Figure 1.--This photograph shows two boys in 1934 being treated at the famous Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Mass., a suburb of Boston. The two boys are deaf and blind and are shown "listening" by means of a Phipps Unit for bone conduction of sound. The older boy on the left, Earl Martin, wears a dark double-breasted knicker suit with striped knee socks and a white shirt and tie. The younger boy, Leonard Dowdy, appears to be wearing button-on shorts with a short-sleeved open-collared shirt with some sort of neckerchief or tie around his neck. He wears tan long stockings.

Perkins is a very old and famous instituion, located now at 175 North Beacon Street, Watertown, Mass., on the Charles River, now a part of metropolitan Boston. The school is 175 years old and was the first school for the blind in the United States. Helen Keller is the most famous graduate. The school was incorporated in 1829 by John Fisher, the original founder, and opened to receive students in 1832. At first Fisher used the house of his father in Boston. But, having outgrown this residence quite quickly, the school moved in 1833 to the larger home of Thomas H. Perkins, the philanthropist for whom the school has ever since been named. Next the school occupied a converted hotel in South Boston, Perkins having sold his home and donated the proceeds to the school.

1934 Photograph

This photograph shows two boys in 1934 being treated at the famous Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, Mass., a suburb of Boston. The two boys are deaf and blind and are shown "listening" by means of a Phipps Unit for bone conduction of sound. The older boy on the left, Earl Martin, wears a dark double-breasted knicker suit with striped knee socks and a white shirt and tie. He would seem to be about 10 or 11 years of age. The younger boy, Leonard Dowdy, about 7 or 8 years old, appears to be wearing button-on shorts with a short-sleeved open-collared shirt with some sort of neckerchief or tie around his neck. He wears tan long stockings with hose supporters the fasteners of which can be seen at the hem of his shorts. The young adults, Clifton Sears and Winthrop Chapman, who seem to be in their 20s, are probably also blind-deaf students at the school, which treated people of all ages. The men might possibly be teachers or technicians employed by the school to assist with testing and therapy. But I think they are adult students.

The School

Perkins is a very old and famous instituion, located now at 175 North Beacon Street, Watertown, Mass., on the Charles River, now a part of metropolitan Boston. The school is 175 years old and was the first school for the blind in the United States. The school was incorporated in 1829 by John Fisher, the original founder, and opened to receive students in 1832. At first Fisher used the house of his father in Boston. But, having outgrown this residence quite quickly, the school moved in 1833 to the larger home of Thomas H. Perkins, the philanthropist for whom the school has ever since been named. Next the school occupied a converted hotel in South Boston, Perkins having sold his home and donated the proceeds to the school.

Charles Dickens

Samuel Gridley Howe, a later director of the school, established a printing department for embossing books. It was at this press that Charles Dickens's famous novel, "The Old Curiosity Shop," was printed. Dickens himself visited Perkins in 1842 during a lecture tour of America. On this occasion he met the director of the school, Samuel Howe, who impressed him so much that he wrote about his visit in "American Notes". Dickens was especially impressed by the work Howe was doing with Laura Bridgman, a young deaf-blind girl who came to the shcool in 1837.

Helen Keller

Helen Keller is the most famous graduate. Years after Dickens visited the school, Kate Adams Keller, mother of a young deaf-blind girl name Helen, read Dickens's book, which provided a ray of hope for the mother's six-year-old daughter, Helen Keller, who lost her sight and hearing when she was only 19 months old. Anne Sullivan, a graduate of Perkins, was sent in 1887 to teach the child, Helen Keller, in Alabama. At the same time the school established the first kindergarten for blind children in the U.S. After working with her pupil Helen at home in Alabama, Ms. Sullivan returned to Boston with Helen in 1888 and remained there until 1893. Helen wrote extensively about her experiences and about the blind and disabled in society. She was one of the authors banned by the NAZIs and whose works were involved in the NAZI book burnings. It may seem strange today to ban Keller's uplifting books which talk about how people with disabilities can play a productive role in society. A central concern of NAZI race theory, however, was clensing the national genetic pool. The NAZIs elevated eugenics to an important and well-financed science. People with handicaps in NAZI Germany were often sterilized or in the case of severly handicapped children and adults, killed. The boys shown here had they been Germans in the 1930s would have been either sterilized or killed.

Samuel P. Hayes Research Library

Helen was born in 1880--the same year that the was founded at Perkins. It is considered the largest repository of its kind in the world, containing the most recent and complete information on the non-medical aspects of blindness and deaf-blindness. Its huge collection includes books by and about Helen Keller.

New Site

Desperately needing more space as the school grew in numbers and reputation, Perkins moved to its present location in Watertown on the banks of the Charles River in 1912. The new site embraced some 38 acres of land.

Braille and Talking Book Library

In 1931 the Braille and Talking Book Library was established at Perkins. This served children and adults who cannot read conventional print but who don't want to miss out on the latest bestseller of copies of magazines such as Newsweek. In 1951 David Abraham successfullyu produced the first "Perkins Brailler" after years of experimentation. By 1977 something like 100,000 Perkins Braillers were produced and distributed all over the world.

Other Disabilities

Gradually the school began accepting students with various disabilities besides blindness and deafness, assisted in part by a grant from the Conrad Hilton Foundation in 1989. The School enjoys a much deserved reputation for innovation in the treatment of people with diverse disabilities.

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Created: July 16, 2003
Last updated: July 16, 2003