Boone, Sarah (1830’s?-1904?) was an African American inventor who created a kind of ironing board. She was among the earliest African American women to receive a formal United States patent . At the time, women and African Americans were often discouraged or blocked from taking credit for their inventions. In 1891, Boone was living near New Haven , Connecticut, where she applied for a patent for a new kind of ironing board. She received the patent the next year.
The patent documentation is among the few surviving records of Boone’s life. Census records indicate that a woman named Sarah Boone (birth name, Sarah Marshall) was born in North Carolina in the early 1830’s and later moved to Connecticut. She may have been the same woman as the inventor. Boone probably died in 1904, in New Haven.
During the 1850’s, 1860’s, and 1870’s, dozens of American inventors won patents for ironing boards or “ironing tables.” Sarah Boone’s board was narrower than many others. The edges were shaped like an elbow, curving to fit a sleeve’s seams. Her board thus made it easier to iron the narrow sleeves and curved fronts of women’s blouses or men’s coats.
