One Hundred Years of Education of the Blind in America

Chapter I

Chapter 2

Sweeping Change

C. Michael Mellor

Editor Emeritus, Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind

Chapter I

One Hundred Years of Education of the Blind in America

This chapter is based on an address given in Chicago by Dr. Edward M. Van Cleve in connection with the celebration of “A Century of Progress,” July 11, 1933. Dr. Van Cleve was then Principal of The New York Institute for the Education of the Blind in New York City. His paper is an excellent introduction to the history of the Institute, and also gives a glimpse of how people thought and wrote in the 1930’s. For the most part, I have left the address in its original form except for a few changes to clarify the language — this writing style is no longer fashionable — and I also added some new material and illustrations.

Edward M. Van Cleve

If our common populace of the 1820’s were aware of the blind, it was with no overwhelming sense of any obligation to consider them as a concern of the public in general. Those who could not see were looked upon as most unfortunate, indeed, but their development into useful members of society was deemed impossible. True, thought they who thought at all, some blind men can make certain articles, not of much practical service, of course, with a kind of facility, but that the blind can be schooled was out of the question. Anyone who became blind and had no family to care for him, nurse him, endure him, and finally bury him, was verily a pitiful case and the almshouse was his natural, his only place.

(Image: Dr. Edward M. Van Cleve, Principal, 1914-1935 and Principal Emeritas, 1935-1937)

First Schools For the Blind

In such an atmosphere of unconcern, however, a few men of unusual insight conceived of the blind as capable of something more than mere animal existence, and they began an agitation of social concern that presently resulted in definite action in New England, New York and Philadelphia, out of which grew the establishment of the three pioneer schools for the blind of America.

We can not repeat here in any detail the story of those beginnings. But let us recall a few salient facts. John D. Fisher, a youthful physician of Boston, had seen in Paris the newly established institution for the young blind1 and began to interest influential friends in the project of organizing a similar institution at home. New Englanders have the reputation of pondering problems that are new before taking action; after some two or three years’ consideration of this problem there came the incorporation of a society in aid of the blind and the election of a Board of Trustees. This was in 1829. Meanwhile, Samuel Wood, a member of the Society of Friends [Quakers], who was accustomed to visit the almshouse in his city of New York, was moved with compassion for the hapless state of some blind boys he found there and began to cast about for some means of helping them. To him were joined in consideration of the problem — and in arousing public interest — other generous souls, in particular, Dr. Samuel Akerly, superintendent for ten years, and physician and secretary, too, of The New York Institution for the Deaf and Dumb.

In 1831 was incorporated through their activity The New York Institution for the Blind, and by a fortunate chance there came into association with them young Dr. John D. Russ, who had recently returned from Europe, where he had been engrossed in medical service to the Greeks warring for independence from the Ottoman Empire. Russ offered to become teacher to a group of sightless boys whom the Managers of the new institution were permitted by the city authorities to remove from the almshouse. Thus began, on March 15, 1832, the first school for the blind in America.

(Image: The New York Institution for the Blind held its first class for children in the United States when it opened its doors on March 15, 1832. It started out in a single room in lower Manhattan and moved to a large estate donated by James Boorman in 1832. What was then “a place in the country” is now near Ninth Avenue and 34th Street – Image courtesy of The New York Historical Society, NYC)

The New England trustees had enlisted the interest of another philanthropic physician, Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, who had returned to his home city of Boston from service to the Greeks, had employed him as superintendent, and he, after visiting the few schools in operation in Europe, opened in his own home a school with six blind children in August 1832.

Quite aside from connection with the New England and New York enterprises, and probably without definite knowledge thereof, another Fisher, J. Francis Fisher, Esquire, of Philadelphia; another Quaker, Robert Vaux; and Dr. Caspar Morris, took the initiative in calling into existence the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind2. This became an actuality when Julius R. Friedlander, a German by birth and a teacher by profession, began the instruction of blind children in Philadelphia in March 1833.

How far have we gone from these beginnings in a century of effort to ameliorate the condition of the blind in America through their education? It would be interesting to follow in some sort the growth and development of each of these pioneer schools as they have progressed from their small beginnings to the present effective organizations, serving as the years have gone by their clientele with increasing acceptance as knowledge grew and skill developed on the part of teachers and executives. It has been said that the story of the careers of these three schools, The New York Institution, now The Institute for the Education of the Blind3; the New England Asylum, later called the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind4; and the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind, furnishes an epitome of the history of education of the sightless in America from the beginning to today. But let us leave the particular to consider the general and by topic rather than by organization.

State Schools

It is in America the accepted dictum that education is the function of the State. After the first movements for training the blind, which were made through private philanthropy, there came to be a realization that blind children have as much right to schooling as others, and in 1837 Ohio provided the first wholly state organized and supported school for the blind. Virginia followed in 1839; and in the next decade Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois and Mississippi established schools in the order named. And today [1933] all states of the Union except six have provided, within their borders, for the free schooling of their blind children, and the six arrange with the neighboring states to accept their sightless youth as pupils.

Programs of school activities follow closely the courses laid down in the public schools, with some omissions because of the handicap of lack of vision in the pupils, and with some additions to the usual program for sighted children.

