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Perkins School for the Blind, in Watertown, Massachusetts, is the oldest school for the blind in the United States. It has also been known as the Perkins Institution for the Blind. The Perkins mission is to prepare children and young adults who are blind with the education, tools and skills they need to realize their potential. Perkins manufactures its own Perkins brailler and braille teaching tool, the Perkins SMART Brailler®, at the Perkins Solutions division housed within the Watertown campus's former Howe Press, which is used to print embossed, tactile books for the blind. ==History== Founded in 1829, Perkins was the first school for the blind established in the United States. The school was originally named the New England Asylum for the Blind and was incorporated on March 2, 1829. The name was eventually changed to Perkins School For the Blind. John Dix Fisher first considered the idea of a school for blind children based upon his visits to Paris at the National Institute for the Blind and was inspired to create such a school in Boston.〔French, Kimberly. Perkins School for the Blind. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2004. Print. Page 7.〕 The school is named in honor of Thomas Handasyd Perkins, one of the organization's incorporators and a Boston shipping merchant who began losing his sight at the time of establishment. In 1833, the school outgrew the Pleasant Street house of the father of its founder Samuel Gridley Howe, and Perkins donated his Pearl Street mansion as the school's second home. In 1839, Perkins sold the mansion and donated the proceeds. This gift allowed the purchase of a more spacious building in South Boston. In 1885, were purchased in the Hyde Square section of Jamaica Plain, a residential district of Boston, to build a kindergarten. This property was home to both Laura Bridgman and Helen Keller. The school moved to its present campus, in Watertown, Massachusetts, in the autumn of 1912. Charles Dickens visited Perkins in 1842 during a lecture tour of America and was amazed at the work Howe was doing with Laura Bridgman, a deaf-blind girl who had come to the school in 1837 from New Hampshire. He wrote about his visit in his book, ''American Notes''. In 1887, Perkins director Michael Anagnos sent graduate Anne Sullivan to teach Helen Keller in Alabama. After working with her pupil at the Keller home, Sullivan returned to Perkins with Keller in 1888 and resided there intermittently until 1893. In 1931, Perkins Braille and Talking Book Library (BTBL) was created. In 1951, David Abraham successfully produced the first Perkins Brailler. By 1977, about 100,000 Perkins Braillers had been produced and distributed worldwide. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Perkins School for the Blind」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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