- Accession Number:
- 2004.134.41.15
- Description:
- Sepia toned glossy; copy of head and shoulders photo illustration portrait of Valentin Hauy. Hauy wears a ruffled white shirt under a suit and a white, curled wig. The image is enclosed in an oval.
- Medium:
- Photographic Paper
- Date:
- ca.1993
- Photographer:
- Not Identified
- History/Provenance:
- Valentin Ha�y was an advocate of education, social reform, and human dignity. In 1784, he founded a school for blind children in Paris. One of Ha�y's students pointed out that he was able to identify the raised letters on and engraved invitation. This gave Ha�y the idea that perhaps he could produce a printed page that blind people could read. It proved to be a complex task. Ha�y had to cast special, right-reading type and make a press with the power to emboss the raised letters. The first mass-produced text designed specifically for blind people, Essai sur l'education des Aveugles, was typeset and printed in 1786 by the students at Ha�y's school. The letterforms used by Valentin Ha�y were slightly modified Roman-the alphabet used in all Western European languages.
- Credit Line:
- (see provenance)
- Subjects:
- Portrait paintings Teachers of the blind and visually impaired
