Pauline Moor Collection

Pauline Moor (Polly) was born in Odell, Illinois on May 19, 1909. As a child, she lived in Northfield, MA and attended Northfield School for Girls for high school and graduated in 1927. She graduated from Smith College in 1931 and went on to earn a Master of Arts In Child Development, also from Smith College in 1940. She gained experience teaching kindergarten while she worked towards her graduate degree and became the Director of the Nursery School at the Hale House in Boston in 1934.

After graduation she continued to teach early childhood education before eventually joining a research program at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Hospital in Boston. There, she worked with Dr. Theodore Terry as his team’s Educator and Child Development Specialist. Her work with Dr. Terry led her to Perkins School for the Blind during the summer of 1945 when she directed a nursery program for children while their mothers attended a summer institute. While mothers attended lectures from psychologists, pediatricians, nursery school educators, and other experts, the children would play together, under the direction of Moor.  (She later became a member of the Corporation at Perkins.)

In 1952, she was hired by the American Foundation for the Blind as the National Consultant in Early Childhood. She became known as the national expert on blind preschool education and provided guidance for programs as they opened across the country. Her work help to “accelerate mainstreaming for blind children” (Bishop, 2005, 9).

She participated in and worked with numerous conferences and groups including the International Preschool Blind Seminar, the National Work Session on the Education of Blind with Sighted. She was also a member of the New England Association for Nursery Education.

Her work resulted in numerous publications including No Place to Go (1963), No Time to Lose (1968), and numerous articles and pamphlets. Her resources were used by educators, parents, and policy makers.

Following her retirement in June of 1974, she continued her work as a consultant and attended and participated in conferences. Moor died on August 6, 2004.