Lotta S. Rand
A middle-aged white woman wearing a light blouse and a dark jacket
Lotta S. Rand, from her 1918 passport application
BornAugust 26, 1868
Lynn, Massachusetts
DiedDecember 3, 1956 (aged 88)
Occupation(s)Social worker, charity executive

Lotta Stetson Rand (August 26, 1868[1] – December 3, 1956) was an American social worker and an executive at the American Foundation for the Blind.

Early life and education

Rand was born in Lynn, Massachusetts,[1] the daughter of John Howard Rand and Julia Dodd Spinney Rand.

Career

Rand was a social worker in Lynn as a young woman. She became a deputy superintendent with the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind beginning in 1908.[2] She was a delegate to the International Conference for the Blind, held in London in 1914.[3] She spent three months with the American Red Cross in Halifax in 1918, assigned to report on conditions for blinded victims of the Halifax Explosion.[4][5] Later in 1918 she went to France to work with the Red Cross in the care of American soldiers blinded in World War I.[1][6]

In the early 1920s, Rand was executive secretary of the Harvard Graduate School of Education Course in Education of the Blind, an extension program.[7][8][9] In the 1920s and 1930s she was associate director of the American Foundation for the Blind, based in New York.[10][11] As AFB field representative,[12][13] she toured in the United States speaking to community groups and raising funds.[14][15][16] She often spoke on issues affecting people who became blind in adulthood.[10][12]

Rand also made advance arrangements and accompanied some of Helen Keller's speaking engagements in the 1930s.[17][18] Rand and Keller met as early as 1908, when Keller and Anne Sullivan Macy visited a handicraft shop in Manchester, Massachusetts, run by the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, Rand was also on hand, as a commission superintendent.[19]

Publications

  • Agencies for the blind in America: Directory of activities for the blind in the United States and Canada (1926, compiled by Rand)[20]

Personal life

Rand died in 1956, at the age of 88.[7][21]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Lotta Stetson Rand, United States passport application, dated June 26, 1918; National Archives, via Ancestry.
  2. ↑ "Women Hold Offices". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 1908-07-01. p. 7. Retrieved 2023-05-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ↑ International Conference on the Blind (1914). Report of the International Conference on the Blind and Exhibition of the Arts and Industries of the Blind Held at The Church House, Westminster June 18th to 24th 1914. Inc American Printing House for the Blind. Agnew, & Co. Ld. p. 16.
  4. ↑ "Introductions & Initial Impressions". Perkins School for the Blind. Retrieved 2023-05-06.
  5. ↑ Edward E. Allen others (1917–1919). Halifax Disaster Collection. Perkins School for the Blind. Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind.
  6. ↑ "Personals". The Evening Mail. 1918-09-27. p. 16. Retrieved 2023-05-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. 1 2 "Collection: Harvard Graduate School of Education correspondence and other records relating to education of the blind". Harvard University Archives. Retrieved 2023-05-06.
  8. ↑ "News Items". American Journal of Ophthalmology. 4 (1): 72. January 1921 – via Internet Archive.
  9. ↑ "Harvard Has School for Blind Teachers". Boston Sunday Post. July 3, 1921. p. 84. Retrieved May 6, 2023 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  10. 1 2 "Re-Education Problem of 65 Per Cent of Blind; Foundation Director is Here for Visit". El Paso Herald-Post. 1934-03-03. p. 6. Retrieved 2023-05-05 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ "Worker for Blind is Miami Visitor; Miss Lotta S. Rand will Confer with Florida Group". The Miami Herald. 1932-01-30. p. 5. Retrieved 2023-05-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. 1 2 "Leader in Work for Blind Here; American Foundation Field Representative is Guest of Commission". Clarion-Ledger. 1935-12-04. p. 7. Retrieved 2023-05-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ "Blind Efforts Are Explained; Tampa Jewish Women Hear Talk by Foundation Director". The Tampa Times. 1936-12-03. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-05-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ "Work Done for Blind in Utah Given Praise". Salt Lake City Telegram. June 3, 1928. p. 2. Retrieved May 6, 2023 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  15. ↑ "Speaker Urges Funds for Blind". The Miami Herald. 1932-02-05. p. 5. Retrieved 2023-05-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ "Call Meeting in Interest of County Blind". The Times-News. 1933-11-22. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-05-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ "Helen Keller's Visit Planned; Mrs. Rand Meets with Local Group". The Orlando Sentinel. 1938-02-11. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-05-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ↑ "To Visit Orlando". The Orlando Sentinel. 1938-02-04. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-05-06 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ↑ "Helen Keller Opens Shop for Blind". Boston Globe. August 8, 1908. Retrieved May 6, 2023 – via Disability History Museum.
  20. ↑ American Foundation for the Blind; Rand, Lotta S. (1926). Agencies for the blind in America. Directory of activities for the blind in the United States and Canada. Directory of activities for the blind. New York: American foundation for the blind, inc.
  21. ↑ "Lotta Stetson Rand". Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness. 51 (2): 82–83. February 1957. doi:10.1177/0145482X5705100210. ISSN 0145-482X. S2CID 220532815.
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