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Elijah McCoy, a Colchester native and successful inventor, received an international gift Monday when he was honored as the Google doodle on the occasion of his 178th birthday.
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The Google doodle is a daily adaptation of the Google logo on its homepages that celebrates people, events, holidays or anniversaries. It appears across North America.
McCoy was born in Colchester on May 2, 1844, to parents who were fugitive slaves from Kentucky. As a young child, he moved with his family to Michigan where he established himself as an engineer and a masterful inventor.
He is best known for inventing an automatic lubricator for oiling steam engines. His oil-drip cup invention led to the popular phrase “The Real McCoy” when railroad engineers asked for the original cup and not an inferior copy.
“We are thrilled that Elijah McCoy was today’s featured google doodle,” said Mary-Katherine Whelan, curator and administrator for the Amherstburg Freedom Museum.
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“Elijah was a prolific inventor from our region, and we are pleased that his life and accomplishments are being recognized on such a large scale. We hope that people take the opportunity to read more about his life and contributions.”
Whelan noted McCoy joins other important historical figures from Canadian Black history featured on the Google doodle, including Carrie Best, Viola Desmond and Sandwich Town’s Mary Ann Shadd Cary.
Shadd Cary lived in west Windsor where she became Canada’s first Black female news editor and publisher. Shadd Cary was the featured Google doodle on Oct. 9, 2020, her 197th birthday.
McCoy collected 57 patents over the course of his lifetime. He died Oct. 10, 1929, in Detroit. The city named a street after him and the state of Michigan placed a historical plaque at his family home and at his grave site.
In 2021, McCoy was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Virginia.