Olivia Poole – inventor – Jolly Jumper – First Indigneous Woman in Canada to Patent an Invention

Olivia Poole and the Jolly Jumper – First Indigneous Woman in Canada to Patent an Invention

Susan Olivia Davis Poole, inventor (born 18 April 1889 in Devils Lake, North Dakota; died 10 October 1975 in Ganges, BC). Olivia Poole was raised on the Ojibwe White Earth Reservation in Minnesota. There, she was inspired by the traditional practice of using a bouncing cradleboard to soothe babies. In 1957, she patented her invention of the baby jumper, under the name Jolly Jumper, making her one of the first Indigenous women in Canada to patent and profit from an invention.

For more information on Olivia Poole:

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/olivia-poole

To see a video of the Jolly Jumper in action from 1957 please visit CBC:

https://www.cbc.ca/archives/the-jolly-jumper-a-new-canadian-creation-in-1957-1.4776616

The company is still based in Ontario, Canada

https://www.jollyjumper.com/pages/about-us