[Women’s History Month] Meet Anna Mangin, inventor of the pastry fork

March is the Women’s History Month celebrated globally to highlight the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society. The month corresponds with the International Women’s Day which is marked globally on March 8.

As part of Face2Face Africa’s commitment to informing and connecting black people around the world, we have resolved to devote each day of the month of March to celebrate black women inventors and to highlight their inventions.

Love baking? Use the pastry folk? Thank Anna M. Mangin. The young African American woman was awarded a patent on March 1, 1892, for a pastry fork mixing pastry dough.

The utensil makes it easy to mix dough for pie crusts, cookies, butter and flour pastries without needing to physically manipulate the ingredients with one’s hands. The fork is used to beat eggs, mash potatoes, and prepare salad dressings.

Although there is no information on Mangin’s background and history, her patent application filed on July 7, 1891, gives us an idea of her voice. A portion of her application is below:

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ANNA M. MANGIN, of Woodside, in the county of Queens and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Pastry-Forks; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use it, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form part of this specification.

My invention relates to an improvement in pastry-forks.

The object of my invention is to provide-a fork or implement for working together butter or lard and flour without the operator having to touch these articles with the hands, and for making drawn butter and thickening, beating eggs, mashing potatoes, and preparing dressing for salads.