War Blind collection

Creator:

Edward Ellis Allen; Perkins School for the Blind

Date Range:

1914-1949, bulk 1916-1926

Call Number:

AG63

Abstract:

Materials related to soldiers blinded or disabled in World War I in the United States, France, and Italy and the organizations, government agencies, and schools involved in their care, education, and vocational training. Correspondence collection of Edward E. Allen between Winifred Holt Mather, founder of Lighthouse International, and individuals in the Veterans Bureau, Red Cross Institution for the Blind, the Lighthouse of France, Committee for Men Blinded in Battle, St. Dunstan’s in London, and American British French and Belgian Permanent Blind Relief War Fund. Includes postcard collections, and publications and clippings in addition to correspondence and other writings.

Extent:

3 linear feet

Language:

English; French; Italian

Processed by:

Molly Stothert-Maurer, 2013, Box 4, clay jar added 2024.

Biographical/Historical notes:

Edward E. Allen was the second director of the Perkins School for the Blind from 1907-1931. In 1920, working with Harvard College, he created the first training program for teachers of students who were blind. He was an early proponent of braille and revolutionized the physical education programs for students at Perkins. Allen was previously director at Overbrook School for the Blind in Pennsylvania and supervised major campus construction projects at both Perkins and Overbrook. 

Winifred Holt Mather is the founder of Lighthouse International (previously New York Association for the Blind). She dedicated her life to aiding the blind, especially during World War I. She is the author of The Light Which Cannot Fail: True Stories of Heroic Blind Men and Women and a Handbook for the Blind and their Friends, published in 1922. She studied sculpture under Augustus Saint-Gaudens. Among her work is a profile relief portrait of Helen Keller.

Restrictions:

The Perkins Archives reserves the right to deny physical access to materials available in a digital format. 

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:

AG63 War Blind Collection. Perkins School for the Blind Archives, Watertown, MA.

Scope/contents:

Contains correspondence, postcards, publications, clippings, and other writings related to soldiers who were blinded or disabled in World War I in the United States, France, and Italy. Material also covers the organizations, government agencies, and schools that were involved in their care, educational, and vocational training. Includes correspondence collected by Edward E. Allen between Winifred Holt Mather, founder of Lighthouse International, and individuals in the Veterans Bureau, Red Cross Institution for the Blind, the Lighthouse of France, Committee for Men Blinded in Battle, St. Dunstan’s in London, and American British French and Belgian Permanent Blind Relief War Fund.

Arrangement:

• Series 1: Winifred Holt Mather Correspondence, 1916-1927
  • Subseries 1: Correspondence from Winifred Holt Mather to Edward Ellis Allen, 1916-1927, undated  
  • Subseries 2: Correspondence to Winifred Holt Mather, 1916-1925, undated
• Series 2: Correspondence from government agencies to Edward E. Allen, and others, 1916-1924 
• Series 3 Correspondence from schools and organizations for the blind to Edward E. Allen, 1917-1924
• Series 4: Projects, writings, research, 1914-1925
• Series 5: Red Cross Institute for the Blind, Baltimore, MD, 1918-1920
• Series 6: French War Blind, 1916-1926
• Series 7: Clippings and Publications, 1914-1925, 1949

Related collections:

AG1 Edward E. Allen Collection. Perkins School for the Blind Archives, Watertown, MA.
War Blind and Propaganda Poster Collection on Flickr
Winifred Holt Mather Correspondence on Flickr
French War Blind Collection on Flickr

War Blind: Scrapbook of Clippings

Container List:

Series 1: Winifred Holt Mather Correspondence

Subseries 1: Correspondence from Winifred Holt Mather to Edward Ellis Allen, 1916-1927, undated 

On letterhead from American Committee for Men Blinded in Battle, Committee for Men Blinded in Battle, Comitato Italo-Americano per La Protezione Dei Ciechi E La Prevenzione Della Cecita, Roma, The New York Association for the Blind, Le Phare du France. Some marked “personal”, or “confidential”. Allen is sometimes addressed as “Father Confessor”, and “Brother Confessor”. Some of the letters have an illustration of an elephant which incorporates Holt Mather’s’ initials “W. H. M.”.

