Evening star., 1932-08-07
MISS ETA CITIZENS
WORK TO CONTINUE.
Aides to Carry on at Library
for the Blind in Tribute
to Her Memory.

The continuation of her work, Miss
Eta Josselyn Citizens friends agreed,
would be a high tribute to her men,
orv.
sistarts at the National Library for the
Blind. into the library'S quarters on
an uuper floor at 1900 D street to pre-
pare a tribute to their former director
Miss Giffen's work, some one said,
was already well advanced when her
sudden death occurred here July 29.
Blind readers in the United states,
Canada, Mexico and Hawaii had her
to thank for relieving the tedium ana
futility of existence.
The library under her charge had
extended its circulation, first through
out the District of Columbia, then TO
the United States and more lately to
neighboring countries.
The scope of the work had broad
ened since 1897 to include rehabilitation
as well as recreational and educational
phases.
she began with nothing" Mrs. De
We're Whitton King of the sightlesG
staff said. Young and inexperienced,
with no precedentS to follow, she had
only a bare room and an undylng love
for the blind"
Mrs, King referred to the room in
the Library of Congress, which in 1877
was set aside for the use of the blind
in Washington by John Russell Young,
tnen librarian. Miss Giffen was ap-
pointed to take charge.
Her first step" Mrs. King continued,
was to solicit from members of Con-
greSS chairs and tables which they
no longer needed. Then she sent out
oG n,-Iu
blind to their new library and another
inviting local notableS to volunteer as
readers. Well known authors and lee
turers pledged fixed numbers OF hours
each week.
Composers and musicians volunteered
to give concerts and a piano was DO
mated for the purpose. The guest book
of the time bore such signatures as
Thomas Nelson Page, Edward Everett
Hale, DR.. Henry Van Dyke and Paul
Lawrence Dunbar"
Miss Giffen soon began to supply
incentive for vocational effort among
her readers, encouraging craftsmanship
of all kinds and displaying the products
at the library.
Meanwhile she made study OF Eu-
ropean Braille, not at that time popu-
lar in the United States. She became
convinced of the necessity OF universal
Braille to supplant the six systems then
in use, and pioneered tlrelessly tor TINS
inuroyement, Years later an inter-
national conference of workers for the
blind met in California during 1916 and
recommended the adoption OF the uni
Versal system.
The new library at first had no de-
livery system. Brailled volumes were
available only at the Library OF Con-
greSs, but Miss Giffen succeeded In eX-
tending their circulation to the con-
fines of the District.
For financial reasons the library was
removed to the Carnegie Public Library
but was restored year later, In 1872
to the original location. g,
Interest in the work among the blind
had increased vastly and about THIS
time Miss Giffen began to plan Ma
tional Library for the Blind as an eX-
tension of the District service.
Benefactors, impressed by her en-
thusiasm, came forward with contrlbu-
tions and Miss Giffen accomplished her
goal The National Library was estab-
lished and as the Government had eX-
tended a franking privilege, volumes OF
Braille which ordinarily would have
cost IS or S6 in postage could be malleo
to blind readers in all parts OF America.
1.-THE inestimable boon of the FRANK
ing right" Mrs King said, released Tor
national circulation, free Of costs, all
the volumes in the library. 1t meant
that thousands of blind people, living In
remote hamlets, denied access by pow
erty, perhaps, to Braille libraries, neeo
no longer sit with folded hands, with
nothing to do, nothing to occupy their
MINDS"
In 1920 the Government offered the
library free quarters at 1900 D street, IN
a building which lies in the path OF
Federal expansion. BY this time the
library had vastly extended its clrcuIa-
ton and its Braille tranScriptions in
cluded Spanish for the convenience OF
people in Lower California and Mexico.
It was Miss Giffen'S custom to in
duce the celebrities with whom she
came in contact through her wide trav-
els to conferences of workers for the
blind to contribute to the entertain
ment and education of the blind.
Often, too, friends of Miss Gifen'
philanthropies offered yachts, house
boats and other means of recreation for
outings which she arranged for the
blind.
How true it is" Mrs. King concluded
"what she always told us: 1t IS the
world we carry about inside ourselves
not the visible world, that is impor-
tant'
The assistants. they agreed, woulc
carry on as best they could.
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