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
For sale: baby shoes, never worn a periodical called "The Editor" where he outlined the basic idea of a grief-stricken woman who had lost her baby and even suggested the title of "Little Shoes, Never Worn". In his version of the story, the shoes are being given away rather than sold. He suggests that this would provide some measure of solace for the seller, as it would mean that another baby would at least benefit directly. By 1921, the story was already being parodied: the July issue of "Judge" that year published a version that used a baby carriage instead of shoes; there, however, the narrator