#739) George Washington Carver at Tuskegee Institute (1937)

#739) George Washington Carver at Tuskegee Institute (1937 and/or 1941)

OR “Mr. Peanut Goes to College”

Filmed by Dr. C. Allen Alexander

Class of 2019

George Washington Carver has a fascinating life story, and this post cannot do it justice. I’ll do my best to give a condensed version for the purposes of this post, but if you only know the bullet points about this guy, you owe it to yourself to learn more.

The Plot: Noted Black surgeon Dr. C. Allen Alexander travels with his Kodak camera to the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama to record their most prominent faculty member: George Washington Carver. At one point known as “A Day in the Life of George Washington Carver”, this 12-minute film is amateur footage of Carver as he goes about his day on campus; taking meetings with students, greeting visitors, and even tending to the garden outside of his office building. That’s about it in terms of content, but come on, it’s George Washington Carver! Any footage of him is worthwhile.

Why It Matters: The NFR calls the footage “fascinating” and praises the decision to film this in “gloriously resilient” Kodachrome. There’s also a shoutout to the National Park Service, who worked with the National Archives to preserve this and many other films in their collection (Tuskegee University was named a historic site by the NPS in 1974).

But Does It Really?: This is the rare NFR movie where the title alone justifies its significance. It’s footage of one of the most famous American scientists at one of the most prestigious Black universities; no argument here. “Carver at Tuskegee” is induction worthy, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to research both the man and the school.

Everybody Gets One: Born into slavery in Diamond, Missouri and separated from his family when he was a week old, George Carver was raised by his owner, Moses Carver, following the abolishment of slavery in 1865. Originally planning to study art in school, Carver was encouraged to pursue botany and began studying at Iowa State Agricultural College in 1891 (their first Black student, graduate, and eventually faculty member). Shortly after earning his Master of Science degree in 1896, Carver was invited by Tuskegee Institute president Booker T. Washington to head their Agriculture department, a position he would hold for the rest of his life. Among his many accomplishments, Carver’s work with crop-rotation methods, specifically with soil-enriching crops like peanuts, led to his nationwide recognition and acclaim in the 1910s and 1920s. As time went on and Carver’s health began to decline, the Tuskegee Institute invited C. Allen Alexander of Kalamazoo, Michigan to film Carver so that the school would have at least one recording of him for posterity.

Other notes

I have no idea why C. Allen Alexander was chosen to film George Washington Carver. Alexander was invited by Dr. John Chenault, then chief of orthopedics at John Andrews Memorial Hospital in Tuskegee, at the behest of the Tuskegee Institute board. Nothing I could find in my research indicates that Alexander knew Carver, or that he was even an amateur filmmaker. What I do know is that he had a Kodak camera with plenty of color film rolls, as well as a tripod and flood lamps. In his autobiography, Alexander recalled the shoot as a pleasant experience, referring to Carver as “the great man” and calling the opportunity “a rare privilege”.
Fun Fact: The C in C. Allen Alexander stands for Cornelius. On a related note, George Carver didn’t have a middle name. While studying art in Minneapolis, Kansas, Carver randomly picked W as his middle initial to differentiate himself from another George Carver in town, and when asked if it stood for Washington, he allegedly responded, “Why not?”
We open with a shot of Carver standing next to the campus statue of Booker T. Washington, who had passed away over 20 years before this film was made. One of the more interesting tidbits I found in my research is that although Washington and Carver were friends, they had a contentious working relationship, with Washington being accused of micro-managing Carver’s department. On the occasions when Carver’s needs were not being met by the school, he would offer Washington his resignation, and Washington would acquiesce to Carver’s demands. I love it when lionized historical figures turn out to be regular people with actual personalities.
I was surprised to see Carver watering his own plants around his office building. Surely Tuskegee had a gardener on staff. But then again, if I was their campus gardener I would defer to George Washington Carver on how to best take care of plants.
I would love to see footage of Carver visiting a local frat house and doing a keg stand or whatever they were doing at college parties back then; getting stuffed in a phonebooth?
One aspect of early amateur filmmaking that fascinates me: people who pose as if it’s a still photo. Carver does this several times when showcasing his paintings. And while we’re on the subject: the man was a very good painter. I’m glad he opted to go into agriculture and help his fellow humans, but he could have been one of our great painters if he wanted to.
According to C. Allen Alexander, he filmed with Carver over a series of days to avoid exhausting the 73-year-old. This explains why about a third of the footage doesn’t even have Carver in it, with Alexander capturing other faculty members and a big football game with the Tuskegee Golden Tigers.
It’s a shame this isn’t sound footage because Carver had a distinct high-pitched voice, most likely stemming from a childhood bout of whooping cough. There is footage out there of Carver speaking and…yeah that is quite the voice he’s got there. Definitely one of God’s crueler jokes: Carver already had a tough life, you had to make him sound like Strother Martin with a helium addiction?
There’s a bit of a debate as to when this was shot. Every write-up I could find lists the filming as 1937, with C. Allen Alexander’s autobiography narrowing it down to November 1937 around Thanksgiving. Near the end, however, we get footage of Tuskegee’s George Washington Carver Museum, which wouldn’t be founded until 1941. It is unknown whether Alexander is misremembering the date of his visit, or if he returned to Tuskegee in 1941 to get more footage. My educated guess is that all of this was filmed closer to 1941. Kalamazoo is over 800 miles away from Tuskegee, so I doubt that Alexander would travel all that way back for pick-ups.
Speaking of the museum, I hope Carver got in for free, or at least got a discount in the gift shop.

Legacy

After filming, C. Allen Alexander returned to Kalamazoo and placed the film in a vault at the First National Bank, with the intent of publicly screening the footage at some point. The film sat in the vault for 40 years until Alexander, on the insistence of his wife and daughter, transferred the footage to VHS and donated a copy to the George Washington Carver Museum. C. Allen Alexander continued to be a prominent figure in the Kalamazoo medical community until his death in 1995.
George Washington Carver died in January 1943 following complications from a fall. A very frugal man in life, Carver donated his life savings of $60,000 (roughly 1.1 million dollars today) to the Carver Museum and the George Washington Carver Foundation.
The Tuskegee Institute is still around, now known as Tuskegee University. If the name Tuskegee sounds familiar, you’re thinking of either their landmark aviation program during WWII or a certain medical study they conducted with the CDC that we really don’t have time to get into. Geez, I can’t end this post with that. Let me look up any recent newsworthy events at Tuskeg—oh god! Um…here’s their last big pep rally.