Missouri School for the Blind history

1809 Louis Braille is born in Coupvray, France.

1817 The American Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf (now the American School for the Deaf) in Hartford, Connecticut, the first educational program for exceptional children and youths, is formally established in the United States with Rev.

1823 The first state school for the deaf is established in Kentucky.

1827 James Gall publishes First Book for Teaching the Art of Reading to the Blind, the first English-language work in raised type.

1829 The first United States patent for a typewriter is issued.

1831 The New York Institution for the Education of the Blind (now the New York Institute for Special Education) is incorporated.

1832 The first students are accepted at the Perkins School for the Blind and the New York Institution for the Blind.

1833 Gospel of St Mark, the first book in raised print in the United States, is printed in Philadelphia.

1835 Acts of the Apostles is the first book embossed in Boston Line Type, a tactile code developed by Samuel Gridley Howe.

1839 A state-supported normal school for training general education teachers is started in Lexington, Massachusetts.

1847 Doctor Robert Moon develops his raised-line type, referred to as Moon Type.

Eli William Whelan arrived in St Louis in fall 1850.

Their accomplishments persuaded the legislature to authorize the founding of “The Missouri Institution for the Education of the Blind.” The school’s inaugural date was February 27, 1851.

1854 France officially adopts braille as a reading mode for people who are blind.

1858 The Kentucky legislature establishes the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) as an offshoot of the Kentucky School for the Blind.

In 1866 at the Missouri School for the Blind, nine girl students decided to form “The Blind Girls’ Industrial Band,” with the goal of establishing a permanent residence for worthy blind girls.

1868 William B. Wait develops the New York Point raised-dot system at the New York Institution for the Blind.

By 1870, however, enrollment reached 125 and the school had outgrown these accommodations.

1871 The first pamphlet on braille music notation is published.

1873 The first Congress of Teachers of the Blind is held in Vienna.

1878 Joel W. Smith at the Perkins School for the Blind develops the American raised-point system, modeled closely on braille, which becomes the foundation for American braille.

Beginning in 1879, this rule was changed and only the superintendent and matron (housekeeper/ supervisor) were required to live on campus.

1880 Anne Sullivan enters the Perkins School for the Blind.

1887 Anne Sullivan gives Helen Keller, age 7, an understanding of language.

1888 The International Congress for Standardization of Braille Music Notation is held in Cologne, Germany.

L.L. parted ways with his brothers in 1890 and founded the L.L. Culver Manufacturing Company.

He reorganized in 1891 as the Majestic Manufacturing Company and served as president.

1892 Frank Hall and Gustav A. Sieber develop the braillewriter, the first mechanical device for writing braille.

1895 The American Blind People's Higher Education and General Improvement Association (later the American Association of Workers for the Blind) is founded.

1898 Alexander Graham Bell states: "Handicapped children have a right to an education in the public school."

L.L. Culver died in 1899, leaving Mary to carry on his many charitable endeavors.

1900 Wisconsin and Michigan authorize subsidies for the excess cost of classes for students who are deaf in public schools, the first financial support for any children with disabilities.

1903 The Story of My Life, by Helen Keller, is published.

By 1905, the corporate name of the organization was the “Blind Girls Home.”

1908 The first class for "high myopes" begins in London.

1909 Robert B. Irwin organizes braille reading classes in Cleveland public schools.

1912 Students who are blind in public day-school classes become eligible to receive APH materials.

1913 The Uniform Type Committee recommends a system based on British braille.

1915 The National Society for the Prevention of Blindness (NSPB) is founded.

1918 The University of California offers the first university preparation course for teachers of students who are blind.

1920 Barr, Stroud, and Fournier d'Albe patent the optophone, the first reading machine for people who are blind, which translates printed letters into musical tones.

