Died in New York City on February 1, 1973, holding 49 patents and credited with approximately 110 inventions over her lifetime.
Beulah Louise Henry died on February 1, 1973, in New York City, bringing to a close a nearly six-decade career as one of America's most prolific and inventive minds. At the time of her death, she held 49 U.S. patents and was credited with approximately 110 inventions spanning household goods, office equipment, toys, textiles, and manufacturing processes.
Her death marked the end of an era for a woman who had defied the expectations placed on women in early twentieth-century America, building a career and financial independence through sheer inventive ingenuity rather than formal engineering credentials. She had continued working well into her later decades, consulting for companies such as Nicholas Machine Works, Mergenthaler Linotype, and the International Doll Company, and patenting new ideas — including a continuously-attached envelope design in 1952 and a can opener in 1956 — into her sixties and seventies.
Henry's legacy was formally recognized more than three decades after her death when she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2006, cementing her place among history's most significant inventors. Her life's body of work continues to be studied as an example of how women could — and did — achieve major technical and commercial success in invention long before it was common or widely encouraged, earning her the enduring nickname 'Lady Edison.'