World Braille Month

January is World Braille Month in honor of Louis Braille who was born on 4 January 1809. Blinded at 3 years of age, he developed the system of raised dots that is now the established system for blind reading materials. Blindness is caused by a variety of diseases and battlefield trauma. Among the objects in the AMEDD Museum collection are 2 braille books on Human Anatomy. The books were used by Henry Otis Kendall, who was blinded by shrapnel from a mine explosion in WWI. He used these books while studying to become a physical therapist.

(MED 2000.036.004 & Med 2000.036.005)