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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that weaves the threads of history every day of

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Speaker 1: the week. I'm Gabe Lucier and today we're taking our

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Speaker 1: hats off to Mary Keese, an important figure in women's

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Speaker 1: history and in the development of US manufacturing. The day

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Speaker 1: was May fifth, eighteen oh nine. Mary Keith became the

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Speaker 1: first woman in the United States to receive a patent

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Speaker 1: in her own name. Although the specifics of her invention

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Speaker 1: are now lost to time, we know her patent was

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Speaker 1: for a new means of weaving straw with silk and

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Speaker 1: other fabrics used in hat making. Straw hats and bonnets

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Speaker 1: were in high demand at the turn of the nineteenth century,

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Speaker 1: as many women of the era spent long hours in

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Speaker 1: their fields and gardens and wanted an inexpensive yet fashionable

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Speaker 1: way to shield themselves from the sun. The only problem

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Speaker 1: was that a European embargo had halted the import of

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Speaker 1: woven hats from Britain and France. That meant the women

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Speaker 1: of New England would have to make their own, a

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Speaker 1: prospect that seemed much less daunting thanks to Keith's patented invention.

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Speaker 1: It was quickly adopted by the region's hat makers, and

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Speaker 1: in the years ahead it fueled the growth of a

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Speaker 1: new women led industry. Beyond her patent, little is known

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Speaker 1: about the life of Mary Keith. She was born in

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Speaker 1: South Killingly, Connecticut, in seventeen fifty two, was later married

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Speaker 1: and widowed twice over, and gave birth to two sons

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Speaker 1: in between, Isaac and Daniel. One of the few other

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Speaker 1: things we can say for certain about Mary Keith is

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Speaker 1: that she had good By eighteen oh seven, the United

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Speaker 1: States was finding it harder and harder to maintain diplomatic

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Speaker 1: neutrality during the Napoleonic Wars between France and Britain. The

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Speaker 1: warring nations had both imposed trade restrictions in an effort

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Speaker 1: to weaken each other's economies, but those measures wound up

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Speaker 1: disrupting American trade as well. Then Britain added insult to

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Speaker 1: injury by frequently harassing American ships, seizing their cargo, and

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Speaker 1: even impressing their crews into British service. Fed up, at last,

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Speaker 1: President Thomas Jefferson fought back by signing the Embargo of

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Speaker 1: eighteen oh seven, which prohibited the import of all foreign goods.

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Speaker 1: The trade freeze was meant to hurt the bottom line

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Speaker 1: of Britain and France and compel them to treat the

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Speaker 1: US more favorably, but in practice the embargo did far

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Speaker 1: more damage to the American economy. No one wanted to

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Speaker 1: buy goods from a country that had banned all imports,

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Speaker 1: and as a result, USA exports plunged from an estimated

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Speaker 1: one hundred and eight million dollars in eighteen oh seven

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Speaker 1: to just twenty two million dollars the following year. The

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Speaker 1: one silver lining to the ban was that had greatly

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Speaker 1: increased demand for domestic goods, including locally produced ones like

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Speaker 1: straw hats. In New England, straw hat making had first

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Speaker 1: caught on about twenty years before Mary Keith obtained her patent.

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Speaker 1: It all started in seventeen eighty nine when a twelve

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Speaker 1: year old girl named Betsy Metcalf spotted a fancy straw

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Speaker 1: hat and a store window in Providence, Rhode Island. She

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Speaker 1: knew her family couldn't afford such a fine hat, so

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Speaker 1: she went home and after some trial and error, she

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Speaker 1: came up with a novel technique to make her own.

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Speaker 1: Metcalf shared her idea with the women in her rural community,

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Speaker 1: and pretty soon a literal cottage industry sprang up. Women

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Speaker 1: throughout New England began braiding straw and constructing hats in

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Speaker 1: their homes, and then sold their wares at kraft and

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Speaker 1: local shops. The Patent Act of seventeen ninety allowed any

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Speaker 1: US citizen, regardless of gender, to claim the sole and

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Speaker 1: exclusive right to make and market an invention. That shakeup

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Speaker 1: meant that Betsy Metcalf was free to patent her innovative

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Speaker 1: straw braiding process and turned it into a business, except

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Speaker 1: she never did. When later asked why, Metcalf said she

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Speaker 1: didn't want her name to be sent to Congress, and

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Speaker 1: I guess she didn't trust what they might do with it.

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Speaker 1: But that said, it's worth remembering that in many states

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Speaker 1: at the time, women couldn't legally own property nor enter

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Speaker 1: into contracts independently of their husbands or another male family member.

