More about women and patents

Sybilla Righton Masters was the first American, male or female, to receive a patent (1715) for a new method of milling corn. However, under British law, married women could not receive a patent in their own names. 

Sarah E. Goode is credited as the first African American woman to receive a U.S. patent. See her 1885 patent for a folding bed  transforms into a roll-top desk with compartments for writing supplies.

In 1872, the Patent Office hired Anne Freeman as its first female patent examiner.

To read more visit  Inventive Women: American Women in Innovation and Invention.

Did you know?

Dorothy Crocket was the first African-American woman admitted to the Rhode Island bar, in 1932.