Annotated and Abridged Artifact
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Acts And Resolves Relating To The Institution For The Blind
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Abridged Text | ||
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| 1 | 1828. | |
| 2 | ACTS, chap. 113. Incorporation, March 2. (Abstract thereof.) | |
| 3 | Sect. 1. Incorporating Jonathan Phillips, William Prescott, and others, as the New England Asylum for the Blind. | |
| 4 | Sect. 2. Authorizing them to hold property for the maintenance of the Asylum, the income thereof not to exceed $30,000. | |
| 5 | Sect. 3. Providing for the admission of State beneficiaries, not to exceed thirty, the same to be selected by the legislature, or some officer thereto appointed. [1 »] | |
| 6 | Sect. 4. Twelve trustees to have charge of the Asylum; eight of them to be chosen by the Corporation, and four by the Board of Visitors. | |
| 7 | Sect. 5. The Corporation to appoint officers, and make regulations for the management of the Asylum. | |
| 8 | Sect. 6. The Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, President of the Senate, and Speaker of the House, with the Chaplains of the Legislature, to constitute a Board of Visitors. | |
| 9 | Sect. 7. The State to pay for its beneficiaries at the rate fixed by the Corporation for other inmates. | |
| 10 | Sect. 8. Authorizing change of name, when deemed expedient. | |
| 11 | Sect. 9. Provision for calling first meeting. | |
| 12 | 1830. [2 »] | |
| 13 | RESOLVES, chap. 81. Allowing the unexpended balance of the appropriation for the deaf and dumb to be paid to the New England Asylum for the Blind the current year, and from time to time thereafter, upon the Governor's warrant, unless other disposition thereof be made by the General Court. | |
| 14 | 1831. [3 »] | |
| 15 | Institution organized under direction of Sam'l G. Howe. | |
| 16 | 1833. [4 »] | |
| 17 | RESOLVES, chap. 28. $6,000 to be paid annually, during the pleasure of the legislature: provided, that in consideration of this and former grants, (i.e., of the unexpended balance of the deaf and dumb appropriation,) the Asylum shall care for twenty poor persons belonging to the State, to be selected by the Governor and Council, and to be dismissed from the Asylum by them, -- the State beneficiaries not to be under six nor over twenty-four years old. | |
| 18 | RESOLVES, chap. 36. Giving the power of selection of State beneficiaries to the Governor alone. | |
| 19 | 1847. | |
| 20 | RESOLVES, chap. 49. Allowing $9,000 annually, on condition that the Asylum shall receive forty State beneficiaries, if so many shall be recommended, in accordance with the Resolves of 1833, chaps. 28 and 36. All previous grants repealed. | |
| 21 | 1849. [5 »] | |
| 22 | RESOLVES, chap. 77. Appropriating $5,000 for a work-shop for adults provided the Asylum add thereto a like sum, and any other sums that may be necessary to complete the building. | |
| 23 | 1855. | |
| 24 | RESOLVES, chap. 62. Increasing the annual appropriation to $12,000, commencing April 1, 1855. | |
| 25 | 1861. | |
| 26 | RESOLVES, chap. 51. Appropriating $3,000 in addition to the regular amount, ($12,000,) provided the trustees admit all such persons as the Governor may designate, and educate them gratuitously. | |
| 27 | 1862-63. | |
| 28 | RESOLVES, chap. 84, 1862, and chap. 65, 1863, repeat the preceding grant. | |
| 29 | 1864. | |
| 30 | RESOLVES, chap. 56. Increasing the annual appropriation from $12,000 to $16,000, provided that the trustees shall receive and gratuitously educate all such indigent persons, or the children of indigent persons, as the Governor may designate, and that no charge shall be made to the Commonwealth for clothing furnished to State beneficiaries. | |
| 31 | ACTS, chap. 96. The Governor to annually appoint four trustees, who shall hold office one year, or until their successors are appointed. Vacancies occurring by death or resignation to be filled by the Governor. Such portion of chap. 113 of the Acts of 1828, as authorizes the appointment of trustees by a Board of Visitors, is repealed. This Act not to take effect until accepted by the Corporation, at a meeting to be called for that purpose. | |
Annotations
1. State beneficiaries were children whose families could not afford to pay full tuition; some families paid partial tuition.
2. In 1830, the asylum’s trustees convinced Massachusetts legislators to grant the asylum any unspent funds from the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut. These funds amounted to roughly $1400 per year, which enabled the trustees to hire Samuel Gridley Howe in 1831, finance a trip to observe teaching methods in Europe, and establish an experimental program for six blind children in 1832.
3. For several months during 1831, Howe visited schools for the blind in England, France, and Germany to study their teaching methods. He returned with two experienced teachers of the blind who were themselves blind.
4. This $6,000 annual grant was the asylum’s first direct appropriation from the Massachusetts legislature.
5. The work-shop provided employment to the many graduates who could not find well-paid work in the increasingly mechanized economy and who wrote Howe in desperation, begging to be allowed to return to work at the asylum. Howe intended for the workshop to enable graduates to improve their skills at making items such as mattresses and cushions before transitioning to the mainstream workforce.
