Tilly Guthrie

Supervisors:

• Esme Cleall (Primary)
• Julia Moses (Secondary)

Period:

Post-1800

Thesis abstract: 

My project examines the extent of correspondence in the nineteenth-century British blind community. In the period between the invention of Braille in 1824, and the decision to standardise and unilaterally adopt the script in the UK in 1905, multiple tactile writing systems coexisted around the country. This era of concerted effort to improve blind literacy coincided with a growing culture of correspondence amongst the sighted population; the introduction of the Penny Post alongside rising literacy rates made letter-writing more accessible for the first time. My thesis will explore the extent to which blind people were excluded from this cultural shift, obstructed by the multiplicity of their writing systems.