Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner

Inventor and visionary Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner was the woman who invented the sanitary pad, which was first a sanitary belt, a precursor to the adhesive maxi pads.
Jane Crow’s White American racial discrimination prevented its adoption for thirty years.

It’s hard to imagine a world for women without sanitary pads and napkins. Today, grocery and drugstores keep them in stock. Her invention would have brought women into a comfort zone from using rags, sheep’s wool, and even grass to absorb menstrual blood.

In the 1920s however, Mary B. D. Kenner changed women's menstrual challenges forever.

Her invention would’ve revolutionized how women handled that time of month during the social changes of the "roaring twenties", but because of Jane Crow White American racism her invention did not get patented and popularized until more than three decades later in 1956. Companies became disinterested due to Kenner being a Black woman.

However, that did not stop Kenner who once said that her inventions were never about money, she just wanted to help make life easier for people.

She was born in 1912, in Monroe, North Carolina and credited her father, Sidney Nathaniel Davidson (June 1890-November 1958), with giving her a thirst for discovering things.

Her sister, Mildred Davidson Austin Smith (1916–1993), was also an inventor, and together they created several useful inventions to help people. Kenner’s innovative mindset can be credited to her family full of inventors.

Her father Sidney Nathaniel Davidson had invented the pants presser, which was later patented in 1914. Her sister, Mildred Davidson, broke into the board game industry creating “Family Treedition.” While her paternal grandfather, Robert Phromeberger invented the tricolor light signal for trains among his many creations.

From childhood to becoming an early adult, Kenner was consistently creating things. She created a sponge tip to adhere to umbrella’s to stop water from dripping on the floor, a portable ashtray for cigarettes and a convertible roof for cars that could protect all passengers from weather ailments, all before she entered college.

In 1931 she enrolled at Howard University to cultivate her creative mindset. Soon after, she was unable to afford tuition and ended up dropping out.

Nonetheless, Kenner holds the most patents for any African American woman in history. Between 1956 and 1987 she received five patents for her household and personal item creations. She also had invented a bathroom tissue holder and a back washer that mounted onto shower or bathtub walls, to help people clean parts of their back that were hard to reach.

Mary also patented the carrier attachment for an invalid walker in 1959, which included a hard-surfaced tray and a soft pocket for carrying items

Kenner’s sister Mildred loved music and became a professional singer. She married and had two sons, then fell seriously ill with multiple sclerosis.

Largely confined to her home in Washington, D.C., she had lots of time to think. She came up with a game to teach family relationships, for which she received a patent in 1980. She got a trademark on the game’s name, “Family Treeditions,” and copyrighted its written instructions.

Mainly designed for young people to help them understand their place in the extended family, the game became popular with adults. Early sales were strong, but Smith’s marketing and distribution methods did not make her rich. She did recover part of the money spent getting her product marketed. It was created in several languages, including Braille.

As she continued inventing helpful items, Mary also worked as a professional floral arranger and had her own business in the Washington DC area.

Mary was the more prolific inventor of the two sisters, as she eventually filed five patents in total, more than any other Black woman in history. The two sisters did not have any professional training, and they never became rich from their inventions. They made inventions ultimately to improve the quality of life for people.

The sisters were both born in the town of Monroe, N.C. Mary was born May 17, 1912, and died on January 13, 2006 in Sibley Memorial hospital in Washington, DC at the age of 94.
Mildred was born January 31, 1916, and died in 1993.