Once accepted, Carver studied piano and art until one of his teachers — Etta Budd — recognized his gift for painting flowers and plants and urged him to study botany at what then was called the Iowa State Agricultural College, or Iowa State University today.

In 1891, Carver became Iowa State’s first Black student and — later — its first Black faculty member, going on to gain international repute as director of agriculture for the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. In addition to teaching, Carver discovered and developed alternate uses for sweet potatoes, soybeans and peanuts — like plastics, synthetic rubber and paper.

Among his other synthetic discoveries were bleach, chili sauce, instant coffee, shoe polish, shaving cream, linoleum, meat tenderizer and Worcestershire sauce. He developed more than 300 products from peanuts, 118 from sweet potatoes — and a legacy that’s inspired and supported the education of thousands.

Among those is Paxton Williams, 46, of Des Moines, who found his way to ISU in 1996 as a “George Washington Carver scholar.” For his honors project in 1999, he created a one-man show about Carver, which he’s since performed as Carver more than 400 times in 24 states and in England.

This week, 25 years after first writing the show, Williams performed a 30-minute excerpt Thursday during ISU’s second annual Carver Day — created in 2022 when the Iowa Legislature established Feb. 1 as an Official Day of Recognition in honor of Carver.

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