This movement was motivated by the same argument that underlies any recovery of suppressed history: the argument that an accurate historical record is better than an inaccurate one, and that a historical record that systematically excludes the achievements of specific groups is both wrong and harmful.

The recovery work was done by historians, educators, museum curators, documentary filmmakers, and journalists who were collectively asking the question: who else was there?

Who else was inventing, achieving, contributing — and being ignored?

Mary Kenner appeared on this list.

She was not difficult to find once someone was looking: her five patents were a matter of public record, accessible to anyone who searched the patent database.

The challenge was not finding the patents but constructing the fuller story of the person behind them — learning about her life, her family, her challenges, her flower shop, the eighteen-year rejection, the eventual recognition.