Music Education at the New York Institution for the Blind, 1832-1863

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to document the history of music education at the New York Institution for the Blind (NYIB) from the opening of the school in 1832 through the tenure of the facility’s first music director, Anthony Reiff. Research questions pertained to the school’s origin and operation and to its music curriculum, pedagogy, faculty, ensembles, and resources. The NYIB provided a home and education for students ages eight to twenty-five. The music program served as recreation and vocational training and as a means of promoting the school. Reiff joined the faculty in 1835 and established a band and choir that performed throughout the city and surrounding states. In 1847, the board of managers hired George F. Root as head of vocal music and named Reiff director of the instrumental division. Sigismund Laser replaced Root in 1855 and remained at the NYIB until 1863, when both he and Reiff left the school. The faculty at the NYIB developed and promoted effective methods for teaching music to people with blindness and prepared graduates to serve as church musicians, piano tuners, and music educators. Findings from this study might serve to remind music educators of past pedagogical methods and principles applicable in teaching students who are blind today.

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Journal of Research in Music Education
2015, Vol. 62(4) 362 –388
© National Association for
Music Education 2014
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DOI: 10.1177/0022429414555983
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Article
Music Education at the New
York Institution for the Blind,
1832–1863
Phillip M. Hash1
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to document the history of music education at the New
York Institution for the Blind (NYIB) from the opening of the school in 1832 through
the tenure of the facility’s first music director, Anthony Reiff. Research questions
pertained to the school’s origin and operation and to its music curriculum, pedagogy,
faculty, ensembles, and resources. The NYIB provided a home and education for
students ages eight to twenty-five. The music program served as recreation and
vocational training and as a means of promoting the school. Reiff joined the faculty
in 1835 and established a band and choir that performed throughout the city and
surrounding states. In 1847, the board of managers hired George F. Root as head of
vocal music and named Reiff director of the instrumental division. Sigismund Laser
replaced Root in 1855 and remained at the NYIB until 1863, when both he and Reiff
left the school. The faculty at the NYIB developed and promoted effective methods
for teaching music to people with blindness and prepared graduates to serve as church
musicians, piano tuners, and music educators. Findings from this study might serve
to remind music educators of past pedagogical methods and principles applicable in
teaching students who are blind today.
Keywords
music education, blind, exceptional learners, history, New York
Many people who were blind prior to the late eighteenth century were poor, unedu-
cated, and often subjected to abuse and neglect by society. Although hospices for this
1Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI, USA
Corresponding Author:
Phillip M. Hash, Music Department, Calvin College, 1795 Knollcrest Cr. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-
4404, USA.
Email: pmh3@calvin.edu
555983JRMXXX10.1177/0022429414555983Journal of Research in Music EducationHash
research-article2014
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Hash 363
population opened sporadically beginning in the eleventh century, they usually did not
attempt to teach literacy or job skills.1 Children with vision impairments born into
privileged classes usually led much different lives from those of the poor because their
families could afford private tutors and special apparatuses for tactile instruction.
Mademoiselle Maria-Teresa von Paradis (1759–1824), the daughter of an imperial
counselor in Vienna, for example, learned to read text pricked on cards with a pin,
spelled using raised letters cut out of pasteboard, and became familiar with geography
using tactile maps. She also was an accomplished musician who performed throughout
Europe on voice and keyboard, and she composed several operas, cantatas, songs, and
instrumental works. Her fame demonstrated to the public and influential leaders of
European society the potential, need, and methods for educating people with visual
impairments from all classes of the population.2
First School for the Blind in Europe
Valentin Hauy (1745–1822), a French translator and teacher of languages, was moti-
vated to educate people with visual impairments after witnessing the public ridicule of
several individuals who were blind during a Parisian street festival in 1771. He spent
the next twelve years preparing for this endeavor by studying various methods of
instruction, including those utilized with Paradis, whom he met in Paris in April of
1784. Having worked out a plan for his institution, Hauy approached the local
Philanthropic Society, which pledged its support and began identifying qualified stu-
dents. He then paid a seventeen-year-old boy who was blind to become his student and
test the instructional methods he had devised, and he invented a system of printing
books and sheet music in relief so that individuals with visual impairments could read
the contents by touch.
Hauy demonstrated his teaching methods and printing system to the Bureau of
Academic Writing in November of 1784 and to the Royal Academies of Sciences and
Music shortly thereafter. Because of his success, the Philanthropic Society entrusted
Hauy with the education of eighteen indigent children who were blind and rented a
small house where the Institut des Jeunes Aveugles (Institute for Blind Youth) opened
on February 19, 1785.3 The Philanthropic Society continued to sponsor the institute
until 1791, when the French National Assembly assumed control of the school. Hauy
faced a number of conflicts with the government over the next several years that cul-
minated in his removal as headmaster in 1802.4
The purpose of the Institute for Blind Youth was to improve the quality of life for
individuals with visual impairments by providing them with a means to earn a living
and become useful members of society. Students learned to read and write, and studied
arithmetic, history, and geography. They also trained in manual arts, such as weaving,
printing, and basketry, in order to gain job skills and generate income to support the
institution. Music also was an important part of the curriculum and served as recre-
ation and vocational training. Pupils received instruction in voice, keyboard, and vari-
ous wind and string instruments; performed in school orchestras, wind bands, and
choruses; and studied music theory and piano tuning. Many graduates became
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364 Journal of Research in Music Education 62(4)
prominent musicians and teachers in France.5 The Institute for Blind Youth served as
a model for similar schools that opened throughout Europe during the late eighteenth
and early nineteenth centuries.6
First Schools for the Blind in the United States
The condition of people with visual impairments in the United States first drew atten-
tion in the second decade of the nineteenth century when several New England states
began to count the number of these citizens within their populations.7 In 1830, the
federal government extended these efforts by including people who were blind in the
U.S. Census for the first time. Although data indicated that 5,385 individuals with
visual impairments lived in the country, some officials believed this figure was closer
to 13,000 and that the census had failed to count numerous poor and homeless people
living in the streets and almshouses of American cities.8 In New York City, for exam-
ple, the census reported only forty-six residents who were blind, even though more
than fifty were living in the local almshouse alone.9
The number of people with visual impairments enumerated by these studies and the
success of schools for this population in Europe motivated leading citizens to organize
similar institutions in the United States. The New England Asylum for the Blind,
located in Boston, received a charter from the State of Massachusetts on March 2,
1829, and opened in August of 1832. The school became the Perkins Institution and
Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind in 1840 in honor of its vice president, Thomas H.
Perkins, who donated property for the facility.10 Plans for a comparable school in New
York City developed around this same time. The New York Institution for the Blind
(NYIB) received a charter in 1831 and initiated instruction in March 1832.11 Similar
facilities opened soon after in other U.S. cities, including Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
(1833); Columbus, Ohio (1837); Staunton, Virginia (1839); and Louisville, Kentucky
(1842).12
Like their European counterparts, music was an important part of the curriculum in
American schools for people with blindness. These schools represented some of the
first examples of music instruction for learners with exceptionalities in the United
States. Histories of music education, however, generally have overlooked the develop-
ment of instruction for these populations.13 Therefore, further research on this topic is
needed to create a more comprehensive account of the history of music education.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study was to document the history of music education at the NYIB
from the opening of the school in 1832 through the tenure of the facility’s first music
director, Anthony Reiff, who served from 1835 to 1863.14 Research questions per-
tained to the school’s origin and operation and to its music curriculum, pedagogy,
faculty, ensembles, and resources. Methodology involved collecting and analyzing
diverse material, organizing the data, and composing a chronological narrative.
Primary sources included annual reports of the institution, documents from the New
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Hash 365
York Legislature, published and unpublished materials from the NYIB, and numerous
articles from newspapers and periodicals. Secondary sources consisted of biographies
of prominent instructors, books related to educating people with visual impairments,
contemporary research, and professional literature.15 This study will be of interest to
those concerned with music education history, pedagogy for individuals with visual
impairments, and the development of school bands and choruses. Findings from this
research also might serve to remind music educators of past pedagogical methods and
principles applicable in teaching students who are blind today.
