CONCERNING HISTORY AND THE BRAILLE MONITOR
                       by Kenneth Jernigan

     If we are to deal successfully with the present and the
future, we must understand the past. This is true of nations and
organizations, and it is also true of the Braille Monitor. So let
me talk about history.
     Originally, as many of you know, the Monitor was not the
Monitor. It was the All Story Braille Magazine, and merely
carried what was called a "Legislative Supplement from the
National Federation of the Blind." For much of its existence the
All Story was published bi-monthly, and only in Braille. It was
not produced by the National Federation of the Blind but by the
American Brotherhood for the Blind.
     The earliest issue of the All Story that I have in my
possession is the one for March, 1949. Until a few years ago, the
earliest issue we had here at NFB headquarters was February-
March, 1955. Then we found one copy each of March, April, May,
June, July, August, September, and October of 1949. The title All
Story Magazine was apt and descriptive. For example, here is the
contents page from the March, 1949, issue:

Married This Morning
     by Irene Kittle Camp
     (reprinted from Good Housekeeping magazine)

The Storm
     by Laurence Critchell
     (reprinted from Collier's)

Star Boarder
     by Libbie Block
     (reprinted from McCall's)

Legislation for the Blind
     by Dr. Newel Perry

     I don't know when the American Brotherhood for the Blind
started publishing the All Story, but I remember reading it when
I was a boy at the Tennessee School for the Blind in the late
1930's. In view of the fact that the 1949 issue is Volume XVII,
Number 11, we can make a calculated guess that the first issue
was published in 1932 if we assume that every volume represents a
year. In the beginning the magazine didn't have the Federation's
legislative supplement, and I am not sure when the feature was
added.
     The February-March, 1955, issue announced a feature that
more recent readers of the Monitor may recognize. There were only
three items: "Editor's Note," "Who Are The Blind Who Lead The
Blind" (special feature), and "Legislation for the Blind" by Dr.
Newel Perry.
     In 1956, rather than carrying just a legislative supplement,
the magazine began to publish general information of interest to
the blind. With the May, 1957, issue the All Story "resumed" a
monthly publication schedule. We have no record of the
publication schedule between October, 1949, and February-March,
1955. Finding the note in the May, 1957, issue regarding the
change from bi-monthly to monthly probably explains why we have
both an April-May and a May issue for that year. Later in 1957
both the emphasis and the name of the magazine changed. The July
issue carried the following announcement:

                    All Story Gets a New Name

          Beginning with the next monthly issue, the name of
     this magazine will be changed to the Braille Monitor.
     We have been fortunate to be able to return to a
     monthly issue. This is made possible by a subvention
     from the National Federation of the Blind. The
     Federation News Section has become increasingly
     popular. Many of our readers have written to request
     that more space be devoted to this feature. Program and
     other developments concerning the blind--many of which
     are of the utmost importance to the blind men and women
     of this country--have been emerging in profusion. Even
     with the return to the monthly issue, a major fraction
     of the space of this magazine must be devoted to the
     coverage of these developments if our people are to
     continue to be informed.
          It therefore seems only appropriate that we should
     now change the name of the magazine to one that does
     not state or imply that all of the contents are
     stories. Stories will continue to be republished to the
     extent that space is available.
          According to the dictionary a "monitor" is a
     person who "advises, warns, or cautions." A Braille
     monitor is one who carries on this function for the
     blind, and this is the pledge of the editors of this
     magazine. 
                      ____________________
     That is what the July, 1957, All Story said, and the
following month the magazine carried for the first time the title
Braille Monitor. While previously the bulk of material had been
stories plus a Federation news supplement, the balance now
reversed. The newly titled magazine was primarily Federation news
and only carried stories as space permitted, which it usually
didn't. In fact, the first issue of the Monitor (August, 1957)
carried no stories at all.
     Although I was living in California in the mid-fifties and
participated in policy decisions, my memory of the exact month
when we began to publish the print edition of the magazine
understandably needed refreshing. My original research indicated
that the first print edition was produced in July of 1957.
However, it now appears that the first print edition was produced
and distributed in January of 1958. An announcement to that
effect appeared in both the Braille and print editions for that
month (although in slightly different form for each). Here is
what the print edition said:

