Inventor database
Verified
Sarah Boone
Dressmaker who redesigned the ironing board
At a glance
- Inventor
- Sarah Boone
- Life
- 1832–1904
- Birthplace
- Craven County, North Carolina
- Country
- United States
- Region
- United States
- Era
- 1800s
- Fields
- Everyday Life
- Evidence
- Verified
- Records
- 1 in this archive
What they did
Boone, born enslaved and later a dressmaker in New Haven, patented a narrow, curved, reversible board for pressing the sleeves and bodies of women's garments.
Historical context
Ironing was done on a plank laid across chairs — useless for fitted sleeves, which creased whichever way you turned them.
The legacy
The shape of every modern ironing board follows her reasoning about curved garment seams.
The evidence
US Patent 473,653 — Ironing board