• B1:F1: Undated, 4 letters
• B1:F2: 1916, 1 letter
• B1:F3: 1920, 1 letter
• B1:F4: 1923, 10 letters
• B1:F5: 1924, 12 letters 
• B1:F6: 1925, 5 letters 
• B1:F7: 1926, 2 letters
• B1:F8: 1927, 3 letters

Subseries 2: Correspondence to Winifred Holt Mather, 1916-1925, undated

Mostly transcript copies, with a few originals, of correspondence Holt Mather forwarded to Edward E. Allen. 

• B1:F9: Osmin Lagarde, Adjudent au 126eme Rgt. D’Infanterie, 1916
  • Elizabeth Potter (copy), 1919
  • Warren G. Harding (copy), 1922
  • Jusserand, Ambassade de France a Washington (copies), 1922, 1923
  • Louise [dee Sehury Lem], 1923
  • Edward E. Allen, Perkins School for the Blind, 2 letters (one original one copy), 1923
  • Calvin Coolidge (copy), 1923
  • Levi Duranton (copy), 1924
  • Elihu Root (copy), 1925
  • Thomas Brady, undated 

Series 2: Correspondence from government agencies to Edward E. Allen, 1916-1924 

• B1:F10: Military Hospitals Commission: O. H. Buritt, Dr. James J. Dow (copies), Captain Ian Fraser, [Libono] Delfino, Salesroom and Exchange for the Blind, Philadelphia (copy), 1916-1918
• B1:F11: Council on National Defense: Franklin Martin, Major James Bordley, 1917
• B1:F12: United States Veterans Bureau: R. I Rees, E. F. Tandy, 1922, 1924
• B1:F13: Federal Board for Vocational Education: Lamkin, Arthur E. Holmes, Joseph E. Vance, L. S. Hawkins, O. H. Burritt, Charles F. F. Campbell, Harold Molter, David Soloan, Normal College, Truro, Nova Scotia, 1919-1921
• B1:F14: Harold Molter: Hospital #7 Baltimore, Federal Board for Vocational Education, Edwin L. Gardiner, 1918-1920
• B1:F15: War Department Office of Surgeon General, James Bordley: O. H. Burritt, Mrs. F. Boylston Pelo, A. B. F. B., George E. Vincent, Rockefeller Foundation, 1918-1920

Series 3 Correspondence from schools and organizations for the blind to Edward E. Allen, 1917-1924

• B1:F16: The Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind, Overbrook, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, O. H. Burritt, 1917-1919
• B1:F17: School for the Blind Vienna, Austria: Wilhelm Kreuzer, Dr. Jos. Haringer, A. M. Sleninger, 1918-1920
• B1:F18: ABFB, American British French and Belgian Permanent Blind Relief War Fund: Lucy Wright, Richard S. Lovering,  L. M. Moral, J. de Malarte, Mrs. R. Valentine Webster, Cora Parsons Kessler, Mrs. F. Boylston Pelo, E. M. House, Mrs. J. P. Frank, 1917
• B1:F19: The Committee for Men Blinded in Battle: Virginia M. Cain, E. P. Dutton & Co., Mrs. James Roosevelt, Winifred Holt Mather, Margaret Prosser, 1923-1924
• B1:F20: New York Institute for the Blind: Edward M. Van Cleve, 1918-1919
• B1:F21: St. Dunstan’s: After-Care Department for Blinded Soldiers & Sailors/ Blinded Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Hostel, Ian Fraser, 1918
• B1:F22: correspondence, 1917
• B1:F23: correspondence, 1918
• B1:F24: correspondence, rehabilitation, 1919-1921
• B1:F25: correspondence, 1921-1923

