[nagdu] First person to Use Seeing eye dog in US

Fri Jan 20 19:54:10 UTC 2012

Tracey,
I think you nailed it. Thank you.

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Tracy Carcione
Sent: Friday, January 20, 2012 1:43 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] First person to Use Seeing eye dog in US

Doesn't Love in the Lead say that, while the Saturday Evening Post article
generated a number of letters asking for a Seeing Eye dog, Morris's was
the only one who said he'd work to prove the usefulness of guide dogs in
the U.S., and that is why he was chosen?
Tracy

> It would appear that how well the Senator did with his dog is a matter of
> perspective. Peter Putnam's book, through Morris Frank's correspondence,
> says he didn't, but gives no corroborating evidence to back up the
> assertion. W. A. Christensen's book says he did quite well with the dog,
> but gives equally little real demonstration of this. I'd really like to
> know more about this little known bit of history myself.
>
> As to Morris, sounds to me as though he was in the right place at the
> right time. There appeared to be absolutely no screening done before he
> was shipped over by American Express, though there is some discussion of
> how and why he, along with Dr. Buchanan, were picked for the initial
> class. (Dr. Buchanan didn't end up making it until the first Seeing Eye
> class in Nashville, though.) Still, the selection criteria seemed rather
> arbitrary by today's standards, and it certainly seems that they were sort
> of making it up as they went for those first few years.
> --
> Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
> Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY
>
>
>
> On Jan 18, 2012, at 10:33 AM, Pickrell, Rebecca M (TASC) wrote:
>
>>      And to the person who doesn't like people who respond to old threads,
>> Tracey's post re the student doing the class project on civil rights
>> and guide dogs is what prompted my thinking.
>>
>> Interesting to that Buddy's note blamed the senator for not doing well
>> with a guide dog. I wonder how and why that conclusion was reached?
>> Maybe the guy just wasn't a dog person or found it difficult to work in
>> the kind of relationship a guide dog needs?
>> Also, does anybody knew if old Moris had done anything to demonstrate he
>> would do better with a dog?
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>> Behalf Of Pickrell, Rebecca M (TASC)
>> Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 10:28 AM
>> To: 'NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users'
>> Subject: Re: [nagdu] First person to Use Seeing eye dog in US
>>
>> This note just randomly popped up again.
>> I'm wondering something. If people who were blind were so oppressed
>> (isn't that what got NFB going)? how did this senator get to be senator?
>> I've read that Americans tendto vote for politicians that they like ona
>> personal level, people they'd like to drink beer with v. people who they
>> think can do the job at hand. That's one reason why John Edwards was so
>> despised, people thought "You bastard, you cheated on your wife, your
>> wife who also has cancer".
>> So, can somebody explain how the blind guy got to be senator if blind
>> people were held in such poor regard?
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>> Behalf Of Buddy Brannan
>> Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2011 12:43 PM
>> To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
>> Subject: Re: [nagdu] First person to Use Seeing eye dog in US
>>
>> All i've ever seen was a brief mention in "Love In the Lead", which
>> basically said that this Senator (think his name was Thomas Scholl) got
>> a guide dog from a trainer in Minnesota, the "Master Eye Foundation", I
>> think, who got the dog from Germany, and it didn't work very well.
>> Something like that. A slightly more complete account, which of course
>> says something slightly different, was in "Almo: His Master's Eyes". I
>> have both passages around here.
>>
>> Anyway, I may be all confused about what details I got from where, but
>> here is the relevant passage from Love In the Lead. (I seem to have lost
>> Almo! How did that happen? See? It's the problem with being a packrat
>> and then occasionally getting rid of things...)
>>
>>     The German work had been brought to the attention of
>> American workers for the blind long before Dorothy's Post article
>> was published.  In 1923, the American Association of Workers for
>> the Blind heard a lecture on guide dog schooling by a German
>> trainer. In 1925, the Potsdam school offered Robert Irwin of the
>> American Foundation for the Blind to provide both dogs and
>> trainers for a fee.  John L. Synikin, a Minneapolis dog breeder,
>> studied the work in Germany and returned to set up the Master Eye
>> Foundation.  He imported a German-trained dog which he retrained
>> for Senator Thomas Schall of Minnesota in 1927.  At about the
>> same time, Josef Weber, who had worked with both police dogs and
>> guide dogs in his native Germany, was establishing a training
>> kennel outside Princeton, New Jersey.
>>
>> [...]
>>     Morris answered immediately.  He began, "I have some good
>> news for you.  Senator Smutz of Minnesota" (he meant Senator
>> Schall) "has purchased a dog from Munich which was trained in
>> German, but is now being retrained in English and is proving
>> absolutely satisfactory to our sightless Senator, taking him all
>> over Washington.  I believe that in a month after I have the dog,
>> I can train it to take me anywhere in the United States."
