Carver, standing in field, probably at Tuskegee, holding piece of soil. George Washington Carver (1864 - January 5, 1943) was an African-American scientist, botanist, educator, and inventor born into slavery. In 1891 he attended and studied botany at Iowa State Agricultural College where he was the first black student, and later taught as the first black faculty member. His reputation is based on his research into and promotion of alternative crops to cotton, such as peanuts, soybeans and sweet potatoes, which also aided nutrition for farm families. He wanted poor farmers to grow alternative crops both as a source of their own food and as a source of other products to improve their quality of life. As an agricultural chemist, Carver discovered three hundred uses for peanuts and hundreds more for soybeans, pecans and sweet potatoes. He died in 1943, at the age of 78. In 1977, he was elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans. In 1990, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Carver is often referred to as "Father of Chemurgy". Photographed by Frances Benjamin Johnston, 1906.