The pioneer in the education of the blind, and deafblind in the United States: Samuel Gridley Howe (1801-1876)

Abstract

Samuel Gridley Howe is one of the most influential intellectuals in the history of education for the blind and deafblind in the United States. Responsible for directing the first North American institute founded in 1829, now the Perkins School for the Blind, Howe created a typography for printing books with raised letters, edited teaching materials for the education of the blind, and developed the method of teaching the deafblind. A young doctor, he engaged in philanthropy and politics to defend education, people with disabilities, and enslaved people. Sources range from the theoretical-methodological contributions of Jean-François Sirinelli to the study of intellectuals, personal correspondence, newspapers, periodicals, and institute reports. In this article, we present an analysis of this intellectual’s trajectory and educational ideas, whose development led to the creation of a new ideology regarding the education of the blind and deafblind in the 19th century.