Lewis Latimer House Museum
Lewis Howard Latimer/Places lived

Flushing, New York, NY
Lewis Howard Latimer/Place of death

While he never attended college, Lewis Howard Latimer was very successful as both an inventor and a draftsman.

Lewis Harold Latimer, born in 1848, was determined to overcome his lack of formal education. He taught himself mechanical drawing while in the Union Navy, and became an expert draftsman. He worked with three of the greatest scientific inventors in American history, including Alexander Graham Bell, Hiram S.

Early Life and Family Latimer was the youngest of four children born to George and Rebecca Latimer, who had escaped from slavery in Virginia six years before his birth. He was eventually able to purchase his freedom, with the help of a local minister, and began raising a family with Rebecca in nearby Chelsea.

Lewis Howard Latimer (1848-1928) was an African-American inventor, electrical pioneer, and a son of fugitive slaves. With no access to formal education, Latimer taught himself mechanical drawing while in the Union Navy, and eventually became a chief draftsman, patent expert, and inventor.

Invention: Latimer worked with the famous inventor Hiram Maxim at the U.S. Electric Lighting Company. While working there in 1881, Latimer patented a carbon filament for the incandescent lightbulb. The invention helped make electric lighting practical and affordable for the average household.

Margaret Ann Latimer
George W. LatimerWilliam H. Latimer
Lewis Howard Latimer/Siblings

“Hope springs eternal in the human breast,” and is as necessary to life as the act of breathing.

Although Henry Blair is the first inventor to be identified as black by the U.S. Patent Office, he is not the first African American to be awarded a U.S. patent. Most historians agree that Thomas L. Jennings is the first African American patent holder in the United States.