Object Details
Artist
Prentice H. Polk, 25 Nov 1898 - 29 Dec 1985
Sitter
George Washington Carver, c. 1864 - 5 Jan 1943
Exhibition Label
George Washington Carver, the leading African American agricultural scientist of the twentieth century, brought a conservationist approach to his field. He first encountered ecological principles and the blossoming conservation movement as a student at Iowa Agricultural College (MS, 1896). But Carver’s reverence of nature and appreciation for the “mutual relationship of the animal, mineral, and vegetable kingdoms” was shaped equally by his deeply held Christian beliefs.
As head of the Agricultural Department at Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute (1896–43), Carver argued that sustainable environmental improvement was essential for strengthening the economic and social circumstances of impoverished Southern Black farmers. He stressed the importance of compost fertilizers and crop rotation for improving soil depleted by cotton cultivation. In 1938, the year this photograph was made, Carver wrote, “Wherever the soil is wasted, the people are wasted. A poor soil produces only a poor people—poor economically, poor spiritually and intellectually, poor physically.”
George Washington Carver, principal científico agrícola afroamericano del siglo XX, trajo a su profesión un enfoque conservacionista. Conoció los principios ecologistas y el floreciente movimiento de conservación cuando estudiaba en el Iowa Agricultural College (MS, 1896). Pero su devoción por la naturaleza y la “relación mutua de los reinos animal, mineral y vegetal” provenía igualmente de sus profundas creencias cristianas.
Como director del Departamento de Agricultura en el Instituto Tuskegee de Alabama (1896–43), Carver postulaba que mejorar el medioambiente de manera sostenible era esencial para mejorar las condiciones económicas y sociales de los empobre cidos agricultores negros del sur del país. Insistía en la importancia de los fertilizantes de composta y la rotación de cultivos para regenerar los terrenos
agotados por el cultivo de algodón. En 1938, cuando se tomó esta fotografía, Carver escribió: “Cuando la tierra se pierde, la gente se pierde. Una tierra pobre solo produce gente pobre: pobre económicamente, espiritualmente, intelectualmente, físicamente”.
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Date
1938
Object number
NPG.83.190
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Copyright
© Tuskegee University Archives, Tuskegee, AL
Type
Photograph
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Image: 19.6 × 24.5 cm (7 11/16 × 9 5/8")
Sheet: 20.4 × 25.4 cm (8 1/16 × 10")
Mat: 35.6 × 45.7 cm (14 × 18")
See more items in
National Portrait Gallery Collection
Location
Currently not on view
Data Source
National Portrait Gallery
Topic
Interior
Costume\Apron
Nature & Environment\Plant
Home Furnishings\Furniture\Table
Personal Attribute\Facial Hair\Mustache
Interior\Greenhouse
Costume\Jewelry\Pin
George Washington Carver: Male
George Washington Carver: Business and Finance\Natural resources commerce\Agriculturist
George Washington Carver: Science and Technology\Scientist\Biologist\Botanist
George Washington Carver: Arts and Culture\Education and Scholarship\Educator
George Washington Carver: Science and Technology\Scientist\Chemist
George Washington Carver: Law and Crime\Enslaved person
Portrait
Link to Original Record
Record ID
npg_NPG.83.190