Talk:George Washington Carver/Archive 2

message: While my concerns above are outstanding, I also don't want to leave the intro wrong if "difficult to ascertain" is an error. Could we, per above, say "widely credited with having developed more than 300 uses for the peanut, although much of his work was the collation and distribution of outstanding material" leaving aside both invent and myth for the timebeing. Marskell 12:46, 1 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Re what is there now "Since Carver left no formulas for these products other than a single patented peanut cosmetic, later investigators were unable to evaluate or confirm his production of many of them" from the AmericanHeritage source. Marskell 12:48, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

text: Sorry for not replying, been up to other stuff. You're right about a full-bodied overhaul being necessary. I was thinking of changing this or that but it will just create a domino affect where other things need doing. One thing you might try is hauling the article into user space and working on it there. Let me know if you do. Marskell 15:55, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

text: Ah, Wiki. So much to do. I did come across this in that accidental way, wanting to read on the man, and here we are with much debate after the fact. I don't suppose that if you (having read the sources) and me (having at least looked at them) are not willing to work, someone else in the medium term will settle down and do so. Anyhow, you defended your points well. It'll be on my watchlist. Marskell 00:03, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  The intro 

message: The section that reads "Southern farmers came together in 1920 to plead their cause before a Congressional committee hearings on the tariff. Carver was elected, without hesitation, to speak at the hearings. On arrival, Carver was mocked by surprised southern farmers, but he was not deterred and began to explain some of the many uses for the peanut."  confuses me quite a bit.  It seems to be saying that he was sent by southern farmers to congress to testify, and then was mocked by the same southern farmers who were surprised that he showed up.  Who was surprised here?  The farmers, members of congress, someone else?  And why were they surprised?  Because he was black, was unknown to them, other reasons? Pdarley
I think it should be that he was mocked by surprised Southern congressmen.  Greg Kuperberg 03:41, 4 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Mocked by surprised southern farmers 

message: "his mother were kidnapped by Confederate night raiders and sold in Arkansas" 
according to American Decades. Gale Research, 1998. that he was not sold the Gale Research lists the captors as bandits not Confederate night raiders 
"his best filly " 
according to the Gale Research the filly was worth 300 dollars 
"Carver's father is unknown"
he was killed in a log rolling accident according to the Gale Research
This page has info on George Washington and.... George Washington Carver.
I am only, like, eleven, and I probably shouldn't be editing, but I would like to point out that I (probably not only me) disagree with the statement "Other common MYTHS are that Carver invented Peanut Butter and crop rotation"
He DID in fact, invent peanut butter AND crop rotation, but he was (and is still) not given credit by all people  because he was African American.
YOU'RE RIGHT, APPARENTLY. ELEVEN YEAR OLDS SHOULDN'T BE EDITING.  CARVER DID NOT INVENT PEANUT BUTTER!
:There are a lot of websites and books that have the facts wrong on Carver, especially children's books. Probably the most accurate Carver websites are the four listed in the External Links section, especially the first one.  Carver did not invent peanut butter. He couldn't have because he hadn't even started working on peanuts in 1890 when peanut butter was first sold by William Harvey Kellogg, who got the first U.S. patent on it. Carver didn't start college at Iowa State until 1891.
:Check some authoritative references such as Encyclopedia Brittanica or the book by Andrew F. Smith, Peanuts: The Illustrious History of the Goober Pea (2002. Chicago: University of Illinois Press). The 1989 Carver biography by Gene Adair has a foreward by Coretta Scott King where she admits that Carver's scientific inventions have been exaggerated. Barry Mackintosh's article on Carver also explains how Carver myths arose.  Ancient peoples knew about crop rotation, because the Romans wrote about it. Carver did not invent it. He merely encouraged farmers to rotate crops as had many others before him. 
:Actually, it's the other way around. If Carver had not been African-American, he probably would not be famous because his work was not remarkable compared to the many others who promoted crop rotation and planting of peanuts. In the 1959 book on "achievements of outstanding American Negroes"  titled The Negro Vanguard, Historian Richard Bardolph wrote of Carver, "...no white scientist with precisely the same achievements would have been called a 'wizard' or 'the greatest industrial chemist in the world."Plantguy 03:16, 9 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Missing and Inaccurate information 

message: ***In my coursework in LGBT Studies, Carver's name was often brought up as being gay, but for many reasons, this was left out of the history books . . . and when one considers the fact that other influential black male leaders such as Bayard Rustin's sexuality is . . . left out . . . it's not surprising that it's been edited out on Wikipedia, as well. This is from GLAAD's website (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation):
George Washington Carver (Inventor)
George Washington Carver is one of the most well known African American historical figures as well as one of the most important figures in American Agriculture. Most school children know him as the inventor of hundreds of uses for the peanut and the person who popularized peanuts as an agricultural crop. Although primarily famous as the driving force behind the peanut's growth in importance in agriculture, Carver is also notable for many other reasons. Carver was the first African American to attend Iowa State University as well as its first African American faculty member. His research included many other plants other than the peanut, and his work as an educator and innovator within the agricultural community led to the spread of "movable schools" or extension agencies to the South. Carver died in 1943, and has since been honored with commemorative postage stamps, a fifty-cent coin, and inclusion in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans and the National Inventors Hall of Fame. One fact about Carver's life which is rarely if ever mentioned is his sexuality, which may not be relevant to most of his achievements but is integral to the understanding the inventor as a whole.
Sources: http://www.noglstp.org/historical.html
http://blackstripe.com/blacklist/
http://www.george-washington-carver.com/george-washington-carver/
http://home.earthlink.net/~blkembrace/speech.htm 
source: http://www.glaad.org/publications/resource_doc_detail.php?id=3093 ***
ygggf
* Of the four sources the GLAAD article cites, the 2nd is under construction (and apparently has been since 2002) and currently has nothing about Carver, the last one is a dead link, and the third one has nothing on his sexuality. Only the first source currently claims Carver is LBGT, apparently citing the book The Gay 100. According to http://www.adherents.com/people/100_gay.html (which lists the 100 gay people mentioned) he isn't one of the 100, though it's certainly possible he could've been mentioned in someone else's article. I believe we have a copy of The Gay 100 in our schools GLBT library, so I might take a look at it and clarify this, but at the moment I don't think there's enough sources to warrant us saying Carver is gay. 66.189.116.168 01:27, 25 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Carver's Sexuality 

message: Why do ,  and  state that he was born on July 12, 1864, if no-one knows his birthdate? 1ne 23:13, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: It does, but there's two hits from universities. 1ne 02:00, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I did notice the descrepency. Should the trivia part be deleted rather than leave the contradiction? Especiall since the box is there about Trivia being discouraged. Seems the main article should be given priority when there is a contradiction.ThreeWikiteers (talk) 21:14, 15 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Birthdate 

message: A wikipedia editor has been placing this link on articles all over the place, including this one.  While it is on topic, the website has no content whatsoever, other than a list of links to wikipedia articles about black scientists.  I suggest these links need to be removed from all the wikipedia articles, unless this website is expected to suddenly explode with high value content sometime in the next few days.  --Xyzzyplugh 16:07, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Black-Scientists.com