NBIM Celebrates Black Innovators: The Kitchen Inventions That Shaped New Britain’s Industries
Connecticut boasts its fair share of inventors, but did you know that many of the products that were produced in New Britain’s factories were invented by Black Americans? These innovators may not have lived in Connecticut, but they still made an impact on New Britain’s industrial legacy. You may even have the modern versions of some of these things in your home! Black inventors have helped to shape our lives and our factories, and here are just a few examples of their contributions.
NBIM Celebrates Black Innovators: Bridgeport’s Lighting Visionary
Lewis Howard Latimer, born in Chelsea, Massachusetts in 1848, was the only black member of Thomas Edison’s research team. His work was crucial to the development of the lightbulb, and without it, we would not have modern lighting as we know it today. In his adulthood, Latimer lived in a section of Bridgeport’s South End known then as “Little Liberia” a neighborhood established in the early 19th century by free blacks.
NBIM Celebrates Black Innovators: The Black Dressmaker who Transformed Ironing
Sarah (Marshall) Boone was born enslaved in New Bern, North Carolina in 1832. She married very young (only 14 or 15!) and moved to New Haven after her freedom was purchased, ostensibly by her new husband, a freedman. They had eight children and had relocated to Connecticut by 1856, six years before the start of the Civil War.