Gift of Virginia Association of Workers for the Blind, and Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired, 1975 and circa 1980.
Collection materials are arranged chronologically.
The Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired (DBVI) was established in 1922 by an act of the Virginia General Assembly. The organization was first named the Virginia Commission for the Blind. The original building, which held Commission offices and some training and industrial facilities, was housed at 3003 Parkwood Avenue in Richmond,VA. Use of the building was donated by Edwin J. Gould to the Virginia Association of Workers for the Blind, who were later able to purchase and deed it to DBVI. Lucian Louis Watts was involved in founding the Virginia DBVI, and served as Executive Secretary for many years.
The mission of DBVI is to provide statewide services and resources for Virginians who are blind, vision impaired, or deafblind. This has historically included vocational training and job development, education, access to reading materials, and personal independence.
The Shotwell Memorial Award and AAWB Convention is recorded on three 10 inch 33 1/3 RPM LPs.
Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired (DBVI) records, 1941-1980, Collection # M 564, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.
Photocopied materials requested by Dr. Thelma Biddle (a History professor at Virginia Commonwealth University from the 1960s-1980s) from the Perkins School for the Blind have been removed from this collection.
The names of titles and requested pages of these materials are included in the final folder of the collection. Some of these materials (such as letters between Anne Sullivan and Michael Anagnos, and between Mr. Keller and Anagnos) have been digitized by Perkins School for the Blind and are publicly available online. Other materials are held by their archives.
Lucian Louis Watts was the Executive Secreatary of Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired for over 30 years. The Lucian Louis Watts papers, collection # M 12, is also held by Special Collections and Archives.
The Library of Virginia also holds other materials produced by the DBVI.
The Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired (DBVI) records includes publications documenting the history and purpose of DBVI; miscellaneous journals and magazines on people who are blind or have vision impairment, as well as disability issues more broadly; DBVI annual reports, a training manual, and correspondence to the Perkins School for the Blind in Massachusetts requesting photocopies of materials held in their library and archives.
The audio recordings in this collection are from the American Association of Workers for the Blind (AAWB) Convention held in Washington, DC, in 1953. That year, Lucian Louis Watts won the Shotwell Memorial Award in recognition of his decades of work for both DBVI and AAWB.