Contrary to popular belief, George Washington Carver did not invent peanut butter. The earliest reference to peanut butter being made goes all the way back to around 1000 BC where the Ancient Incas were known to have made a paste out of peanuts. Since then, peanut butter has been "invented" numerous times by various individuals throughout history.

Although Carver didn't invent peanut butter, he did play a significant role in popularizing it and his 1880 "invention" of peanut butter preceded most of the other modern "inventors" of peanut butter. Carver was one of the greatest inventors in American history, discovering over 300 hundred uses for peanuts with100 or so of those not being related to one another in terms of the end product produced; he also discovered hundreds of uses for soybeans, pecans, and sweet potatoes.

Among the various products he created from peanuts, pecans, soybeans, sweet potatoes, and a few other types of plants were: Antiseptic soaps, Face bleach and tanning lotions, Various other cosmetic products such as face powders and creams, Shaving cream, Shampoo, Dyes, Paints, Wood stains, Chicken food specialized to increase egg production in hens, Milk substitute from soybeans and peanuts, Emulsion for Bronchitis, Laxatives, Goiter treatments, Axle grease, Charcoal from peanut shells, Diesel fuel, Gasoline fuel, Lamp oil, Insecticide, Linoleum, Lubricating oil, Nitroglycerin, Colored paper, Printer's ink, Plastics from soybeans, Synthetic Rubber, Laundry soap, Synthetic marble, and Paving blocks from cotton.