U.S. 1,541,478 Paint and Stain and Producing the Same June 9, 1925. George W. Carver. Tuskegee, Alabama.
U.S. 1,632,365 Producing Paints and Stains. June 14, 1927. George W. Carver. Tuskegee, Alabama.
Carver’s Early Life
George Washington Carver was born a slave in Diamond Grove, Missouri. When he was an infant, Confederate raiders kidnapped him and his mother. When the Civil War ended, Carver’s master, Moses Carver, was able to locate him and bring him back to Missouri. However, he was unable to find his mother. Moses Carver and his wife raised Carver.
Carver’s Education
Carver began his education at a school in Newton County, Missouri. At the same time, he moved from the Carver family home and began working as a farm hand. He went on to attend Minneapolis High School in Kansas and Simpson College. Carver later transferred to Iowa Agricultural College (now Iowa State University). In 1894, he received his B.S. in agricultural science and three years later, he received his M.S. in agriculture. After graduating, Carver took a faculty position at Iowa College.
Carver’s Inventions
Carver’s time at Iowa College, however, was short lived. When Booker T. Washington offered him a position at the newly opened Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in 1897, Carver readily accepted. While at Tuskegee, Carver developed a crop rotation method, which alternated cotton crops with soil enriching crops such as peanuts, sweet potato, and pecans. Carver also developed over 300 uses for peanuts and numerous uses for sweet potatoes and pecans.
Despite Carver’s many innovations, he held only three patents for his inventions of soybean based paints and stains. According to Carver, he felt strongly that he should not financially benefit from his inventions. Instead, he believed that his discoveries should be freely shared.
In 1923, he was awarded the Spingarn Medal by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1938, he gave his life savings of $30,000 to the George Washington Carver Foundation. After his death on January 5, 1943, a national monument was dedicated to his memory on July 14, 1943.