1921 The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is founded.

1923 APH expands its tangible apparatus facilities.

When Mary Culver died at the age of 84 in 1925, she bequeathed a total of $1,275,000—an enormous sum for the day—to the following organizations:

1927 Frank Dyer patents his process for producing long-playing records.

1928 The crusade begins to eliminate ophthalmia neonatorum by putting silver nitrate in newborn babies' eyes.

1929 The Seeing Eye, the first dog guide school in the United States, is incorporated.

1930 The National Institute for the Blind introduces a high-speed rotary press for embossed type.

1932 AFB develops Talking Books, long-playing records and playback machines.

1933 APH adopts Standard English Braille Grade 2 for junior and senior high school textbooks.

1934 The American Medical Association (AMA) defines legal blindness.

1935 Columbia University starts a year-round program for teachers of students who are blind at Teachers College.

1936 APH produces recorded material.

1938 AAIB sets up its teacher certification program.

1939 Visagraph, a device that produces raised print or diagrams, is demonstrated at the World's Fair by Robert E. Naumburg.

1941 The growing incidence of visual impairments in premature infants, later identified as retrolental fibroplasia (RLF), is noted in infants.

1942 The first textbook on children with low vision, Education and Health of the Partially Sighted Child by Winifred Hathaway, is published.

1945 The National Braille Association is established.

1947 The Perkins Brailler, an improvement over older methods, is designed and developed by David Abraham of Howe Press.

1950 Blindness: Modern Approaches to the Unseen Environment, by Paul Zahl is published.

1951 First issue of the International Journal for the Education of the Blind (now Education of the Visually Handicapped) is published by AAIB.

1953 Father Thomas Carroll holds the Gloucester Conference to define the role and training of mobility instructors.

1954 The Pine Brook Report (from AFB) identifies different educational options for students who are blind or visually impaired and the type of teacher preparation required.

1956 The Subnormal Vision Clinic (later called the Low Vision Center) is established at the Maryland Workshop for the Blind.

1957 The thermoform machine is developed to reproduce raised-line diagrams or graphics.

1959 The American Optometric Association establishes the Committee on Aid to the Partially Sighted.

1961 Father Thomas Carroll publishes Blindness: What It Is, What It Does and How to Live With It.

1962 The concept of the instructional materials centers is formulated through the recommendations of a presidential task force.

1963 Computers are adapted to produce braille outputs.

1965 Samuel C. Ashcroft, Carol Halliday, and Natalie Barraga replicate Barraga's original study on visual efficiency.

1967 San Francisco State University and Florida State University establish the first programs to train mobility instructors of children.

1968 Helen Keller dies.

1969 The Making of Blind Men, A Study of Adult Socialization, by Robert Scott, is published by the Russell Sage Foundation.

1970 Eleanor E. Faye's book, The Low Vision Patient: Clinical Experience with Adults and Children, is published.

1971 "Blindness and Services to the Blind in the United States: A Report of the Subcommittee on Rehabilitation, National Institution on Neurological Diseases and Blindness" is published by the Organization for Social and Technical Innovation.

1972 Western Michigan University institutes the first required course on low vision as part of its program for preparing O&M personnel.

*Much of this history was modified from the booklet, Mary E. Culver, written by her great grandniece Betty Anna Howland in 1973.

1975 The first microcomputer is developed.

1976 Raymond C. Kurzweil develops the Kurzweil Reader, a prototype translator of printed material into synthesized speech.

1977 The White House Conference on Handicapped Individuals is held.

1979 The American Council of Blind Parents is formed by ACB.

1980 The National Association of Parents of the Visually Impaired (NAPVI) is established.

1981 Viewscan, a reading aid, and the Viewscan Text System (VTS) are developed.

1983 Vision Research: A National Plan: 1983–87, is published by the National Eye Institute and includes a panel on low vision.

1984 AAWB and AEVH merge as the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of Blind and Visually Impaired (AERBVI).

The board honored her legacy publically by adopting the name “The Mary Culver Home for the Visually Impaired” in 1993.

1997 The second edition of Foundations of Orientation and Mobility, edited by Bruce B. Blasch, William R. Wiener, and Richard L. Welsh, is published by AFB.