1. Molly Stothert-Maurer, Archivist Perkins School for the Blind
The Topography of Literacy: The Early History of Books and Tactile Graphics for the Blind
Molly Stothert-Maurer, Archivist
Perkins School for the Blind

2. Contents School history The rocky path to braille Maps and graphics
Preservation and digital projects
This presentation draws heavily on content from The War of the Dots by Robert Irwin, ca. 1933, and content created for the online Perkins History Museum: by Jan Seymour Ford, Betsy McGinnity, and Kathleen Andries, 2004.

3. School History
First school for the blind in the United States, incorporated 1829 in Boston. Watertown, MA campus since 1912
Pioneer in education of the blind and deafblind, including the first Kindergarten for the Blind (1887)
Home to the Braille and Talking Book Library which is a lending library that services all of New England
Perkins Brailler most used in the world, perfected in 1951 more than 300,000 have been sold.

4. Laura Bridgman and Samuel Gridley Howe
Beginning in 1837, Bridgman was the first person who is deafblind to be formally educated. Her story was popularized by Charles Dickens who wrote about her in his book American Notes.

5. Research Library and Archives
Research Library established in 1880
One of the largest collections on the non-medical aspects of blindness.
Archives contain institutional history, collections related to the history of blindness and deafblindness and contain a large library of embossed books

6. Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan
The most popular collections are those related to Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan (a Perkins graduate!) including photographs, correspondence, clippings, artifacts and memorabilia, and research materials, especially Sullivan’s biographer Nella Braddy Henney.

7. Why topography? Defining “Embossed”
Topography is a detailed map of the surface features of land. It includes the mountains, hills, creeks, and other bumps and lumps on a particular hunk of earth (vocabulary.com). I like the term topography because I think it helps draw attention to what makes books for the blind so fascinating- depth and relief, writing without ink.
Defining “Embossed”
carve, mold, or stamp a design on (a surface) so that it stands out in relief (Google Dictionary). The term embossed books is used in the field to talk about books for the blind as a whole, be it braille, raised Roman type, or abstract code. Think for a moment about the last expensive wedding invitation you held in your hand and how nice it felt to run your fingers over the text.

8. Remember, these materials are experienced by touch…
Helen Keller reading tactile map, Lebanon, 1952
Remember, these materials are experienced by touch…

9. Embossed books are big
(right) Nick van Woert, Braille Bible, 2003, retrieved from:

10. First Book for the Blind, 1786, Paris
Printed at the first school for the Blind in the World, the Institut des Jeunes Aveugles by Valentin Haüy.

11. Sample embossing by Sébastien Guillié, Paris, 1817
Valentin Haüy’s successor at the Paris school produced this type of embossed roman type for many years. When Louis Braille became a student in 1819 the books at the school used this system.

12. "Leesboek, Van Blinde Kinderen" or "Reading Book for Blind Children"
Amsterdam, 1808
"Leesboek, Van Blinde Kinderen" or "Reading Book for Blind Children"

13. Klein Book, Vienna, 1811
Likely the first book printed by Johann Wilhelm Klein, Director of the Imperial Royal Institute for the Blind, Vienna, and probably the first book for the blind printed in German.

14. Louis Braille’s Code, 1829
The first braille book: Louis Braille's Procedure for Writing Words, Music, and Plainsong in Dots, or Procede pour In French: Procédé pour écrire les Paroles, la Musique et le Plain-chant au Moyen de Points à l’Usage des Aveugles et Disposé pour eux, par L. Braille, Répéteur à L’institution Royale des Jeunes Aveugles. Paris

15. Braille alphabet chart
Braille code, published 1829 (developed 1824)

16. First Book for the Blind Printed in the USA, 1833
Jacob Snider, of the Pennsylvania Institute for the Instruction of the Blind, produced the first raised-print book in the United States, The Gospel According to Saint Mark in 1833

17. The Blind Child’s Spelling Book, New England Institution for the Education of the Blind, 1835
Boston Line Type
In 1830s Boston: No bookstore for blind… must create from scratch. Howe became Director in 1831 and after touring the schools of Europe he hired a printer, Steven Preston Ruggles, to help him build a library. The first book in Boston Line Type was printed in 1835.

18. French type vs. Boston Line Type
The font face was modified to contain fewer unnecessary flourishes and maximize number of words per page (more compact).

19. Embossed Page of Arithmetic Problems, France, 1845
The successors to Haüy's and Guillié's type in France were simple letters based on round hand. French institutions continued to favor the roman alphabet until 1854, nearly 30 years after Louis Braille had proposed his dot system.
In around 1843 the Director of the Paris school banned braille and burned 73 volumes of books created using the Hauy and Guillie embossed type. The Director was worried that braille would put the teachers out of business because blind people could read and write on their own, and he disliked the former embossed type because he felt it was inferior to this method used in America (American Foundation for the Blind, “200 Years: The Life and Legacy of Louis Braille”).

20. Early slates and styli for embossing capitol letters and braille
Very hard to emboss Roman Letters! Braille easy to write as well as read.

