The Movable School was an initiative of the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) to bring knowledge of modern agricultural tools and methods to rural Alabama in the form of a mobile school. It was founded by the agricultural researcher and head of the agricultural department at Tuskegee Institute, George Washington Carver. After Carver first visited rural people via horseback excursions, he realised that the school would have to come to them, as farmers were mostly tied to their work and thus to their land. This realisation led to the development of a carriage, later a lorry, loaded with numerous tools, seeds, demonstration plants as well as various materials and mules, which visited and taught the farmers directly. Teaching included modern ploughing practices, innovations in animal husbandry, plant varieties, fertilisers, cooking, canning, preservation, home care, health and hygiene. In 1920, a public health nurse was added to the team.
Goals
Goals
The aim of George Washington Carver's ventures was to impart knowledge of agricultural innovations and insights to Alabama's rural population.
Outcomes
Outcomes
A mobile school was able to teach and impart knowledge about modern agricultural tools and practices in rural areas where attending school was hardly feasible despite being offered.
Initiators
Initiator*innen
George Washington Carver
Responsible
Responsible
George Washington Carver, later Thomas Monroe Campbell
__ Felix James, The Tuskegee Institute Movable School, 1906-1923. In: Agricultural History, Vol. 45, No. 3 (Jul., 1971), pp. 201-209
Images
Bilder
George Washington Carver, standing in field, probably in Tuskegee, holding a piece of earth, Tuskegee Alabama, 1906. Photo: Frances Benjamin Johnston, photo retrieved from: Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/95507555/.
