[NFBofSC] FW: Tour our Capitol

Thu Sep 5 10:19:38 UTC 2024

Steve Cook

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From: The Blind History Lady <theblindhistorylady-gmail.com at shared1.ccsend.com> 
Sent: Tuesday, September 3, 2024 3:01 PM
To: cookcafe at sc.rr.com
Subject: Tour our Capitol

Tour our Capitol 

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Hello All:

The leaves have not turned yet, but fall is coming. Political season is in full bloom. But this story is not about a candidate or an election. A break from the commercials and the news. 

On December 10, 1873, George W. Donaldson, a poor blind man lost his life in a run-down rooming house in Washington D. C. Donaldson suffered from several illnesses, including rheumatism. He self medicated with chloroform, alcohol, and other drugs to ease his pain. On December 10, he used chloroform that ended his life. It might have been accidental, although the press and coroner concluded the death was suicide.

Donaldson first appears in currently available records in an article from 1858 as the blind Professor who asked permission to address the public schools of Washington D. C. on the education of the blind. He was described as the blind lecturer. Others remembered him as the blind phrenologist, who visited hotels and men’s clubs in the evenings, reading the bumps on people’s heads for cash or drinks. His age or when or how he went blind is a mystery.

Some believe that Donaldson went blind in the mid or late 1840’s while living in New York. Others think he was blind for many years and served as tour guide of the New York City Hall for ten years before coming to D. C. A blind George Donaldson lived in Lenox, New York in 1850, making a living as a peddler, living in a boarding house but is not noted if he was blind or not. Donaldson came to D. C. to lecture and began learning about the US Capitol in the early 1850s. He had a placard made with large letters that read “Guide to the Dome” that he wore around his neck.

In the 1800s, the tourism industry in our Nation’s Capital did not exist as we think of it today. Children from poor families and later, crippled Civil War veterans (mostly black) hung around the Capitol, inside and outside the building, offering tours of the Capitol and the city to those coming to lobby or testify before the House or Senate. Most guides had no set fees, just asked for what they thought their potential guest might pay. VIP’s that came to town were often given tours by the Capitol Police, if any were available.

Blind Donaldson was interested in politics. He hung around the Capitol building talking and listening. He learned where all the paintings and sculptures were, what they were about, and who painted them. He had his customers look up at the painting of Moran’s, The Yosemite Valley and point out the clearly defined head of Napoleon that appeared accidentally in the artwork.

He became acquainted with Constantino Brumidi, the Muralist of the Capitol who described in detail his murals to Donaldson and how each fit the purpose of the rooms he painted. Donaldson took in every word and memorized more than anyone else.

An example that Donaldson pointed out frequently is today labeled as Room S-127. He brought tourists into the room, described the ceilings, the artwork, and even told a few stories of the characters in the paintings. This room was designed in Pompeian style with a theme of the sea. Originally the Committee on Naval Affairs met in this room, inspiring the mural. The US Capitol website describes is thus:

An allegorical figure representing America and numerous classical gods such as Neptune, and goddesses related to the sea are painted on the ceiling in true fresco. The pilasters and lower walls are painted to look like marble, and floating female figures holding nautical and marine objects appear in nine blue panels.

Donaldson became friends with the maintenance men of the building and had them explain to him just how the heating and cooling systems worked. On his tours he explained in detail why the building was warm in the cold winters.

Senator Rosco Conkling of New York was a staunch supporter of Donaldson for many years. When New Yorkers came to visit the city, Conkling insisted that Donaldson give them a complete tour of the building. Sadly, after 1870, Donaldson’s tours began to suffer from his drinking and Conklin stopped sending tours his way.

Donaldson walked through the buildings, sometimes with a gentleman’s cane, identifying the public rooms to his groups and what might be going on in them that day. He held a mental map of the Capitol in his mind and used physical clues such as a change in air pressure to indicate halls and open doors to ensure he was in the right place. He climbed up and down the staircases, even to the base of the dome with ease. The first elevator was not installed in the US Capitol until 1873, the year of his death.

He took his groups to the Senate and House gallery, pointing out the desks of the men in the news and providing an anecdote about them. Donaldson might say, ”You see Charles Sumner, no doubt one of the finest looking, the most picturesque the best dresser of the Senate.” Or he pointed and continued, “Over there on the left you will see Oliver P. Morton of Indiana. Although he is a Republican, he sits on the Democratic side of the Chamber.

He got to know the construction workers and secretaries to legislators who gave him tidbits that made his tours much more informative and personalized than the other hopeful guides on the streets looking for a few coins.

For several years, he had a designated seat in the Rotunda, just inside the Pennsylvania entrance. He wore green-glass eyeglasses to hide his blindness. The last years of his life, he traded his neck sign for a badge on his coat. When people walked up to Donaldson for the first time with his sign around his neck, few knew that the man they paid and followed was blind. When he did not have a tour, he sat in the galleries, listening to the debates over current legislation.

After work, Donaldson spent his evenings gambling and drinking. He often hired a young black boy to be his guide and read his cards. The last few years of his life, the drinking and gambling got in the way of his friendships. He got drunk and spent many nights in local jails. After losing all his money, he often had bills left unpaid and this landed him in the workhouses. During one of his sentences to the workhouse he met and married another inmate. She too was an alcoholic and found herself in jail. If Donaldson had hopes of a sighted wife to lead him around, he picked the wrong one as at the time of his death, she was serving another sentence in the workhouse because of her drinking.

Peggy Chong is the 2023 Jacob Bolotin Award Winner.

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