The first American kindergarten for the blind was dedicated on this date in 1887 and opened two weeks later. The kindergarten was part of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind, the alma mater of Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan. Michael Anagnos, the director of the Perkins School for the Blind, proposed the idea for the kindergarten after writing extensively about Keller in the school’s annual reports, noting that she “snatched the key of the treasury of the English language from the fingers of her teacher, unlocked its doors with vehemence, and began to feast upon its contents with inexpressible delight.”

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