The Forgotten Inventor, "Lady Edison"

Beulah Louise Henry was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, on September 28, 1887, to an artistic family. Beulah’s father was an attorney but also an authority on art. Her mother was an artist. She was the granddaughter of North Carolina Governor William Woods Holden and a direct descendant of President Benjamin Harrison on her mother’s side, and of founding father Patrick Henry on her father’s side. When she was just a small girl, her favorite hobby was studying how to improve innovations and create more practical objects. She was always tinkering with things! 

Beulah attended Presbyterian College for Women and Elizabeth College in Charlotte from 1909 to 1912. However, she never had a degree in engineering, but she always said it made her more creative when it came to finding solutions. Beulah’s passion became inventions that improved the lives of women. By the 1930s, she had the nickname “Lady Edison.” This brilliant, self taught woman achieved enormous fame as an inventor in a male-dominated profession.

When Beulah was in her mid 20s, she applied for a patent for a vacuum ice cream freezer, which was a device that would make ice cream without all the cranking required of existing manual ice cream makers. She applied for two other patents the following year; one for a handbag and the other for an umbrella featuring a snap on cloth cover, allowing the device to be coordinated with the users’ clothing. 

The Henry family moved to New York City in 1919 to support Beulah’s marketing prospects. Selling her umbrella idea to manufacturers proved challenging. They sent her away, saying it could not be done. To that, Beulah responded by making her own prototype and opened her own business, the Henry Umbrella and Parasol Company. Her umbrellas had a large market in New York, and Scientific American featured her as an “outstanding inventor.”

By 1924, Beulah sold the rights to her umbrella cover invention for $50,000 (approximately $630.000 today). This enabled her to set up her own laboratory. She hired mechanics, model makers and drafting technicians who turned her rough ideas into prototypes. Beulah had one successful invention after another and this self taught woman gained a reputation as one of the most prolific inventors of the time.

During the 1920s, Beulah received patents for the spring limbed doll, and eyes on a doll that opened and closed, a valve for inflatable articles, and the Dolly Dips, sponges that had soap in the middle. (She also designed the machine that produced the sponges). She also has patents for The Kiddie Clock (used to help children learn to tell time). This was at a time in history where only 2% of patents granted were to women. Beulah Henry is one of the few women in the early 1900s who could make a living as an inventor.

In the 1930s and 1940s, Beulah made improvements to sewing machines (a bobbin less machine that made a double stitch) and typewriters (a feeding and aligning device, as well as an attachment for duplication), several children’s toys. Among other inventions and patents, she also created continuously attached envelopes for mass mailing and direct return mailing envelopes, a can opener, and a hair curler. She created over 100 valuable household and office items—and held 49 patents.

In her spare time, Beulah enjoyed painting, writing, and caring for animals. She was an active member of the Audubon Society, the League for Animals, and other institutions. 

The National Inventors Hall of Fame posthumously inducted Beulah Louise Henry in 2006. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office said: “Her technologies were complex and ingenious, yet easy to manufacture and use. Her typewriters, toys, sewing machines and women’s apparel made Henry a famous and beloved figure nationwide.” 

Her legacy lives on in the many inventions and improvements to existing products she made throughout her lifetime.