HOWE, Samuel Gridley, American phi lanthropist: b. Boston, 10 Nov. 1801; d. there, 9 Jan. 1876. He was graduated from Brown University in 1821, which later gave him the honorary degree of LL.D., and from the Har vard Medical School in 1824. Immediately after completing his studies he joined the Greek army at the time of the war for inde pendence; he created an excellent surgical corps for the Greeks and was also distinguished as a brave commander in battle; at the declara tion of peace he established an industrial colony of Greeks on the Isthmus of Corinth. He re turned to the United States for a short time and collected a sum of money, supplies of food and clothing which he personally distributed in Greece, keeping thereby many hardships from Greek women and children. He then again re turned to America, but becoming interested in the work for the blind, went back to Europe in order to study the schools for the blind there; while in Paris he was chairman of the committee for the relief of the Poles in the time of the Polish uprising; he went to Prus sia to distribute the funds collected and was imprisoned by the Prussian authorities for five months. In 1832 he returned to Boston and with the assistance of Colonel Perkins and some other friends founded the Perkins Insti tution for the Blind, of which he became super intendent; in this position he did much to improve the methods in the instruction of the blind; he gradually built up the Howe Press for printing books in raised type, and as early as 1841-42 an edition of the Holy Bible in eight volumes was prepared under his direction in raised type. He was, though extremely modest in his personal relations, a powerful and con vincing speaker and by untiring work and con tinuous effort did much to induce the legisla tures of many States to found schools similar to the Perkins Institution. His greatest suc cess was in the training of Laura Bridgman, a deaf, mute and blind little girl. He also as
sisted in organizing the Massachusetts School for Idiots. He was active in the anti-slavery cause; was candidate of the Conscience Whig Party for Congress, but was defeated; and was editor of the anti-slavery paper, the Boston Commonwealth, assisted by his wife, Julia Ward Howe (q.v.). At the close of the Civil War he joined in the work of the Freedmen's Bureau (q.v.). He was always active in many lines of philanthropic work, organized the Mas sachusetts State Board of Charities, as chairman of which he served 1864-74, and went to Greece in 1867 with supplies for the Cretans. In 1870 he was one of the commission appointed by President Grant to visit Santo Domingo and report uptin the advisability of its annexation. He wrote (Historical Sketch of Greek Revolu tion' (1828); for the Blind' (1839); (Appeal to the People of the United States, to Relieve from Starvation the Women and Chil dren of the Greeks of the Island of Crete' (1867). His many reports in his capacity as chairman and director of several boards and institutions are distinguished by their remark able clarity and vision, as much as by their thoroughness and humaneness. Consult Elliott, W. H., and Hall, F. M. H., Bridgman, etc.' (Boston 1903); Holmes, 0. W., Me morial Tribute to S. G. Howe' (in Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XXXVII, p. 464, Boston Howe, J. W. of Dr. S. G. Howe' (Boston 1876); Perkins Institution, Boston, at the Celebration of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of S. G. Howe> (Boston 1902) • Richards, L. E., ed., and Journals of S. G. (2 vols., Boston 1906-09) ; Sanborn, F. B., S. G. Howe, the Philanthropist' (New York 1891); Stearns, F. P., Howe' (in bridge Sketches,' p. 218, Philadelphia 1905).