Sarah Boone
An American inventor - from enslavement to inventor, wife and mother.
The Lady
Born enslaved as Sarah Marshall in Craven County, North Carolina, near the town of New Bern, in 1832, Sarah Boone is known for receiving United States patent number 473,563 for her improvements to the ironing board in 1892 becoming one of the first black American woman to attain a U.S. Patent.
Growing up enslaved, Sarah and her three siblings were denied a formal education, yet her grandfather persevered and took it upon himself to educate her at home. Sarah would gain her freedom after she married James Boone - a free black man in New Bern, in 1847. The couple eventually moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where they raised eight children by the mid-1850s. Sarah worked as a dressmaker and attended the Dixwell Avenue Congregational Church, while her husband worked as a bricklayer until he died in the 1870s.
While working with custom-fitted dresses made for corsets, Sarah realized the difficulty of ironing these 19th-century garments to eliminate wrinkles on both sides. Sarah's improvement on the ironing board was designed to improve the quality of ironing the sleeves and bodies of women's garments. The ironing board was very narrow, curved, and made of wood. The shape and structure allowed it to fit a sleeve, which was reversible so that one could iron both sides of the sleeve.
Sarah wanted to " produce a cheap, simple, convenient and highly effective device, particularly adapted to be used in ironing the sleeves and bodies of lady's garments." The U.S. Patent Office granted her patent #473,653 in 1892, making her one of the first black American woman inventors of her era. The Patent was explicitly for her improvement of a narrow reversible board with curved edges and movable support to press the inside and outside seams of women's dress sleeves and waist seams that made ironing easier. In addition, men's coat sleeves could also be pressed with a modification to the curved edges.
Quick Facts
Received United States patent #473,563 for her improvements to the ironing board in 1892.
One of the first black American woman inventors of her era.
Sources
Patent US473653 - IRONING-BOARD - Google Patents"16 Mar 1860, Page 2 – The Liberator at". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2022-06-05.
"1900 U. S. Census City of New Haven, Connecticut". FamilySearch. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. 11 June 1900. p. 13-A. NARA record series T623 roll 146. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
"1870 U. S. Federal Census for the First Ward of the City of New Haven, New Haven County, Connecticut, Line 34". FamilySearch. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. 9 July 1870. p. 175. NARA record series M593, Roll 109. Retrieved 7 February 2018.