Mary Brush

{{Short description|American engineer}}

{{for|the American aviator, artist, and camouflage developer|Mary Taylor Brush}}

Mary Brush (fl. 1815) of Davenport, Iowa,{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7922255//|title=Women Inventors|date=24 May 1908|work=The Times-Democrat|access-date=19 December 2016|via=Newspapers.com}} was an American inventor and one of the first American women to be granted a patent by the U.S. patent office.{{Cite web|url=http://4kyws.ua.edu/BRUSH.html|title=Brush, Mary|website=4000 Years of Women in Science|access-date=19 December 2016}} Her patent, granted on 21 July 1815, was for a corset.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7922204//|title=Her Inventive Genius|date=16 June 1895|work=Omaha Daily Bee|access-date=19 December 2016|via=Newspapers.com}} It improved on the design and was meant to "preserve the shape of the womanly figure."{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7923395//|title=Useful Inventions|date=11 August 1909|work=The Citizen|access-date=19 December 2016|via=Newspapers.com}} The Cincinnati Enquirer, in 1908, identified her as the second American woman to be granted a patent.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/7922238//|title=The First Patent|date=1 November 1908|work=The Cincinnati Enquirer|access-date=19 December 2016|via=Newspapers.com}}