Hymen Lipman

• Name — Hymen L. Lipman • Born — 20 March 1817 • Birthplace — Kingston, Jamaica • Died — 4 November 1893 • Place of death — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US • Occupation — Stationer • Known for — Patent of the first pencil with attached eraser

Hymen L. Lipman was born in Kingston, Jamaica, on March 20, 1817, to Lewis Lipman, an English merchant. Lyman immigrated to the US around 1829, arriving and settling in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He resided in Philadelphia for the remainder of his life.

• Illustration — 1860 advertisement for Lipman's stationery business In 1840, Lipman succeeded Samuel M. Stewart, then the leading stationer in Philadelphia. Three years later, he started the first envelope company in the US. In 1862, Lipman sold his lead-pencil and eraser patent for $100,000 to Joseph Reckendorfer, who went to sue the pencil manufacturer Faber for infringement. In 1875, the US Supreme Court ruled against Reckendorfer, declaring the patent invalid because his invention was actually a combination of two already known things with no new use.

In 1848, he married Mary A. Lehman, daughter of Peter K. Lehman, one of the founders of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. Their children where Mary, Lewis, and Anna Elizabeth "Lillie" Lipman. Lipman died at his Philadelphia home November 4, 1893, aged 76, and his wife a year later. Both were buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery. Some sources have described him or his family as Jewish, yet Haaretz notes a contemporary obituary describes him as a "self-sacrificing Christian" and his and his wife's gravestone epitaphs contain Christian quotes. His contemporary obituary in the Philadelphia Inquirer states he was a secretary of the Philadelphia Sabbath Association, an elder at Philadelphia's Clinton Street Presbyterian Church and later a member of the Grace Protestant Episcopal Church.