DISABLED

[The richest woman in Victorian England: Angela Burdett-Coutts, philanthropist.] Autograph Letter Signed to Mrs [Charlotte] Cowan, wife of the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, declining an invitation connected with ‘The Blind System’.

Author: 
Angela Burdett-Coutts [Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts, Baroness Burdett-Coutts] (1814-1906), the richest woman in Victorian England, prominent philanthropist [James Cowan (1816-1895); Blind System]
Publication details: 
25 November 1873. Palace Hotel [place not stated].
£45.00

See her entry in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice for postage. Addressed to ‘My dear Mrs Cowan’ and signed ‘Burdett Coutts -’. Thirty lines of text. The ‘blind system’ appears to have been a form of education for the blind, possibly involving a precursor of braille. (An advertisement by ‘A Lady, who has the care of a Blind Child’ in the Medical Times, 25 March 1876, offers ‘First-class education given under the blind system.’).

[Ben Purse [Benjamin Ormond Purse], trade unionist and campaigner for the rights of blind people.] Typed Letter with cyclostyled signature, to Carmichael Thomas, describing his ‘interests’ while asking for help in joining the Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Ben Purse [Benjamin Ormond Purse] (1874-1950), British trade unionist, social worker and campaigner with the National Institute for the Blind [Carmichael Thomas; Royal Society of Arts]
Publication details: 
21 April 1921; on letterhead of the National Institute for the Blind, London.
£60.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. 2pp, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged and with two creases from folding for postage. Addressed to ‘Carmichael Thomas, Esq., / Mount Cottage, / Borough Green, / Kent.’ Cyclostyled signature of ‘Ben Purser.’ Begins: ‘For some time I have been desirous of becoming a member of the Royal Society of Arts. Mentioning this matter to your daughter a few days ago, Miss Thomas thought that if I wrote you in this connection you might possibly be able to arrange this matter for me.

[ Printed pamphlet on First World War military disability. ] Disabled Sailors and Soldiers. How they are being Re-built at the Nation's Cost.

Author: 
Ministry of Pensions, London [ John Hodge (1855-1937), Labour politician, first Minister of Labour (1916-1917) and second Minister of Pensions (1917-1919); First World War; military disability ]
Publication details: 
'Ministry of Pensions - Official.' [ London ] Printed by 'D & S' in November 1917 ('11/17'). [ '(13715). Wt. 2275 - G 93, 200 m, 11/17. D & S. E 1256.' ]
£65.00

16pp., 16mo. Stapled pamphlet. Aged and worn, with rusted staple. Inside the front cover are quotations from Hodge and his predecessor as Minister of Pensions G. N. Barnes. Initial note: 'The following pages contain a general and necessarily brief description of the system followed by the Pensions Ministry.

[Printed leaflet.] Helps and Hindrances of Deaf Children in Acquiring Speech and Language at the Natural Age.

Author: 
Mary S. Garrett, Principal, Co-Founder and a Trustee of the Home for the Training in Speech of Deaf Children before they are of school age, Belmont and Monument Aves., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Publication details: 
Read before First International Congress in America on the Welfare of the Child. Washington, D.C., March 10 to 17, 1908.
£30.00

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In fair condition on aged and lightly-worn paper. With shelfmark, stamp and label of the Board of Education Library, London.

Eight Typed Letters, with cyclostyled signatures ('Arthur Pearson'), to Sir Henry Trueman Wood, Secretary, Royal Society of Arts.

Author: 
Sir Cyril Arthur Pearson [Sir Arthur Pearson] (1866-1921), founder of 'The Daily Express', President of the National Institute for the Blind and Fresh Air Fund
Publication details: 
October 1916 to June 1917; all on letterhead of the Blinded Soldiers' and Sailors' Hostel, St. Dunstan's, Regent's Park, N.W. [London].
£150.00

All eight items are 4to, 1 p, and good on lightly aged paper. Seven items bearing the Society's stamp and four docketed. The correspondence concerns a talk given by Pearson to the Society, 'on the subject of the training of the soldiers blinded in the War'. On 19 October 1916 Pearson writes: 'I am a little afraid that I cannot properly carry out the suggestion you so kindly make. I am quite blind, and therefore am unable to read a paper.' The 'preparation of a formal paper' would 'demand more time than I am able to spare at present.

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