Mary Elizabeth Anderson (February 19, 1866 – June 27, 1953) was an American real estate developer, rancher, viticulturist, and inventor of the windshield wiper blade. In a visit to New York City in the winter of 1903, in a trolley car on a frosty day, Anderson observed that a trolley car driver struggled to see past the windows because of the falling sleet. When she returned to Alabama she hired a designer for a hand-operated device to keep a windshield clear and had a local company produce a working model. On November 10, 1903, Anderson was granted her first patent for an automatic car window cleaning device controlled from inside the car, called the windshield wiper.