"Some of their handiwork."

In Kindergarten and Primary School for the Blind: A Second Appeal for Its Foundation and Endowment (1884), Michael Anagnos wrote about students’ tactile activities at a school for the blind in New England. These activities were deeply informed by the work of German educator Friedrich Froebel, who believed that play was an integral part of early childhood development. On “cushion day,” students would fasten hairpins to cushions in order to “draw” three-dimensional narrative imagery, for example, marching soldiers with a tent and flag. Designs were also woven through two-sided tablets, where the sides painted red included a notch that the children could feel. “This work…brings out the girls’ delight in colors,” Anagnos writes. “It seems strange that they should like so much what they can have no conception of.”

Michael Anagnos and Emilie Poulsson

Franklin Press: Rand, Avery, & Co.

1884