The NYIB
The idea of establishing a school in New York City for people with visual impairments
originated in the late 1820s when a few leading citizens began to take notice of the
number of children who were blind residing in the city’s almshouse. Samuel Wood
(1760–1844), a wealthy publisher, philanthropist, and trustee of the public schools,
recorded his thoughts on the matter in 1830, writing, “Ought not some exertion be
made to help these unfortunate children to be more comfortable and useful to them-
selves and to society in the long state of darkness (all their lives) which must become
their lot?”16 Dr. Samuel Akerly (1785–1845), former superintendent of the New York
Institution for the Deaf, made similar observations and worked with Wood to prepare
a petition to the state legislature that resulted in the incorporation of the NYIB on April
21, 1831. A few months later, Dr. John Dennison Russ (1801–81), a local physician
and philanthropist, joined the project and became the first member of the institution’s
board of managers.17 Figure S1, available in the online supplemental material (http://
jrme.sagepub.com/supplemental), provides illustrations of Wood and Akerly.18
Akerly served as president and led the first meeting of the managers in December
1831, where he outlined plans to raise funds and obtain the necessary books and equip-
ment. By February 1832, the board had made little progress and the group decided that
the best way to raise interest would be to demonstrate the potential for teaching chil-
dren with visual impairments to the public. On March 15, 1832, commissioners of the
almshouse granted permission for the managers to move three boys who were blind to
a house on Canal Street, where they lived under the care of a widow and received
instruction from Dr. Russ. At the next meeting on April 19, Russ presented three bas-
kets constructed by his students as evidence of their progress that resulted in a decision
to expand the institution. On May 19, 1832, the board added three additional students
to the roster and moved the school to 47 Mercer Street.19
The first public exhibition of students from the NYIB took place on December 13,
1832, at the City Hotel and demonstrated that “great mental improvement and mechan-
ical skill may be attained by able teaching.”20 This meeting promptly generated an
additional $240 for the institution, with additional contributions to follow. By the next
year, the school had received enough donations and income from selling products
manufactured by the students to achieve financial security. The NYIB moved twice in
1833, first to a temporary residence at 62 Spring Street and then to a large permanent
facility on two acres of land “a short distance beyond the paved parts of the city” on
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366 Journal of Research in Music Education 62(4)
9th Avenue, between 33rd and 34th Streets, overlooking the Hudson River.21 Figure S2
provides an illustration of the institution in 1853 (http://jrme.sagepub.com/
supplemental).22
Like many charitable institutions of the time, the NYIB was incorporated by a soci-
ety of private citizens who funded the facility through membership fees and other
donations. The institution also accepted public aid from the city and the state of New
York. In May of 1834, the legislature authorized the managers to accept four students
who were blind and impoverished from each Senate district and to receive annually
$130 per pupil from the state treasury for their care.23 By 1839, the legislature had
raised this number to sixteen young people per Senate district, which led to an increase
in the student population from 16 in 1833 (12 males, 4 females) to 69 (43 male, 26
female) in 1840 and 145 (71 males, 74 females) in 1863.24 Although public funding
resulted in some governmental control, the NYIB remained a private corporation.25
Students at the NYIB ranged from eight to twenty-five years of age and studied at the
facility for one to seven years. However, pupils who had completed the academic cur-
riculum sometimes remained at the facility to study music or manual arts. Although most
students attended the institution with the support of the state of New York or private
donations, the school also accepted residents from families capable of paying tuition and
individuals from other states who received support from their own legislatures.26
The curriculum at the NYIB included the subjects children studied in the public
schools as well as music and manual arts. Vocal and instrumental music served as a
means of recreation and vocational training and helped promote the school throughout
the region.27 The production of baskets, chairs, rugs, and other products in the work-
shops taught job skills and generated income for the institution.28 The Eleventh Annual
Report provided an overview of the daily schedule in 1846 (see Table S1 at http://jrme
.sagepub.com/supplemental).29
Music at the NYIB
Formal music instruction began at the NYIB in 1833 when the managers hired a
woman to teach singing and listed the purchase of musical instruments as one expense
necessary to place the school “upon a most liberal and permanent basis.”30 They also
reported that “the time of the pupils is now divided into three parts, one for intellectual
instruction, one for work, and one for music. A part of each evening is devoted to
music at the Asylum, to enliven the tedium and perpetuity of darkness, as well as for
future usefulness.”31 Students demonstrated their progress at a public exhibition on
December 2, 1833, when they “sang and performed on musical instruments with much
skill and effect, considering the little instruction they had received.”32
The philosophy and policies regarding which students should receive music instruc-
tion fluctuated throughout the history of the institution. The act of the New York leg-
islature of 1834 mandated that all state-supported students at the NYIB must “besides
their literary or school instruction, be also instructed in some trade or employment.”33
At first, school policy recognized music as an acceptable trade and allowed pupils to
spend half of the day engaged in lessons and practice without requiring them
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to participate in manual training. This policy changed in 1845, however, when the
managers determined that music instruction alone would not guarantee students’ live-
lihood once they left the institution.34 The new policy, therefore, stated that “every
pupil of suitable age, and who is supported by the State, is required to learn some
trade, while at the same time, an effort is made to give him such a musical education
as shall furnish him with an additional resource, should his ability and proficiency
enable him to make it available.”35
At first, the decision to allow a resident to study music rested with the superinten-
dent and faculty, who considered an individual’s age, gender, physical condition, and
aptitude.36 Regardless, school officials recognized the value of music for students with
blindness and sometimes allowed those with little potential to participate in the pro-
gram.37 According to Anson G. Phelps, president of the NYIB from 1843 to 1853,38
Sound is to them what sight is to the seeing. It presents to their minds a world in which
beauty and deformity, joy and sorrow, grace and proportion, make impressions as vivid,
and excite emotions as intense as are produced in the minds of the seeing by the presentation
of the real and palpable objects, calculated to awaken such ideas and feelings.39
This philosophy led to a reorganization of the music program in 1846 whereby all
students, regardless of ability, attended vocal music class one hour per day.40 Because
this experiment proved unsuccessful for some pupils, the managers revised the policy
the following year but still attempted to give as many residents “whose voices
afford[ed] the least hope of successful cultivation” the opportunity to sing. Nonetheless,
they restricted instrumental instruction only to pupils with the potential to earn a living
as musicians or teachers. These decisions reflected the managers’ belief that singing
was easier to learn than instrumental music and, therefore, more useful as a recre-
ational activity for the average student.41
In addition to providing recreation and vocational training, the managers realized
that music also could serve as a source of revenue.42 Three concerts featuring student
soloists and ensembles presented in November and December of 1836, for example,
raised $1,152.62 toward the purchase of the facility on 9th Avenue.43 Concerts became
regular events throughout the city and generated income that supported the purchase
of musical instruments and the institution at large.44
The NYIB also sponsored public exhibitions and examinations of students to show
the effectiveness of the school and generate awareness and support for the education
of people with visual impairments. In addition to musical performances, these events
featured poetry readings, demonstrations of schoolwork, and displays of products
manufactured in the workshops.45 The managers scheduled several local presentations
each year and sometimes organized extended tours throughout New York and adjoin-
ing states to promote the facility and identify students who would benefit from its
services.46 A report on an exhibition for the New York State Legislature in Albany in
April 1841 stated that “[students’] musical performances of the evening evinced won-
derful proficiency” and that people “retired from the scene with a heart oppressed with
pain, sympathy and grateful pleasure.”47 Similar presentations before the U.S.
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368 Journal of Research in Music Education 62(4)
Congress and the public in Washington, D.C., in January 1844 “astonished all who
saw and heard [them].”48
Anthony Reiff
Anthony Reiff taught music at the NYIB from 1835 to 1863.49 He was born in Mainz,
Germany, on July 14, 1803, and emigrated in 1825 to New York City, where he worked
as an instrumentalist, vocalist, and music teacher. Reiff was primarily a bassoonist but
also played oboe, French horn, clarinet, and piano. He regularly performed in the
orchestra at Park Theater, sang tenor at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and composed music
for various occasions.50 In 1842, Reiff worked with other local musicians to organize
the Philharmonic Society of New York (now the New York Philharmonic), where he
played bassoon and served as vice president (1842–43) and treasurer (1862–63). He
also helped establish the American Musical Fund Society in New York in 1849, which
provided insurance and retirement benefits for professional musicians who joined the
organization and paid annual dues.51 Reiff moved to Brooklyn and continued to teach
following his retirement from the NYIB in 1863. He died on June 11, 1880, at 76 years
of age “after a short but painful illness.”52
The board of managers hired Reiff as the first music master at the NYIB in
November 1835. He initially taught on a trial basis but soon convinced the managers
of his ability and became a permanent member of the faculty.53 He served as the only
music instructor for the first year and a half of his tenure and taught lessons in voice,
piano, guitar, and wind instruments and directed the band. Starting in 1837, the man-
agers increased Reiff’s instruction time to three hours per day (2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.)
five days per week and engaged a part-time vocal teacher to assist with providing les-
sons for some of the female residents.54 In 1845, they began hiring graduates of the
institution as assistant teachers and, the following year, placed Reiff solely in charge
of instrumental music and hired another instructor to head the vocal department.55
Instrumental Music
Private Instruction. Instrumental music instruction at the NYIB consisted of private les-
sons on piano, organ, guitar, strings, and winds; a school band; and a course in piano
tuning. By 1836, the school owned two piano-fortes, one small organ, one violin, one
violoncello, one bass viol, two guitars, two octave flutes (piccolos), one F flute, three
concert flutes, one F clarinet, five C clarinets, three French horns, one trumpet, one
bass drum, and one pair of cymbals.56 The institution acquired four clarinets, one
French horn, and two trombones the following year;57 two pianos, a small church
organ, and a few wind instruments in 1839; and additional violins by 1842.58 The
organs were especially important at the institution because of their use in worship and
preparing students as church musicians. The need for a better instrument for both cha-
pel services and instruction led the managers to raise over $1,300 to purchase a large
two-manual organ with pedal bass and sixteen stops from the respected New York
organ builder Thomas Hall in 1844.59
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About half of the pupils of the NYIB studied instrumental music.60 Students
received two one-hour lessons per week and were required to practice sixty minutes on
each intervening day between lessons.61 Practice and teaching space was scarce until
1844, when the building committee divided several larger rooms and dedicated them
to music.62 By 1856, music facilities included six studios with pianos (three in the
male quarters and three in the female quarters), additional practice rooms for other
instruments, and the chapel for keyboard use and ensemble rehearsal (see Figure S3
available at http://jrme.sagepub.com/supplemental).63
The number of students enrolled in lessons compared to the time Reiff devoted to
the institution may have required him to provide group instruction for winds and voice.
