Sarah Lane collection

Creator:

Perkins School for the Blind

Date Range:

1871-1993

Call number:

AG38

Abstract:

Sarah Lane (1835-1934) held several positions at the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind (now Perkins School for the Blind), including housekeeper, librarian, and Treasurer of the Ladies Auxiliary Committee to the Kindergarten for the Blind. This collection contains corresondence, photographs, clippings, bound scrapbooks, and a book related to Lane’s work. The correspondence documents her friendships with Julia Ward Howe, Laura Bridgman, Helen Keller, and others.

Extent:

1 linear foot

Language:

English

Processed by:

Molly Stothert-Maurer; Scope/contents added by Susanna Coit, 2022.

Biographical/Historical notes:

Sarah Lane (1835-1934) held several positions at the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind (now Perkins School for the Blind), including housekeeper (1875-1880), librarian (1880-1911), and Treasurer of the Ladies Auxiliary Committee to the Kindergarten for the Blind (1895 to 1909).  She developed personal relationships with a number of significant people at Perkins, including Samuel Gridley Howe, Julia Ward Howe, Laura Bridgman, Michael Anagnos, Annie Sullivan, and Helen Keller.

Sources of information:

Tilton, Asa Currier (1934). “Sarah Elizabeth Lane”.

Restrictions:

None

Copyright:

It is the responsibility of the user to obtain permission to publish from the owner of the copyright (the institution, the creator of the record, the author or his/her transferees, heirs, legates, or literary executors). The user agrees to indemnify and hold harmless Perkins School for the Blind, its officers, employees, and agents from and against all claims made by any person asserting that he or she is an owner of copyright.

Credit line/Citation:

AG38 Sarah Lane Collection. Perkins School for the Blind Archives, Watertown, MA.

Scope/contents:

This collection contains corresondence, photographs, clippings, bound scrapbooks, and a book. The correspondence is to Sarah Lane from Julia Ward Howe, Frank B. Morris, and Willie Elizabeth Robin in 1906 as well as earlier letters from Laura Bridgman and Helen Keller among others. The photographs are of Sarah Lane at the South Boston Perkins campus. Topics include Thanksgiving (1863), the research library, the library, and the Howe Press and Library of Embossed Books.

Arrangement:

1 series, 4 boxes

Related collections:

AG118 Research Library Collection. Perkins School for the Blind Archives, Watertown, MA.

AG92 Laura M. Sawyer Papers. Perkins School for the Blind Archives, Watertown, MA.

Libraries Digital Collection on Flickr

Container List:

Box 1: 

Loose Items: items removed from bound volume in box 2: correspondence, clippings, photographs, lace, documents, 1863-1934

• B1:F1: Letter from Julia Ward Howe to Sarah Lane, 1906
• B1:F2: Letter from Frank. B. Morris to Sarah Lane, 1906
  • Letter from Willie Elizabeth Robin to Sarah Lane, 1906
• B1:F3: Photograph of S. Lane by window, note on back “Aunt Sarah Lane, Her room at Perkins Institution So. Boston, Mass. Daughter of David Lane, Aunt of F. E. Andrews”, n. d.
  • Photograph of tactile botany related objects, undated.
  • Photograph of S. Lane in museum of Perkins Institution for the Blind, undated.
  • Clipping: The Miracle of Laura Bridgman, by Richard Blaine McCornack, “New Hampshire Profiles.
  • Clipping: Helen Keller with Judge Bledsoe, undated.
• B1:F4: Clippings: Thanksgiving, 1863
• B1:F5: Letters to S. Lane from Laura Bridgman, 1888
• B1:F6: Letter to S. Lane from Helen Keller, 1880, 1891
• B1:F7: Pages with Boston Line Type, “Take care of the little blind children”, by S. Lane (S. E. L.), work requested by Anagnos for Julia Romana Anagnos tabled placed in the Kindergarten School, 2 copies, undated
  • Program “Dedication of the New Library Building”, 1892.
• B1:F8: Letter from Cora Currier Jilla [?] to Miss Andrews about biographical sketch of Sarah  Lane, 1934
  • Resolution in memory of S. Lane, 1934
• B1:F9: Correspondence fragment from vision-impaired author, undated
• B1:F10: Dedication of the Kindergarten for the Blind, program, 1887

Box 2:

Leather bound volume, embossed “S. E. Lane”. Mostly newspaper clippings about Perkins, the research library, Laura Bridgman and Helen Keller, some original correspondence from Helen Keller and Laura Bridgman, 1881-1920

Box 3:

Bound volume/scrapbook: “History of the Howe Memorial Press and Library of Embossed Books” by Sarah E. Lane, 1910-1911

Box 4:

Book: Perkins Institution Special Reference Library of Books Relating to the Blind, Sarah E. Lane, 1912. Handwritten journal with information about the library and some clippings and other ephemera pasted in. Circulation card on inside back cover.

Provenance:

Unknown

Subject Headings:

• Perkins School for the Blind
• Perkins School for the Blind–History.
• South Boston (Boston, Mass.)–History.
• Libraries and the blind
• Libraries
• Librarians