By the time Helen Keller arrived at the Perkins Institution in the 1880s, the school had changed its name and location a few times. Today, it is known as the Perkins School for the Blind, but its mission of working with children with vision disabilities remains just strong as when it opened nearly 190 years ago.
In the 1830s, the United States was still a young country. Unlike today, not everyone had access to a public education, but some people recognized the value of making an education available to all citizens. Those forward-thinking Americans looked to Europe, where schools had been founded specifically for people who were blind. A few dedicated people decided to introduce those European concepts in the United States.
Dr. John Dix Fisher and Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe led the effort. The two Massachusetts men had been classmates at Brown University and Harvard Medical School. Fisher was a soft-spoken Boston physician and reformer. While studying medicine in Paris, he had visited France’s Royal (National) Institute for Blind Youth. He convinced some prominent Bostonians to charter a similar school in the city in 1829. The New England Asylum for the Blind officially opened in 1832.
This story is from the March 2017 edition of Cobblestone American History Magazine for Kids.
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This story is from the March 2017 edition of Cobblestone American History Magazine for Kids.
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Eye in the Sky
An interview with Joe Piotrowski
Airborne Animals
Humans have taken to the skies in balloons, gliders, and airplanes-but we're not alone among the clouds. Animals of all sorts have evolved to harness wind power.
TAKING OFF
The Wright brothers expected airplanes to “take off,” but even they might be amazed at the way the airline industry has become big business. In the past, it was expensive to send something by plane.
GROWTH OF AN INDUSTRY
After their historic flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright returned to Dayton, Ohio. They spent the next few years making adjustments and building additional versions of their powered aircraft in their bicycle shop.
WHY KITTY HAWK?
The Wright brothers searched carefully for the best place to test their gliders and flying machines. Their main concern was for good, steady winds. But they also hoped to find a remote location to allow them to perform tests away from the public eye.
Two Brothers From Ohio
Most people do not realize that the Wright brothers—Wilbur, born in 1867, and Orville, born in 1871—performed various scientific experiments before inventing their aircraft. For as long as anyone in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio, could remember, the Wright boys had worked on mechanical projects.
A Helping Hand
May 6, 1896. A group of people who had gathered beside the Potomac River, just south of the U.S. capital, grew quiet. Then, it erupted in cheers as a small, unmanned aircraft took to the skies and flew for more than half a mile. The flight came seven years before the Wright brothers’ first manned, powered flight. The inventor of the aircraft was Dr. Samuel Pierpont Langley.
THE IDEA MEN
People dreamed of flying thousands of years before the Wright brothers found success near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. These dreamers, such as Leonardo da Vinci, studied birds flying and imagined how humans might do the same—if only they had wings. Other men developed a more hands-on approach to the topic. Early inventors made wings of cloth, glue, and feathers and tied these creations to their arms in an attempt to imitate nature.
Da Vinci's 4 Designs
Have you ever wondered how a bird flies? Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) did. He thought that understanding how a bird flies would provide the key to human flight. So, what did da Vinci learn from birds?
Silken Wings
Seven hundred years before the Wright brothers began experimenting with human flight, the Chinese had already mastered its secrets—with kites.