In 1837, Reiff instituted a monitorial system whereby advanced pupils taught the
younger and less proficient students. This system relieved his workload, reduced the
need for paid instructors, and served as training for older residents preparing for
careers as music teachers.64 Several of these pupils became assistant instructors fol-
lowing their graduation to fill the need for additional faculty created by an increase in
the student population.65 These individuals lived at the institution and received room,
board, and a small stipend for their services.66 All of the assistants taught keyboard,
and Charles Hazlet (bandmaster), Cornelius Mahoney (violin), and Charles Rossiter
Coe (flute) might have taught lessons on band and string instruments as well.67 Table
S2 (available at http://jrme.sagepub.com/supplemental) lists solo repertoire performed
at various concerts and exhibitions.68
NYIB Band. Reiff organized a band at the NYIB starting in 1836 that consisted of older
males in the school.69 Instrumentation ranged from ten to seventeen pieces and, in
1837, included piccolo, sopranino clarinet in F, thee soprano clarinets in C, two French
horns, two trombones, bass drum, and cymbals. The band sometimes also used post-
horn, trumpet, and cornet.70 This ensemble was considered a reed band (vs. brass
band) and developed from the European military bands and wind ensembles for which
W. A. Mozart, C. P. E. Bach, F. J. Haydn, L. v. Beethoven, F. J. Gossec, and others
wrote during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.71 The number of these
organizations began to decline in the 1830s when improvements in instrument design
led to the popularization of brass bands.72 Consequently, the band at the NYIB eventu-
ally became obsolete. The New York Daily Times called attention to this fact in 1852,
saying, “The instruments, it appears to us, are not of the newest, nor capable of all the
effects now so freely introduced in military music.”73
The band practiced on alternate evenings immediately following the 8:00 p.m. eve-
ning chapel service, until 9:00 p.m.74 Although rehearsal with the full ensemble was
limited, Reiff, “performing as he [did] upon every instrument,”75 probably taught most
of the individual parts during private or small group lessons. The band eventually
developed a repertoire of popular and classical works that consisted of “about fifty
pieces, some of which [were] of the most complicated character, and very difficult of
execution.”76
In addition to institutional concerts and exhibits, the NYIB band frequently
appeared at civic events within the community. On September 14, 1838, for example,
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370 Journal of Research in Music Education 62(4)
the group performed a benefit concert for the institution during a Mechanics’ Fair held
at Castle Garden (see Table S3 at http://jrme.sagepub.com/supplemental).77 On
October 13, 1842, the ensemble processed with the Franklin Temperance Society in a
parade celebrating the completion of the municipal aqueduct system.78 In April 1844,
the band earned $25 to provide music at the Ladies’ Concert and Festival of the Eighth
Avenue Presbyterian Church and, on July 4, 1854, received $75 to accompany one of
the city’s fireworks displays.79 According to reports on various appearances, the band
“played like musical veterans from the wars,” with “infinite taste and ability,” “ensem-
ble and effect,” and “much precision and time.”80
Reiff directed the band for most of his tenure at the institution but probably relied
on student conductors for evening rehearsals and other occasions when he was away.
He relinquished his position as bandmaster around 1861 but continued to teach instru-
mental lessons until his retirement in 1863.81 At least two individuals other than Reiff
directed the band at one time or another. Charles Rossiter Coe (1820–?) entered the
NYIB in 1835 at the age of fifteen and learned to play the organ, piano, and flute. He
lived at the school until 1845 and assisted with the band for four years. Following his
residency at the institution, Coe worked as a music teacher, piano tuner, church organ-
ist, and professional singer in various communities in Massachusetts and New York.82
Charles Hazlet (1825–?) entered the NYIB in 1844 at the age of eighteen. He remained
at the facility for seven years and assisted with the band from 1847 to 1851. After
graduation, Hazlet sang professionally with Coe in a group of NYIB alumni known as
the Blind Vocalists. He returned to the school as an assistant music teacher in 1853 and
served as bandmaster in 1862 and 1863.83
Piano Tuning. Piano tuning gained recognition as a viable occupation for people with
visual impairments when the Institute for Blind Youth in Paris began teaching this skill
in 1836.84 Following its lead, the managers of the NYIB hired Edward Howe Jr.
(1820–1900) in 1852 to teach this course at their school.85 Howe was a prominent
church musician and teacher in the city who maintained a private studio, taught music
at Union Theological Seminary, played organ in several New York City churches, and
composed hymns and other works.86 School officials believed that piano tuning was
“one of the most useful pursuits taught the blind” and designated instruments on which
students could practice their skills.87 A number of NYIB graduates eventually made all
or part of their living tuning pianos in and about the city and held positions in piano
factories throughout the United States.88
Vocal Music
Vocal music was part of the curriculum at the NYIB from the beginning and became
one of Reiff’s responsibilities when he began his tenure in 1835. Nonetheless, the
managers stated in 1836 that “having improved the last year in instrumental, but little
in vocal music, more attention will hereafter be paid to the latter.”89 In October 1837,
they hired Miss Ellen Lewis, a professional singer in New York City, to teach vocal
music two hours per day, three days per week, to a portion of the female residents.90
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This decision reduced Reiff’s workload and provided the female singers with a quality
vocal model.91 Reiff continued to teach singing to “all of the [boys] who [had] any
voice.”92
Toward the latter part of 1837, Reiff organized a choir of male and female students
at the institution.93 Debut performances of this ensemble included concerts with the
band in November and December of that year as well as a cornerstone-laying cere-
mony for the new manual arts building on December 6, 1837, that featured an anthem
composed by Reiff for the occasion.94 Membership in the choir fluctuated from year to
year but usually consisted of fifteen to twenty students and included a number of the
boys from the band.95 Table S4 (at http://jrme.sagepub.com/supplemental) lists solo
and choral repertoire from a program held February 14, 1844.96
Lewis worked at the NYIB until 1842, when the managers eliminated her position
to reduce spending and placed advanced pupils in charge of teaching younger female
singers.97 In the fall of 1845, the administration engaged Miss Clementina Widmuller
to teach piano and voice three afternoons per week to the advanced female students,
but she left the school after one year without explanation.98 Following Widmuller’s
departure, Reiff continued to teach vocal music with the assistance of graduated pupils
of the institution. However, the decision to increase vocal instruction in 1846 created
the need for an additional faculty member. The managers responded by placing Reiff
in charge of instrumental instruction only and hiring George Frederick Root to head
the vocal division.99
Root was born in Sheffield, Massachusetts, on August 30, 1820, and lived on a farm
near North Reading, Massachusetts. He moved to Boston in 1838, where he studied
music with Artemas Nixon Johnson, Lowell Mason, and George James Webb. Two
years later, he began his teaching career assisting Mason in the Boston Public Schools
and at the Boston Academy of Music. Root moved to New York City in 1844, where
he worked as a composer, conductor, and teacher in several schools and churches.100
From 1853 to 1885, he operated the Normal Musical Institute, which met in New York
City (1853–55); North Reading, Massachusetts (1856–61); and eventually, in cities
throughout the United States (1862–85) and provided preparation for church musi-
cians, choir directors, and music teachers. Root joined his brother, Ebenezer Towner
Root, and Chauncey Marvin Cady as a partner in the Root and Cady publishing house
in Chicago in 1858 and moved to that city in 1863. He became a prominent figure dur-
ing the U.S. Civil War when he published a number of patriotic anthems, including
“The Battle Cry of Freedom.” Root served as president of Chicago Musical College
(now Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University) from 1872 to 1876
and continued to compose, teach, and conduct until his death on August 7, 1895, at his
summer home on Bailey Island, Maine.101
Root taught at the NYIB for a three-month trial period early in 1847. Although “the
shortness of the time of his engagement and other circumstances combined, to render
the experiment an unfair one,” he attained enough success to warrant a permanent
position on the faculty and began teaching “at a liberal salary” the following autumn.102
Root instructed students on Monday through Friday for ninety minutes per day begin-
ning around 4:00 p.m. The program included a first (advanced) and second
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(beginning) class in vocal music, both with around forty students, as well as a chamber
ensemble consisting of twelve members (six females and six males) of the first class
in their last year at the institution. Root began his visits with a rehearsal of the chamber
group, who prepared solos, duets, trios, quartets, and chamber works. The first class
met thirty minutes later and rehearsed music for larger choruses. Two advanced stu-
dents led the second class, which consisted of younger pupils and those recently
admitted.103
Both the first and second classes sang at public examinations.104 The first class,
however, appeared more frequently and learned cantatas, choruses, glees, and anthems
from a number of Western masters (see Table S5, available at http://jrme.sagepub.
com/supplemental).105 According to Root, this group “excite[d] the admiration of the
best musical people in the city by their performances of a still higher order of music.”106
One report stated,
The accuracy of time and tune with which the vocalists performed . . . testified most
abundantly to the industry of the pupils, and the untiring faithfulness of their instructor.
The style of their performances might be improved in taste, but, in accuracy they are
models for choral organizations.107
Root’s tenure at the NYIB led to his partnership with Fanny J. Crosby (1820–1915),
a former student (1835–45) and a teacher (1845–58) in the literary department who
became a renowned poet and lyricist. Together, they composed over fifty songs and
three cantatas, including The Flower Queen (1852), which became one of Root’s most
popular works.108 Root took a brief leave of absence from the NYIB from December
1850 to August 1851 to study music in Europe. Thomas Hastings, a prominent singer,
church musician, composer, and teacher in New York, assumed Root’s duties at the
school while he was away.109 Upon his return, Root continued to teach at the NYIB
until 1855, when he moved his family to his boyhood home outside of North Reading,
Massachusetts.110
Sigismund Laser (1822–95) succeeded Root as instructor of vocal music in
September 1855.111 He was born in Hamburg, Germany, and emigrated to the United
States in 1839 at seventeen years of age. In addition to teaching at the NYIB, Laser
worked as a church organist, compiled hymnals and tune books, and taught music for
Rutgers Institute, the New York Public Schools, and a number of other institutions in
the city.112 He maintained the curriculum and schedule established by Root but focused
more on preparing sacred choral music for Sunday chapel services.113 Laser left the
NYIB in the fall of 1863 but continued his teaching career at the Packer Collegiate
Institute in Brooklyn. He died September 14, 1895, in Brooklyn, New York.11 4
Note Reading and Music Theory
Officials at the NYIB stressed the fact that students learned music not by rote but in a
manner that gave them “a through and scientific knowledge of the art.”115 Consequently,
instructors attempted a number of methods to teach music theory and note reading. In
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the mid-1830s, Reiff experimented with a large music board imported from Scotland
that used pegs to represent notes, but this device proved impractical due to its size. By
the late 1830s, students read music imprinted in ordinary type on sheet lead, such as
that used to line boxes of tea. Although this method created raised notation readable by
touch,116 students probably found it difficult to discern complex details embossed in
such small print. Reiff continued to test other methods and, in 1845, developed “a
gamut and a musical expression scale, on the raised figure principal; by the aid of
which the pupils [were] enabled to read music just as they [did] the raised letters in
their books.”117
The first system of raised musical notation to gain wide acceptance in the United
States was developed by Cornelius Mahoney (1818–85) while he was a student at the
NYIB (1842–48).118 This method used single lines to represent octaves of the treble
and bass clef staves. Capital letters placed above or below the lines designated pitches,
and stems affixed to the letters indicated rhythmic durations. Other symbols signified
articulation, meter, and volume (see Figures S4 through S6, available at http://jrme.
