Mary Brush (fl. 1815) of Davenport, Iowa,[1] was an American inventor and one of the first American women to be granted a patent by the U.S. patent office.[2] Her patent, granted on 21 July 1815, was for a corset.[3] It improved on the design and was meant to "preserve the shape of the womanly figure."[4] The Cincinnati Enquirer, in 1908, identified her as the second American woman to be granted a patent.[5]