Perkins School for the Blind, at Watertown, Mass.; chartered 1829, opened 1832 in South Boston as the New England Asylum for the Blind, with Samuel G. Howe as its director; moved 1912. From 1877 to 1955 it was called the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind. It was the first chartered school for blind children in the United States. Among the school's pupils were Laura Bridgman and Anne Sullivan Macy. Since 1982 it has also educated individuals with other than visual handicaps.

Blind, Karl, 1826-1907, German revolutionary and German-English writer. Arrested for his part in the German uprisings of 1848-49, he was later freed and from 1852 lived in England. There he became a distinguished writer on politics, history, literature, and especially German folklore and ethnology. He was the stepfather of the poet Mathilde Blind, 1841-96, who as Claude Lake published four books of poetry and in her own name became a leader in the struggle for women's rights.

Blind River, town (1991 pop. 3,355), S Ont., Canada, on North Channel of Lake Huron. It is the center of the Algoma uranium fields. Just to the east of the town is Ontario's first uranium mine (1955).

Blind Harry or Henry the Minstrel, fl. late 15th cent., supposed Scottish poet. He is considered the author of the patriotic epic, The Wallace, which celebrates the life of Sir William Wallace. Violently anti-English, the poem was popular in Scotland down to the 18th cent. Since the skillful literary technique of The Wallace makes its composition by the traditionally blind and humble Harry unlikely, it is felt that the poem owes much to another hand.