sagepub.com/supplemental).119 With the financial support of the state legislature, the
NYIB published Mahoney’s book, A New System of Musical Notation: For the Use of
the Blind, in 1853.120
Mahoney’s system gained the endorsement of the American Educators of the
Blind at its first meeting in 1853 and became the standard at the NYIB and several
other schools throughout the United States for the next twenty years.121 In recogni-
tion of his accomplishment, Mahoney received a silver medal and a diploma from
the American Institute of the City of New York as well as letters from the French
Academy and Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.122 Other music teachers at
the NYIB were not as supportive, however, and claimed that public demonstrations
of Mahoney’s system were successful only because he utilized the most accom-
plished musicians at the school.123 In a letter to the New-York Daily Tribune, Reiff
said, “That system of notation, I regret to say, is neither used nor useful to the
Blind, nor to any Professor of Music in teaching the Blind.”124 Another writer stated
that deciphering Mahoney’s method was “a very long, tedious operation [that]
offer[ed] a very doubtful assistance in learning a new piece of music.”125 Comments
by Reiff and other critics call into question the extent to which teachers and stu-
dents actually used Mahoney’s system. Nonetheless, Mahoney taught instrumental
and vocal music at the institution for several years following his graduation and
eventually adapted his method for sighted individuals. In addition to his work at the
NYIB, Mahoney taught private lessons on violin and piano, served as an organist
for St. Columba Church in New York City, and taught music in the New York City
public schools.126
In spite of various methods of notating music for people with visual impairments,
most students who were blind continued to learn music by “either hearing it played
once or oftener, or having the music read over to [them], until [they] should have com-
mitted it to memory.”127 The absence of a standard tactile system of notation was prob-
ably due to (a) the lack of a method more efficient than rote teaching; (b) the technology,
time, and expense required to transcribe a large repertoire of music; and (c) teachers’
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374 Journal of Research in Music Education 62(4)
reluctance to learn and accept new experimental systems.128 Root admitted that his
singers learned their parts by ear but emphasized that they also studied musical con-
cepts and “knew and enjoyed the principles of harmony far more thoroughly than
seeing pupils did.”129 In explaining his pedagogy, Root stated,
[Choral] pieces are taught them by telling them the letters, etc., or more commonly by
playing or singing the phrase to be learned; and this is not singing merely by rote, for they
know, by hearing a phrase or two, the key and kind of time; the variety of time must be
told them, and then they know the pitch and value of every note as they hear it.130
Root’s success in teaching musical concepts to students with visual impairments
convinced him that sighted students often learned “too much eye harmony—deciding
that certain harmonies [were] wrong because they did not look right.”131 In preparing
music teachers at his Normal Musical Institute, Root began introducing concepts
aurally before demonstrating them in writing. This sound-before-sight process proba-
bly influenced countless music educators who attended his classes or those taught by
his former students who organized similar schools throughout the United States during
the last half of the nineteenth century.132
Pedagogical Challenges
Teaching students with visual impairments was a new endeavor in the United States in
the early 1800s. Although models of instruction had existed in Europe for about fifty
years, most teachers in America had little or no training in teaching students with
blindness and developed pedagogy through trial and error.133 The managers of the
NYIB understood that “the mode of imparting instruction to the Blind in music . . . is
so unlike that pursued with seeing pupils, that some time must elapse, before the
teacher will have acquired all the readiness and facility that experience alone can
give.”134 Root, a seasoned educator by the time he began his tenure at the NYIB,
related the challenges he faced, saying,
It took me some time to learn how to impart to my new pupils what I very well understood
myself;—no blackboard—that invaluable companion of the class teacher—no books, no
medium of communication but the ear.
My first efforts to impart the elementary principles to this class, which numbered about
sixty, . . . must have been very imperfect, as I was not able to divest myself of the idea
that my class could not see me; however, by considerable patience on both sides, we
came at length to a better state of things and they really began to understand something
of the subject.135
The decision by the board in 1845 to employ assistants who were blind to teach
music and other subjects probably brought a unique and important perspective to the
pedagogy of the institution. To explain this practice, the managers quoted Pierre-
Armand Dufau, director of the Institute for Blind Youth in Paris, saying,
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Experience has proved, that no instructor is better qualified for the blind pupil, than one
who, born into the same state of infirmity, has known how, by persevering effort, to
triumph over the obstacles which nature has imposed upon him. No one can more fitly
guide the pupil in a road which he has himself traveled, and whose aspirations are so well
known to him.136
Although a number of graduates became successful teachers, others sometimes
struggled to be effective. According to T. Coldon Cooper, superintendent of the NYIB
from 1852 to 1861, there were a number of monitorial instructors “teaching or not as
it suit[ed] their convenience,” which resulted in musical performances at the 1852
annual public examination where “the want of proper attention on the part of the teach-
ers was manifest.”137
The inconsistency of instruction by the monitors persisted for several years. In
February 1864, a group of students sent a petition to the state legislature complaining
about the conditions of the facility and their treatment by the staff. One student stated,
The second year I was here, I was learning exercises on the piano and the teacher was not
capable of teaching me. . . . I did not like to take his exercises. . . . He was a pupil; he did
not want to teach in the first place, and Mr. Rankin [NYIB superintendent, 1861–63]
wanted him to teach, and he had to do it.138
William Hoffman, the teacher in question, concurred with some of these statements,
saying,
Instead of giving a thoroughly musical education, we are only instructed to perform a few
pieces and sing a few songs, which would not make us proficient as teachers of music. . . .
Mr. Rankin . . . compelled me to teach nearly a whole year; he never consulted me about
it; he forced me to do it; I would have to do that or leave the institution.139
These statements, mostly supported by the Senate investigation, suggest that music
instruction at the NYIB sometimes was ineffective.140 This condition likely resulted
from the fact that the principal instructors held several positions throughout the city
and were unable to devote sufficient time supervising the assistant and monitorial
instructors. According to Cooper, the music department needed “a much closer super-
vision than the general inspection which the superintendent can give.”141
Post-Reiff Years
Reiff and Laser left the NYIB in the fall of 1863, at which time the managers hired
Theodore Thomas as the director of music, Charles A. Foeppel as professor of instru-
mental studies, and Frederick Henssler as leader of the vocal division.142 Foeppel was
a member of the New York Philharmonic Society and an active composer and teacher
who taught harmony and counterpoint to George Ives, the father of the famous com-
poser Charles Ives.143 Henssler was a largely self-taught musician who remained at the
institution until his death in 1883.144
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376 Journal of Research in Music Education 62(4)
Theodore Thomas was born in Germany in 1835 and began to study violin at the
age of two. In 1845, his family moved to New York City, where he eventually became
a prominent musician and conductor. In New York, he led the Brooklyn Philharmonic
Society (1862–91), his own Thomas Orchestra (mid-1860s to 1888), the New York
Philharmonic Society (1877–91), and several opera productions. He served briefly as
director of the Cincinnati College of Music beginning in 1878 but soon returned to
New York due to frustrations over school policies. In 1891, Thomas accepted an invi-
tation to move to Chicago and organize the Chicago Orchestral Association (now the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra), which he conducted until his death on January 4,
1905.145
As director of music at the NYIB, Thomas reorganized the program to include a
progressive curriculum for music theory, choral singing, voice, piano, and organ that
spanned the seven years that students resided at the school. He also developed a sys-
tem of assessment used to classify pupils and determine if they had made enough
progress to continue in the program.146 Thomas maintained instruction in piano tuning
but discontinued the monitorial system of teaching. He also eliminated the band, prob-
ably due to the lack of a qualified instructor and the fact that the instruments were old
and outdated.147
Thomas remained affiliated with the NYIB until 1878, when he left for Cincinnati.
By the late 1860s, however, he had little time to devote to the institution due to his
conducting responsibilities. William Bell Wait, superintendent and principal from
1863 to 1905, assumed daily supervision of the music department in his absence.148
Wait invented the New York Point system of writing for the blind around 1867, which
used raised dots similar to the method developed by Louis Braille (1809–1852) in
Paris.149 This system, along with an American form of Braille developed by Joel W.
Smith, was widely used in the United States until the second decade of the twentieth
century.150 Wait adapted his system for writing musical notation and published The
New York System of Tangible Musical Notation and Point Writing and Printing for the
Use of the Blind (1873) as an introduction to the method (see Figures S7 through S20,
available at http://jrme.sagepub.com/supplemental).151 In 1879, Wait led a committee
to secure federal funding for the publication of embossed books for people with visual
impairments. This effort resulted in the U.S. government’s allotment of $10,000 per
year to the American Printing House for the Blind in Louisville, Kentucky, for the
production of books and related devices.152
Federal funding helped perpetuate Wait’s system of notation by making instruc-
tional materials and repertoire readily available, thus overcoming the challenges Reiff
and Mahoney faced in gaining long-term acceptance of their methods.153 In addition to
literature and textbooks, the American Printing House for the Blind published a three-
volume instruction book for piano, transcribed by teachers at the NYIB (1877), and
Wait’s Normal Course of Piano Technique (1887) and Harmonic Notation (1888).154
It also issued a number of standard works for the piano copied into New York Point by
Wait’s niece, Hannah A. Babcock, who taught at the NYIB beginning in 1876 and
served as music director from 1883 to 1916.155
By the late 1800s, the expanding metropolis had encroached on the NYIB’s once
idyllic country setting on the outskirts of the city. In 1917, the managers purchased a
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farm on Pelham Parkway in the Bronx from Vincent Astor, who had inherited the
property when his father died in the sinking of the Titanic. Construction of a facility at
this location commenced on April 15, 1923, and finished in time for students to occupy
the new campus beginning November 3 of the following year.156
Other changes occurred at the institution beginning in the early twentieth century.
