NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Everett Austin Dietle,
(314)
454-3178
MEDIA
CONTACT
[email protected]
Everett Austin Dietle,
314-454-3178
Mobile: 314-769-2777
[email protected]
CALENDAR LISTING
For Immediate Release
Digital images available through email
[email protected]
George Washington Carver
at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park
Special Museum Exhibition Opens November 28, 2008
ST. LOUIS, September 30, 2008—Many people today know George Washington
Carver largely from the myths that have grown around him…none of them true. He
didn’t invent peanut butter; it had existed in many cultures for centuries. Nor did he
create 300 new products from peanuts—though he created some, and collected many
others.
The truth about Carver is much more interesting than the myths. He was a man
with a fascinating life story and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, who overcame
tremendous odds to become one of America’s most versatile scientists. A trail-blazing
proponent of sustainability, he believed that “nature produces no waste” and neither
should man. He was also a humanitarian whose primary goal was, as he put it, “to help
the farmer and fill the poor man’s empty dinner pail.”
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Missouri History Museum
P.O. Box 11940
St. Louis, MO 63112-0040 314.746.4599
www.mohistory.org
This complex and intimate portrait of one of America’s best known names—
and least-studied men—emerges from a major new exhibition: George Washington
Carver. Organized by The Field Museum, the exhibition follows Carver’s entire life
and career to reveal both his struggles and his remarkable achievements as scientist,
conservationist, educator, and humanitarian. It brings together artifacts from Carver’s
personal life and work; animated and live videos; interactive displays; a diorama of
Carver’s childhood farm; and a re-creation of the Jesup wagon, his mobile classroom.
The Missouri History Museum is the second stop on the exhibition’s national
tour. George Washington Carver opens to the general public at the Missouri History
Museum on Friday, November 28, 2008, at 1 p.m.
This exhibition was created by The Field Museum, Chicago, in collaboration
with Tuskegee University and the National Park Service. It is presented in St. Louis by
Monsanto Fund.
A Thirst for Knowledge
A frail child born into slavery, George and his mother were kidnapped by slave
raiders when he was still an infant. George was abandoned by the kidnappers and
rescued by his owners, Moses and Susan Carver, who adopted both George and his
brother. George’s biological mother was never found.
Moses Carver was a farmer in a Missouri frontier town, a frugal man who
abhorred waste of any kind. Since George was a sickly child, unable to help much on
the farm, Susan Carver taught him handiwork such as embroidery, knitting, and
crocheting. George also spent a lot of his time outside, collecting rocks, observing
nature, and creating a
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“secret garden.”
His sensitivity and curiosity were apparent, and even as a child he
was known throughout the area for his remarkable skill with plants.
“I wanted to know the name of every stone and flower and insect and bird
and beast. I wanted to know where it got its color, where it got its life – but there
was no one to tell me,” Carver later wrote. His foster parents had no formal
education, and there were no schools close to their home. At the age of thirteen,
Carver left home, with the Carvers’ blessings, to seek an education. With a rich
collection of artifacts, the exhibition traces Carver’s path and passions as he worked
his way through elementary and high school, through rejection and welcome, to
Simpson College in Iowa, then to Iowa State University, and finally to a research
and teaching position at Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University).
A Driving Vision
Given his drive and education, Carver could have become a theoretical
chemist, an academic botanist, or an inventor. But that wasn’t his intention. He had
decided early on that his calling was to help “the man farthest down.” On his way to
Tuskegee Carver saw fields of scraggly cotton in exhausted soil and poor black
farmers struggling to survive. He had what he called a “mighty vision” – of barren
fields turning green with crops, whitewashed farmhouses gleaming in the sun,
gardens sprouting with vegetables and flowers.
“Carver was driven by the needs he saw around him,” says Michael Dillon,
chair of the Botany Department at The Field Museum and one of the curators for the
Carver exhibition. “His research was very goal-oriented.” One of the ideas that
Carver seized upon, Dillon says, was crop rotation – a practice long known to other
cultures but not used in the South, where cotton truly was king. Carver understood
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that cotton had depleted the soil of the nitrogen that plants need in order to grow.
And he knew that legumes, such as peanuts and peas, had a symbiotic
relationship with bacteria that could take inert nitrogen molecules from the
atmosphere and convert them into a form plants can use.
It was the desire to make these alternative crops more useful to farmers
and others that led to Carver’s famous work with peanuts, cow peas or blackeyed peas, and sweet potatoes. (Sweet potatoes, though not a legume, grow
easily with little or no fertilizer.) He sought many other practical solutions as
well; he experimented with seeds, soil enrichment, natural fertilizers, and more.
