Mary Florence Potts was an American businesswoman and inventor. She invented clothes irons with detachable wooden handles, and they were exhibited at the 1876 Philadelphia Exposition World's Fair and the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Her inventions were prominent throughout North America and the European continent in the 20th century and became the most popular heavy metal irons ever made.
Mary Florence Potts, ca. 1895
Potts 1872 patent of clothes iron mechanism
Conventional 19th century all-metal irons with Potts's detachable wood-handled ones. Trivet is under the iron with white handle.
Mrs Potts cold wooden handle sad iron kits manufactured 1876–1950 by American Machine
The Centennial International Exhibition, officially the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil and Mine, was held in Philadelphia from May 10 to November 10, 1876. It was the first official world's fair to be held in the United States, and coincided with the centennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence's adoption in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776.
An illustration of opening day ceremonies at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia on May 10, 1876
The Great Sanitary Fair in 1864 was the model for the Centennial Exposition; it raised $1,046,859 for medicine and bandages during the American Civil War.
Joseph Roswell Hawley, president of the U.S. Centennial Commission
A stock certificate for five $10 shares issued by the Centennial Board of Finance
