George Washington Carver Fungi Collection Found at the University of Wisconsin
Filed in African-American History on March 9, 2016
The Wisconsin State Herbarium at the University of Wisconsin-Madison holds the nation’s second largest collection of microfungi. The university archive holds about 120,000 specimens.
Recently researchers at the herbarium came across of 25 specimens of fungi that were collected by George Washington Carver more than a century ago. The specimens had been stored in old wooden cabinets in a hallway at the university for a half century before they were discovered.
Professor Carver was born into slavery. Educated at Iowa State University, he served on the faculty at what is now Tuskegee University in Alabama for 47 years.
