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Marion O'Brien Donovan (October 15, 1917 – November 4, 1998) was an American inventor and entrepreneur. Recognized as one of the era's most prominent female inventors,[1] she secured a total of 20 patents for her creations. In 1946, she created a reusable, impermeable diaper cover. Ultimately, this led to the invention of the disposable paper diaper, which was eventually commercialized by Victor Mills, the creator of Pampers.[2] Donovan also innovated various solutions around the home and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2015.[2][3][4]
 | This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. (February 2024) |
Marion Donovan | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 15, 1917 |
| Died | November 4, 1998 (aged 81) New York City, US |
| Alma mater | Rosemont College (BA) Yale University (MArch) |
| Known for | First waterproof diaper |
| Awards | National Inventors Hall of Fame |
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Donovan was born on October 15, 1917 in South Bend, Indiana[5] to Anne and Miles O'Brien.[6] Following the death of her mother in 1925, Donovan was parented by her father. With his identical twin brother John, Miles O'Brien ran the South Bend Lathe Words manufacturing plant.[4][5] Donovan's father and uncle were inventors as well, credited with inventing products such as the "South Bend lathe" for developing automobile gears and gun barrels.[7][2]
At the age of 22, Donovan earned her B.A. in English from Rosemont College in Pennsylvania.[5] Nineteen years later, as one of the three women in her graduating class, Donovan earned a master's degree in architecture from Yale University.[5]
After graduation, Donovan was employed as an Assistant Beauty Editor at Vogue magazine in New York.[2] Eventually, she resigned to start a family with leather importer James F. Donovan, and moved to Westport, Connecticut.[2] She had three children with Donovan (Christine Donovan, Sharon Dodd Donovan, and James F. Donovan).[6] She divorced Donovan in the 1970s and went on to marry John F. Butler in 1981.[6][5]
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Donovan, a mother tired of changing wet crib sheet from her baby's soil, strongly felt that cloth diapers served "more as a wick than a sponge", while rubber pants caused painful diaper rashes.[5] Consequently, she acted on making a better solution. Donovan ripped her shower curtain off of the hanger, cut it into pieces, and sewed it into a waterproof diaper cover with snaps instead of safety pins.[5] This led to a diaper cover with an insert for an absorbent diaper panel and a breathable parachute cloth.[5] Donovan called this the "Boater" because it looked like a boat.[5]
However, no big names manufacturers were interested, so she started manufacturing herself.[5] In 1949, the "Boater" was a great success at Saks Fifth Avenue. A couple years later, she sold her company and her patents to Keko Corporation for a million dollars because even though she considered continuing her creation of a diaper with absorbent paper, executives apparently were not interested.[5] The first mass-produced disposable diaper, Pampers, did not hit the shelves until 1961.[2][5] Largely due to sexism, Donovan's invention was made famous by Procter and Gamble in 1961 – under Pampers.[7]
By this time, Donovan had begun further experimenting with disposable paper diapers.[2] A major requirement was for the diaper to wick moisture away from the skin in order to prevent diaper rash, which she solved using a special sturdy, absorbent paper composition.[2] This invention however faced greater difficulties in the market; every large American manufacturer declined it as unnecessary and impractical.[7] While Donovan was never able to find the right manufacturer, largely due to sexism, she is credited with innovations that eventually led to the creation of disposable diapers which were introduced in the U.S. by Procter and Gamble in 1961,[4] specifically inventor Victor Mills' Pampers.[8]
Despite this, Donovan was still young with a robust entrepreneurial spirit. She went on to invent various at-home solutions to problems in her daily life. The "Big Hangup", for example, was a 30-garment compact hanger that addressed a major pain point. Donovan also developed a soap dish that drains into the sink; the "Zippity-Do" (which was an elastic cord that connects over the shoulder to the zipper on the back of a dress to make zipping it easier), and DentaLoop to eliminate the process of winding the string around the fingers and to make it easier to slide the floss between teeth.[5][9]
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Donovan died on November 4, 1998, from heart disease at the age of 81 at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan.[8]
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Donovan was elected to the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2015 and has a picture on the Hall of Fame wall.[3]
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