>>
>> [...]
>>
>>     If there was any red tape about importing the dog, he begged
>> her to let him know, "so that I may be able to bring to bear any
>> political influence that my family may be able to have." Dorothy
>> Harrison Eustis must have smiled at this offer of political
>> influence from a boy of nineteen, but she admired both his
>> initiative and his altruism.  He wanted a dog not only for
>> himself, but for all blind Americans, and he was willing to work
>> for it.  She cabled him that there was no possibility of bringing
>> a dog on this trip and followed with a letter of explanation.
>>     Morris's reply accepted the delay with the thought that
>> "there is absolutely no use in rushing our work." The "our"
>> suggests that he has graciously taken her into partnership.  He
>> again listed a number of workers for the blind who knew his
>> mother and added that Senator Schall had not done nearly so well
>> with his dog as he had at first supposed.  In fact, his
>> difficulties had hurt the cause of the guide dog among the
>> workers for the blind. "Of course, you and I know that this is as
>> much the Senator's fault as the dog's, but I am confident that,
>> with a good demonstration, this objection can be quickly
>> overruled."
>> [...]
>>
>>
>> I'm still on the prowl for another copy of "Almo".
>>
>> --
>> Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
>> Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY
>>
>>
>>
>> On Nov 22, 2011, at 9:34 AM, Pickrell, Rebecca M (TASC) wrote:
>>
>>> Anybody know anything about the other guy? I'm curious. What do we know
>>> of him and what can we learn.
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>>> Behalf Of Margo and Arrow
>>> Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 12:33 PM
>>> To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
>>> Subject: Re: [nagdu] First person to Use Seeing eye dog in US
>>>
>>> I still contend Morris Frank was the first person to actually use a
>>> guide
>>> dog because he actually used the dog, but, your point is well taken
>>> that
>>> someone else had a guide dog in this country.
>>>
>>> Margo and Arrow
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Buddy Brannan" <buddy at brannan.name>
>>> To: "NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users"
>>> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>>> Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 12:21 PM
>>> Subject: Re: [nagdu] First person to Use Seeing eye dog in US
>>>
>>>
>>>> Actually, Morris Frank wasn't the first person to use a guide dog in
>>>> the
>>>> US. Theree was, apparently, a Senator who got one from a German
>>>> trainer in
>>>> 1926, but it didn't do so well, or something. We never hear about that
>>>> guy, and I suspect there's a good reason for that.
>>>> --
>>>> Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
>>>> Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Nov 18, 2011, at 11:51 AM, Margo and Arrow wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I saw this on the Dog Park email list.
>>>>>
>>>>> Margo and Arrow
>>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sherrill O'Brien"
>>>>> <sherrill.obrien at verizon.net>
>>>>> To: "NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users"
>>>>> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>>>>> Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 10:29 AM
>>>>> Subject: Re: [nagdu] First person to Use Seeing eye dog in US
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> This is such a well done and poignant video. Those of us who have
>>>>>> had
>>>>>> Seeing
>>>>>> Eye dogs really appreciate Lucas Franck's dedication and
>>>>>> professional
>>>>>> touch
>>>>>> in everything with which he is involved. Margo, was this on the
>>>>>> Seeing
>>>>>> Eye
>>>>>> list, or on their website? Anyway, thanks much for passing it along
>>>>>> to
>>>>>> us.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Sherrill
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>>> From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org]On
>>>>>> Behalf Of Margo and Arrow
>>>>>> Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 6:57 AM
>>>>>> To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
>>>>>> Subject: [nagdu] First person to Use Seeing eye dog in US
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> the following link has footage taken from The Seeing eye archives
>>>>>> and
>>>>>> shows
>>>>>> Morris Frank, the first person to use a guide dog in this country.
>>>>>> He
>>>>>> and
>>>>>> Dorothy Harrison eustis founded the Seeing eye in 1929 and the guide
>>>>>> dog
>>>>>> movement has moved forward since then and there are many guide dog
>>>>>> schools
>>>>>> in this country, Canada, and throughout the world.  the person
>>>>>> narrating
>>>>>> the
>>>>>> video is Lukas Franck, a long-time instructor at the seeing Eye.
>>>>>> Lukas
>>>>>> trained my first two guide dogs--Deedee and Wayne.  Lukas also
>>>>>> trained
>>>>>> wayne
>>>>>> and me as a team in 1991.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Margo and Arrow
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> http://www.youtube.com/user/seeing4me?feature=mhee#p/u/0/gwYHXNItSks
>>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>>
>>>>>>
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>>>>>>
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>>>>>
>>>>>
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>>
>>
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>
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