This kind of ambient cultural presence is extraordinarily difficult to build for overlooked historical figures, because it requires the same kinds of institutional and cultural investment that were denied to those figures during their lifetimes.

Mary Kenner does not have a monument on the National Mall.

She does not have a building named for her in the Patent Office.

Her name does not appear in the general cultural circulation of references and allusions in the way that Edison’s does.

The work of sustaining her recognition is ongoing and requires continued active effort.

Articles like this one are part of that effort.

But the effort is never finished, and the fragility of recognition is itself one of the challenges that the recovery of overlooked histories must address.