“We create our future, by well improving present opportunities: however few and small they are.”
- Lewis Howard Latimer
Inventor and engineer Lewis Howard Latimer was born to parents who had fled slavery. Latimer learned the art of mechanical drawing while working at a patent firm. Over the course of his career as a draftsman, Latimer worked closely with Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell, in addition to designing his own inventions. - Biography.com
“Three famous inventors – Alexander Graham Bell, Hiram Maxim and Thomas Edison – owe their successes, in part, to a young, African-American inventor who lived on Bridgeport’s South End, among a rich population of Irish, African-American, Hungarian and other ethnic groups. Lewis Latimer lived on Whiting Street with his family.” - Mary Witkowski, Bportlibrary.org