niversity in 1879,
graduating in 1881, at the head of his class, and from the
post-graduate course in 1883.

He was married in May, 1893, at Lexington, Ky., to Miss
Violetta K. Clark, of Detroit, Mich., who graces a cozy home
at 2348 Sixth Street, N. W.

It is quite within the mark to say that no class of men of modern
times has made so distinct a contribution to what is popularly called
"modern civilization" as have the inventors of the world, and it is
equally within bounds to say that the American inventor has led all
the rest in the practical utility as well as in the scientific
perfection of his inventive skill. Within the century just past the
inventors of America have done more than was done in all the preceding
centuries to multiply the comforts and minimize the burdens of
domestic life. What Washington and Grant, Sherman and Sheridan did for
the glory of America was done, and more, by Whitney, Morse, Thompson,
Howe, Ericsson, Colt, Bell, Corliss, Edison, McCormick, and a host of
other Americans, native and naturalized, to promote the progress of
American inventive skill, and thus firmly to establish this country in
the front rank of the enlightened nations of the world.

The true measure of a nation's worth in the great family of nations is
proportionate to that nation's contribution to the welfare and
happiness of the whole; and similarly, an individual is measured by
the contribution he makes to the well being of the community in which
he lives. If inventions therefore have played the important part here
assigned to them in the gradual development of our complex national
life, it becomes important to know what contribution the American
Negro has made to the inventive skill of this country.

Unfortunately for the seeker after this particular information the
public records of the United States government offer practically no
assistance, since the public records distinguish only as to nations
and not as to races. The Englishman and the American may instantly
find out how each stands in the list of patentees, but the Irishman
and the Negro are kept in the dark--especially the latter.

The official records of the United States Patent Office, with a single
exception, give no hint whatever that of the thousands of mechanical
inventions for which patents are granted annually by the government,
any patent has ever been granted to a Negro. The single exception was
the name of Henry Blair