Galleries
Callahan Gallery
The Marie and Eugene Callahan Gallery at the Museum explores the history of education for the blind in a fun and accessible setting.
The gallery is full of hands-on discovery. We encourage you to touch objects to increase your understanding of how people with visual impairments experience the world. Write your name using a mechanical braille writer. Wrap your arms around a floor model tactile globe. Test your comprehension skills on computers equipped with talking software. Explore other raised letter and tactile alphabets that competed with braille. Experience what it is like to have a wealth of knowledge at the tips of your fingers.
Exhibits include:
- Tactile Printing and Writing
- Louis Braille
- Geography
- Helen Keller
- The Story of APH
- Federal Support
- Talking Books
- Large Print
- Spelling
- Math and Music
- Science
- Games
- First Schools for the Blind
1883 Gallery
The 1883 gallery is the setting for our newest feature exhibit, "History in the Making: APH Past to Present." The exhibit explores the history of the American Printing House and how it grew from a modest beginning in a neighbor's basement to the largest manufacturer of education products for people with vision loss in the world.
The 1883 gallery is full of hands-on discovery. We encourage you to touch objects to increase your understanding of how people with visual impairments experience the world. Use vision simulators to learn about common causes of blindness and their effects. Help decide the fate of the braille code as you explore the "War of the Dots." Play with classic APH educational toys like Constructo and APH Baseball. Watch a vintage film of the factory at work in 1958. Listen to seventy years of APH book narrators. And discover 150 years of products and the people who created them. Labels provided in braille, large type, and recorded formats.