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Catalog Data

Artist:
Prentice H. Polk, 25 Nov 1898 - 29 Dec 1985  Search this
Sitter:
George Washington Carver, c. 1864 - 5 Jan 1943  Search this
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")
Type:
Photograph
Date:
1938
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”.
Topic:
Interior  Search this
Costume\Apron  Search this
Nature & Environment\Plant  Search this
Home Furnishings\Furniture\Table  Search this
Personal Attribute\Facial Hair\Mustache  Search this
Interior\Greenhouse  Search this
Costume\Jewelry\Pin  Search this
George Washington Carver: Male  Search this
George Washington Carver: Natural Resource Occupations\Agriculturist  Search this
George Washington Carver: Science and Technology\Scientist\Biologist\Botanist  Search this
George Washington Carver: Education and Scholarship\Educator\Teacher  Search this
George Washington Carver: Science and Technology\Scientist\Chemist  Search this
George Washington Carver: Medicine and Health\Researcher  Search this
George Washington Carver: Society and Social Change\Enslaved person  Search this
Portrait  Search this
Credit Line:
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Object number:
NPG.83.190
Restrictions & Rights:
Usage conditions apply
Copyright:
© Tuskegee University Archives, Tuskegee, AL
See more items in:
National Portrait Gallery Collection
Exhibition:
Forces of Nature: Voices that Shaped Environmentalism
On View:
NPG, North Gallery 220
Data Source:
National Portrait Gallery
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm4d62f3398-f89d-4120-9e62-14cf7049c7ab
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:npg_NPG.83.190