First Annual Report of the California Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb and Blind to the Legislature of the State of California, for the year 1860, (San Francisco: Towne & Bacon, 1861).

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Report of the Managers

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of California, and to the Contributors to the California Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind, the Managers submit their first report.

A meeting of a number of ladies of San Francisco was held on the seventeenth of March, 1860, when the Society for the Instruction and Maintenance of the indigent Deaf and Dumb and the Blind was organized.

Immediate application was made to the Legislature for assistance, the necessity of which being fully realized, was generously responded to by the passage of an Act appropriating ten thousand dollars for the erection of a building.

The full amount has been received by the Trustees and judiciously and economically disbursed in the erection of a very substantial brick building - 32 by 62 feet - on the corner of Mission and Sparks streets.

The Managers being desirous of not delaying until the new building would be completed, rented a house in Tehama street, and opened the school for deaf mutes on the first of May, with three pupils - two girls and one boy - and were fortunate in engaging Mr. H. B. Crandall, an intelligent and well educated deaf mute gentleman, as

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instructor. During the first month the pupils increased to eight, and in six months to sixteen.

The school for the blind was commenced in October, with four pupils - two boys and two girls. The opening of this department was much delayed from the necessity of having to send to the Atlantic States for alphabets and books, adapted to their peculiar necessities.

The first public examination was held at Platt's New Music Hall on the eleventh of December, and passed with great credit to the pupils. The rapid progress shown in their studies, when it is considered that on entering school they were wholly ignorant, none having been under instruction more than six months, and many less, was truly surprising to all that witnessed it, and made more manifest the praise due the teachers for the evident perseverance in their difficult and laborious work.

The general health of the pupils has been good. Four of them, however, have suffered from the prevailing disease, typhoid fever, which by the blessing of God, yielded to the skill and close attention of Dr. Whitney, who received no other reward but the pleasure of doing good.

It has been considered by some, that an Institution of this kind was premature, the State being too young to have a sufficient number of these unfortunate classes to establish a school.

To show the erroneousness of this idea, it will be only necessary to state that the first Institution of the kind in the United States - Hartford, Connecticut - commenced with only one pupil; the New York Institution, one of the most successful, with only two, and the average number for the first ten years was only fifty-five.

The California Institution opened with three pupils, and increased during the first six months to twenty-two, and

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will, in all probability, before the present year elapses, increase to a number equaling the first ten years' average of the New York Institution.

Besides those now in school, the Managers know of thirty-six more deaf and dumb in the State, and nearly an equal number of blind. There are probably many more yet unknown to the Managers, as there is no question but the census was very incorrectly taken in this particular.

With this statement of facts, can any one think the work premature? Will not every one feel that it is a necessity, called for by every feeling of humanity, when they consider the total ignorance of these naturally intelligent children, the greater part of whom are actually denied the privilege of learning that they are accountable beings? They cannot be taught at home, nor in Common Schools, and no relief can be given them except through the agency of an Institution adapted to their peculiar wants and circumstances.

An Institution of this kind cannot be reared, conducted and supported by their parents. This, thus far, has been sustained mostly by the Society, and the contributions of the benevolent, but although the public of this State are noted for their liberality in support of all charitable objects, it is not reasonable to suppose their proverbial generosity will prove adequate in this great work.

We must, therefore, look to the State for such assistance as will remove all impediments, and enable the Society to progress in the good work of enlightening the minds of these children of silence and darkness.

Of the whole number, we have had only one fully-pay pupil, and have sufficient reasons for expecting but few hereafter. Our system of Common Schools is such, that most children possessing all their faculties can receive an

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ordinary education; but how few, comparatively, in this State or any other, are able to attend a boarding school or schools of higher grades. It is, also, almost conclusively show, by statistics gathered by the different Institutions of the world, that there is a greater proportion, by far, of deaf and dumb and blind children among the indigent, than in the wealthier class of society.

Through the benevolence of the people of San Francisco, mostly, the Society have, in addition to sustaining the Institution to the present time, been enabled to purchase the fifty-vara lot on which the building now stands, and have donated the same to the State. This has only been accomplished by exercising the most rigid economy in every department.

The Treasurer's account, which accompanies this Report, furnished a statement of receipts and disbursements.

Trusting in Divine Providence for success and usefulness for the future, the Board conclude their records for the year.

By order of the Board
Mrs. P. B. CLARK, President.

Mrs. E. S. UNDERSHILL, Secretary.

San Francisco, February 1st, 1861.