For Immediate Release Contact: Nancy O'Shea (312) 665-7100 (For Media Use Only) Experience the Life, the Science, and the Enduring Legacy of George Washington Carver Carver’s Mighty Vision A modest pair of spectacles lets visitors know they’re about to get an intensely personal experience of a most extraordinary man. These are the eyeglasses Carver wore as he went about his daily work, ordinary glasses through which he carefully observed the world and focused on a mighty vision: to harness nature’s power for the benefit of those in need. A short video expands on this vision, giving visitors a preview of Carver’s achievements beyond the peanut products for which he’s so widely known. From Slave to Scholar Carver’s life, a journey from slavery to science, from obscurity to legend, was a series of challenges—physical, financial, social, and racial. Visitors will come to know the curiosity, the persistence, and the passion for education that carried Carver such great distances. Kidnapped and orphaned when he was just a baby, young George was rescued by his owners, Moses and Susan Carver, who raised him. A diorama of Carver’s childhood home brings to life the woods he explored, the rocks he collected, and his “secret garden.” Also on display are handiworks he created under the tutelage of his foster mother, and a knife similar to the one Carver first saw in a dream... and miraculously found the following day. Visitors will hear the music Carver listened to and the hymns he sang. Carver left this home at the age of thirteen in search of the education he could not get as a black child in that frontier town. A map charts his journey from Missouri to Kansas and on to Iowa, highlighting the racism and other obstacles he encountered and the many families, black and white, who helped him along the way. At Simpson College in Iowa, Carver was the only black student on campus. There he pursued his first passion, painting, and took music classes as well. Though many of his art works were lost in a fire, some survived; visitors will see a painting and a drawing Carver made on his favorite subject, nature. Also on display are the guitar and typewriter that enabled him to earn money to cover his basic needs. Carver loved his studies. But what he wanted most of all was to enter a field where he could succeed as a black man and do the greatest good for others. To pursue that dream, he transferred after one year at Simpson to Iowa State College at Ames, where he studied science and agriculture and eventually became the first black member of its faculty. Continue>>