Jan Ernst Matzeliger (September 15, 1852 – August 24, 1889) was an African-American inventor in the shoe industry.
Matzeliger was born in Paramaribo (then Dutch Guyana, now Suriname). His father was a Dutch engineer and his mother a black Surinamese slave. He had some interest in mechanics in his native country, but his efforts at inventing a shoe-lasting machine began in the United States after a life of working in a machinery shop. He settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at 19 after working as a sailor. By 1877, he spoke adequate English and had moved to Massachusetts.
After a while, he went to work in a shoe factory. At the time, no machine could attach the upper part of a shoe to the sole. This had to be done manually by a "hand laster"; a skilled one could produce 50 pairs in a ten-hour day.[1]
After five years of work, Matzeliger obtained a patent for his invention in 1883.[2] His machine could produce between 150 to 700 pairs of shoes a day, cutting shoe prices across the nation in half.[2] However, his early death in Lynn, Massachusetts from tuberculosis meant he never saw the full profit of his invention.
In recognition of his accomplishment, he was honored on a postage stamp on September 15, 1991.[3]