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Twentieth Annual Report Of The Trustees Of The Perkins Institution And Massachusetts Asylum For The Blind
IntroductionThe Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind in Boston, Massachusetts, was the first school for the blind in the United States. Like other state-funded schools for children with disabilities, the Perkins Institution excluded many potential students based on medical considerations and their perceived capacity to improve. Impoverished families also had to apply for a waiver of their child’s expenses, but the asylum became increasingly open to children from poor backgrounds, as this selection from the institution's annual report for 1852 shows. This excerpt also demonstrates superintendent Samuel Gridley Howe’s growing interest in questions of heredity. Over time, Howe became convinced that many cases of blindness reflected poor morals among pupils’ parents, reflecting the long Christian tradition of associating disability with sin. | ||||||||||
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| 1 | TERMS OF ADMISSION. | |
| 2 | YOUNG blind persons, of good moral character, can be admitted to the School by paying $160 per annum. This sum covers all expenses, except for clothing; namely, board, washing, medicines, the use of books, musical instruments, &c. The pupils must furnish their own clothing, and pay their own fares to and from the Institution. | |
| 3 | There is a vacation in the Spring, and another in the Autumn, The friends of the pupils can visit them whenever they choose. | |
| 4 | Indigent blind persons, of suitable age and character, belonging to Massachusetts, can be admitted gratuitously, by application to the Governor for a warrant. | |
| 5 | The following is a good form, though any other will do: | |
| 6 | -- "TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR: -- | |
| 7 | "SIR, -- My son, (or daughter, or nephew, or niece, as the case may be,) named A. B., and aged , cannot be instructed in the common schools for want of sight. I am unable to pay for the tuition at the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, and I request that your Excellency will grant a warrant for free admission. | |
| 8 | "Very respectfully, _____ _____." | |
| 9 | The application may be made by any relation or friend, if the parents are dead or absent. | |
| 10 | It should be accompanied by a certificate from one or more of the Selectmen of the town, or Aldermen of the city, in this form: -- | |
| 11 | "I hereby certify, that, in my opinion, Mr. _____ _____ is not a wealthy person, and that he cannot afford to pay $160 per annum for his child's instruction. | |
| 12 | (Signed,) "_____ _____." | |
| 13 | There should also be a certificate, signed by some regular physician, in this form: -- | |
| 14 | "I certify, that, in my opinion, _____ _____ has not sufficient vision to be taught in common schools; and that he is free from epilepsy, and from any contagious disease. | |
| 15 | (Signed,) "_____ _____." | |
| 16 | These papers should be done up together, and directed to "The Secretary of State, State-House, Boston, Mass." | |
| 17 | An obligation will be required from some responsible person, that the pupil shall be removed without expense to the Institution, whenever it may be desirable to discharge him. | |
| 18 | The usual period of tuition is from five to seven years. | |
| 19 | Indigent blind persons residing in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and South Carolina, by applying as above to the "Commissioners for the Blind," care of the Secretary of State in the respective States, can obtain warrants of free admission. | |
| 20 | For further particulars, address Dr. S. G. Howe, Director of the Institution for the Blind, Boston, Mass. | |
| 21 | The relations or friends of the blind who may be sent to the Institution are requested to furnish information in answer to the following questions: -- | |
| 22 | 1. What is the age of the applicant? | |
| 23 | 2. Where was he born? | |
| 24 | 3. Was he born blind? | |
| 25 | 4. If not born blind, at what age did he become so? | |
| 26 | 5. What is the supposed cause of the blindness? | |
| 27 | 6. Have there been any cases of blindness, or deafness, or insanity, in the family of the applicant, among his brothers and sisters, parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, or cousins? | |
| 28 | 7. Were his parents or grandparents affected with scrofula, in any form; with consumption; humors, such as salt-rheum; eruptions of any kind; or had they any peculiarity of bodily constitution whatever? | |
| 29 | 8. Were the parents or the grandparents of the applicant related to each other by blood? If so, in what degree? | |
