The Little-Known Story Of Mary Kenner, The First Black American Woman To Earn Five Patents
Both of those facts are part of her story.
The Other Four Patents
Mary Kenner’s identity as an inventor is not defined by a single invention.
She held five patents in total, covering a range of different products and problems, and several of these represent genuine contributions to solving practical problems in people’s daily lives.
The sanitary belt patent — U.S.
Patent 2,717,599, granted in 1956 — was her most commercially significant and most discussed invention.
But it was not her only one.