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Love is Not Blind: Eugenics, Blindness, and Marriage in the United States, 1840-1940

Stalvey, Marissa Leigh Slaughter
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1395944636

Abstract Details

2014, Master of Liberal Studies, University of Toledo, Liberal Studies.
The eugenics movement targeted people who were blind and visually impaired as part of "the unfit" members of society who needed to be prevented from passing on their blindness to successive generations. In the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, eugenicists, blindness professionals, and even other blind people believed that the best way to eliminate blindness was through the restriction of marriages between blind people. Ophthalmologist Lucien Howe repeatedly attempted to secure legislation barring blind people from marrying. Blindness professionals, especially educators, stressed the importance of the separation of the sexes in residential schools for the blind as the way in which to prevent blind marriages and intermarriages, and thus to prevent future generations of blind people. Blind people's assessment of their own marriageability was complex and sometimes contradictory. While some shirked contemporary views, most others accepted and promoted the eugenic idea that hereditary blindness should not be passed to the next generation. Many historians have previously overlooked the unique and rich history of blind people in the United States. This research hopes to illuminate an important aspect of that history.
Kim Nielsen (Committee Chair)
Liat Ben-Moshe (Committee Member)
Diane Britton (Committee Member)
53 p.
American History; Education History; Gender Studies; History; Personal Relationships; Special Education
eugenics; blindness; blind; visually impaired; Progressive era; disability; disability history; history; United States; special education; education; disabilities; marriage; disability studies

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Stalvey, M. L. S. (2014). Love is Not Blind: Eugenics, Blindness, and Marriage in the United States, 1840-1940 [Master's thesis, University of Toledo]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1395944636

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Stalvey, Marissa. Love is Not Blind: Eugenics, Blindness, and Marriage in the United States, 1840-1940. 2014. University of Toledo, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1395944636.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Stalvey, Marissa. "Love is Not Blind: Eugenics, Blindness, and Marriage in the United States, 1840-1940." Master's thesis, University of Toledo, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1395944636

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

toledo1395944636
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This open access ETD is published by University of Toledo and OhioLINK.