Samuel Gridley Howe (1801–76)

American educator of the handicapped and social reformer. Graduated from Brown University, 1821; Harvard Medical School, 1824. Director, New England Asylum for the Blind (later Perkins School for the Blind), 1831. Developed new methods of educating the blind. Founded the first public institution in the US to educate the mentally retarded in 1848. Established Clarke Institution for Deaf Mutes in 1867. Participated in public school and prison reform, and in the anti-slavery movement.