The research library
History
The documented record: a timeline from Herodotus to the bans of the twentieth century, the 1942 film the United States made to get hemp grown again, and what the American founders actually wrote about the crop.
Hemp's Timeline, Fact by Fact
c. 5th century BCE
Herodotus records the Scythians
The Greek historian describes nomadic Scythians burning cannabis seeds and flowers inside tents during purification rituals — among the earliest written records of the plant's psychoactive use.
August 7, 1765
Washington's diary entry
"Began to separate the Male from the Female hemp… rather too late." Washington grew hemp at Mount Vernon for decades, mainly for fiber.
1905
Catalogued as a major fiber crop
The New International Encyclopædia groups hemp with jute, flax, and manila as one of the world's major commercial fiber plants.
1941
Henry Ford's "plastic car"
Ford unveils a car with plastic body panels popularly linked to hemp, though historians dispute the exact plant-fiber formula used.
1942
"Hemp for Victory"
The USDA produces a film urging farmers to grow hemp for wartime rope and cordage. The US government denied its existence for decades until a copy surfaced in 1990.
1964
THC is isolated
Raphael Mechoulam's team at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is first to isolate and characterize THC, laying the foundation for modern cannabinoid science.
1980
A forgotten breakthrough
Brazilian researchers, working with Mechoulam's group, find CBD sharply reduces seizures in a controlled epilepsy trial — a result the scientific community would largely overlook for the next 40 years.
2007
Israel's medical cannabis program begins
Israel's Ministry of Health launches a licensed medical cannabis program; licensed patients grow from roughly 33,000 to about 140,000 within a decade.
June 2018
Epidiolex approved
The FDA approves the first drug derived directly from cannabis, for two severe childhood epilepsy conditions.
2025
US hemp market hits $739M
USDA reports the value of US hemp production grew 64% year over year, per the National Hemp Report.
Nov 13, 2026
A federal ban looms
A provision is scheduled to redefine "hemp" under US law, banning most consumable cannabinoid products — unless Congress acts first. See Policy Watch below.
Hemp for Victory (1942)
Produced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture during World War II, this short film encouraged American farmers to grow hemp for military rope and cordage after overseas fiber imports were cut off. Kentucky farmer Joe "Daddy Burt" Burton was among those the USDA War Board recognized for his hemp harvest that year — his family's farming legacy is documented on Wikipedia's history of hemp. For decades the U.S. government denied the film existed; a copy was recovered from the National Archives in 1990. It is in the public domain.
Source: United States Department of Agriculture, 1942. Public domain. Also archived at the Internet Archive.
Washington, Jefferson, and the Hemp Crop
"Began to separate the Male from the Female hemp… rather too late."
— George Washington's farm diary, Mount Vernon, August 7, 1765
"George Washington as Farmer at Mount Vernon" by Junius Brutus Stearns (c. 1851). The scene depicts a wheat harvest, not hemp specifically — but captures the working farm life at Mount Vernon where Washington also grew hemp for decades. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
George Washington grew hemp at Mount Vernon for decades, primarily for its fiber — used in rope, canvas, and fishing nets. His diaries mention hemp no fewer than 90 times across his lifetime, including instructions on retting the stalks in the river days after this entry.
Thomas Jefferson grew hemp at Monticello too, valuing it as a reliable cash crop, and even designed an improved hemp brake for separating fiber from stalks — an invention he deliberately declined to patent. A popular legend claims Jefferson wrote admiringly about "smoking hemp" on his veranda; Monticello's own research staff have investigated this quote and found no evidence it is genuine.
Sources: Mount Vernon — "George Washington Grew Hemp" · Monticello — fact-check on the "smoking hemp" quote