Living as a Blind Person in 1889, a guest post by Edith Maxwell

Julia Spencer-Fleming: It's no secret that I love historical mysteries (and historical fiction in general) and it's been a great delight to dig into our own Edith Maxwell's Quaker Midwife books. Now, one of the several things that keep me from trying my hand at the genre is laziness - getting history right takes a lot of work. And it's not all reading documents in libraries and archives - today Edith tells us about the sort of real-life research necessary to create, not just n authentic historical world, but authentic characters.

Living as a Blind Person in 1889

Thanks for having me back on the Reds, Julia! I’m happy to send a copy of Judge Thee Not to one commenter here today.

In my latest Quaker MidwifeMystery, I wanted to include a blind character (and I love that Leslie Karst’s recent post on Jungle Reds addressed the same topic). I have a good friend here in Amesbury who has been blind her entire life. Jeanne Papka Smith raised two children, recently retired from a full-time career as a social worker, plays fiddle and guitar beautifully, and is a fellow Quaker and international traveler with whom I not only share a natal state (California) but a birthday!

Jeanne was the model for Jeanette Papka in Judge Thee Not. In this book, the fifth in the series, Jeanette is pregnant with her second child, so midwife Rose is watching over her pregnancy. Jeanette is trilingual and interprets French and Polish in the courts. Her parents had sent her to the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston, and she is well educated.

Besides Helen Keller, the only real blind person from the late nineteenth century I knew of was Mary Ingalls, the oldest sister of Laura. And what I knew came from reading children’s books. So I set myself to learning about the past, as we historical novelists do.

I was able to find Mary Ingalls: the College Years by Marie Tschopp, an account of Mary’s school years and picked up a few good tidbits. I also read a reproduction of The World as I Hear It by Lansing V. Hall, published in 1878. From these books and elsewhere I learned that the blind and deaf were generally considered morons in that period.

My main historical research source was a field trip I made to the Perkins School, which is still operating today. A wonderful research librarian let me into the files. She gave me a tour of the museum. She sent me home with Braille samples and so much more.

Check out how kids learned the shapes of countries and states. They could feel life-sized relief amphibians.

 

I noticed how they used different kinds of tiles in the floor to mark out pathways.

The librarian said the genders were segregated as teenagers. Boy scouts were brought in to socialize with the girls, and girl scouts with the boys. Despite Perkins being an enlightened school devoted to educating the blind, the thinking was that the students shouldn’t be allowed to fall in love with each other because they then might intermarry and, heaven forbid, reproduce. She also said that of course the kids found ways to get around the segregation, making holes in the cafeteria dividing wall, for example, so they could talk and touch.

I also learned that American braille lagged behind French braille. By 1889 not that many books were yet published in American braille, so I put a scene in my book where Jeanette is sitting outside reading Jane Austen in French.

Photo by antonioxalonso, Wikimedia Commons

Modern-day Jeanne kindly read (well, listened to) my manuscript twice over before I submitted it. She set me straight in several spots, one being where Rose had commented that of naturally the blind have better hearing. Jeanne told me, “No, our hearing isn’t any better than anyone else’s. But we don’t have sight to distract us from listening.” Off I went to fix the passage, with 1889 Jeannette correcting Rose.

In my story, because of the prevailing beliefs, people around town and in court say things in Jeanette’s hearing that they wouldn’t otherwise in public. They don’t think she can make sense of them. She gladly relays important bits of information about the murder to Rose. Rose’s lesbian pal Bertie is also subject to a great deal of judgment. Justice-minded Rose stands up for both her friends.

I loved writing this book, as I do all the Quaker Midwife mysteries, and bringing the past to life for readers.

Readers: what have you learned from differently-abled people you have known or admired from a distance? One lucky commentor will win a copy of JUDGE THEE NOT!

No stranger to judgmental attitudes in her small town, 1880s Quaker midwife Rose Carroll is nonetheless stunned when society matron Mayme Settle publicly snubs Rose’s good friend Bertie for her nontraditional ways. When Mrs. Settle is later found murdered—and a supposed witness insists Bertie was spotted near the scene of the crime—the police blame her. Rose is certain her friend is innocent, and she enlists the help of a blind pregnant client—who’s endured her own share of prejudice—to help her sift through the clues. As the two uncover a slew of suspects tied to financial intrigues, illicit love, and an age-old grudge over perceived wrongs, circumstantial evidence looms large in small minds, and Rose fears her friend will soon become the victim of a grave injustice—or worse. 

EdithMaxwell writes the Quaker Midwife Mysteries and award-winning short crime fiction. As Maddie Day she writes the Country Store Mysteries and the Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries. Maxwell, with nineteen novels in print and four more completed, has been nominated for an Agatha Award six times. She lives north of Boston with her beau and an elderly cat, and gardens and cooks when she isn’t killing people on the page or wasting time on Facebook. Please find her at edithmaxwell.com, on Instagram, and at the Wicked Authors blog.