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Speaker 1: So even if the government did grant a patent to

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Speaker 1: a woman in most parts of the country, the rights

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Speaker 1: to the invention still wouldn't have technically belonged to her,

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Speaker 1: and because of that, many women inventors likely didn't see

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Speaker 1: the point in seeking a patent, but Mary Keise proved

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Speaker 1: the exception when she came up with her own improvement

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Speaker 1: to hat making. She applied for and was granted the

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Speaker 1: first patent ever awarded to a woman. It was issued

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Speaker 1: on May fifth, eighteen o nine, and was signed by

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Speaker 1: President James Madison, who had become president earlier that year. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: no one sure what exactly Keith invented, as her patent

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Speaker 1: was destroyed along with about ten thousand others when the

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Speaker 1: US Patent Office caught fire in eighteen thirty six. We

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Speaker 1: know her patent described the invention as a quote new

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Speaker 1: and useful improvement in weaving straw with silk or thread,

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Speaker 1: but without further details or in accompanying illustration that could

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Speaker 1: be interpreted as just about anything. For example, some historians

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Speaker 1: think Keith invented a machine that automated the manual labor

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Speaker 1: of weaving straw with silk, while others believe she invented

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Speaker 1: a new weaving method which somehow improved on existing manual techniques.

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Speaker 1: Whatever the case may be, there's no question about the

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Speaker 1: patents in ports Horton's not only to women's standing in society,

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Speaker 1: but to the young country's financial standing as well. New

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Speaker 1: England's economy in particular, had been crippled by Jefferson's embargo

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Speaker 1: on European goods, and while the region's domestic straw hat

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Speaker 1: industry was still growing, it wasn't doing enough volume to

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Speaker 1: offset the losses of other industries. However, once Keith's invention

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Speaker 1: went public, straw hat making became a serious money maker.

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Speaker 1: In fact, the straw bonnets manufactured in Massachusetts alone in

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Speaker 1: eighteen ten carried a value of more than five hundred

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Speaker 1: thousand dollars, the equivalent of over twelve million dollars in

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Speaker 1: today's money. It was such a welcome jolt to New

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Speaker 1: England's economy that First Lady Dolly Madison, a straw hat

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Speaker 1: fan herself, actually wrote a letter to Keith congratulating her

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Speaker 1: on her invention and thanking her for her contribution to

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Speaker 1: American industry. The straw fabrics and styles made possible by

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Speaker 1: Mary Kees Were were widely used for more than a decade.

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Speaker 1: As a result, New England's hat industry became one of

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Speaker 1: the few industries that continued to thrive during the War

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Speaker 1: of eighteen twelve. But, as you probably know, fashion trends

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Speaker 1: have a way of changing as time goes by, and

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Speaker 1: women's hats earn no exception. By the time of Keith's

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Speaker 1: death in eighteen thirty seven, a year after her patent

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Speaker 1: went up in smoke, tastes had already changed, and straw

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Speaker 1: hats and sunbonnets were no longer in demand. It was

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Speaker 1: a sad end for Mary keyes who died unknown and

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Speaker 1: penniless at the age of eighty five. But even though

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Speaker 1: her invention fell out of fashion, she had started a

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Speaker 1: movement that would continue to grow long after her death.

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Speaker 1: By eighteen forty, approximately nineteen women had followed her lead

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Speaker 1: by securing their own US patents. Most of those early

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Speaker 1: inventions were related to domestic housework, such as cooking utensils

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Speaker 1: and tools for mending clothing, but the number of applicants

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Speaker 1: and the variety of their submissions continued to steadily grow

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Speaker 1: from there. Today, hundreds of thousands of women apply for

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Speaker 1: patents every year for all sorts of things, and while

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Speaker 1: Mary Keith's patent accounted for just zero point five percent

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Speaker 1: of the patents issued in eighteen oh nine, solo women

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Speaker 1: inventors now account for about thirteen percent of the total

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Speaker 1: number of US patents issued each year. Mary Keith didn't

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Speaker 1: set out to revolutionize an industry, save an economy, or

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Speaker 1: advance women's role in society, but by taking the initiative

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Speaker 1: to follow through on a good idea, she wound up

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Speaker 1: doing just that. I'm Gabe Lucier and hopefully you now

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Speaker 1: know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.

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Speaker 1: You can learn even more about history by following us

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Speaker 1: on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI HC Show, and

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Speaker 1: if you have any comments or suggestions, you can always

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Speaker 1: send them my way by writing to this at iHeartMedia

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Speaker 1: dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays and Ben Hackett for

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Speaker 1: producing the show, and thanks to you for listening. I'll

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Speaker 1: see you back here again soon for another day in

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Speaker 1: history class.