87th AMS Annual Meeting

Tuesday, 16 January 2007: 11:00 AM
George Washington Carver - Volunteer Weather Observer
213A (Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center)
Doria B. Grimes, NOAA Central Library (Retired), Silver Spring, MD
From Nov. 1899 through Jan. 1932, daily weather observations were submitted from Tuskegee, Alabama, on government form 1009 as part of the Cooperative Observer Program. Most of these daily observations were handwritten and signed by George Washington Carver. How was he able to execute daily weather observations in conjunction with his teaching, travel, and research activites with peanuts, pecans, soybeans, fertilizers, cotton, etc? Did he labor as meticulously with this data as he did with his agricultural products? Not really! A review of correspondence to and from Carver and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Weather Bureau reveal interesting facets of his personality and accomplishments during this period.

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