Apr
15

The Many Inventions of Beatrice Kenner

Some individuals have a gift for visualizing solutions to life’s challenges. For Mary Beatrice Kenner (who went by Beatrice), innovative thinking came naturally.

An accident that nearly killed her when she was five years old scarred her face for life, but it also gave her a determination to create solutions wherever she saw obstacles. This drive and ingenuity made her one of the most prolific African American inventors of the mid-20th century. Over her lifetime, she dreamt up perhaps 100 or more inventions, created 30 models, and held five patents.

Beatrice Kenner photo with quote
Photograph of Beatrice Kenner as a young woman, date unknown. Photo courtesy of Patricia Carter Sluby. The image widely identified as Beatrice Kenner online is likely a photograph of her sister, Mildred Davidson Austin Smith.

Her most notable invention paved the way for twentieth century women to have more freedom and flexibility in public life. But for her efforts, Kenner received little recognition… and zero profit. This time on Sidedoor, we explore what might be Beatrice Kenner’s greatest invention of all: An innovation for periods in a period of innovation. 

Guests

  • Ashleigh Coren, Acting Head of Education for the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative, and Women’s History Content and Interpretation Curator at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery
  • Dr. Patricia Carter Sluby, former primary patent examiner for the US Patent and Trademark Office, past president of the National Intellectual Property Law Association, and author of three books on African American inventors including The Genius of Afro-Americans and Women in the United States and Their Patents, The Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity, and The Entrepreneurial Spirit of African American Inventors
  • Rachel Anderson, Collections Manager and Researcher for the Division of Medicine and Science at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History
  • Adam Bisno, official historian of the US Patent and Trademark Office
Ashleigh Coren and Patricia Sluby
Ashleigh Coren and Patricia Carter Sluby at Sluby’s home, looking at Beatrice Kenner’s model for a backwasher, patented in 1983, and “Family Treedition,” a board game trademarked by Kenner’s sister Mildred Davidson Austin Smith in 1980. Photos by James Morrison.

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Links & Fun Stuff

Vintage menstrual products and pacaging
Options for managing menstruation in the early twentieth century included pinned napkins filled with cotton or absorbent alternatives, such as these 1919 “Sphag-na-kins” made with sphagnum moss, and protective garments like the sanitary apron advertised on this 1906 packaging. Photos courtesy of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
Patent drawings for sanitary napkin belt
Drawings from Beatrice Kenner’s original 1956 sanitary belt patent and her 1959 patent for a sanitary belt with moisture proof napkin pocket. Images courtesy of the Unites States Patent Office.

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Posted: 15 April 2022
About the Author:

Alex di Giovanni is primarily responsible for "other duties as assigned" in the Office of Communications and External Affairs. She has been with the Smithsonian since 2006 and plans to be interred in the Smithson crypt.