In every aspect of his research, Carver sought to make his findings
accessible to the communities around him. He put plain-language information
and instructions into bulletins that were distributed widely. And he took the
Jesup wagon to farms and public spaces, demonstrating farming and composting
techniques, cooking, canning…even home makeovers with paints, furniture, and
decorative items made from plants and minerals.
Sustainable Resources for Food, Fuel, and Much More
Carver’s ideas on conservation were ahead of their time. “I believe the
Great Creator has put oil and ores on this earth to give us a breathing spell,” he
said. “As we exhaust them, we must be prepared to fall back on our farms….
For we can learn to synthesize materials for every human need from the things
that grow.”
Carver blazed a trail for the development of products from plants, a field
known as chemurgy. He found hundreds of new uses for peanuts, sweet
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potatoes, and soybeans, including milk and cheese, laundry soap and linoleum,
wallboard and rubber, and much, much more. Carver worked on biofuels with
Henry Ford, and made a massage oil for polio victims—though it turned out to be
the masseur, Carver himself, as much as the oil, that was effective. After Carver,
interest in plant products went out of fashion for decades—only to be rediscovered
at the end of the 20th century. Today’s accelerating research on plant-based fuels,
medicines, and other products are rooted in Carver’s work—though not always
with his altruism.
“The most important gift Carver gave to people wasn’t any particular
product,” Dillon says. “It was the gift of self-worth.” Carver crossed racial and
class boundaries. He gave of himself so that others could become educated, selfsufficient, and proud. He followed his own vision to improve the lives of others.
George Washington Carver and the Missouri History Museum
“Born in the last years of slavery in America, George Washington Carver
came from a frontier town in Missouri. Although he died 65 years ago, the
innovations he produced and the messages he promulgated throughout the South
and ultimately throughout the world are just as crucial today. He understood that
we couldn’t exhaust our soil, destroy our forests, and deplete our resources if we
expect our future generations to have a decent place to live. He knew that if the
planet itself were to survive, we would have to be conscientious caretakers and not
merely users,” says Dr. Robert R. Archibald, president of the Missouri History
Museum. “I’m honored to welcome this exciting exhibition to St. Louis.”
The exhibition George Washington Carver features a document on loan
from the Missouri History Museum. “How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Uses For
It” is the best-known agricultural bulletin written by Carver.
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Admission:
Admission to George Washington Carver is $10 for adults; $8 for
seniors/students/groups; $6 for children (ages 6-12). Children five years old and
younger are free. Group reservations (minimum of 10 individuals) are available by
calling 314-361-9017 or 800-916-8212. Missouri History Museum members receive
complimentary admission to the exhibition based upon level of membership. The
exhibition is free to the general public on Tuesdays.
The George Washington Carver exhibition at the Missouri History Museum
coincides with the museum’s Katherine Dunham: Beyond the Dance exhibition, which
explores the life and career of the groundbreaking dancer, choreographer, anthropologist
and civil rights activist. Carver-Dunham combo tickets are available: $14 for adults;
$12 for seniors/student/group; $3 for children (ages 6-12). Children five years old and
younger are free. Missouri History Museum members receive complimentary
admission to both exhibitions.
Public Programs:
During the exhibition, the Missouri History Museum will offer a variety of
Carver-related programs for all ages. To celebrate the exhibition opening, the museum
will present “Listening to the Still Small Voice: The Story of George Washington
Carver,” a one-person play written and performed by Paxton J. Williams on November
28, 29 and 30 at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. each day. Based upon extensive research, “Listening
to the Still Small Voice,” was first performed by Williams as his undergraduate capstone
project in the Honors Program at Iowa State University. “Listening to the Still Small
Voice” is $5 for the general public; $4 for members.
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Visit the Missouri History Museum’s website (www.mohistory.org) for up-todate-information regarding additional Carver-related programming.
Hours and General Information:
The Missouri History Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday
through Monday; Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. For general museum information, call
(314) 746-4599 or visit our interactive Web site at www.mohistory.org.
Location and Travel Information:
The Missouri History Museum is located at Lindell and DeBaliviere in Forest
Park, near the Forest Park-DeBaliviere MetroLink station. Visit www.metrostlouis.org
for public transportation information, or www.getaroundstl.com for general travel
information. Due to highway construction, the Missouri Department of Transportation
offers Map My Trip, an online tool to assist travelers
(http://dist6.modot.mo.gov/mapmytrip).
The Missouri History Museum:
The Missouri History Museum has been active in the St. Louis community
since 1866. Founding members established the organization “for the purpose of saving
from oblivion the early history of the city and state.” The museum operates the
Missouri History Museum in Forest Park and the Library and Research Center at
225 South Skinker Boulevard near the Washington University campus.
For more information, visit www.mohistory.org or call 314/746-4599.
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