APH News & Press
Unique collection of braillewriters and typewriters for use by blind people added to the APH web site
News Release: Louisville, Kentucky, June 29, 1999
Unique collection of braillewriters and typewriters for use by blind people added to the web site of the American Printing House for the Blind
The Museum of the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) announces a new addition to our web site. Examples from the museum exhibit and collection of mechanical tactile writers and typewriters adapted for use by blind people are now on the APH Museum web page.
Photographs and descriptions of thirty of the writers are presented. One of the oldest and most unusual is the McElroy Point Writing Machine from 1888, one of the first upward-writing devices. Another unusual writer, Todd's Improved Edison-Mimeograph Typewriter (1894), was originally made to cut stencils for the mimeograph machine and later adapted for use by blind people. The smallest writer in the collection is a Minerva Pocket Braillewriter, made in Germany about 1900, which measures six by five by two and one-half inches.
The theme of the Museum of the American Printing House for the Blind is the educational history of blind people and the role of the Printing House in this history. Artifacts include historical tactile books, maps, educational aids, mechanical writers, historical braille production machinery, phonographic recording equipment and players, photographs and illustrations. The exhibits are accessible to all disabilities, with audio phones, braille labels, and touchable exhibits for blind visitors.
The Museum of the American Printing House for the Blind is free and open to the public from 8:30 to 4:30 Monday through Friday. It is located in the American Printing House for the Blind at 1839 Frankfort Avenue, Louisville, Kentucky.
For more information, contact Museum Director, Carol Tobe (502) 895-2405, or e-mail: museum@aph.org