Chicago’s Field Museum is bringing another extensive exhibition to the public with February’s George Washington Carver through July 6, 2008. A vehement proponent of sustainability, he believed that “nature produces no waste” and neither should man. He was a humanitarian whose primary goal was “to help the farmer and fill the poor man’s empty dinner pail.”
Through more than a hundred artifacts, along with videos, interactive displays and recreated scenes, visitors learn about Carver from his time in a remote frontier town to his success as a teacher and researcher at the Tuskegee Institute. Guests can also see the laboratory bench and instruments he used as he laid the groundwork for organic farming and today’s research on plant-based fuels, medicines, and everyday products.
One item on display is a life-size reproduction of the horse-driven wagon that Carver designed as a moveable school to bring his ideas to farmers in their fields and homemakers in their homes. It’s stocked with the kinds of plants and products that Carver used in his demonstrations.
Finally, visitors will hear oral histories from people whose lives were touched by Carver, and meet some “modern-day Carvers” working to develop the potential of plants in modern medicine and space exploration. Contact: www.fieldmuseum.org
Courtesy of grouptravelblog.com
