The contributions of Black inventors, women inventors, inventors from working-class backgrounds, inventors who worked independently without institutional support: all of these are part of the actual history of American invention.

The recovery of these contributions is not a matter of affirmative action for historical figures — it is a matter of accuracy.

The history as it has been told is wrong, because it is incomplete.

The more complete version is more accurate and more useful, both as history and as the foundation for understanding what American inventive culture is and can be.

Mary Kenner is one figure in this larger story.