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Anna M. Mangin

Biography: It is believed that Anna M. Mangin was born in October of 1854 in the state of Louisiana. There was no definitive date of death for her. She was married to A.F. Mangin, a coal dealer. She was mother of two sons, one of which was named Andrew, and the other was said to not be living, at least during the 1900-time frame. There was no further information on him or his death.

Major contributions: Anna M. Mangin made major contributions to everyday domesticated household needs early on in the 19th century. Her invention was the pastry fork. Mangin got the patent for the pastry fork on March 1, 1892, in Queens, New York. The pastry fork is an attachment that electrically mixes without the need for arm work. This tool had many uses, including beating eggs, thickening foods, making drawn butter, mashing potatoes, making salad dressings, and most importantly kneading pastry dough. This improved the life of many women, and eventually lead to more electric mixing inventions that we use to this day. Kneading pastry dough by hand is a grueling process that can cause arm cramping and often the dough does not get fully incorporated. If the dough does not fully incorporate then it will not ruse, resulting in a dense, and in most cases, underbanked consistency. In addition to her invention being helpful for cooking and baking, the fact that she got a patent so early was helpful for women getting their foot in the door with inventing. In 1892, women still did not have a lot of rights. She was one of the women on the frontier of getting patents. To add another layer of depth to her contributions, she was a women of color, so getting a patent was that much rarer and made it even more special.

Education, Career and work: Anna Mangin’s pastry fork was on display at the Chicago World’s Fair. She participated in the fair as part of the African American exhibit. Her exhibit was in the Women’s exhibit building on the second floor. She had a corner area to showcase the invention. Before the patent and world’s fair involvement, there is not much information on Anna M. Mangin. There was no information provided on her education, but it was noted however, in a 1900 census that her and her entire family could read, so they were obviously educated to an extent. As far as her career goes, there was no information on any other products that she produced. There is the possibility that she invented other and they were not as popular, but also she might not have invented anything else at all.

Citations:

Carter Sluby, P. (n.d.). The Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity. Greenwood Publishing Group.

US470005A - Pastry-fork. (n.d.). Retrieved March 23, 2018, from https://patents.google.com/patent/US470005

Anna M. Mangin Archives. (n.d.). Retrieved March 23, 2018, from https://blackthen.com/tag/anna-m-mangin/