Background

William Bell Wait was born at Amsterdam, New York, the son of Christopher Brown and Betsey Grinnell (Bell) Wait and a descendant of Thomas Wait who came to America from England in 1634.

Education

He was graduated from Albany Normal College in 1859 and became a teacher in the New-York Institution for the Blind, where he remained two years, with the exception of three months when he was in the army during the Civil War.

Career

He was admitted to the bar in 1862. The field of teaching attracted him, however, and he became superintendent of the public schools in Kingston, N. Y. He had barely entered upon his duties when he was called, in October 1863, to become the superintendent of the New-York Institution for the Blind in New York City and from this time until his death, a period of more than fifty-three years, he was continuously employed in its service. From 1905 on he was emeritus principal. Programs and aims for the education of the blind were in the 1860's strongly influenced by sentiment, and for many years the Institution for the Blind had been designated a charity; its inmates included children and some adults, former pupils who stayed on in the shelter of the Institution, occupied as teachers of the oncoming children or as workers in the mechanical department. An air of dependency permeated the group. Wait began quickly to dispel this pall, and the Institution gradually took on a strictly educational aspect. Wait conceived it his duty to exalt the pedagogical purpose of the Institution and to subordinate or altogether abandon the eleemosynary. In 1912 he was instrumental in having the name of the school changed to The New York Institute for the Education of the Blind. In his annual report for 1866, he first published the results of his studies concerning improved methods for printing literature in tangible form. Two years later, in his report, he presented a horizontal point system, a variant of that set up in 1829 by Louis Braille of Paris. He gave increasingly greater attention to the perfecting of this punctographic means of publishing, which came to be known as the New York Point System, and was successful in promoting its adoption until it was used by a large majority of readers in America. To him belongs greatest credit for increasing the opportunities of the blind to study textbooks and to read the classics in literature in a form adapted to their needs and without the intermediary of a reader. In 1878 another system, known as American Braille, was promoted and there ensued a war of the "points" that ended in a compromise - a system quite different from either--which became effective after Wait's death. For the printing of books in the New York Point System he invented the stereograph, a plate embossing machine, and for the use of blind writers a smaller apparatus called the kleidograph, simulating the typewriter. These inventions and his other services to the blind in the production of literature won for him in 1900 the John Scott Medal of the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia. He also devised a musical notation in the horizontal point system. In 1871 he was one of the founders of the American Association of Instructors of the Blind and for forty years a dominant power in the organization. Through its agency he bore a large part in determining the character of the training for young blind people of the United States. His most important articles appeared in its Proceedings. Among his published works are: Elements of Harmonic Notation (1888); The New York Point System (1893); Phases of Punctography (1913); The Uniform Type Question (1915); New Aspects of the Uniform Type Folly (1916).

Achievements

• He invented New York Point, a system of writing for the blind that was adopted widely in the United States before the Braille system was universally adopted there. Mr. Wait also applied the New York Point principles to adapt them for use in over 20 languages, created a form of New York Point to notate music, and invented a number of devices to better type and print embossed material for the visually impaired.

Works

More photos

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  • New Aspects of the Uniform Type Folly: An Analysis of the Scheme to Destroy New York Point, American Braille, Roman Line and Moon Type, Together With ... of British Braille, and Create a Type

    (Excerpt from New Aspects of the Uniform Type Folly: An An...)

  • The New York System Of Tangible Musical Notation: And Point Writing And Printing For The Use Of The Blind (1873)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • A Practical System Of Tangible Musical Notation And Point Writing And Printing: For The Use Of The Blind (1882)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • A practical system of tangible musical notation and point writing and printing, for the use of the blind
  • A review of the origin and development of embossed literature and music for touchreading, with special reference to the educational interests of theblind in the United States

Personality

He was an indomitable leader in advancing education of the blind to the status of a profession, a promoter of pedagogical ideals and practices, a foe of sentimentalism in dealing with the blind, and a doughty champion of their right to intellectual development.

Connections

On October 27, 1863, he was married to Phebe Jane Babcock, who became one of the pioneers among women physicians in New York City. They had four children.

Father:

Christopher Brown Wait

Mother:

Betsey Grinnell (Bell) Wait

Spouse:

Phebe Jane Babcock