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 Haüy was an advocate of education, social reform, and human dignity. In 1784, he founded a school for blind children in Paris. One of Haüy's students pointed out that he was able to identify the raised letters on and engraved invitation. This gave Haüy the idea that perhaps he could produce a printed page that blind people could read. It proved to be a complex task. Haüy 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 Haüy's school. The letterforms used by Valentin Haüy 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
