Accession Number: AnnRep1.18
Scope & Content: Holdings: 1833-1852 (Jan. 1853), 1854 (Jan. 1855)-1859, 1864, 1866-1878, 1880-1902, 1904-1922, 1925, 1936-1941, 1944, 1953, 1956-1967, 1969-1982, 1987, 1998, 2001, 2007. Also, separately printed: annual reports of the Kindergarten for the Blind, 1888, 1891, and 1895; the Instruction of the Adult Blind in Their Homes, 1902-1909; Statements prepared for the Massachusetts State Board of Education, 1904, 1905; and Perkins annual reports issued by the Massachusetts State Board of Education, 1902, 1903, 1906. Reports document the school's management, building, and student activities, and include financial reports and lists of the school's officers, staff, and students. Lists of books embossed by the school's press and of available tangible apparatus appear in many reports. There are facsimiles of pencil writing and specimens of raised letter type and embossed maps (the latter in 1840,1841); black-and-white photo illustrations (1876, 1890 and later), and some in color (1998 and later). Also included: extracts from a "Report of the Jury upon the Books for the Blind," about various embossed systems in use (1852, appendix); engravings of Samuel Gridley Howe, school buildings, Friederich Froebel (founder of the kindergarten movement) and facsimiles of student work and handwriting, including that of Helen Keller (1892 and earlier); Howe's "Address delivered at the ceremony of the Laying of the Corner-Stone of the New York State Institution of the Blind at Batavia" (1866); fold-out "Statistical Table of the Institutions for the Education of the Blind in the United States" (1871); "Memoir of Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe," and a full-page plate showing a portrait photo of Howe (1876); a portrait photo of superintendent Michael Anagnos (1906); fold-outs showing drawings of the new Watertown campus (1912); illustrations of noted blind individuals Belisarius, John Milton, William Hickling Prescott, and Valentin Haüy (1944); a brief history of the Perkins Brailler (1969); a list of Special Occasions, 1951-1971, and of New Building, 1953-1971 (1971). Title varies: Annual Report of the Trustees of the New-England Institution for the Education of the Blind (1836). Annual Report of the Trustees of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind (1846, issued January 1847). Annual Report . . . of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind (1893). Annual Report of Perkins School for the Blind (1956).
Creator: Perkins School for the Blind
Interview Date: / /
Administrative History: The Perkins School for the Blind was established in 1829 and opened in 1832 with Samuel Gridley Howe as its director. Classes were first held in the Boston home of Howe's father. A year later, the school moved to a larger home owned by Thomas Perkins, vice president and a trustee of the school. Originally called the New England Asylum for the Blind, the school was later named in Perkins' honor. From 1839-1912, the school was located in a large building in South Boston that had previously been a hotel. In 1839, a printing department was established in the school to produce embossed books. The Perkins School for the Blind moved to its current campus, located on the banks of the Charles River in Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1912.
Subjects: Annual reports Education -- Massachusetts Kindergartens Schools for the blind and visually impaired Workshops (Adult education)
Rights: Contact museum staff regarding reproduction.