2018 Black History Month

Jan Ernst Matzeliger. (1852-1889)

Most people in the 19th-century couldn't afford shoes. Thanks to Jan Ernst Matzeliger, an immigrant from Dutch Guiana (now called Surinam). He worked as an apprentice in a Massachusetts shoe factory. Matzeliger invented an automated shoemaking machine. This machine attached a shoe’s upper part to its sole. After it was refined, it could make 700 pairs of shoes each day—a far cry from the 50 per day that workers used to sew by hand. Matzeliger's invention led to lower shoe prices.