Alice Parker, who received a patent in 1919 for a central heating system based on natural gas, is another example.

Parker’s system — which used individual room burners connected to a central heating unit, prefiguring the room-controlled central heating systems that became standard in American homes — was ahead of its time in ways that limited its immediate commercial impact, but the concept was fundamentally sound and has been cited as an influence on the development of modern central heating.

These women were contemporaries of Mary Kenner in the broad sense, working in the same country under the same general system of racial and gender discrimination, achieving remarkable things and being largely overlooked by the historical record that was being constructed around them.

Understanding Kenner’s story in this context is important because it guards against the temptation to treat her as an isolated exception.