Winifred Holt Earns Legion of Honor
One hundred years ago today … Winifred Holt, activist, author, and sculptor, and founder of the New York Association for the Blind (later renamed the Lighthouse International and then the Lighthouse Guild), was awarded the Legion of Honor medal by the French government.
New York Times, 15 August 1921, p. 7. The New York Times.
Daily News, 21 August 1921, p. 72. Newspapers.com
Holt lived at 44 East 78th Street, (though the Times of August 16th listed her street as 77th). The building seems to be gone. Holt’s award celebrated her work with the blind, including WWI soldiers whose vision had been taken by battle.
Bain News Service. Library of Congress Catalog, 1915.
In 1914 Holt had published A Beacon For The Blind: Being A Life Of Henry Fawcett, The Blind Postmaster-general, which one can read in its entirety here.
– Jonathan Goldman, August 14, 2021
TAGS: disability, sight, eyesight, women’s history, awards, France