First blind man to utilize a seeing-eye dog was a Tennessean
Published 12:06 pm Monday, May 8, 2023
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TN State Library and Archives picture/Morris Frank and Buddy trading card that TN History for Kids printed a couple of years back.
When you see a blind individual with a seeing-eye dog, keep in mind that this practice began with a boy from Nashville.
In 1927, Morris Frank was a 20-year-old trainee at Vanderbilt University and dissatisfied about his dependence on others to navigate. Frank’s dad read him a short article in the Saturday Evening Post by Dorothy Eustis, an American female living in Switzerland. In the post, Eustis discussed how shepherds there were training dogs to help blind individuals. She hypothesized that this practice might be improved to help blind individuals on a full-time basis.
Excited by the concept, Frank composed a letter to Eustis and received a responsive action thirty days later on from Eustis. Frank then took a ship to Europe, where he trained thoroughly with a German Shepherd called Buddy. The training was hard. But after weeks with the dog, Frank might navigate a close-by Swiss town holding securely to a harness to which Buddy was strapped.
Frank went back to the United States with an objective of getting the word out about seeing-eye dogs. From the day he left the ship, he made news. At one point, in front of a group of stunned press reporters, Buddy led Frank securely throughout a hectic New York street. “She (Buddy) moved forward into the ear-splitting clangor, stopped, backed up, and started again,” Frank composed in a 1957 book called First Lady of the Seeing Eye – a book I extremely advise to every Tennessee 5th grader. “I lost all sense of direction and surrendered myself entirely to the dog. I shall never forget the next three minutes, ten-ton trucks rocketing past, cabs blowing their horns in our ears, drivers shouting at us . . . When we finally got to the other side and I realized what a really magnificent job she had done, I leaned over and gave Buddy a great big hug.”
When Frank went back to Nashville, individuals were astonished at the sight of the blind man and his dog browsing hectic walkways. “Now strangers spoke freely to me,” Frank composed. “In the old days, at a streetcar stop, for instance, I often envied two sighted persons, who obviously did not know each other, their ease in striking up a conversation . . . With Buddy there, however, it was the easiest and most natural thing in the world for them to say, ‘What a lovely dog you have!’”
What astonished individuals the most was that Buddy had a capability best called “intelligent disobedience,” which indicated she would comply with Frank other than when performing that command would lead to damage to her master. For example: if there was a low-hanging branch ahead on the pathway, Buddy understood to browse around it.
Frank co-founded The Seeing Eye, an organization established to train guide dogs and their blind owners. It run in Nashville for 2 years and after that transferred to Morristown, New Jersey (partially for environment factors; they discovered it to be too hot in Tennessee to train German Shepherds year-round.)
As Frank and Buddy took a trip the country, they opened doors for blind individuals of future generations. In that age there were no laws that needed trains, hotels and dining establishments to permit seeing-eye dogs to get entryway. Almost daily, Frank would enter into an establishment and be informed that he couldn’t bring his dog in. His canned action: “I’m not bringing her in; she’s bringing me in!” One time, a railway porter followed Frank and Buddy to their seats and continued to attempt to drag Buddy back out. However, in the words of Frank, Buddy then revealed the porter her “beautiful teeth,” encouraging him that it was best to leave the dog alone.
When Buddy passed away in May 1938, she received an obituary in The New York Times. “Buddy had appeared on hundreds of lecture platforms and barked in response to applause; she had been received by Presidents Coolidge and Hoover and other notables; and she had been led into the homes of poor among the blind and had given them hope while they patted her and fingered her harness,” the obituary said.
Today, The Seeing Eye reports on its website (www.seeingeye.org) that it has actually trained 17,000 dogs in its 94-year history. If you go to Morristown, New Jersey, you will discover a statue of Tennesseans Morris Frank and Buddy – most likely the only statue of a blind man and seeing-eye dog on the planet.
Bill Carey is the creator of Tennessee History for Kids, a non-profit organization that assists instructors cover social research studies.
