Content Warning: This blog post contains derogatory terminology that wouldn't be used in present-day records and can be distressing.
In his book Hearing Our History, Iain Hutchinson frames the concept of the ‘outdoor blind’ as the ‘people with sight loss who lived in the wider community rather than in institutions such as Edinburgh’s blind asylum’ (2015, p.1). These Registers listed blind men and women living in local communities, gave basic information about their work circumstances, and granted aid. Many people listed in the register were elderly and frail, whereas others were employed in some way.
Hutchinson explains that ‘the Society for the Outdoor Blind
focussed on teaching people with sight loss to read raised type and this was
primarily so that they might access religious works. The system of raised type
that was promoted was the Moon system, although by the Edwardian period the
society had also embraced braille and therefore offered instruction and library
facilities in both methods of tactile print’ (2015, p.2). The image below shows
a female register recording information concerning their age when sight was
lost, the cause of the blindness, and their previous and present (at the time!)
employment. While the Register shows numerous gaps, it still provides a sense of
the wide range of occupations women held before and after they lost sight.
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Some of the occupations mentioned in the volume before
women lost sight were servant, Bible woman, sewer, nurse, mission worker,
dressmaker, charwoman (a dated term for a female cleaner), chemical worker, kept
house, book sewer, poor house matron, school pupil, and mill worker; whereas the
terminology or jobs listed after losing sight offer an apparent contrast
in most instances: unable, knitting, unemployed, infirm, keeps house, none,
labourer, small shop, bedridden, helps in house, mangle turner, on street.
There is also a mention of a woman who worked as a music teacher.
Occupations performed by men covered the whole
spectrum of trades and traditional jobs. Before losing sight, some of
their professions were hawker (a door-to-door seller), collector, clerk,
carpenter, plumber, mechanic, baker, jeweller, shoemaker, labourer, tailor… It very much covers the whole spectrum of traditional trades. While the job or terms listed after they lost sight are
radically different and include hawker, on street, selling tea, not able,
unable, nothing, street reader, mattress maker, bakers shop, infirm, sells
fish, musician, pedlar (a dated term for a travelling salesperson), sells tea, piano tuner, street music, unemployed.
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Interestingly, tea sellers and mangle turners were approved
in Edwardian Edinburgh, whilst street musicians were not. People who earned a
living ‘on the street’ were considered to not be engaging in a respectable form
of ‘self-help’. Neither were musicians or oratory readers of raised type.
Musicians would perform on the street, in public houses or music halls, all of
which were places that didn’t present the image of blind people that the
missionaries to the outdoor blind sought. On the other hand, music teachers,
piano tuners, and organists were highly regarded. The first two could end up
working in the homes of respectable middle-class families, whereas the latter
would perform in places of worship. Some people underwent drastic career
changes. Knitting was the main employment for women, whereas a high number of
men worked as hawkers with different levels of success. Selling tea was the
most remunerative option. For instance, there is evidence of a tea seller who
was a miner prior to losing his sight. While he was widely respected for his ability
to develop his business, he earned considerably less than he had earned as a
coal miner.
You can learn more about the Register of the Outdoor Blind here.
