Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of articles on Forgotten People. The previous article can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/cehjl2y

To the many young women who learned to shorthand from her, Miss Grace Keator was something of a heroine. Miss Keator had developed a special machine for taking shorthand notes, which were  then easily transferred onto a typewriter for review and signature.

According to Miss Keator, “We have a machine for taking shorthand notes. It has six keys. These keys punch combinations of dots that take the place of shorthand notes. These dots appear on a narrow paper tape.” To read the dots, the paper strip was unrolled on the secretary’s lap, and used to type the letter on a standard typewriter.  Instruction in how to use the machine could be had, under Miss Keator’s tutelage, at the New York Association for the Blind.

Miss Keator herself had lost nearly all her sight in an illness in the late 1890’s. With her dreams of a career as a literature teacher dashed, Miss Keator learned Braille at Batavia’s Institute for the Blind, and taught herself how to use a typewriter. Her efforts attracted attention, and Miss Winifred Holt hired her on at the New York Association for the Blind as a secretary. Nor was Holt the only one to employ Miss Keator; on a visit to New York City, President Taft heard of the blind secretary, and personally requested that she take shorthand for him.

His attention did much to publicize the work of the Association, and r a fundraising drive raised $100,000 for a new Association building. Located at 111 East 59^th Street, New York City, it housed a library, rooftop garden, swimming pool, dorm rooms. In its class rooms, the blind were taught trades, such as carpet weaving, broom making,  chair caning, sewing, and of course, shorthand and typewriting under the tutelage of Miss Keator.  The Association sent out blind teachers to blind students who could not attend classes at the Light House. 200 blind boys and girls were mainstreamed into public schools, assisted by children with good sight especially trained to help them.

“One of our most important branches of the work is the care of those who become blinded through industrial accidents,” Miss Holt told the New York Times.“The other day two Italian laborers at work in one of the shafts for the new aqueduct were blinded by an explosion of dynamite and take to the Presbyterian Hospital. When they leave there, they will have no means of support unless the association takes them in hand and teaches them some trade. This we intend to do, as we have done in any number of similar cases in which the victims of such disasters have been made happy and contented wage earners, even though blind for life.”