Although the exact date of George Washington Carver’s birth is unknown, he was born around 1864, which makes 2014 possibly the 150th anniversary of his birth! As Iowa State’s first African American graduate who went on to become a well-known scientist, George Washington Carver items are frequently requested. We have digitized a portion of the George Washington Carver Papers and photographs of George Washington Carver. The George Washington Digital Collection is available through Digital Collections. A description of the George Washington Carver Papers, a portion of which is available online, can be found here.
For February’s Black History Month, we thought we would highlight the image above, which shows George Washington Carver in the dining hall of the new Margaret Hall. The photograph is quite striking, since it’s not often one sees an interior image of so many students in one photograph from that time period! Other photographs of Carver while he was here at Iowa State can be found through Digital Collections.