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
Arthur Judson Elman, Zino Francescatti, Gary Graffman, Jascha Heifetz, Vladimir Horowitz, Jose Iturbi, Lorin Maazel, Yehudi Menuhin, Eugene Ormandy, Lily Pons, Fritz Reiner, Rudolf Serkin and Helen Traubel. Awards included being elected an officer in the French Academy, 1920; an honorary Doctorate in Music from Denison University, 1931, and the Order of the Academie des Beaux Arts, 1941. There is one published biography for Arthur Judson: Apart from that, Norman Lebrecht's book offers by far the most details on the man. There is no collection of Arthur Judson papers. Arthur Judson Arthur Leon Judson (February 17, 1881, Dayton, Ohio – January 28,