In 1912, the managers petitioned the state legislature to change the name of the facility
to the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind (NYIEB) in order to identify
the school as an educational rather than a charitable institution.157 The facility also
experienced a decline in student population due to the advent of programs in public
schools that allowed children with visual impairments to receive an education with
their sighted peers and continue to live at home. This trend culminated in the passage
of P.L. 94-142—the Education of Handicapped Children Act—in 1975, which man-
dated that public schools educate children with impairments to the maximum extent
possible with typical learners in the “least restrictive environment.”158
By the mid-twentieth century, many residents of the NYIEB had physical and cog-
nitive impairments in addition to blindness due to what is now known as retinopathy
of prematurity (ROP)—blindness due to the use of oxygen to keep premature babies
alive—and an outbreak of maternal rubella that occurred in the mid-1960s. In 1986,
the board of trustees voted to expand the mission of the institute to include students
with disabilities other than blindness and changed the name to the New York Institute
for Special Education (NYISE). It also divided services into three divisions: the
Schermerhorn Program, for academically capable students with visual impairments
ages five through twenty-one; the Van Cleve Program, for children with emotional and
learning disabilities between four years nine months and eleven years of age; and the
Readiness Program, for preschool students with developmental delay.159
These programs and a summer camp for youth with visual impairments continue to
serve nearly three hundred students from ages 3 to 21. Students may participate as
commuters or live in the five-day residential program and return home on weekends
and holidays.160 The school’s 180-year-old music program continues to provide stu-
dents who are blind with instruction in Braille music notation, aural skills, and solfège
as well as piano, guitar, recorder, and percussion. Activities include field trips to con-
certs, theater productions, and music studios along with special performances with
sighted peers. The institute maintains an extensive library of Braille music books and
instructional materials and utilizes adaptive technologies that make notating and
recording music accessible to students with visual impairments.161
Summary and Conclusions
The NYIB opened in 1832 and provided a home and education for students ages eight
to twenty-five. Residents learned the subjects taught in public schools as well as music
and manual arts. The music program served as recreation and vocational training and
as a means of promoting the institution. The board of managers hired Anthony Reiff as
the NYIB’s first music director in 1835. Reiff organized a band and choir that per-
formed frequently throughout the city and surrounding states and established a
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378 Journal of Research in Music Education 62(4)
monitorial system whereby advanced students taught beginning musicians.162 In 1847,
George F. Root, a prominent teacher and composer, joined the faculty as director of
vocal music, while Reiff assumed leadership of the instrumental division. Root devel-
oped a progressive vocal curriculum that included class voice for beginners and an
advanced choral ensemble for experienced singers. Sigismund Laser replaced Root in
1855 and remained at the NYIB until 1863, when both he and Reiff left the school and
Theodore Thomas became the director of music.163
The faculty at the NYIB developed effective methods for teaching music to people
with visual impairments and demonstrated to the public that this population could
learn music under the right pedagogical conditions. The institution also provided lead-
ership in music education by experimenting with various systems of tactile notation,
presenting its pedagogical strategies at meetings of educators, and making instruc-
tional materials and sheet music for people with blindness widely available.164 Several
graduates of the NYIB became church musicians, piano tuners, and music teachers in
private studios, public schools, and other residential institutions in the United States.165
Findings from this study suggest several principles and strategies for teaching
music to students with visual impairments today. Teachers at the NYIB had little if any
formal training in pedagogy for students with blindness, which often resulted in incon-
sistent instruction in music and other subjects.166 Although many colleges and univer-
sities today offer coursework in special education for both specialists and generalists,
many preservice music teachers still receive little or no instruction in teaching learners
with impairments.167 Classes, workshops, and professional publications could facili-
tate music instruction for people who are blind by providing materials and strategies
for these students. These resources should include the use of aural learning and Braille
notation separately and in combination because many students with visual impair-
ments today—like their peers at the NYIB in the nineteenth century—prefer to play
and sing by ear.168
Reiff established a peer-teaching system at the NYIB as a means of instructing
beginning singers and instrumentalists and preparing future music teachers.169
Implementing similar programs today might facilitate the inclusion of learners who
are blind in modern music classrooms. Typical students at the elementary level could
help peers with visual impairments on simple tasks, such as playing Orff instruments,
moving to music, or following written notation.170 At the secondary level, advanced
vocal and instrumental ensemble members could work individually with learners who
are blind during the regular class period to prepare them for participation in the full
group.
Officials at the NYIB regularly employed music teachers who were blind because
they believed that these instructors understood the challenges of learning with a visual
impairment. Perhaps the music education profession today should actively recruit
musicians who are blind to teach in both residential and preK–12 public and private
schools. This endeavor would require music teacher educators to identify potential
candidates at the high school level, provide reasonable accommodations as they enter
and progress through preservice education, advocate for them to school administrators
when they seek employment, and support their work as they begin their careers.
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The NYIB during the nineteenth century constantly experimented with music peda-
gogy, alternative notations, and adaptive apparatuses. These initial efforts led to the
development of Wait’s New York Point system and eventually the standard Braille
notation used today.171 Modern adaptive technologies include software that allows
educators and musicians—sighted or blind—to scan, edit, convert, and emboss tradi-
tional and Braille notation from print or digital formats, such as Finale and Sibelius.172
These tools could help improve the limited availability of sheet music for people with
visual impairments if publishers would make digital files in standard notation avail-
able for teachers and musicians to convert using this technology.173
The history of music education at the NYIB provides insight into the beginning of
music instruction for students with visual impairments in the United States and sug-
gests ways our profession might continue to develop effective pedagogy for these
individuals today. Future studies should include additional histories of music instruc-
tion among teachers and students who are blind in order to build on this research and
that of others.174 Case studies, interviews, and surveys of musicians with visual impair-
ments and their teachers also might reveal strategies used in residential institutions or
the private studio that would be helpful to teachers in both specialized programs and
traditional preK–12 schools.175 Music educators should examine both the past and
present to determine the most effective methods for helping individuals with visual
impairments reach their full potential. This line of research will continue to reveal the
value and possibilities of music instruction for this population.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.
Supplemental Material
The supplemental figures and tables are available at http://jrme.sagepub.com/supplemental.
Notes
1. Zina Weygand, Blind in French Society from the Middle Ages to the Century of Louis
Braille (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2009), 13, 16, 23.
2. Ibid., 73–77; Rudolph Angermüller, Hidemi Matsushita, and Ron Rabin, “Paradis, Maria
Theresia,” in Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online (Oxford, UK: Oxford University
Press, n.d.), http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/20868
(accessed August 11, 2013).
3. Weygand, Blind in French Society, 87–100.
4. Ibid., 125, 248.
5. Ibid., 104, 194, 262–264, 269–271; M. Hauy, An Essay on the Education of the Blind
(London: Sampson Low, Marston, 1894).
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380 Journal of Research in Music Education 62(4)
6. Harry Best, The Blind: Their Condition and the Work Being Done for Them in the United
States (New York: Macmillan, 1919), 258.
7. Ibid., 262.
8. Managers of the New-York Institution for the Blind (hereafter Managers), An Account of
the New-York Institution for the Blind (hereafter NYIB) (New York: G. P. Scott & Co.,
1833), 4.
9. “Instruction of the Blind,” New-York Commercial Advertiser, December 21, 1832, p. 2.
10. Michael Anagnostopoulos, Education of the Blind: Historical Sketch of Its Origin, Rise
and Progress (Boston: Rand, Avery, 1882), 38; Eighth Annual Report of the Trustees of the
Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind to the Corporation (Boston:
John H. Eastburn, 1840), 4. The institution continues today as the Perkins School for the
Blind. Perkins School for the Blind, “Perkins History,” http://www.perkins.org/about-us/
history/ (accessed August 11, 2013). Lowell Mason taught vocal and instrumental lessons
at the Perkins Institution from 1833 to 1836. “Boston Academy of Music,” Boston Courier,
October 3, 1833, p. 4; “Academy of Music,” Boston Recorder, June 3, 1836, p. 90.
11. Anagnostopoulos, Education of the Blind, 62.
12. Ibid., 64–70.
13. See, for example, Michael L. Mark and Charles L. Gary, A History of American Music
Education, 3rd ed. (Lanham, MD: Roman & Littlefield, 2007); James A. Keene, A History
of Music Education in the United States, 2nd ed. (Centennial, CO: Glenbridge, 2009).
14. Edward M. Van Cleve, “Principals Annual Report of the Progress of the Year Ended June
30, 1927,” in Year-Book of the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind (New
York: Bradstreet Press, 1927), 31.
15. For more explanation on historical method, see Roger P. Phelps et al., A Guide to Research
in Music Education, 5th ed. (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2005), chap. 7. I obtained a
number of sources through online databases, including ProQuest Historical Newspapers
(New York Times articles), Genealogy Bank (various other New York [NY] newspapers),
Internet Archive (NYIB annual reports), Heritage Quest Online (U.S. Census), and Google
Books (NYIB and NY legislative reports, biographies, histories, and periodicals prior to
1922). Other source material came from the NYIB and the author’s personal collection.
16. Anson G. Phelps, “Report,” in Tenth Annual Report of the Managers of the NYIB to
the Legislature of the State (hereafter Annual Report of the NYIB) (New York: Tribune
Job Printing, 1846), 14–15; John L. Blake, A Biographical Dictionary: Comprising a
Summary Account of the Lives of the Most Distinguished Persons of All Ages, Nations, and
Professions, 13th ed. (Philadelphia: H. Cowperthwait, 1859), 1344–45.