21. Example of pin prick writing
Very time intensive and not easy to read.

22. Moon Type
Invented in 1845 by Dr. William Moon ( ),
Moon Type, or Moon Code, is an embossed reading system for the blind comprised of abstract forms derived from capitol letters. Moon type is easier to read than dot systems for persons with impaired fine motor skills. Adults and individuals who lose their sight later in life frequently find Moon Type easier to learn.
Moon Type, 1840

23. 1860 Braille Arrives to the United States!
Dr. Simon Pollak brought braille to the Missouri School for the Blind after a trip to Europe.
Soon after, William Bell Wait, Superintendent of the New York Institution for the Blind, decides to abandon raised print. He tries, unsuccessfully, to persuade his colleagues in Boston and Philadelphia to adopt the braille system.

24. The rise of multiple dot systems
English Braille (sometimes British Braille) is the original Braille code used for the English language, some adaptations necessary (for example the letter “w” not used in French language
New York Point, new dot system, two cells high (sort of like turning braille on it’s side and removing the spaces). Endorsed by the American Association of Instructors for the Blind (AAIB) in 1871.
American Braille (Modified Braille), created by a Piano teacher at Perkins. Sought to assign the fewest dots to the most used letters (quicker reading and writing). Presented to AAIB in 1878, but rejected because of the recent adoption of New York Point. It was later adopted by many schools in 1892.
1905: Uniform Type Committee established in the US to deal with this problem

25. Before the adoption of standard braille:
In a letter to William Wade written in 1901, Keller remarks:
“There is nothing more absurd, I think, than to have five or six different prints for the blind...” (from her book The Story of My Life, 1905).
The seminal work on the history of reading systems for the blind in the United States, tellingly titled The War of the Dots, introduces the subject with the following quote:
“The conflict was acrimonious in the extreme. The bitterness can hardly be imagined” -Dr. Olin H. Burritt, Principal, Overbrook School for the Blind.

26. War of the Dots
American delegation that successfully brought about the establishment of Standard English braille for all English-speaking countries in London in 1932.
“within the span of a single lifetime to such changes in their reading codes as from Boston linetype to New York Point, New York Point to American braille, American braille to Revised braille grade 1 1/2, and finally from grade 1 1/2 to grade 2”
“What an outcry would be heard in this country if the seeing public had been forced to make a similar series of accommodations!”
“Their virtue as compared with arbitrary codes seemed to be that they could be read by sight by the seeing teachers with no special instruction.”

27. It’s personal
In a frequently quoted letter to the 1905 convention of the American Association of Workers for the Blind, Charles W. Holmes, president of the Perkins Alumni Association, pleaded for the adoption of a uniform code.
"In order to avail himself of the full range of literature (which at best is woefully limited) the blind reader must learn, and keep well up in, all these codes" he wrote. "How long would our seeing friends stand for such a state of affairs in ink type? Imagine for a moment the ridiculous situation that would arise, if the daily papers published in Boston had an entirely different system of characters from those used by New York publishers, and that a Philadelphia man could not read either without special training, because his own city had adopted a third, as unlike the others as the Chinese characters are unlike the Roman."

28. Subversive use of braille
Blind pupils in some of the schools, notably in Illinois, used it for personal purposes but officially it was frowned upon as being an heretical competitor of the orthodox New York Point and the appliances for writing it were confiscated by the school authorities.

29. Hall Braille Writer, 1892
Invented by Frank H. Hall, superintendent of the Illinois School for the Blind
Mechanical Braille Writers further boost the clear superiority of dot systems. By the time this personal, portable machine is available, and others like it, braille becomes the clear winner of the war of the dots.

30. A Uniform Code
In 1932, an official committee of three traveled to England with the charge of agreeing upon a uniform code. In the Treaty of London, the adoption of Grade 2 was agreed upon. The Library of Congress adopted Grade 2 immediately, and it was in use for 80 years. However, a few differences still remained and negotiations continued. English-speaking braille readers throughout the world continued to hope for a truly uniform braille code. In 1991 Dr. T. V. Cranmer and Dr. Abraham Nemeth began a campaign to further standardize English braille. A motion to adopt Unified English Braille (UEB) was passed by the Braille Authority of North America on November 2, The changes will be officially implemented in the United States on January 4, 2016.

31. Preservation Challenges: Books for the Blind are… BIG

32. Children’s books = Scrapbooks

33. Tactile Graphics
Uneven distribution of embossing can cause tearing and other issues

34. Insects and Crustaceans, Pictures for the Blind, Martin Kunz, ca. 1900

35. Natural History Tactile Graphics 1902

36. Solid Dot Braille (the dots come off)

37. Pages so thick they don’t bend!

38. Digitization and Outreach

39. Raking light, raking light, raking light
Uneven lighting is essential in photographing relief materials like embossed and braille books. Raking light is produced by placing a light source at a low horizontal angle so as to produce shadows.

40. Virtual Bookshelf

41. Geography
Downtown Boston. Many of the early maps from Perkins (including this one) were created by our printer, Stephen Preston Ruggles, in the 1830s.

42. The Ruggles Tactile Globe, 1837
The crown jewel of the Perkins collection. 13 feet in circumference and made from 700 interlocking pieces of wood. One of a kind.

43. Adapted globes with plasticine

44. M. Kunz, 1890: Map of Asia with print, braille, raised type, and tactile graphics

45. Puzzle Maps

46. Campus Maps

47. Made by Perkins students, ca. 1900
Fabric/Cushion Maps
Made by Perkins students, ca. 1900

48.
Questions?