Tools and Types

Those earliest instructors of blind children found few guide-posts along the way. They had to invent methods and manufacture means. From Europe came some advice and a few mechanical devices. Inventive genius was a part of every successful teacher’s equipment. Some of the early tools were crude and some were costly and therefore scarce. But as the needs became apparent devoted teachers sought and found ways to satisfy them.

(Image: Sample of Boston line type: Part of Section 10 of the Constitution of the United States produced in Boston Line type. Various forms of embossed letters of the print alphabet were used by blind people to read with their fingers in the mid-19th century America. Boston Line Type was widely used because its modified shapes were claimed to be easier to read than other kinds of embossed type, by nature, embossed print was never to read by touch.)

Raised letters of the alphabet were used in early days for making books and both Howe and Friedlander preferred them to the punctographic [raised dot] scheme of Braille. The French teacher, William Bell Wait, one of the chief figures in the field of education of the blind in the latter part of the 19th century, promulgated a modification of Braille’s method which he called the New York Point System, and this was used in a large number of schools.

(Image: – Photo of William Bell Wait: William Bell Wait, Principal of the New York Institute from 1863 until his death in 1916. He was a leading educator of blind people and invented New York Point, a raised dot reading and writing system that for many decades in the United States was more widely used than Braille.)

To effect an improvement on the French system, Joel W. Smith invented Scientific Braille, so-called, which represented the most-frequently occurring letters in the English language with the least number of braille dots; this was adopted in many schools. There ensued a battle of the types, chiefly between New York Point and American Braille, as the Smith system came to be called. The raised letter systems, known as Line Type, were inherently difficult to read by touch and went out of fashion as the raised dot methods of writing came to the fore. Then, by agreement reached in 1916, uniformity with English speaking peoples was approached by adoption of the British adaptation of the French system, with certain changes, and in 1932 British and American type experts came together on a universal code. With stylus and slate, the blind writer may now communicate with his sightless correspondent anywhere or write for his own use; and, better yet, with the Braille typewriter he may emulate in speed the operator of a Royal or an Underwood typewriter.

To write in legible fashion so far as the seeing are concerned, has always occupied the mind of the ambitious blind person. Pencil writing was followed and still holds a place with some, but the invention of the typewriter was a great boon to the blind, who would communicate their thoughts to their seeing friends and fellows. And for the reception of the spoken word, the phonograph and next the radio have been invaluable to serve the sightless in a fashion incalculably acceptable; now Aladdin rubs his lamp again and “talking books” are added to his means of intellectual advancement.

(Image of The Kleidograph: The Kleidograph was invented by William Bell Wait, Principal of the Institute, to enable his system of New York Point to be written easily by blind people. The operator need only use one hand, leaving the other free to read materials embossed with print.)

(Image of Girls Using the Kleidograph: The lack of one standard embossed code meant that a blind reader who only knew New York Point would not be able to read a document in Braille – vice versa, a reader of American Braille would not be able to read a book produced in English Braille.)

(Image of Tactile Print Alphabets – The alphabets in black dots of New York Point, American(revised) Braille, French (original) Braille and English Braille.):

What and How?

Leaders in the education of the sightless have not been negligent in seeking to discover what courses are wisest to follow and what methods are the best to pursue. It was a virgin field into which Russ entered, equipped with only his own scholarship and a great deal of insight, and Howe had little more equipment, though he had the advantage of a long course of observation of European pioneering and the assistance of two blind teachers whom he brought from Europe7. How much these men and Friedlander helped each other, we do not know; but each was earnestly engaged to find what was best for these sightless youth to undertake of scholastic, artistic, and manual effort. After many years of trial by these men, their successors and all the devoted instructors of the sightless, the set of education of the blind was as nearly approaching that of the sighted student as may be reached. The more scholarly and intelligent among the blind themselves have approved this as the true goal of all efforts to equip those who do not see to meet the problems of life and to take their place as citizens and as members of society.

A body of educational theory and a record of successful practice in this special field were not available to the mid-century instructors; so, in 1853 some leaders called a convention in the hope of forming a professional code. But no meeting of the association then formed was held after the initial one until nearly two decades had passed. Then, a national organization was effected which has functioned since, with some success, we believe, in attaining the ends sought; it is the American Association of Instructors of the Blind. Today, through the printed Proceedings of its thirty-one biennial conventions it has accumulated pronouncements of policy and expositions of theory, together with reports of practices that have proved effective in serving the great end of providing the best practicable means for the blind to secure an education adapted to their needs.

Intellectual, manual, and esthetic training proceed in the effort to equip the blind, having aims similar to those followed in schools for the seeing. That he or she may cope with his world, the sightless man or woman must have a mind well stored and well sharpened, not less but more than others; it is by the use of such mental development that the most capable seize opportunities for successful accomplishment. In the intellectual field the blind have the best chance. Some people, however, whatever their condition, are best fitted by nature and inclination to do work that is manual in its nature. Therefore good schooling of the blind contemplates exceptional training in this field. And for the sightless the chief arena in which the esthetic nature and attainments may be exercised is that of musical understanding and performance.