GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER

Carver (1865-1943) was born into slavery on a Missouri farm near Diamond Grove (now called Diamond), Missouri. The identity of his father is uncertain; Carver usually named his father as a slave on a neighboring farm who was killed in a log-hauling accident shortly after he was born. He received a B.S. from the Iowa Agricultural College in 1894 and a M.S. in 1896. Carter became a member of the faculty of Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts in charge of the school's bacterial laboratory work in the Systematic Botany department. His work with agricultural products developed industrial applications from farm products, called chemurgy in technical literature in the early 1900s. His research developed 325 products from peanuts, 108 applications for sweet potatoes, and 75 products derived from pecans. He moved to Tuskegee, Alabama in 1896 to accept a position as an instructor at the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute and remained on the faculty until his death in 1943. His work in developing industrial applications from agricultural products derived 118 products, including a rubber substitute and over 500 dyes and pigments, from 28 different plants. He was responsible for the invention in 1927 of a process for producing paints and stains from soybeans, for which three separate patents were issued. Carver died of anemia at Tuskegee Institute and is buried on the campus beside Booker T. Washington. He was an educator, scientist, businessman, artist, author, lecturer, and performing Artist. The area of Carver's childhood in Missouri has been preserved as a park, the first designated national monument to an African American in the United States.

Reference
McMurray, Linda O. George Washington Carver. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1981.

EDWARD MARION AUGUSTUS CHANDLER

Chandler (1887-?) was born in Ocala, Florida, and earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Illinois in 1917. Chandler’s main area of research was in triphenylmethane dyes, and he served as a Chemist for the Dicks David & Heller Company from 1917 to 1921, and as a Plant Chemist for Abbott Laboratories from 1921 until 1924, at which time he became a Consulting Chemist in Lake County, Illinois.