Current location:	Nova Scotia Public Archives
Current mood:	satisfied
Entry tags:	academic stuff: ask me about my thesis, history: blind history snippets, in yr archives writing yr history
Crossposts:	http://troubleinchina.livejournal.com/606857.html

Hmm... I'm pretty sure I've seen Fighting in the Dark being referenced as written by Fraser, with some implication that the person quoting it had read this article or book.

The book, it turns out, is a very small collection of articles written by others.

The Lives of Laura Bridgman & Oliver Caswell, as written by SG Howe
The Social Condition and Attainments of the Blind, Stephen Babcock, NY Institute
The Social Condition of the Blind, by Josiah S Graves, Pennsylvania Institute
The Musical Education of the Blind, from the London Mirror
Piano-Forte Tuning as an employment for the blind, by J. W. Smith
* The mental and physical condition of the blind who are educated, compared with that of the uneducated, which is actually by Fraser (2 short pages)
* Physical Training of the Blind, by Fraser (1 short page)
And sections of the Annual Report from 1879 (which is interesting because this would make this book part of the Free Education for the Blind movement)

So, basically, what we've got from Fraser is a bit about how uneducated blind people are ignorant and mean and live in perpetual darkness (educated blind people are awesome), and also they should work out lots because it gives them more confidence.

This is... not exactly what the people who have mentioned this book have led me to believe is in it.

Also, I have basically proven to my satisfaction that Fraser was getting paid. (I know! You were on pins & needles waiting for this!) The only way the amount of money they were putting out in wages works is either Fraser was getting paid, or they were paying the other teacher, the Matron, and the Steward individually more than they initially offered to Fraser two years earlier. So I think not. That myth is busted. Now I just need to decide if I want to address that at all in my thesis. (Tempted to toss it into a footnote.)