JAN EARNEST
MATZELIGER (1852-1889)
Inventor
Jan Matzeliger Portrait
Courtesy of: North Congregational Church, Lynn, MA
Jan Earnest Matzeliger revolutionized the shoe industry
with his development of a lasting machine. Lasting&emdash;the
process of joining the sole to the top of the shoe--was
the final process in shoe production to be mechanized.
Before Matzeliger's machine, an expert hand
laster could complete 100 shoes in a day; his machine
made it possible to complete up to 700 shoes in a
day. Matzeliger received a patent for his first lasting
machine in 1883. The Lasters' Union, fearing
job losses, opposed the invention, but by 1902 the
machine was used throughout the shoe industry. Matzeliger
sold the patents to his backers for $15,000 stock
in their company.
Matzeliger, son of a black Surinamese mother and
a white Dutch father, was born enslaved in Surinam.
He was freed as a young child and reared by his paternal
aunts. He became an apprentice mechanic in a government
machine works in 1862 but left Surinam as a sailor
in 1871. He arrived in Philadelphia in 1873 or 1874,
then Boston in 1876, and finally Lynn in 1877. At
that time Lynn was the shoe manufacturing center of
the country. Matzeliger got a job as a maintenance
worker in a Lynn shoe factory. In his spare time,
he began to invent, eventually achieving five patents:
two for shoe lasting machines, and three for separating
and distributing tacks and nails. Three of his patents
were awarded posthumously. Color prejudice thwarted
his attempts to join Unitarian, Episcopalian, and
Roman Catholic churches. In 1884, he joined the Christian
Endeavor Society of Lynn's North Congregational
Church where he taught Sunday school and participated
in fellowship activities. In his will he left stock
totaling $10,000 to the church.
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