[Blindtlk] sense of the world

[Lloyd Rasmussen]

Greetings from another person who strayed from Iowa.

In Dr. Jernigan's 1973 speech, entitled "Blindness: is History Against Us",
he was quoting from a book called "Biography of the Blind" by James Wilson.
Wilson was a blind person who collected stories of many famous blind people
and published this book in 1820.  Biography of the Blind is available in the
NLS collection, I think.  Dr. Jernigan's speech is also worth reading.  One
place I found it is:
  http://www.blind.net/pba1973.htm

Have a good weekend.

Lloyd Rasmussen, Kensington, Maryland
Home:  http://lras.home.sprynet.com
Work:  http://www.loc.gov/nls
 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Kathleen Millhoff
> Sent: Saturday, May 02, 2009 9:34 AM
> To: blindtlk at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [Blindtlk] sense of the world
> 
> Hi,
> This is me, Kat, and I used to write to this list from another
> address; since resubscribing a few months ago with my newer address,
> I've read much but written little. However, something occurred that I
> wanted to share.
> I've just read, via NLS recording, "A Sense of the World", about a
> 19th century blind man named James Holman (guessing at spelling) whose
> preoccupation was traveling alone all over the world. He wrote
> numerous books about his travels, and wa famous in his day.  His
> fortunes diminished as he grew older, but later explorers were
> inspired by his descriptions of things, including his involvement and
> actions. He went on elephant hunts and any number of amazing things.
> The book doesn't clarify how he managed many things. I know readers
> wouldn't have wanted an O&M manual, but each time we read that he did
> something, I found myself wondering how - I, who take long periods of
> time just to navigate the grocery store, and one I'm familiar with, at
> that, would have managed things like finding the ship to get on,
> cashing in tickets, locating lodging and much more.
> At the end of the book, the author returns to a consideration of how
> little in the way of schooling and work there was for the early 19th
> century blind person.  Then he goes on to say that Dr. Jernigan talked
> about "the blind traveler" as he was known at the NFB convention in
> 1970, suggesting that  this was one of the blind heroes of history (my
> words and phrasing). I believe Dr. Jernigan acknowledged the
> difficulties Holman would have faced before braille and the long cane.
> I lost track then of what the book was saying because I found myself
> wondering how in the world Dr. Jernigan knew about this person, long
> before the biography "A Sense of the World" was written.
> Truly, wonders will never cease.
> best,
> kat
> --
> kathy millhoff - "Let each morn be better than its eve, and each
> morrow richer than its yesterday."
>