17. “Appendix No. 1,” in Twenty-Fifth Annual Report of the Directors of the New-York
Institution for the Deaf and Dumb to the State Legislature of New-York for the Year
1843 (New York: Mahlon Day, 1844), 31; Albert Dexter Rust, Record of the Rust Family
Embracing the Descendants of Henry Rust, Who Came from England and Settled in
Hingham, Mass., 1634–1635 (Waco, TX: Author, 1881), 143; Phelps, “Report” (1846),
15–18; Managers, An Account, 12–13.
18. Figure 1 from “A Saga of Our Century,” in Yearbook of the New York Institute for the
Education of the Blind (New York: Charles Francis Press, 1932), between 42–43, 46–47.
19. Phelps, “Report” (1846), 18–21; Managers, An Account, 13–15.
20. “Instruction of the Blind.”
21. Phelps, “Report” (1846), 21–22; Managers, “Memorial of the Managers of the NYIB to the
Honorable Legislature of the State of New-York [no. 114],” in Documents of the Assembly
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Hash 381
of the State of New-York (Albany, NY: E. Croswell, 1834), 3: 3–4. Owner, James Boorman,
leased the property on 9th Avenue to the NYIB at a nominal annual rent with the option to
purchase for $10,400 and 5 percent annual interest during the time of the lease.
22. Figure 2 from “The Benevolent Institutions of New York,” Putnam’s Monthly, June 1853,
p. 683.
23. Managers, “First Annual Report of the NYIB [no. 199],” in Documents of the Assembly of
the State of New-York (Albany, NY: E. Croswell, 1837), 3: 4, 7, 9–10.
24. “An Act to Extend the Instruction of the Blind, and for Other Purposes, Passed April 18,
1839,” as cited in Third Annual Report of the NYIB (New York: Mahlon Day, 1839), 33;
[Report of the managers], in Fourth Annual Report of the NYIB (New York: Mahlon Day,
1840), 6; V. M. Rice, “Tenth Annual Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction,”
in Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York (Albany, NY: Comstock & Cassidy,
1864), 6: 22.
25. Best, The Blind, 279–80; Phelps, “Report” (1846), 3, 23–25.
26. “By-Laws,” in Managers, An Account, 51; “An Act” (1839), 35–36; Phelps, “Report”
(1846), 28; [Untitled article], Madisonian for the Country (Washington, DC), January 24,
1844, p. 2; “Report of the Committee on Instruction,” in “Annual Report of the NYIB [no.
88],” in Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York (Albany, NY: Carroll and
Cook, 1843), 4: 19.
27. Managers, An Account, 14; “Memorial,” 5; “Report of the Committee on Music,” in Third
Annual Report of the NYIB, 18–19.
28. “Report of the Committee on Manufactures,” in Third Annual Report of the NYIB, 20.
29. Anson G. Phelps, “Report,” in Eleventh Annual Report of the NYIB (Albany, NY: C. Van
Benthuysen, 1847), 8–9.
30. “Institution for the Blind. Circular.,” New-York Spectator, July 1, 1833, p. 3; “A Saga of
Our Century,” 50.
31. Managers, “Memorial” (1834), 5.
32. Managers, “First Annual Report,” 5.
33. “An Act in Aid of the NYIB passed May 6, 1834,” as cited in Third Annual Report of the
NYIB, 33.
34. Phelps, “Report” (1846), 10.
35. Ibid.
36. Managers, “First Annual Report,” 18.
37. Phelps, “Report” (1846), 9, 18.
38. “Officers of the Institute,” New York Institute for Special Education (hereafter NYISE)
website, n.d., http://nyise.org/officers.html (accessed August 11, 2013).
39. Phelps, “Report,” in Fourteenth Annual Report of the NYIB (Albany, NY: Weed, Parsons,
1850), 10.
40. Phelps, “Report” (1847), 8, 11.
41. Anson G. Phelps, “Report,” in “Twelfth Annual Report of the NYIB [no. 59],” in Documents
of the Assembly of the State of New-York (Albany, NY: Charles Van Benthuysen, 1848), 3:
11.
42. Managers, “First Annual Report,” 18.
43. Ibid.; “Concert of the Blind,” New-York Commercial Advertiser, November 2, 1836, p. 2;
“Concert for the Blind,” New-York Commercial Advertiser, December 3, 1836, p. 3.
44. Standing Committee on Music, [“Report”], in “Second Annual Report of the NYIB [no.
268],” in Documents of the Assembly of the State of New-York (Albany, NY: B. Croswell,
1838), 5: 20; “Report of the Committee on Music,” in Ninth Annual Report of the NYIB
(New York: Tribune Job Printing, 1845), 28.
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45. See, for example, Managers, “First Annual Report,” 5–6; “Examination of the Pupils of
the NYIB.,” New-York Herald, July 17, 1847, p. 2; “The Anniversaries,” New-York Daily
Times, May 13, 1852, p. 1.
46. Phelps, “Report of Managers,” in Ninth Annual Report of the NYIB, 5–6; C. M. Sawyer,
History of the Blind Vocalists (New York: J. W. Harrison, 1853), 11, 53; “Extracts from the
Report of the Special Committee to Whom Was Referred the Subject of an Excursion,”
in “Annual Report of the NYIB [no. 88],” in Documents of the Assembly of the State of
New-York (Albany, NY: Carroll and Cook, 1843), 4: 40; “Report of the Committee on the
Excursion,” in “Annual Report of the NYIB [no. 57],” in Documents of the Assembly of the
State of New-York (Albany, NY: Carroll and Cook, 1844), 3: 8.
47. “The Institution for the Blind,” Albany Evening Journal, April 23, 1841, p. 2.
48. W. H. B., “The Visit to Washington of Sixteen Pupils of the ‘NYIB,’” Daily National
Intelligencer, January 29, 1844, p. 2.
49. Van Cleve, “Principals Annual Report,” 31.
50. See, for example, Anthony Reiff, “Dirge, as Played at the Funeral Procession of General
LaFayette,” New-York Mirror, October 18, 1834, p. 128; Anthony Reiff, Institutional
March (New York: F. Riley, 1846). Reiff composed this work for the NYIB circa 1838.
“Benefit of the Blind,” New-York Commercial Advertiser, September 14, 1838, p. 3.
51. Katherine K. Preston, “Reiff, Anthony, Sr.,” in Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online,
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/A2088715 (accessed
June 4, 2012).
52. “Died,” New York Herald, June 13, 1880, p. 13; the Brooklyn directory first included Reiff
around 1870 and listed him as a teacher. Brooklyn Business and City Directory (New York:
Lain and Company, 1871), 597. Reiff’s listing in the 1870 U.S. Census also placed him
in Brooklyn and listed his occupation as music teacher. “Search Census,” Heritage Quest
Online, http://0-persi.heritagequestonline.com.elibrary.mel.org/hqoweb/library/do/census/
search/basic (accessed September 6, 2013).
53. Van Cleve, “Principals Annual Report,” 31; “Fair for the Blind,” New-York Commercial
Advertiser, November 18, 1835, p. 2. By this time, the woman hired to teach singing in
1833 no longer worked at the institution. Managers, “First Annual Report,” 8.
54. Standing Committee on Music, [“Report”], 18; “Report of the Committee on Music,” in
“Annual Report of the NYIB [no. 88],” in Documents of the Assembly of the State of New
York (Albany, NY: Carroll and Cook, 1843), 4: 20–21.
55. Van Cleve, “Principals Annual Report,” 31. The practice of employing former students to
assist in the classroom, workshops, and music studios became common at the NYIB, and
many of these individuals continued to live at the facility and pay room and board from
their modest salary. See Phelps, “Report” (1847), 5, 10, 12.
56. Managers, “First Annual Report,” 18.
57. Standing Committee on Music, [“Report”], 19.
58. “Report of the Committee on Music” (1839), 19; “Report of the Committee on Music,” in
“Sixth Annual Report of the NYIB [no. 77],” in Documents of the Assembly of the State of
New York (Albany, NY: Thurlow Weed, 1842), 4: 14.
59. “Report of the Committee on Music” (1845), 23.
60. I determined this percentage by comparing the number of pupils receiving instrumental
instruction to the total student population indicated in several NYIB Annual Reports.
61. Phelps, “Report” (1847), 8–10.
62. “Report of the Committee on Music” (1845), 23–24.
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63. “School for the Blind, Ninth Avenue, New York,” Frank Leslies Illustrated Newspaper,
April 26, 1856, p. 318. Singing classes, for example, met in the chapel.
64. Standing Committee on Music, [“Report”], 19; “Report of the Committee on Music,” in
Fourteenth Annual Report of the NYIB, 25–26. Joseph Lancaster and Andrew Bell devel-
oped the monitorial system of education in England in the late eighteenth century in order
to extend the teacher’s efforts and reduce the cost of education by utilizing students as
assistant teachers. This system was employed in a number of private academies in America
during the early nineteenth century. Gordon Fouts, “Music Instruction in Nineteenth-
Century Monitorial Schools,” Journal of Research in Music Education 22, no. 2 (1974):
112–19.
65. Phelps, “Report” (1847), 5, 10. By 1846, the population at the NYIB had increased to 115
students.
66. “Concert by the Blind,” Brooklyn Eagle, December 24, 1850, p. 2.
67. [Lists of managers and officers of the NYIB] in Annual Report (1847, 1850, 1851, 1853,
1854, 1855, 1856, 1858); Manual of the Corporation of the City of New-York, 1863 (New
York: D. T. Valentine, 1863), 313; Sawyer, History of the Blind Vocalists, 12, 29; Herbert
D. A. Donovan, “Cornelius Mahoney,” Journal of the Irish American Historical Society 21
(1922): 155–56.
68. “Concert of Sacred and Miscellaneous Music” [Advertisement], Evening Post, February
13, 1844, p. 3; “Anniversaries. NYIB,” New-York Spectator, May 8, 1851, p. 3.
