Duxbury Systems Proudly Presents:
History of Braille and the Early Education of the Blind
These web pages make extensive use of links containing commands to land on a specific page in a pdf file. To link to a specific page in a pdf, your browser must be Chrome, Firefox, or Safari. Internet Explorer or Edge ignores the page number command and always take you to the first page of a pdf. Finding the correct location in a pdf may be tedious in that case.
This web page is a companion page to: Documents on Automated Braille Production
Through researching these works, I have learned that in the 18th and 19th centuries, there was a very vigorous intellectual debate on the education of the blind and the deaf-blind. Was the deaf-blind person who learned to read and write truly educated as a sighted person was? Or was this disabled person like a computer app, just able to respond to stimuli in pre-programmed ways? It is clear that these books on the education of the blind were widely read and discussed in educated circles. The education of Laura Bridgeman and Helen Keller (both deaf-blind) were the astonishing moon shots of their era. So, Duxbury Systems proudly presents these documents so that others can appreciate how at one time, the education of the sensory disabled was a subject of intense interest.
Modern Documents
- How Braille Began by Paula Kimbrough (NFB Bulletin, July 2005)
- A Critical Evaluation of the Historical Development of the Tactile Modes of Reading and an Analysis and Evaluation of Researches Carried out in Endeavours to Make the Braille Code Easier to Read and to Write by Pamela Lorimer, December 1996 This is a wonderful survey of the history of tactile reading systems
- From Silence and Darkness: Historical Origins of the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, 1883 to 1917, Douglas W. Mikutel
- Legacy of the Past (Those who are gone but have not left); Enerstvedt, Regi. Th. (1996); Some aspects in the history of blind education, deaf education, deaf-blind education, and epilogue; with emphasis on the time before 1900. Forlaget Nord-Press, Dronninglund, Danmark. 399 pp.
Historical Documents (organized by date of publication)
- An Essay on the Education of the Blind, by Valentin Haüy 1786 (translated into English, and re-printed in 1894) (pdf page 3)
- The First Publication of the Braille Code by Louis Braille in 1829 (Book Images, text, translation, introduction are from the NFB website)
- An Account of the New York Institution for the Blind, Together with a Brief Statement of the Origin, Progress, and Present Condition, of the Institutions for the Blind in this and other countries, to which is added Biographical Notices of some of the most Illustrious Blind, 1833 (pdf page 8)
- Nouveau procédé pour représenter par des points la forme même des lettres, by Louis Braille 1839
- First Report of the Board of Visitors of the Kentucky Institution for the Education of the Blind, 1843 (pdf page 8)
- Report of the Benevolent Institutions of Great Britain and Paris including the Institutions and Asylums for the Blind, Deaf, and Dumb, and the Insane, 1846 (pdf page 6)
- A Guide to the Proper Management and Education of Blind Children in their Earlier Years, Johann G. Knie, 1851 (translated into English, and re-printed 1894) (pdf page 4)
- Tangible Typography, How the Blind Read, 1853 (pdf page 6)
- The Education and the Employment of the Blind, by Dr. T.R. Armitage, 1871 (pdf page 6)
- Blindness and the Blind or, a Treatise on the Science of Typhlology by W. Hanks Levy, 1872 (pdf page 7)
- The New York System of Tangible Musical Writing and Point Writing for the Use by the Blind by Michael Wait, 1873 (pdf page 8)
- The New York System of Tangible Musical Writing and Point Writing for the Use by the Blind by Michael Wait, (2nd edition) 1882 (pdf page 8)
- Education of the Blind: Historical Sketch of Its Origin, Rise, and Progress, Michael Anagnos, 1882 (pdf page 6)
- Work for the Blind in China by C.F Gordon-Cumming, 1892 (pdf page 2)
- The Blind as Seen Through Blind Eyes, Maurice De La Sizeranne, 1893 (pdf page 6)
- Raised Print Books for the Blind. The Origin and History of Embossed Print -- Interesting Facts about the Circulating Library of the School for the Blind, Halifax, NS 1895 (pdf page 5)
- The Life and Education of Laura Dewey Bridgeman, the Deaf, Dumb and Blind Girl, by Mary Swift Lamson, 1899 (pdf page 17)
- Short Account of the Tōkyō Blind and Dumb School, 1903 (pdf page 10)
- Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind: A Bibliography Relating to the Blind from 1907 (pdf page 12)
- Biennial Report of the Colored Department of the Maryland School for the Blind, 1908 (pdf page 3)
- A Key to New York Point, by William B. Wait 1908 (pdf page 132)
- History of the Education of the Blind by R.W. Illingworth, 1910 (pdf page 7)
- The Blind, Their Condition and the Work Being Done for Them in the United States, by Henry Best 1919 (pdf page 10)
- The Moon-Element: an Introduction to the Wonders of Selenium, 1924. A remarkable book about the Optophone, an early reading machine for the blind.
- Braille Music Code, 1929
- A Comparative Study of Braille Grade One and a Half and Braille Grade Two By Robert B. Irwin and Ruth E. Wilcox, 1929
- World Conference on Work for the Blind, 1931 (pdf page 8)
- From Homer to Helen Keller, A Social and Educational Study of the Blind, Richard Slayton French, AFB, 1932 (pdf page 8)
- Standard English Braille in Twenty Lessons by Madeleine Loomis, 1934
- The Education of Negro Blind in the United States, Charles Buell, 1945 (pdf page 4)
- Comic Book about Louis Braille (1948) (contains more errors than facts)
- Report on the World Braille Situation, 1949 (UNESCO Report pre-dating the two volumes of World Braille Usage (1953 and 1990) This item is filled with historical information on tactile reading systems for the blind.
- As I Saw it by Robert Irwin, AFB, 1955 (contains The War of the Dots) (pdf page 8)
Copyright Duxbury Systems, Inc. Thursday, September 26, 2019