Series 4: Projects, writings, research, 1914-1925

• B2:F26: Edward E. Allen papers, research, 1917-1923
• B2:F27: Statement: Activities and Finance Work, Winifred Holt Mather and Rufus Graves Mather, undated
• B2:F28: “Statement 2”, excerpt recounting disagreements between persons labeled “A”, “P”, “B”, unsigned, undated
• B2:F29: Writings, papers, lectures by Winifred Holt Mather, and transcripts of news items, 1920-1925, undated
• B2:F30: “A Unit for the Education of Blind in Russia”, with 2 photographs, undated 
• B2:F31: Holt Mather bio written by Allen, 1924 and bio written by Holt Mather, undated
• B2:F32: Bibliography WWI, Perkins Library, Library of Congress, and Canadian Free Library for the Blind, 1914-1919

Series 5: Red Cross Institute for the Blind, Baltimore, MD, 1918-1920

• B2:F33: Postcards, Charles F. F. Campbell, 1919-1920
• B2:F34: Manual of After-care of Disabled Soldiers, Department of Civilian Relief, 1918
• B2:F35: Correspondence, to Allen and others from O. H. Burritt, James Boardley, Charles F. F. Campbell, and L. W. Wallace, 1918-1920

Series 6: French War Blind, 1916-1926

• B2:F36: Correspondence, 1917-1926
• B2:F37: Mailer and speech transcript from Helen Keller, undated
• B2:F38:  The New England Committee for French Soldiers Blinded in Battle, 1917-1925
• B2:F39: American Fund for French Wounded, 1918
• B2:F40: The Lighthouse of France, postcards, 1917
• B2:F41: The Lighthouse of France, postcards, photographs, pamphlets, mailers, circa 1916, undated
• B2:F42: Les Amis des Soldats Aveugles, Maison de Convalescence de Reuilly, Paris, France, circa 1916
• B4: Clay jar made by blinded French soldier at the Lighthouse, Paris, presented by Winifred Holt, 1916 [inscription on bottom,”Modele et Decarte par M. Francois”]

Series 7: Clippings and Publications, 1914-1925, 1949

• B2:F43-B3:F7: Pamphlet and flyers: Winifred Holt Mather, Committee for Men Blinded in Battle, France, Italy, 1915-1925, 1949 
• B3:F8-F9: Publications and clippings, 1914-1916
• B3:F10-F13: Publications and clippings, 1917
• B3:F14-F16: Publications and clippings, 1918
• B3:F17-F20: Publications and clippings, 1919-1920
• B3:F21: Publications and clippings, 1921-1925
• B3:F22: Publications and clippings, St. Dunstan’s, 1916-1919
• B3:F23: Publications and clippings, Evergreen, 1918, 1920
• B3:F24: Publications and clippings, The Vocational Summary, Federal Board for Vocational Education, 1918-1920
• B3:F25: Publications and clippings, The New Red Cross Magazine, 1918-1919
• B3:F26: Publications and clippings, The Red Cross Bulletin, 1919-1921
• B3:F27: Publications and clippings, Red Cross, includes annual reports, 1918-1923
• B3:F28: Red Cross Institute for the Blind, Abstract-Catalogue of Literatue on the War Blind, 1919, and Toiling Through the Dark, 1919
• B3:F29-31: Publication series: Red Cross Institute for the Blind and for Crippled and Disabled Men, 1918
• B3:F32: Monographs: “Recalled to Life. A Journal devoted to the Care, Re-education, and Return to Civil Life of Disabled Sailors and Soldiers”, 1917, and “The American National Red Cross”, 1923
• B3:F33-42: Newspaper clippings, 1914-1925

Subject headings:

• Holt, Winifred, 1870-1945
• Allen, Edward E. (Edward Ellis), 1861-1950
• Veterans–Blind.
• Perkins School for the Blind.
• Perkins School for the Blind–History.
• Lighthouse International
• Committee for Men Blinded in Battle (U.S.)
• St. Dunstan’s (Organization)