COVE

Introduction:

At the dawning of the Industrial Revolution and the beginning of the Victorian era, historical disability studies are often lacking. Questions such as “What is the amount of social acceptance that someone deaf or blind receives?” are most clearly observed through the literature of the time. Censuses and medical records can shine a light on the response of disabilities, but the artistic work is what depicts the social operations of the deaf or blind. On the basis of disability, those who are deaf and/ or blind often lead successful lives. Through Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins, this type of disability can be labeled as a “passing” disability. While there is an understood social acceptance of “passing” disability, the interpretation is that the blind and deaf are broken individuals who need pity and overbearing assistance.

The Census of Great Britain in 1851:

General Register Office, Great Britain (1854).The census of Great Britain in 1851 : comprising an account of the numbers and distribution of the people, their ages, conjugal condition, occupations, and birthplace, with returns of the blind, the deaf-and-dumb, and the inmates of public institutions, and an analytical index : reprinted, in a condensed form, from the official reports and tables. Wellcome Collection.

Examining the Great Britain census of 1851, there is an implicit motive for labeling all who are either blind or deaf. The specific diction used is “The Blind and The Deaf-and-Dumb.” While a census is not an unusual survey in a governed country, it is unusual to see specific data singling out disability. This leads to the main reasoning for British infatuation with disability: pity. Throughout the document, the rationale of data collection is being able to determine how many people need public assistance. As is seen throughout the Victorian period, on the surface something may seem beneficial for the public, but the underlying narrative is destructive to a specific group. In the case of the census data, the social consciousness begins to believe that the deaf and blind are helpless and inferior due to the assistance the government is allocating. To be fully accepted into society as a peer is difficult when the social consciousness labels an entire group as a charity case.

Deafness:

Ash, Harry. (between 1890 and 1899?). Queen Victoria using sign language to talk to Mrs B. Tuffield, a deaf mute woman. Process print after H. Ash. [Painting]. Wellcome Collection.

The Governing body was aware of the negative stigma that those who were deaf or blind would receive without setting a standard for inclusivity. By the painter William Agnew, a set of pieces titled “Royal Condescension” was produced. Depicted was Queen Victoria in conversation with those afflicted with hearing loss. Royalty set the example for the time period, and Queen Victoria knew how to fingerspell, thus making this an acceptable practice. The most important action that Queen Victoria made within the painting was the refusal of a translator. Having a daughter-in-law Princess Alexandra lose hearing to the point of eventual deafness, Queen Victoria pushed for the typical English citizen to learn signs and fingerspelling. The actions of Queen Victoria played into the argument over deaf education and dealt a major blow to the campaign of purely oral education. Much like the census before, this specialized attention had a ripple effect, and while an oral education was not ideal, the alternative was often an asylum-like school for the deaf.

Gatta, Saviero. (1828). Deaf and dumb people communicating through sign language. [Painting]. Wellcome Collection.

The Victorian mentality surrounding afflictions such as deafness is one of immediate pity and sympathy. While having a sympathetic demeanor, however, many of the cultural solutions for those who have blindness or deafness is that of institutionalization. Within the pen and ink piece by Saviero Della Gatta, a scene is depicted of an instituted for the “deaf and dumb.” The drawing consists of sketches of people in various positions of discomfort. Some have their ears covered, others are laying down in dismay, and there is one holding a hearing horn. This type of imagery negates the positive inclusion that Queen Victoria’s influenced. While the argument of sympathy is often quoted as the reasoning for institutionalization, the result of this action has long-standing negative effects for the deaf. The diction utilized in the title of this drawing is wide standing across Victorian culture. There is an implied correlation between deafness and lower intelligence. The cultural zeitgeist for those who were deaf was one of implied ineptitude. The average Victorian thought of themselves above those who were deaf because of this caricature.

Blindness:

Tenniel, John. (1888). Blind-man's buff [Drawing]. Punch Or the London Charivari, British Library, London.

Satire was a popular medium for literature and visual artists in Victorian England. The illustrator John Tenniel was a major contributor to the satire magazine Punch. Within the illustration titled “Blind-Man’s Buff,” the police are depicted as incompetent and pushed around by laughing Britons. The concept of “Blind-Mans Buff” perpetuated the ineptitude of the blind. As seen throughout Wilkie Collins’ Poor Miss Finch and the Tenniel drawing, deceiving the blind is a long-running theme. Blindness, sight, and knowledge are so intrinsically linked that sayings such as “I am blind to that” utilize blindness as an idiom for ignorance. This has existed since the Victorian era, and there are commutative reasonings for the inverted saying to be used. In other words, the blind are ignorant. This is yet another reason for the consistent power dichotomy of the blind and Victorians. In the same vein as the diction comparing deafness to “dumbness,” blindness is compared to ignorance.

Snell, Simeon. (1886). A report on the causes of blindness : and are the eyes of the offspring of the blind affected? Are their marriages fruitful?. Wellcome Collection.

Medical journals reached the pinnacle of charity case diction within Victorian society. The blind or deaf is consistently referred to as the afflicted with the implication that they are broken humans. This is, after all, the point of the medical field. The advancements of medicine in the Victorian era are indisputable, however, they did not come without heavy amounts of trial-and-error pseudoscience. In the Simeon Snell medical journal titled “A report on the causes of Blindness: and are the eyes of the offspring of the blind affected? Are their marriages fruitful?”, the medical community is on full display attempting to find any correlation with the medical world and the social life of the “afflicted.” There is no doubt that this personal scrutiny alienated those who were of “passing” disability. Despite the efforts of Royalty, academia still ostracized the blind and deaf. In tangent with census data, the medical journals add another cultural viewpoint that the only important trait of someone who is blind or deaf is the fact that they are blind or deaf.