Samuel P. Hayes Research Library

The Samuel P. Hayes Research Library, founded in 1880, offers the largest and most comprehensive collection on the nonmedical aspects of blindness and deafblindness that is available to the public. With more than 40,000 books, pamphlets, journal articles, newspaper clippings, conference reports and websites in its catalog, the Research Library joins the Perkins Braille & Talking Book Library as a resource for researchers, the Perkins community, professionals, parents and the public.

Some information has been tailored for parents and kids. Teachers can find resources for both disability awareness and for instructing students who are disabled. Resource packets, including one about Laura Bridgman, the first deafblind woman to be educated in the U.S., are available by request or download. The frequently asked questions section offers general information, and the New Acquisitions listing changes several times a year.

The Research Library archives feature historical material on Perkins, including photographs and papers of Perkins’ former leaders. The collection has many examples of early writing systems, including Boston Line Type, other embossed books, and the varieties of raised-dot “point” systems that predate the 1917 standardization of the braille code in the United States. The Nella Braddy Henney collection is the correspondence of Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan Macy and Henney.

The Perkins History Museum is another resource for Perkins history and is a complement to the Samuel P. Hayes Research Library.

To learn more about the Samuel P. Hayes Research Library, contact HayesLibrary@Perkins.org.