Baker, Henry E.

Impact on the world

His decades of research and correspondence with thousands of patent attorneys uncovered over 1,200 African-American inventors, becoming the foundational historical record that scholars and institutions still rely on today.

Life & background

A patent examiner at the U.S. Patent Office and graduate of Howard University School of Law, Baker spent decades compiling the first systematic list of African-American patent holders, sending thousands of letters to patent attorneys and community leaders nationwide. His list, eventually published as 'The Colored Inventor: A Record of 50 Years' in 1913, became the historical foundation for understanding Black American contributions to invention, and was even used by W.E.B. Du Bois in an exhibit at the 1900 Paris Exposition.

Sources

1. U.S. patent record; Kentake Page; University of Maine Library Guide