Early Ironing Boards

Since specialized ironing boards evolved gradually from more conventional boards, tables and other assorted flat surfaces, it's impossible to associate a single person or a single time with the invention of the ironing board. Nevertheless, there are many efforts to attribute its invention to a former slave named Sarah Boone in 1892. Below, you can compare Boone's board with a more recognizably modern one that was patented two decades earlier.

This adjustable-height, collapsible model, patented in 1871, was one of the many ironing boards patented before Boone's.	Sarah Boone's ironing board, patented 1892. It was intended for sleeves, mostly.

The first U.S. patent designated as an "ironing table" was granted in 1858, although other unpatented forms already existed. By the early 1870s the United States was granting patents for ironing boards at a rate of about one per month. By the time Sarah Boone received her patent in 1892, the American men and women with patents on ironing boards numbered in the hundreds.

U.S. Patents for ironing boards/tables/stands, 1858-1873

Patent	Inventor	Invention name	Year
19,390	W Vandenburg, J Harvey	Ironing table	1858
19,883	W Vandenburg	Ironing table	1858
20,231	W Vandenburg	Ironing table	1858
24,929	JF Galley	Ironing table	1859
26,728	GF Zimmann	Ironing table	1860
35,735	J Johnson	Ironing table	1862
37,804	JP and ML Bever	Ironing stand	1863
57,170	SA Mort	Ironing board	1866
61,569	MD Safford	Ironing table	1867
64,170	B Van Gassbeek	Ironing table	1867
64,480	JN Brewster	Ironing board and closet	1867
70,146	AT Woolsey	Ironing table	1867
70,958	AA Chittenden	Ironing table	1867
72,228	WW Hull	Skirt ironing table	1867
75,120	BS Boydston	Ironing stand and clothes-drier	1868
76,098	H Park	Ironing table	1868
76,701	GI Birch	Ironing board	1868
78,642	MG Briggs	Folding or ironing table	1868
83,310	JT Piercy	Ironing table	1868
83,379	L Harrington	Ironing table	1868
83,460	PP Carroll	Ironing table	1868
84,549	OC Hotchkiss	Ironing table	1868
88,281	HT De Montigny	Ironing table	1869
89,162	JC Miller	Ironing board	1869
89,943	TM Richards	Ironing table	1869
90,966	H Soggs	Ironing table	1869
91,033	A Watson	Ironing board	1869
91,921	JL Devol	Ironing table and clothes-drier	1869
92,207	WP Patten	Ironing table	1869
94,572	DE Crosby	Ironing board	1869
96,384	CH Bennett, WH Daggett	Ironing board	1869
97,851	WP Adams	Ironing table and clothes drier	1869
99,219	S Merritt	Ironing table	1870
104,385	M White	Ironing table and bureau	1870
106,509	JH Ruff	Ironing table	1870
107,271	JF Martin, WA Schaffner	Ironing table	1870
107,469	J Fischer	Ironing board	1870
107,940	H Mcchesney	Ironing table	1870
109,712	JH Beidler	Ironing board	1870
109,918	JH Mallory	Ironing table	1870
110,410	M White	Ironing table bureau	1870
110,577	JJ Märki	Ironing table	1870
110,769	DW Marshall	Ironing table	1871
114,515	AG Beek	Ironing board	1871
116,277	JW Davis	Ironing and stretching board	1871
117,737	FA Byram	Ironing table	1871
118,643	T Reed	Ironing table	1871
118,878	P O'Thayne	Ironing table	1871
118,990	JN Valley	Ironing and kitchen table combined	1871
119,703	CC Hardy	Ironing table	1871
120,030	BD Brown, D Moyer	Ironing board	1871
120,101	T Reed	Ironing table	1871
120,296	JH Mallory	Ironing table	1871
122,554	P Bostrom	Ironing table	1872
124,275	GM Lane	Ironing board	1872
126,016	JR Carzier	Ironing table	1872
127,792	JT Plowman, Sr	Ironing table	1872
128,569	LS Vallett	Ironing board	1872
128,709	JM Childers	Ironing board	1872
129,042	F Liller	Ironing table	1872
130,749	AS Robinson, RA Harris	Ironing table and skirt board, combined	1872
131,876	H Hamill	Ironing board	1872
133,122	B Schoonmaker	Ironing table	1872
133,304	JM Couthamal	Ironing table	1872
135,303	A Wechsler	Ironing table	1873
136,056	JR Groves	Ironing table	1873
136,390	HE Smith	Ironing table, lap board, and step ladder, combined	1873
137,602	W Edwards	Ironing table, folding	1873
138,331	RN Herring	Ironing board	1873
140,356	J Frankenfield, WE Kichline	Ironing table	1873
140,758	E Bassett	Ironing board	1873
141,639	JH Frank	Ironing table	1873
142,645	AJ Palmberg	Ironing table	1873
143,071	WB Grosh, SH Foreman	Ironing table	1873
143,977	J Good	Kitchen and ironing table, combined	1873
144,418	WH Sparks	Ironing table	1873
144,869	L Scofield	Ironing table	1873
145,162	ES Farson	Ironing table	1873
145,614	C Blom, Jr	Ironing table	1873

The list keeps going. Needless to say, there are a lot more boards to go before we get to Sarah Boone's patent number 473,653.