69. Band members in 1836 ranged from twelve to twenty-five years of age. Compare names
listed by Standing Committee on Music, [“Report”], 19, to ages listed in “Report of the
Committee on Instruction,” in Tenth Annual Report of the NYIB (New York: Tribune Job
Printing Establishment, 1846), 42–44.
70. Standing Committee on Music, [“Report”], 19; “Report of the Committee on Music,” in
“Fifth Annual Report of the NYIB [no. 213],” in Documents of the Assembly of the State of
New-York (Albany, NY: Thulow Weed, 1841), 6: 19; “Report of the Committee on Music
and Instruction,” in “Annual Report of the Managers of the NYIB [no. 110],” in Documents
of the Assembly of the State of New-York (Albany, NY: Charles Van Benthuysen, 1862), 5:
14. The band at the NYIB predates the Boston Farm and Trades School Band—organized
in 1857 and often cited as the first school band in the United States—by twenty-one years.
Keene, A History, 288. Although string instruments were taught at the NYIB, I found no
evidence of their use in the band.
71. “Asylum for the Blind,” New York Daily Times, July 14, 1854, p. 4; William Alexander
Barrett, An Introduction to Form and Instrumentation for the Use of Beginners in
Composition (London: Rivingtons, 1879), 80–86; Richard Franko Goldman, The Concert
Band (New York: Reinhart, 1946), 31–42.
72. Richard K. Hansen, The American Wind Band: A Cultural History (Chicago: GIA,
2005), 24.
73. “Asylum for the Blind.”
74. Phelps, “Report” (1847), 8.
75. “Report of the Committee on Music,” in Tenth Annual Report of the NYIB (New York:
Tribune Job Printing, 1846), 55.
76. “Report of the Board of Visitors,” in Fourth Annual Report of the NYIB (New York: Mahlon
Day, 1840), 25.
77. “Benefit of the Blind.”
78. “The Celebration,” New-York Spectator, October 13, 1842, p. 2. Though not stated directly,
it is likely that the band performed while riding on a wagon rather than attempting to
march.
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384 Journal of Research in Music Education 62(4)
79. “Ladies’ Concert and Festival of the Eighth Avenue Presbyterian Church,” New-York Daily
Tribune, March 28, 1844, p. 1; T. Colden Cooper, [Superintendent’s Ledger], July 5, 1854,
pp. 13, 35.
80. “Concert of the Blind”; “The Celebration of the Fourth of July,” New-York Herald, July 6,
1848, p. 1; “Asylum for the Blind”; “Anniversary Week,” New York Herald, May 14, 1858,
p. 2.
81. Van Cleve, “Principals Annual Report,” 31.
82. Sawyer, History of the Blind Vocalists, 11–14. Coe reportedly spent the last three years
of his residency teaching music. Although hiring graduates to serve as assistant teachers
was not an official practice at this time, the institution probably sometimes housed and
employed former students, especially when they had no place else to go.
83. Ibid., 27–29; Manual of the Corporation of the City of New-York (New York: D. T.
Valentine, 1862), 305; Manual of the Corporation (1863), 313. Other members of the Blind
Vocalists included Anna Smith, Mary Brush, and A. S. Goodrich.
84. Weygand, Blind in French Society, 271.
85. “Report of the Committee on Music,” in “Annual Report of the Managers of the NYIB [no.
54],” in Documents of the Senate of the State of New-York (Albany, NY: C. Van Benthuysen,
1853), 2: 16–17.
86. Obituary Record of the Graduates of Bowdoin College and the Medical School of Maine
(Brunswick, ME: Bowdoin College Library, 1911), 68–69.
87. T. Colden Cooper, [Superintendent’s Ledger], November 1855, p. 36.
88. Ibid.; William B. Wait, “Report of the Superintendent,” in Forty-Third Annual Report of
the NYIB (New York: Bradstreet, 1879), 21.
89. Managers, “First Annual Report,” 18.
90. Standing Committee on Music, [“Report”], 18; “Musical Soiree [Advertisement],” The
Evening Post, May 17, 1843.
91. “Report of the Committee on Music” (1843), 20.
92. Standing Committee on Music, [“Report”], 18.
93. Ibid.
94. “[Manager’s report], “ in “Second Annual Report of the NYIB [no. 268],” in Documents
of the Assembly of the State of New-York (Albany, NY: B. Croswell, 1838), 5: 6; Standing
Committee on Music, [“Report”], 18.
95. Standing Committee on Music, [“Report”], 18; “Report of the Board of Visitors,” 25;
“Report of the Committee on Music” (1845), 26. The choir in 1844 included twelve
females and eight males. Concerts that included the band and choir featured only about
fifteen pupils, suggesting that many band members also sang in the choir. See, for example,
“Concert of Sacred and Miscellaneous Music,” 3.
96. “Concert of Sacred and Miscellaneous Music,” 3.
97. “Report of the Committee on Music” (1843), 20.
98. “Report of the Committee on Music” (1846), 55; Widmuller was not listed in the 1847
report.
99. Phelps, “Report” (1848), 11.
100. Root played organ and directed the choir at the Mercer Street Presbyterian Church, where
John P. Crosby, a member of the NYIB board of managers and committee on music,
attended services and served as an elder. This connection most likely led to Root’s employ-
ment at the NYIB. George Fredrick Root, The Story of a Musical Life (Cincinnati, OH:
John Church, 1891), 59; “Officers and Managers of the NYIB,” in Ninth Annual Report of
the NYIB (New York: Tribune Job Printing, 1845), 3–4.
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101. Root, Story, chap. 1–5, 8, 12–13, 19; Polly H. Carder, George F. Root, Civil War Songwriter
(Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008), 86, 185–194.
102. “Report of the Committee on Music,” in “Twelfth Annual Report of the NYIB [no.
59],” in Documents of the Assembly of the State of New-York (Albany, NY: Charles Van
Benthuysen, 1848), 27–28. Phelps, “Report” (1848), 11. The presence of students unfit for
instruction in the minds of the managers may have been one of the “unfair” circumstances
of Root’s trial, which led to an assessment of all students engaged in music instruction and
the subsequent dismissal of those determined incapable of making reasonable progress.
103. George F. Root, “Communication from G. R. Root,” New-York Musical Review and
Choral Advocate, May 1853, p. 72.
104. See, for example, “Anniversary Week in New-York, Fourth Day,” New-York Herald, May
12, 1848, p. 1.
105. “Musical Intelligence,” New-York Musical Review and Choral Advocate, July 6, 1854,
p. 234.
106. Root, Story, 53.
107. “Musical Intelligence,” New-York Musical Review and Choral Advocate, February 16,
1854, p. 58.
108. Fanny J. Crosby, Memories of Eighty Years (Boston: James H. Earle, 1906), 40, 112.
Crosby was listed as a pupil who “assists in teaching” in the 1845 report and as a gradu-
ated pupil who “Teaches in School” the following year. “Report of the Committee on
Instruction,” in Ninth Annual Report of the NYIB (New York: Tribune Job Printing, 1845),
14; “Report of the Committee on Instruction” (1846), 42.
109. Anson G. Phelps, “Report,” in Fifteenth Annual Report of the NYIB (New York: Egbert &
King Printers, 1851), 15–16; Carder, George F. Root, 32–35.
110. Root, Story, 101; Carder, George F. Root, 68.
111. Cooper, [Superintendent’s Ledger], September 1855, p. 28.
112. “Readers and Singers,” Werner ’s Magazine, October 1895, p. 791; Sigismond [sic]
Lasar, The Caecilia, A Collection of Vocal Music for Seminaries, Institutes, Classes, etc.,
Including a Series of Practical Lessons in Vocal Training and Musical Notation (New
York: Mason Brothers, 1860); “Book Notices,” Sunday School Journal, July 1878, p. 168.
113. “Report of Committee on Music,” in Twenty-Second Annual Report of the NYIB (New
York: Baker & Godwin, 1858), 20.
114. Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York (New York: D. T. Valentine, 1864),
258; “Readers and Singers,” 791; William B. Wait, “Report of the Superintendent,” in
Forty-Eighth Annual Report of the NYIB (New York: Bradstreet, 1883), 14. The Packer
Collegiate Institute (PCI) opened in 1845 and continues today as the oldest independent
school in Brooklyn. PCI, “About Packer,” PCI website, http://www.packer.edu/page
.cfm?p=1741 (accessed December 6, 2012).
115. Phelps, “Report” (1850), 11.
116. [“Managers’ report”], Fourth Annual Report, 7–8. Sheet lead was similar to aluminum foil
used today.
117. “Annual Exhibition of the Blind,” New-York Spectator, May 10, 1845, p. 2.
118. Ibid; “Report of the Committee on Instruction” (1846), 37; “List of Graduated Pupils,” in
“Thirteenth Annual Report of the NYIB [no. 84],” in Documents of the Assembly of State
of New-York (Albany, NY: Weed, Parsons, 1849), 2: 25.
119. Edmund C. Johnson, An Inquiry into the Musical Instruction of the Blind, in France,
Spain, and America (London: John Mitchell, 1855), 34–39; Figure 4 from B. G. Johns,
Blind People: Their Works and Ways; with Sketches of the Lives of Some Famous Blind
Men (London: John Murray, 1867), 105.
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386 Journal of Research in Music Education 62(4)
120. Laws of the State of New-York, Passed at the Seventy-Sixth Session of the Legislature
(Albany, NY: Weed, Parsons, 1853), 1160; Cornelius Mahoney, A New System of Musical
Notation: For the Use of the Blind (New York: NYIB, 1853).
121. “Notes,” The College Courant, December 27, 1873, p. 284.
