Washington, D. C., Jan. 26, 1900.

Dear Sir:

This Office is endeavoring to obtain information concerning
patents issued to colored inventors, in accordance with a
request from the United States Commission to the Paris
Exposition of 1900, to be used in preparing the "Negro
Exhibit."

To aid in this work, you are requested to send to this
Office, in the enclosed envelope, which will not require a
postage stamp, the names of any colored inventors you can
furnish, together with the date of grant, title of
invention, and patent number, so that a list without errors
can be prepared.

You will confer a special favor by aiding in the preparation
of this list by filling in the blank form below, and sending
in any replies as promptly as possible. Should you be unable
to furnish any data, will you kindly inform us of that fact?

Very respectfully,

C. H. Duell,
_Commissioner of Patents._

========================================================================
NAME. | NUMBER. | DATE. | INVENTION.
---------------+------------------+----------------+--------------------
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
---------------+------------------+----------------+--------------------

The replies to this letter showed that the correspondents personally
knew of and could identify by name, date and number more than four
hundred patents granted by the United States to colored inventors. The
letters also showed that nearly as many more colored inventors had
completed their inventions, and had applied to patent lawyers
throughout the country for assistance in obtaining patents for their
inventions, but finally abandoned the effort through lack of means to
prosecute their applications. The list of the patented inventions as
furnished mainly by the letters above named is printed below, and
shows that, beginning first with agricultural implements and culinary
utensils, which circumscribed the character of his earlier employment,
the Negro inventor gradually widened the field of his inventive effort
until he had w