.
FYI: Call (866) 343-5303 or http://www.fieldmuseum.org
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Robert wrote on Aug 7, 2008 3:26 PM:
There are people like him who make our world a better place to live. everyone can save the world just to save it but not everyone will d o it cuz its right and its for the great or good i am robert and thank u for reading this wonderful paragraph Bye . "
A True Admirer wrote on Feb 1, 2008 11:58 PM:
wank james wrote on Feb 1, 2008 9:21 AM:
LEANN ROBERTSON wrote on Feb 1, 2008 9:20 AM:
darius wrote on Feb 1, 2008 8:38 AM:
Mickey wrote on Feb 1, 2008 7:46 AM: