February 17, 2021, via Zoom webinar George Washington Carver, one of the best-known scientists of his day, developed hundreds of products from peanuts, sweet potatoes, and mineral clays; promoted home-canning and the addition of natural fertilizers to improve soil fertility; and developed new varieties of cotton and amaryllis. Born a slave on a Missouri farm in 1865, Carver became the first black student and the first black faculty member at what is now Iowa State University, where he led bacterial laboratory work in the Systematic Botany Department. Carver later moved to Tuskegee Institute in Alabama to serve as the school’s director of agriculture, a position he held for 47 years. Join Carver biographer Dr. Gary Kremer for a lively discussion on the history and legacy of one of America’s most important inventors and scientists. The speaker: Gary R. Kremer, PhD, is the executive director of the State Historical Society of Missouri and the Western Historical Manuscript Collection and adjunct professor of history at the University of Missouri in Columbia. Dr. Kremer received his Ph.D. from American University in Washington, DC. He is the author and editor of numerous works, including Race and Meaning: The African American Experience in Missouri; Missouri’s Black Heritage, Revised Edition; and George Washington Carver: In His Own Words.

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