HOWE, SAMUEL GRIDLEY American philanthropist, was born at Boston, Mass., on Nov. Io, 1801. He attended Brown university, Providence, R.I., and the Harvard Medical school. He was admitted to practice, but abandoned the medical field to take part in the Greek revolution. After six years with the Greek army he returned to America to raise funds for the cause. He collected $6o,000 and established a relief depot near Aegina, where he started works for the refugees. The ex isting quay, or American Mole, was built through his efforts. He formed another colony of exiles in the Isthmus of Corinth. He wrote a Historical Sketch of the Greek Revolution, which was published in 1828, and in 1831 he returned to America. Through the influence of his friend, Dr. John D. Fisher, Howe received a proposal to direct the establishment of a New England asylum for the blind at Boston. Howe set out at once for Europe to investi gate the problem. There he was temporarily diverted from his task by becoming involved in the Polish revolt. He was arrested and imprisoned at Berlin, but was at last released through the intervention of the American minister in Paris. Returning to Boston in July 1832, he began receiving a few blind children at his father's house in Pleasant street. In Jan. 1833, the project received help from the legislature, which voted $6,000 a year (later increased to $30,000) to the institution on condition that it educate gratuitously 20 poor blind from the State. In addition, Col. Thomas H. Perkins, a prominent Bostonian, presented his mansion and grounds in Pearl street for the school to be held there in perpetuity. This building being later found unsuitable, Col. Perkins consented to its sale, and in 1839 the institution was moved to a large building in South Boston, which had previously been a fashionable hotel. It was henceforth known as the Perkins institution and Massachusetts asylum (or, since 1877, school) for the blind. Howe was the director and the life and soul of the school. He opened a printing-office and organized a fund for print ing for the blind.
In 1843 he married Julia Ward, and with her made a prolonged European trip. Upon their return to America he became interested in the condition and treatment of idiots. He became chairman of a State commission of enquiry into the number and condition of idiots in Massachusetts. The report of this commission published in 1848 caused a profound sensation. An appropriation of $2,500 per annum was made for training ten idiot children, and by de grees the value of the school for idiotic and feeble-minded youths, which, starting in South Boston, and in 1890 removed to Waltham, was generally appreciated. Dr. Howe was an ardent abolitionist and a member of the Free Soil Party. He played a leading part in Boston in the movements which culminated in the Civil War. In 1871 he was sent to Santo Domingo as a member of the commis sion appointed by President Grant to examine the condition of the island. The Santo Dominican Government desired annexation but the scheme fell through. Within two years Dr. Howe's health broke and on Jan. 19, 1876, he died at Boston.
A Memoir of Dr. Howe by his wife appeared in 1876. See also the Letters and Journals of S. G. Howe, edited by Laura E. Richards (1910) ; John Thomson Faris, Men Who Conquered (Chicago, 1922) ; and "Samuel Gridley Howe, 18o1-76," Social Service Review, vol. i., p. 291-309 (Chicago, 1927).