2011.22.1a-b

New York Point Desk Slate

(a) Wooden desk slate; two solid wood side rails of slightly darker color, tongue and grooved to main board; each rail has seven (7) 5/16" diameter holes bored in a vertical line and set into a recessed groove that runs from the base and stops just short of the paper clamp; wooden full width paper clamp at top of board, hinged with two brass curled piano hinges, cutout in center of clamp for fixed block mounted with brass leaf-shaped clamp lock, clamp has two steel teeth up ; written in pencil below clamp, "Miss M.E. Gilliland"; (b) nickel plated brass New York Point system desk slate; five rows of 34 square cells; curled piano hinge on one short side; row of recessed dots at top of upper frame separates cells into groupings of 6; one pin down, stamped into top frame; lower frame has recessed holes to help form dots; half-moon cutout in lower frame facilitates opening; two blunt pins riveted in bottom frame which fit into holes in board.

ca. 1900

Unknown

Passed down through the Burton Family following Maude Burton's death in 1981. Maude Gilliland Burton (1894-1981) lost her vision soon after birth due to a doctor's mistake with a boric acid eye rinse. She attended the Ohio State School for the Blind from 1900-1907 but graduated from the local school in the Dever Valley of Jackson County, Ohio. Married to a local farmer (see file for details), she raised a family as a working farmwife. The Ohio school taught New York Point rather than braille during her school years, as did most other American residential schools for the blind prior to 1910.

Gift of the Maude E. Gilliland Burton Family, 2011.22.