![]() In 1949, she started selling the boater at Saks Fifth Avenue, where it was an instant smash hit. They’re very happy, and they buy all our baby pants.’ So, I went into manufacturing myself.” “I went to all the big names that you can think of, and they said ‘We don’t want it. As Donovan would tell Barbara Walters in 1975: Manufacturers, though, weren’t interested. Marion Donovan's "Diaper Wrap," patented June 12, 1951 That led to a diaper cover made from breathable parachute cloth, which had an insert for an absorbent diaper panel. She pulled down her shower curtain, cut it into pieces, and sewed it into a waterproof diaper cover with snaps instead of safety pins. In her opinion cloth diapers “served more as a wick than a sponge,” while rubber pants caused painful diaper rashes. It was there, as a young mother sick of changing wet crib sheets, that Donovan had her lightning bolt moment. After graduating from college, she went to work as an editor at women’s magazines in New York, before marrying and settling in Connecticut. Her mother died when she was young, and her father, an engineer and inventor himself, encouraged her innovative mind-she created a new kind of tooth cleaning powder while still in elementary school. Donovan would go on to become one of the most prolific female inventors of her time.ĭonovan was born Marion O’Brien in South Bend, Indiana in 1917. Her invention, patented in 1951, netted her a million dollars (nearly $10 million in today’s money) and paved the way for the development of the disposable diaper as we know it today. She created a new kind of diaper, an envelope-like plastic cover with an absorbent insert. In the late 1940s, a woman named Marion Donovan changed all that. But until the mid-20th century, diapering babies meant folding and pinning cloth toweling, then tugging on a pair of rubber pants. They’re such a ubiquitous feature of parenthood I’ve hardly ever thought about what life would be like without them. They’re in my laptop bag and my husband’s briefcase, in my hiking backpack, stashed in all the suitcases, tucked away in the glove compartment of every car I ever borrow. I’ve got a baby and a toddler, and I don’t go anywhere without diapers.
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