122. “Report of the Committee on Music,” in Eighteenth Annual Report of the NYIB (New York:
James Egbert, 1854), 23–24; Donovan, “Cornelius Mahoney,” 155–56; Transactions of the
American Institute of the City of New-York for the Year 1853 (New York: C. Benthuysen,
1854), 108–9, 560. The purpose of the American Institute was to encourage the advance-
ment of agriculture, commerce, manufactures, and the arts.
123. Cooper, [Superintendent’s Ledger], May 1855, pp. 16–17.
124. A. Reiff, “Institution for the Blind” [Letter to the editor], New-York Daily Tribune, May
21, 1857, p. 7.
125. Johns, Blind People, 105–6.
126. Donovan, “Cornelius Mahoney,” 155–56.
127. “Report of the Committee on Music” (1854), 23. Former student Harvey A. Fuller con-
firmed that teaching music by rote remained the prevalent method at the NYIB in the
mid-1800s in Trimsharp’s Account of Himself: A Sketch of his Life, Together with a Brief
History of the Education of the Blind, and Their Achievements: To Which Is Added a
Collection of Poems Composed by Himself (Ann Arbor, MI: Ann Arbor Printing and
Publishing, 1873), 56.
128. “Report of the Committee on Music and Instruction,” 15. This committee identified fund-
ing as the primary obstacle in publishing music in raised print.
129. Root, Story, 114.
130. George F. Root “Communication from George F. Root,” New-York Musical Review and
Choral Advocate, March 1853, p. 40.
131. Root, Story, 114.
132. Ibid., 114–15; Phillip M. Hash, “George F. Root’s Normal Musical Institute, 1853–1885,”
Journal of Research in Music Education 60, no. 3 (2012): 280.
133. Phil Hatlen, “Historical Perspectives,” in M. Cay Holbrook and Alan J. Koenig, eds.,
Foundations of Education: History and Theory of Teaching Children and Youths with
Visual Impairments, 2nd ed., vol. 1 (New York: American Foundation for the Blind, 2000),
31–32. Teachers of the blind in the nineteenth century learned thorough apprenticeships.
The first university-based preparation programs developed in the early 1900s.
134. “Report of the Committee on Music” (1846), 55.
135. Root, “Communication,” 40.
136. Isaac Wood and George F. Allan, [“Managers’ report”], in Twenty-Second Annual Report
of the NYIB (New York: Baker & Godwin, 1858), 7.
137. T. Colden Cooper, [Superintendent’s Ledger], 1852, pp. 18, 24; “Officers of the Institute.”
138. “Report of the Committee on Charitable and Religious Societies, and the Testimony Taken
by Them in Relation to the Affairs of the NYIB [no. 89],” in Documents of the Senate of
the State of New-York (Albany, NY: Comstock & Cassidy, 1864), 4: 69.
139. Ibid., 16.
140. Ibid., 211–21.
141. Cooper, [Superintendent’s Ledger], 1852, p. 24.
142. Van Cleve, “Principals Annual Report,” 31–32; Manual of the Corporation (1864), 296.
Both Foeppel and Henssler were sighted teachers.
143. “Musical. Musical Educational Institutions,” New York Herald-Tribune, September 17,
1866, pp. 12, 170; “Easter Music,” New York Herald, April 8, 1887, p. 5; Hansen, The
American Wind Band, 28.
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144. William B. Wait, “Report of the Superintendent,” in Forty-Eighth Annual Report of the
NYIB (New York: Bradstreet, 1883), 14.
145. Ezra Schabas, “Thomas, Theodore,” in Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online
(Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press), http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/
article/grove/music/27869 (accessed December 6, 2012).
146. “Musical Department,” in Thirty-First Annual Report of the NYIB (New York: George
F. Nesbitt, 1867), 20; “Report of the Committee on Charitable and Religious Societies,”
187–88.
147. “Officers of the Institution,” in Forty-First Annual Report of the NYIB (New York:
Bradstreet Press, 1877), 5; “Asylum for the Blind.” I found no evidence of the monitorial
system or a band after Thomas became director of music at the NYIB in 1863.
148. Van Cleve, “Principals Annual Report,” 31–32; “Officers of the Institute.” Wait’s title
changed from superintendent to principal around 1900 to better reflect his role at the
school. “Faculty,” in Sixty-Fifth Annual Report of the Managers of the NYIB (New York:
Bradstreet Press, 1901), 11; “A Saga of Our Century,” 64.
149. William B. Wait, “Alphabets and Books for the Blind,” in Thirty-Third Annual Report of
the NYIB (New York: George F. Nesbitt, 1869), 43–46.
150. C. Michael Mellor, 175 Years of Doing Good (New York: New York Institute for Special
Education, 2007), n.p. Braille is the universal system for writing text and music today.
Louis Braille developed his method in the 1820s and 1830s at the Institute for Blind Youth
in Paris. The system was introduced in the United States around 1860. William Henry
Illingworth, “Uniform Braille System,” in Report on the Conference on Matters Relating
to the Blind, Organized by the Committee of the Gardner’s Trust for the Blind (London:
Farmer & Sons, 1902), 131–33. For information on Braille music notation, see Fred G.
Kersten, “The History of Braille Music Methodology,” Bulletin of Historical Research in
Music Education 18, no. 2 (January 1997): 106–25.
151. William B. Wait, The New York System of Tangible Musical Notation and Point Writing
and Printing for the Use of the Blind (New York: NYIB, 1873). Figures 7 through 19 taken
from pp. 4–19.
152. Mellor, 175 Years, n.p.; “In Memoriam: Biographical Sketch of William Bell Wait, the
Inventor of the New York Point System of Writing for the Blind,” Outlook for the Blind,
October 1916, pp. 67–71.
153. The 1885 Annual Report contained a three-page list of piano pieces written in New York
Point. By 1909, this list had increased to twenty pages and included works for piano,
organ, and guitar as well as a ten-year piano curriculum listing pieces for each year of
study. “Catalog of Music in Embossed Point Print,” in Fiftieth Annual Report of the NYIB
(New York: Bradstreet, 1885), 23–25; “List of Music Publications in the New York Point
Print,” Seventy-Fourth Annual Report of the NYIB (New York: Bradstreet Press, 1910),
100–135.
154. William B. Wait, “Report of the Superintendent,” in Forty-Second Annual Report of the
NYIB (New York: [publisher unknown], 1877), 23; “In Memoriam,” 69.
155. Van Cleve, “Principals Annual Report,” 32, 34.
156. Mellor, 175 Years, n.p.; Paul Tuckerman, “Report of the Managers of the New York
Institute for the Education of the Blind (NYIEB),” in Year-Book of the NYIEB (New York:
Bradstreet Press, 1924), 14.
157. “A Saga of Our Century,” 63.
158. Mellor, 175 Years, n.p.; William L. Heward, Exceptional Children: An Introduction to
Special Education, 6th ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000), 65.
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388 Journal of Research in Music Education 62(4)
159. Mellor, 175 Years, n.p.
160. NYISE, “Welcome,” NYISE website, http://www.nyise.org/ (accessed December 6,
2012).
161. The author thanks Naum Shulman, music instructor at the NYISE, for his assistance in
providing historical and current information on the school’s music program.
162. Managers, “First Annual Report,” 18; Standing Committee on Music, [“Report”], 19.
163. Van Cleve, “Principals Annual Report,” 31.
164. Ibid., 32–34.
165. T. Colden Cooper, “Superintendent’s Report,” in Twentieth Annual Report of the NYIB
(New-York, James Egbert, 1856), 15; “Officers of the Institution,” in Third Annual Report
of the Board of Trustees and Officers of the New York State Institution for the Blind
(Albany, NY: Albus Company Printers, 1872), 6; Donovan, “Cornelius Mahoney,” 155.
166. See, for example, “Report of the Committee on Charitable and Religious Societies.”
167. Karen Salvador, “Who Isn’t a Special Learner? A Survey of How Music Teacher Education
Programs Prepare Future Educators to Work with Exceptional Populations,” Journal of
Music Teacher Education 20, no. 1 (2010): 27–38.
168. Fuller, Trimsharp’s Account, 56; Joseph Michael Abramo and Amy Elizabeth Pierce,
“An Ethnographic Case Study of Music Learning at a School for the Blind,” Bulletin of
the Council for Research in Music Education no. 195 (Winter 2013): 9–24. The authors
found that most students preferred learning by ear and that their use of music notation was
limited.
169. Standing Committee on Music, [“Report”], 19.
170. Alice-Ann Darrow, “Adaptations in the Classroom: Accommodations and Modifications,
Part 2,” General Music Today 21, no. 3 (2008): 32–34.
171. Mellor, 175 Years, n.p.
172. Rick Lee Coates, “Accommodating Band Students with Visual Impairments,” Music
Educators Journal 99, no. 1 (September 2012): 63–64. For additional information, see the
Dancing Dots company website, http://www.dancingdots.com/main/index.htm (accessed
October 16, 2012).
173. The American Printing House for the Blind (http://www.aph.org/) publishes a number of
music books but a limited amount of sheet music. According to Bill McCann, president of
Dancing Dots Braille Music Technology, “It would be wonderful if publishers would make
their scores routinely available in some digital format. . . . Music publishers have been rela-
tively slow to join the digital age in comparison to mainstream publishers of textbooks and all
kinds of other printed materials.” Bill McCann, e-mail message to author, October 11, 2012.
174. For example, Edith L. Blumhofer, Her Heart Can See (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans,
2005).
175. For example, Abramo and Pierce, “An Ethnographic Case Study”; Ann Power and Dorothy
McCormack, “Piano Pedagogy with a Student Who Is Blind: An Australian Case,”
International Journal of Music Education 30, no. 4 (2012): 341–53; Frederick W. Moss,
“Quality of Experience in Mainstreaming and Full Inclusion of Blind and Visually Impaired
High School Instrumental Music Students” (PhD diss., University of Michigan, 2009).
Author Biography
Phillip M. Hash is associate professor of music education at Calvin College. His research inter-
ests include music education history and instrumental music education.
Submitted March 18, 2013; accepted January 8, 2014.
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