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This collection was rehoused under the sponsorship of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1992.
Size | 0.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 275 items) |
Abstract | George Washington Carver (1864?-1943), African-American scientist of the Experimental Station of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Insitute, was known for his work in agricultural experimentation, especially in investigations of uses of peanuts and sweet potatoes and extraction of dyes from soils and clays. He was also an accomplished painter and lectured extensively in behalf of agricultural improvements and interracial cooperation. Wilson L. Newman first met Carver when Newman was a student at Vanderbilt University and chair of the Commission on Race of the Regional Council of the Student Y.M.C.A. Newman later taught in the Home-Study Department of the University of Chicago. Correspondence between George Washington Carver and Wilson L. Newman, beginning in 1926, when Newman asked Carver to tour Southern colleges in support of interracial communication. An instant rapport developed between the two men, who corresponded frequently until Carver's death in 1943. Letters, chiefly from Carver to Newman, are personal in nature, reflecting Newman's membership in Carver's "family," which was made up of young men who were expected to keep in touch with Carver by mail and to visit him periodically. Among these men were Howard Kester and Paul Newman Guthrie. Although most letters are filled with news of "family" members and with Carver's unbridled praise of Newman's mental and physical attributes, some letters address questions of race relations, Carver's work in agricultural experimentation, activities at Tuskegee, and the pleasures of music and painting that Carver and Newman shared. Also included are clippings, 1927-1943, chiefly 1943 obituaries and appreciations of Carver, but also earlier announcements of speeches and lay reviews of his work; six small landscapes and floral paintings, 1928-1932 and undated, apparently painted by Carver and sent to Newman as Christmas greetings; and miscellaneous printed materials relating to Carver, including a few brochures on agricultural topics and advertisements for books by him and for penol tonic, a "Tissue Builder and Germ Arrester" derived from peanuts and marketed by the Carver Penol Company. |
Creator | Newman, Wilson L. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
Processed by: Roslyn Holdzkom, February 1993
Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008
This collection was rehoused under the sponsorship of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1992.
Back to TopThe following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
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George Washington Carver (1864?-1943), African-American scientist of the Experimental Station of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Insitute, was known for his work in agricultural experimentation, especially in investigations of uses of peanuts and sweet potatoes and extraction of dyes from soils and clays. He was also an accomplished painter and lectured extensively in behalf of agricultural improvements and interracial cooperation. Wilson L. Newman first met Carver when Newman was a student at Vanderbilt University and chair of the Commission on Race of the Regional Council of the Student Y.M.C.A. Newman later taught in the Home-Study Department of the University of Chicago.
Back to TopCorrespondence between George Washington Carver and Wilson L. Newman, beginning in 1926, when Newman asked Carver to tour Southern colleges in support of interracial communication. An instant rapport developed between the two men, who corresponded frequently until Carver's death in 1943. Letters, chiefly from Carver to Newman, are personal in nature, reflecting Newman's membership in Carver's "family," which was made up of young men who were expected to keep in touch with Carver by mail and to visit him periodically. Among these men were Howard Kester and Paul Newman Guthrie. Although most letters are filled with news of "family" members and with Carver's unbridled praise of Newman's mental and physical attributes, some letters address questions of race relations, Carver's work in agricultural experimentation, activities at Tuskegee, and the pleasures of music and painting that Carver and Newman shared. Also included are clippings, 1927-1943, chiefly 1943 obituaries and appreciations of Carver, but also earlier announcements of speeches and lay reviews of his work; six small landscapes and floral paintings, 1928-1932 and undated, apparently painted by Carver and sent to Newman as Christmas greetings; and miscellaneous printed materials relating to Carver, including a few brochures on agricultural topics and advertisements for books by him and for penol tonic, a "Tissue Builder and Germ Arrester" derived from peanuts and marketed by the Carver Penol Company.
Back to TopArrangement: chronological.
Correspondence between George Washington Carver and Wilson L. Newman began with a letter from Newman to Carver, dated 5 April 1926. In this letter, Newman, then a senior at Vanderbilt University, wrote that he admired Carver, who had gained international recognition in agricultural experimentation as head of the Department of Research and Experiment at Tuskegee Institute, "...in spite of the fact that I am the grandson of slaveholders and that I have had--and I am afraid still have--a great deal of prejudice toward the Negro." He explained that in the South, "There are a number of us who want more light on the problems of interracial cooperation," and asked if Carver would consider undertaking a lecture tour of Southern colleges. Newman said that he was making a two-fold plea, "...as an ordinary chemistry-hating college student who is interested in the racial situation and as chairman of the Commission on Race of the white Regional Council of the Student Y.M.C.A."
Carver's reply of 14 April 1926 indicates that, although already heavily booked, he was interested in the project. More important, however, Carver expressed his feeling of instant rapport with Newman: "I certainly would appreciate a talk with you and especially along the lines of chemistry, as I thoroughly believe that you belong to that rare group of individuals who dare to think independently."
By 15 May 1926, Carver had decided to make a Southern college tour in the fall, and his letters to Newman had taken on a very personal flavor. On 17 May 1926, for example, Carver wrote: "God is in your chemistry. You do not know it. ... God has a definite plan in the making." Newman, perhaps surprised by the intensity of this relationship wrote, on 19 May 1926, "I am still marveling now that a few punches on a little Corona would convey so much of human feeling," to which Carver responded on 21 May 1926, "Sir, I appreciate your letter because you have expressed yourself to me with a freedom not accorded to the average stranger."
By late June 1926, Carver addressed Newman as "My dear friend Mr. Newman," a salutation he felt comfortable using: "I feel perfectly safe in addressing you thus because you love Jesus." By July, Carver called Newman "My very dear friend Mr. Newman," and, after their first meeting in August 1926, "My very, very dear boy Mr. Newman." By mid 1927, Newman was regularly addressed as "My dear, handsome boy."
In June 1926, Carver had explained that he was always interested in young men who were full of life, regardless of color. After their August meeting, Newman had joined Carver's "family," which seems to have been made up chiefly of young men who were expected to keep in touch with Carver by mail and to visit him periodically. Among these men were Howard Kester and Paul Newman Guthrie, both of whom were included by Carver in a subset of the family called the Blue Ridge Boys. Many of Carver's letters to Newman deal exclusively with "family" doings, chiefly who wrote or visited Carver and who did not. In a great many letters, Newman was chastised by Carver for not writing and threatened with demotion from "adopted" status within the family to that of "a red-haired step child."
Because of the flattery that fills most of the letters from Carver to Newman and because few of the letters from Newman to Carver are preserved here, it is difficult to track the activities of the two men through their correspondence. A brief synopsis of subjects addressed in the letters appears below.