George Washington Carver Timeline

Carver's first agricultural bulletin, published in 1898, was on feeding acorns to farm animals, beginning a long series of practical publications for Southern farmers.

From 1915 to 1923, Carver concentrated on researching and experimenting with new uses for peanuts, sweet potatoes, soybeans, pecans, and other crops, while having his assistants compile existing uses.

Carver published 'How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it For Human Consumption' in 1916. It became his most popular bulletin and has been reprinted numerous times.

Carver spoke to a national conference of the Peanut Growers Association in 1920, bringing him wide publicity and increasing renown for his peanut research.

In 1921, Carver testified before Congress to support passage of a tariff on imported peanuts, alongside peanut farmers and industry representatives, which brought him national attention.

Image source: Fordney–McCumber Tariff

The Fordney–McCumber Tariff was enacted in 1922 and included a duty on imported peanuts, the outcome Carver had supported through his congressional testimony.

Three patents were issued to Carver between 1925 and 1927: US 1522176 for cosmetics (January 6, 1925), and two for paints and stains—US 1541478 (June 9, 1925) and US 1632365 (June 14, 1927). However, they were not commercially successful.

In 1932, writer James Saxon Childers wrote that Carver and his peanut products were almost solely responsible for the rise in U.S. peanut production after the boll weevil devastated the cotton crop beginning about 1892. His article 'A Boy Who Was Traded for a Horse' (1932) and its 1937 Reader's Digest reprint contributed to this myth.

From 1933 to 1935, Carver worked to develop peanut oil massages to treat infantile paralysis (polio), drawing patients seeking alternative treatments to Tuskegee.

From 1935 to 1937, Carver participated in the USDA Disease Survey, contributing his botanical expertise to a national agricultural effort.

Image source: United States Department of Agriculture

In 1937, Carver attended two chemurgy conferences, an emerging field in the 1930s during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl, concerned with developing new industrial products from crops.

Image source: Chemurgy

In 1916, Carver was made a member of the Royal Society of Arts in England, one of only a handful of Americans at that time to receive this honor.

Image source: Royal Society of Arts

Henry Cantwell Wallace, whose son Henry A. Wallace was also connected to Carver, served as Secretary of Agriculture from 1921 to 1924; Henry A. Wallace later served as Secretary of Agriculture from 1933 to 1940 and as Roosevelt's vice president from 1941 to 1945.

Image source: Henry Cantwell Wallace

In 1923, Carver received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP, awarded annually for outstanding achievement by an African American.

Image source: NAACP

In his seventies, frugal Carver established the George Washington Carver Foundation at Tuskegee in 1938 to continue agricultural research, donating nearly $60,000 (equivalent to $1,372,340 in 2025) of his savings. He also created a museum of his work.

The US Congress designated January 5, the anniversary of Carver's death, as George Washington Carver Recognition Day, honoring his contributions to American agriculture.

Carver died January 5, 1943, at the age of 78 or 79 from complications (anemia) resulting from a fall. His final bulletin, published that year, was about the peanut.

On July 14, 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated $30,000 (approximately $433,687 in 2024) for the George Washington Carver National Monument near Diamond, Missouri, where Carver spent his childhood. The 210-acre complex includes a bust of Carver, a nature trail, a museum, the 1881 Moses Carver house, and the Carver cemetery. It opened in July 1953.

Image source: George Washington Carver National Monument

In December 1947, a fire broke out in the Carver Museum at Tuskegee, and much of the collection was damaged.

Image source: The George Washington Carver Museum

A 3-cent commemorative stamp honoring Carver was issued in 1948 by the United States Postal Service.

From 1951 to 1954, Carver was depicted on the commemorative Carver-Washington half dollar coin along with Booker T. Washington.

Image source: Carver-Washington half dollar

The ballistic missile submarine USS George Washington Carver (SSBN-656) was launched in 1965, named in honor of the scientist.

Image source: USS George Washington Carver

In 1969, Iowa State University constructed Carver Hall in honor of Carver, a distinguished graduate of the university.

In 1970, Carver crater on the far side of the Moon was named after him, extending his legacy beyond Earth.

Image source: George Washington Carver

In 1977, Carver was elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, joining the ranks of the nation's most celebrated figures.

Image source: Hall of Fame for Great Americans

In 1990, Carver was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, recognizing his innovations in agricultural science.

Image source: National Inventors Hall of Fame

In 1994, Iowa State University awarded Carver a posthumous Doctor of Humane Letters degree, more than fifty years after his death.

A second stamp honoring Carver, of face value 32 cents, was issued on February 3, 1998, as part of the Celebrate the Century stamp sheet series.

Image source: Celebrate the Century

In 1999, the USDA named a portion of its Beltsville, Maryland, campus the George Washington Carver Center, continuing institutional recognition of his scientific contributions.

In 2000, Carver was a charter inductee in the USDA Hall of Heroes as the 'Father of Chemurgy', recognizing his pioneering role in developing industrial products from crops.

NBA star David Robinson and his wife Valerie founded an academy named after Carver; it opened on September 17, 2001, in San Antonio, Texas.

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed George Washington Carver as one of the 100 Greatest African Americans. That same year, he received the Iowa Award, the state's highest citizen award.

In 2005, Carver's research at the Tuskegee Institute was designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society. The Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis also honored him that year, and a Modern Marvels episode featured his work at Iowa State's Food Sciences Building.

Image source: American Chemical Society

A color film of Carver shot around 1937 by African American surgeon C. Allen Alexander was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2019.

Image source: National Film Registry

In 2025, the Montgomery Biscuits took on the alternate identity of the 'Alabama Peanut Runners' for two games on August 28 and August 31, 2025, as a tribute to George Washington Carver and his pioneering work with peanuts.

Image source: Montgomery Biscuits