3-034-664 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Blind basket-makers, 1871. 'Basket-making is poor work, and it is worthy of consideration whether the blind persons [here] represented at this task, could not be taught some more profitable industry...There are 30,000 blind persons in Great Britain, and it is feared that many of them...are left to pass their lives in a helpless condition, and to suffer poverty and neglect in after years. The trades chiefly practised by the blind in this country are that of basket-making aforesaid, the making of brushes and brooms, of rugs, mats, and mattresses, and the plaiting of cane bottoms for chairs, with knitting and sewing for women. Eight or ten shillings a week are the best wages they can usually earn...in Paris, there is one profession at least - that of pianoforte tuning - for which blindness is really not a disqualification, but probably the reverse; and it cannot be doubted that there are several other well-paid employments in which a finer perception of sound and a more delicate touch may give the blind almost an advantage over those possessed of sight...Among the great piano manufacturers of London, whose enterprise and liberality are so well known...it is possible that an opening may be provided for the introduction of blind workpeople'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.