How Sarah Boone Became The First Black Woman To Be Awarded A Patent For Creating The Modern-Day Ironing Board

Black women have made nothing out of something, and they became inventors out of necessity and ease of life. Sarah Boone was no different when she invented the modern ironing board.

Boone made a name for herself when she created the modern-day iron board, but she made history when she became one of the first Black women to be awarded a patent for her invention in 1892. According to the renowned dressmaker, the purpose of her creation was simple – Boone was looking for a cheap and simple device to be used to iron the sleeves and bodies of ladies’ garments.

Making a living as a dressmaker in Connecticut, Boone was looking for a way to stand out against the competition while also keeping her roster of customers up. She found the solution in the early 1890s when she discovered a way to iron corsets, which were all the rave in that era.

Before she developed a more narrow and curved version of the ironing board, which was padded to remove the number of impressions created by the wooden board, dressmakers used wooden planks placed over two chairs to iron their clothes. Boone’s invention not only provided something that worked better for smaller items, like women’s undergarments, but it was also collapsible, making it easy to store.

. As the daughter of enslaved Africans, Boone’s journey to freedom was reportedly made possible when she married a free African American, James Boone, in 1847. Together, they had eight children and remained married until James died in the mid-1870s. On October 29, 1904, Boone passed away from Bright’s disease, an older term for kidney disease. Her legacy lives on as her invention became the prototype for ironing boards that are manufactured and sold across the globe today.

Boone’s ironing board contribution makes our lives easier… Indeed.