Service

Overview

The Perkins Archives program

The Perkins Archives program supports the mission of Perkins and the Samuel P. Hayes Research Library by preserving and providing access to its historical records and collections.

Perkins archivists care for a wide variety of materials, including photographs, documents, tactile objects, films, audio recordings and books–in both print and braille. The collection is local, national and international in scope. Through archival practices and preservation efforts—particularly digitization—the Perkins Archives continues to make its collections available and accessible to the public.

history

A legacy of knowledge

Perkins pioneered the work of educating students who are blind and deafblind. The first school for the blind chartered in the United States, Perkins has remained a leader in the field for nearly 180 years. The Perkins Archives document both the evolution of these fields of knowledge and of the gradual inclusion of people with visual impairments into mainstream society.

Many of the discoveries and achievements that fueled those changes occurred at Perkins—the first child with deafblindness to be formally educated, the first kindergarten for children who are blind, one of the first mechanical writing devices and the first lending library of tactile books.

No other American institution is as closely connected to these changes as Perkins. Thanks to institutional collecting practices begun in the 19th century, Perkins Archives holds and makes available unique collections that are essential in tracing the arc of that development all over the world.