Description: 3" x 4" photograph of a bolted house from a collection of models for the Ohio State School for the Blind. The bolted house model was designed to improve and demonstrate manual dexterity and coordination. A replication of most likely the most simple of the small, two-story gable houses. The model was small enough for a child to manipulate the parts; walls, roof, floor and chimney. The parts were made to fasten to one another by different-sized bolts and nuts. Each part had to be fastened in a particular order with the corresponding part. The chimney could only be fastened to the roof with the correct-sized bolt, and only after the roof was bolted in place. Likewise, the walls had to be bolted before the roof was bolted, and previously be bolted to the floor pieces. Two bolted house models were made. One had light gray walls and a green roof; the other had white walls and a blue roof. Both had a red chimney. All parts were made of wood. The model dimensions: length 18", width 7", height 12". Photographs and descriptions of models were included in the book "Models for the Blind, " compiled by workers of the Ohio Writers' Program. The book was meant as a guide, to be used in the building and study of models, and as documentation of the achievements at the Ohio State School for the Blind. The models were a result of research, design and construction by employees of the Works Projects Administration. Models were made of durable materials to withstand regular usage. The average cost of labor for larger models was $45. A special room was built to store the models where teachers could borrow them to be used in classroom instruction. In 1837, the Ohio government established the Ohio Institution for the Education of the Blind. This institution was the predecessor of the Ohio State School for the Blind. It was the first public school for the blind in the United States. It was the first in the nation to be created and maintained entirely by the State government. The school opened its doors in 1839, and it was located in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Any blind children residing in Ohio could attend the institution. Eleven students enrolled at the Ohio Institution for the Education of the Blind this first year. The school initially had a maximum capacity of sixty students, but upon moving to a new building in 1874, more than three hundred students could attend at one time. Between 1839 and 1901, 2, 058 students enrolled at the Ohio Institution for the Education of the Blind, with 339 attending in 1901 alone. In the early 1900s, the Ohio Institution for the Education of the Blind became known as the Ohio State School for the Blind, and the Ohio Department of Education assumed control of the school. In 1953, the school moved ten miles north of its original location to its present home. In 2005, 126 students enrolled in the Ohio State School for the Blind. Students as young as three and as old as twenty-one years of age attended the school. Students could receive their entire education (kindergarten through high school) at the institution. In addition, the Ohio State School for the Blind offered vocational training for its students. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B11F02_036_001
Subjects: United States. Work Projects Administration; Blind--Education--Ohio; Ohio State School for the Blind; Model Architecture, Domestic--Ohio--Pictorial works.
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio)