George Washington Carver, born into slavery in Missouri on Jan. 10, 1864, is well-known for his bulletin on the many uses for peanuts. Carver promoted the use of alternative crops like peanuts, soybeans and sweet potatoes to circumvent the damage that cotton plantations were causing to the soil and the boll weevils' attack on cotton.
In 1897, Booker T. Washington invited Carver to head the Agricultural Department at the Tuskegee Institute where he researched and taught farming techniques for 47 years. He even taught on the field by taking a classroom in a wagon to farms.
Carver spoke to Congress in 1921 to support a tariff on imported peanuts. He died in 1943.

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(Photo: Courtesy Library of Congress)