Type Writing Department, The Royal Normal College for the Blind, England
Type Writing Department, The Royal Normal College for the Blind, England
Item Information
Title:
Type Writing Department, The Royal Normal College for the Blind, England
Description:
A photograph of the business office of the type writing department at The Royal Normal College for the Blind in Upper Norwood, England. Seven women are seated at desks, preparing typewritten documents. One woman appears to be reading out loud to the rest of the room from a book. Three of the women are brailling on shorthand writers. Long stretches of narrow white paper cascade off three of the desks and into waste paper baskets placed nearby. There is a man in the back of the room, reading a note. He is seated beneath a sign tacked to the wall that reads: "Typewriting done here, author's manuscripts, plays & parts copied, balance sheets, tabulated statements, etc., etc., mimeograph and duplicate work a specialty, estimates given". When Sir Francis Campbell was in America in 1875, typewriters were just coming into general use. He at once realized that the machine would be of great use in the higher education of the blind, and in the report for that year, expressed the belief that it would furnish remunerative employment for blind girls. At first, typewriting was taught only to the pupils whose circumstances offered a prospect of their entrance into the office of some relative, but subsequently it was made a class subject, as it was found useful to senior students for notes of lessons, compositions and other work. It was not until a system of shorthand, and a machine for writing it was created, that typewriting for the blind became practical as a means for employment. The typewriting department was under the direction of Mr. H.D. Black, who added an advanced course to the curriculum, which included tabulating, duplicating and other copying, other specifications and the knowledge of the routine requirements of a commercial house.
Samuel P. Hayes Research Library, Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown, MA
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Notes (acquisition):
Accession: Prepared by and presented to Perkins Institution for the Blind by Lady Francis Campbell in memory of two pleasant years (1870-1872), spent in that Institution as teacher.
IIIF Manifest