~ Louis Braille - Inventor of Braille ~

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Louis Braille Galleries

Recognition of the Braille Code

The Final Years of Louis Braille

Louis was officially diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1835. As the tuberculosis progressed, his health continued to deteriorate. In 1844, he was forced to retire to Coupvray for three years to regain his strength. When he returned to the Insitute in 1847 he reduced his class size because it was difficult for students to hear his weakened voice. Although ill health forced him to retire in 1850, Dufau agreed to keep him on at the Institute in exchange for giving piano lessons from time to time as his health allowed.

Louis Braille died on January 6th, 1852, two days after his 43rd birthday. His body was taken to Coupvray and buried in the local cemetery. Shortly before his death he dictated his will, in which he forgave all debts owed to him and gave monies to blindness and Catholic organizations.



Photograph of a crowd standing around Louis Braille's monument in Coupvray in 1929. The photographer is above the scene looking down and along the village street. The monument is a bust of Louis. The bust rests on a pedestal within a small fenced off area in the middle of the street. French flags and signs with the letters RF for Republique Francaise are attached to posts. Citizens carry umbrellas.

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Louis Braille Galleries

Recognition of the Braille Code

Dissemination of Braille

After Louis' death in 1852, the braille code, the code he invented as a teenager, spread throughout the world. In 1878, a congress met in Paris and officially decided to adopt braille as the international system used for writing by the blind. However, this did not put an end to the use of multiple systems of embossed writing. In the United States, braille was first used in 1854 by the Missouri School for the Blind, but it took until 1917 for the United States to agree upon a braille standard. Up until then, competing systems of Boston Line Type, Moon Type, American Braille, British Braille, and New York Point were all used.

It was not until 1932 that a uniform code was accepted by English-speaking countries around the world.



This wood and metal portable braillewriter is in the shape of a ruler. It is 13 inches wide by 3 inches high and 3 inches deep. The long side of the braillewriter faces the user, who depresses keys that are on the right hand side. These keys punch holes in a metal grid of braille dot cells.

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Louis Braille Galleries

Recognition of the Braille Code

France Honors Its Native Son

Louis' momentous accomplishments on behalf of blind and visually impaired people were not fully recognized until many years after his death. In 1952, however, one hundred years after his death, Louis Braille's contribution was recognized in France and by the rest of the world. His body was reinterred in Paris in the Pantheon, the resting place of illustrious French men and women such as Voltaire, Zola and Marie Curie. However, Louis' hands were severed from his body and remain in an urn in the village cemetery of Coupvray, and Coupvray named the street where he lived after their famous son.



Louis Braille's coffin is carried into the Pantheon in Paris,1952. The viewer can see down the long and grand Parisian avenue. A decorated hearse is visible on the right-hand side in the middle plane of the picture, while in the foreground French soldiers stand in a formal line within the fenced area of the church. The soliders wear long, dark jackets and light pants tucked into boots. They have plumed helmets and hold their swords vertically, directly in front of them. The coffin is carried between the line of soldiers. More soldiers and crowds are visible in the distance.

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Louis Braille Galleries

Recognition of the Braille Code

Helen Keller in Paris

Like all avid readers, Helen Keller recognized the greatness of Louis Braille's contribution to her and other blind people through her writings and speeches. In 1952 Helen was invited to join the centennial celebrations of Louis' birth in Paris. She was given a Medal of Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor and delivered a speech in French honoring the life and legacy of Louis Braille. The speech is translated here:

Sorbonne, Paris, June 21st, 1952.
Mister President, Professors, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am touched by the honor you have given me. I cannot help thinking that this honor is not due to any accomplishment of mine, but is rather for the encouragement of the blind and the deaf whom I represent.

On behalf of the blind people of the world, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for having generously recognized the pride and efforts of all those who refuse to succumb to their limitations. In our way, we, the blind, are as indebted to Louis Braille as mankind is to Gutenberg. It is true that the dot system is very different from ordinary print, but these raised letters are, under our fingers, precious seeds from which has grown our intellectual harvest. Without the braille dot system, how incomplete and chaotic our education would be! The dismal doors of frustration would shut us out from the untold treasures of literature, philosophy and science. But, like a magic wand, the six dots of Louis Braille have resulted in schools where embossed books, like vessels, can transport us to ports of education, libraries and all the means of expression that assure our independence.

Look at the strong solidarity that is already taking hold among blind people all over the world, and how, thanks to international braille, they have begun to weave words of kinship among themselves and with humanity. This is truly a symbol of all the years in which blind people have broken through the darkness with the inner light of human knowledge. Blind people of the world simply ask that where their abilities have been successfully put to the test, they are given the chance to participate fully in the activities of their sighted counterparts.

Can I tell you, esteemed faculty of the Sorbonne, my heartfelt thoughts? You have shown a generous interest in the well being of mankind. Above all, you represent France which is always in the forefront of enlightened activity — the country where Louis Braille was born and for whose legacy he worked. How better can we honor his memory than by pursuing the Christian ideal of helping those with disabilities and fostering a public spirit of cooperation that will enable the visually impaired to reach enormous heights of accomplishment and spiritual fulfillment?

Helen Keller



Closeup of Helen Keller's hands reading braille.