Mary Dixon Kies

Summary

Mary Dixon Kies (March 21, 1752 – 1837) of Killingly, Connecticut was granted a patent on May 5, 1809 for a method of weaving straw with silk or thread for hat-making — often credited as the first US patent applied for and received by a woman in her own name; the earliest record is historically ambiguous. Hannah Slater's 1793 patent, issued as “Mrs. Samuel Slater,” is the reason that “first” must be qualified. No patent number is citable: the original record burned in the December 1836 Patent Office fire and survives only as an X-patent reference. She was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006.

Focus areas: Patents · Women inventors · Connecticut

At a glance

Field

Patents · Women inventors

Location

Killingly, Connecticut

About the patent number and the “first” claim

Sources sometimes quote a patent number for Kies's 1809 patent. None is citable: the original record burned in the December 1836 Patent Office fire and survives only as an X-patent reference. The “first woman patentee” credit is itself historically ambiguous: Hannah Slater's 1793 patent was issued as “Mrs. Samuel Slater,” and a cheese-press patent of December 28, 1808 is recorded to “Hazen Irwin” of Boston — five months before Kies — with the surviving ledger unable to confirm that inventor's identity or gender.

References · in priority order

1. National Inventors Hall of Famewww.invent.org/inductees/mary-dixon-kies
2. ConnecticutHistory.org on the 1809 patentconnecticuthistory.org/first-woman-to-receive-u…

Sources

• Of Killingly, Connecticut; March 21, 1752 - 1837; NIHF inductee 2006Wikipedia
• Granted a patent May 5, 1809 for weaving straw with silk or thread (hat-making); the first woman to apply for and receive a US patent in her own nameNational Inventors Hall of Fame
• No patent number is citable: the original burned in the December 1836 Patent Office fire and survives only as an X-patent referenceConnecticutHistory.org
• Hannah Slater received a patent in 1793 issued as 'Mrs. Samuel Slater' — the reason Kies's 'first' must be qualified 'in her own name'Wikipedia
• A cheese-press patent of December 28, 1808 is recorded to 'Hazen Irwin' of Boston, five months before Kies's patent; the surviving record cannot confirm that inventor's identity or genderUSPTO — Progress and Potential (2019)