By Amy Weiss

Feb 5 2019

George Washington Carver (1860s–1943) was an inventor, teacher, botanist, and mycologist (a person who studies fungi). While Carver is most remembered for his work with peanuts, he also collected thousands of plant and fungus specimens to diagnose the fungal pathogens that harm crops.

Carver collaborated with fellow mycologist Job Bicknell Ellis (1829–1905), sending many specimens to Ellis for additional study. Ellis’s herbarium of over 100,000 specimens is housed here at the New York Botanical Garden, including more than 100 fungal specimens collected by Carver.

The Carver specimen of fungi shown above was used by Ellis to describe a new species in 1902: Metasphaeria carveri. Ellis named the species in honor of George Washington Carver.