Booklist Review

Based on the premise that although "women, people of color, and immigrants" have always contributed to the history of science and invention, they seldom received credit for their innovations, this collective biography features 13 people whose work was largely unrecognized during their lifetimes. Self-educated nineteenth-century English fossil hunter Mary Anning made major contributions to paleontology, but others in her field dismissed her as a working-class woman. While Cyrus McCormick received a patent for inventing the mechanical reaper that transformed agriculture, it was Jo Anderson, an enslaved man, who repeatedly refined the invention's design to make it work. Other examples include Alice Ball's contribution to curing Hansen's disease (leprosy), Antonio Meucci's invention of the telephone, and Rosalind Franklin's discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA. Schwartz, who approaches her topic with curiosity and two engineering degrees, organizes the information well and presents it clearly. A full-page, creative portrait illustrates each person featured, followed by a biographical chapter featuring the individual's most significant work. A useful counterweight to conventional books describing breakthroughs in science, medicine, and engineering.