Imperial Royal Institute for the Education of the Blind, Vienna

Unknown artist

A collection of photographs of students, teachers, educational methods, buildings, and workshops at the Imperial Royal Institute for the Education of the Blind, Vienna (K.K. Blinden-Erziehungs-Institut, Wien). The school was founded in 1804 by Johann Wilhelm Klein, known as &quot;The Father of the Blind&quot; in Austria. The photographs in this collection were taken by Alexander Mell (1850-1931) who was the director of the school at the time. Mell had a close relationship with Perkins throughout his life. When Perkins&#39; second director, Michael Anagnos, visited Vienna and saw Mell&#39;s outstanding library devoted to material about the blind, he returned to America intent on starting a collection at Perkins. In 1880, the &quot;Blindiana Library&quot; was formed--now the Samuel P. Hayes Research Library. In the coming years a number of duplicate copies of books that were in the collection in Vienna were obtained. This proved to be very fortunate because Mell&#39;s collection was almost completely destroyed by the Nazis during World War II leaving only a few copies of these books, many of them in the Perkins collection (The Lantern, Winter, 1980). Many of Perkins&#39; science models and prints in the Blind in Art Collection were also purchased from Mell.<br/><br/><strong>Additional Information:</strong><br/>Visit <a href="http://www.perkins.org/history/archives" target="_blank">perkins.org/archives</a> for more information about the Perkins Archives.<br/><br/>Rights and Permissions: Use of the images from the collection of <a href="http://www.perkins.org" target="_blank">Perkins School for the Blind</a> requires written permission. For more information, please visit <a href="http://www.perkins.org/image-licensing" target="_blank">perkins.org/image-licensing</a> or contact the Archivist at archives@perkins.org<br/>&nbsp;