Africa - National Institute for the Blind - (Bacons Geographical Establishment) - BACON, George Washington-1953

BACON, George Washington.

Africa by the National Institute for the Blind. (Bacons Geographical Establishment)

London & Edinburgh: G.W. Bacon & Co, c.1953. Colour lithographic map, embossed with relief and braille. Sheet on board as issued. Embossed so that relief can be felt, with many names given in braille. Not many examples survive because of the tactile nature of their use.

These braille maps were issued around 1953, the year that the Institute changed its name to the 'Royal National Institute for the Blind'. The RNIB was founded on 16 October 1868 as the British and Foreign Society for Improving the Embossed Literature of the Blind. The RNIB was founded by Thomas Rhodes Armitage, a doctor who had eyesight problems. In 1875 Queen Victoria became the organisation's first patron. The organisation received a Royal Charter in 1948, and changed its name to Royal National Institute for the Blind in 1953. In 2002, RNIB membership was introduced and the organisation's name changed to Royal National Institute of the Blind.  In June 2007 the organisation changed its name again, to Royal National Institute of Blind People.

Louis Braille was a French Educator who invented a tactile system of reading and writing for the blind and visually impaired in 1824. The system is called braille and it consists of raised dot codes that are used worldwide to read and write until this day.