Whitcomb L. Judson Whitcomb L. Judson Whitcomb L. Judson (March 7, 1846 – December 7, 1909) was an American machine salesman, mechanical engineer and inventor. Judson invented the zipper in the 1890s. Judson was born in Chicago, Illinois. According to the 1860 census, he lived in Illinois, and served in the Union army. He enlisted in 1861 at Oneida, Illinois in the Forty-Second Illinois Cavalry. Judson attended Knox College in his hometown Galesburg, Illinois. He was found in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1886. In 1886 and 1887 the Minneapolis city directory identifies Judson as a "traveling agent" — a traveling salesman working probably for
Sylvia Shaw Judson numbers of Judson enthusiasts and collectors. In 2016 the City of Lake Forest learned that for 34 years the statue in the fountain in Market Square had the wrong name, and installed a new plaque with the name Judson gave it: "Friends". Four original copies made in 1970-77 were called "Friends" in newspaper and magazine articles, but when a posthumous copy was cast for Market Square in 1982, the name Judson chose for the statue was somehow forgotten and its plaque said "Girl with Baby on Shoulder". Sylvia Shaw Judson Sylvia Shaw Judson (1897-1978) was a professional sculptor who worked