November 2015 – Common Touch: The Art of the Senses in the History of the Blind

Thomas Greene Bethune, known as Blind Tom, ca. 1870. Black & white photograph. 4 x 2.5 in. Picture depicts the carte-de-visite portrait photograph of musician Thomas Greene Bethune, later Wiggins, known as Blind Tom. Shows the young African American man from his waist up, his body slightly angled to the viewer’s right. His tightly curled hair is shortly cropped. His eyes are closed. He wears a white shirt with a turned down collar. Under the collar is a dark cross tie. He also wears a dark jacket with wide notch lapels, several creases around the waist, and the top button fastened. The photograph is framed within a rectangular shape printed with a thick gold line surrounded by a thin black line. The frame is on light-colored paper. The top edge of the frame is slightly rounded. Hand written text below the portrait reads: “Blind Tom” [End of description]

Race, Celebrity, and Disability in the Collections

November 10, 2015/0 Comments/in LCP Collections /by touch1

Picture shows a pencil sketch titled “Front View” on an 8 1/2 x 11 in. piece of white paper with faint, vertical ruled black lines. In the center of the page is a tall, vertical rectangle. A measurement line labeled “20 [in.]” runs horizontally along the inside bottom edge of the rectangle. A long measurement line runs vertically along the right side of the rectangle. The line is divided into four segments and labeled, in the right, from bottom to top: “28 [in.]”; “30 [in.]”; “5 [in.]”; “20 [in.].” The rectangle is divided into four segments. The segments are labeled, in the left, from bottom to top: “Olfactometer”; “Hood”; “Fan”; “Vent.” A two-dimensional view of a table cuts across the lower one-third of the rectangle. A measurement line labeled “6’” runs horizontally below the illustration. A measurement line labeled “7’” runs vertically to the right of the illustration. [End of description]

One Year In

November 6, 2015/0 Comments/in Behind the Scenes /by touch1