          It has at last become possible to issue an ink-
     print edition of the Braille Monitor. The demand for
     such a publication has become overwhelming. For the
     time being, the publication of the print edition will
     be experimental. Members of the NFB who are now on the
     mailing list will automatically receive the print
     edition. Other friends of the Federation and interested
     persons may have their names placed on the mailing list
     by writing to NFB headquarters: 2652 Shasta Road,
     Berkeley 8, California.
          The costs of offsetting and mailing are high.
     These costs should be met by the readers. The normal
     way of doing this would be to charge for subscriptions.
     On the other hand, all Federation members and friends
     who do not read Braille and who can read or have read
     the ink-print edition should have an opportunity to
     gain firsthand acquaintance with Federation news. All
     readers who wish to do so should send $3 to Federation
     headquarters to help meet expenses. If not enough
     people do so, we may have to discontinue the print
     edition.
                      ____________________
     That is what we said in January, 1958--and one of the first
things that comes to mind is the change in prices between then
and now. As some of you know, there is a bound volume of the
print Monitors for July through December of 1957, but these print
copies were not done until much later. As I remember it, they
were transcribed from Braille around 1970 when we first issued
bound volumes of the print edition.
     From January of 1958 through December of 1960, the Monitor
appeared monthly in both Braille and print. During this time the
print edition was published by the Federation, but until January
of 1960 (at which time the Federation began doing it) the Braille
edition was produced by the American Brotherhood for the Blind. A
special issue of the Monitor was published in the spring of 1959.
In Braille it was called "A Supplement to the April Issue," and
in print it was called "Special Issue: May, 1959." Here is what
Dr. tenBroek said as an introduction:

          This special edition of the Monitor, devoted to a
     full account of the internal warfare which threatens to
     destroy the National Federation of the Blind, is being
     issued at Federation expense. In the past we have not
     hesitated to spend Federation funds to fight the
     external enemies of the organized blind. We should not
     now hesitate to use Federation money to preserve the
     organization against an attack from within more serious
     than any we have yet confronted.
                      ____________________
     That is what Dr. tenBroek said, and I remember those days
with particular clarity. The organization was very nearly
destroyed in the struggle to preserve it from its internal
opponents. It was a time of soul-searching--a time when each of
us had to determine precisely what kind of movement we wanted and
how we thought it should function. Because of the internal
warfare and the disruption created by the minority faction, the
Monitor was forced to cease publication at the end of 1960. It
did not appear again until the summer of 1964. Meanwhile, the
Blind American (produced by the American Brotherhood for the
Blind) started monthly publication in Braille in May of 1961. The
inaugural print edition of the Blind American brought together in
a single volume the May, June, July, and August issues, which had
been produced separately in Braille. From September of 1961
through January of 1964 the Blind American appeared monthly in
both Braille and print. It was not issued in February or March of
that year. The April, 1964, Blind American announced itself as a
quarterly but was never published again. Instead, the Braille
Monitor resumed publication on a monthly basis in both Braille
and print in August, 1964, and has been produced continuously by
the Federation ever since. With our present strength and
prospects, I don't foresee a time when the schedule will again be
interrupted or curtailed.
     I say this even though there have been occasional glitches,
some rather sizable. In late 1976 our fund-raising was in
trouble, and we were considering how to manage and where to cut.
Details were given in the February, 1977, Monitor. The first two
articles talked about the interruption of our mail campaigns, and
the third was a special letter from me to the readers of the
Braille edition. In the second article I said in part:

          I will immediately do everything that I can to
     find new sources of income and to cut expenditures.
     Cuts will not be easy, and they will not be pleasant;
     but they must be made.
          I am writing a special letter to the readers of
     the Braille edition of the Monitor to ask that as many
     as possible shift to talking book. It costs three or
     four times as much to send the magazine in Braille as
     on record. We will try to continue to make the Braille
     issue available to deaf-blind readers and to others who
     have a justifiable reason for wanting it. In the
     circumstances mere personal preference for Braille will
     not be enough.
          We will skip the April, 1977, issue of the Monitor
     entirely--all formats: Braille, print, and talking
     book. This will save money, and it will give us time to
     see what response we get. Whether we will have to begin
     publishing the Monitor on a bi-monthly or quarterly
     basis will be a matter for future determination.
                      ____________________ 
     This is what I said in February of 1977, and it explains why
we had a March-April issue that year, the first interruption of
our monthly schedule in twelve years. The response from Monitor
readers was immediate and gratifying. Contributions increased,
and in less than two years we resumed our mail campaigns.
     We continued to publish the Monitor and never strictly
enforced the limitation on Braille, but it was not a happy
situation. It was not until 1985 that we could fully return to
normal. In the February issue for that year I made the
announcement, saying in part:

          Several years ago we found it necessary to limit
     the number of Braille copies of the Monitor produced
     and circulated each month. This was done in the
     interest of economy. We are now in a position to revert
     to our former practice of providing Braille copies of
     the Monitor to those who want them....
          There are definite advantages to having the
     magazine in Braille for those who want and can use that
     medium. Moreover, we want to do all that we can to
     encourage the use and availability of Braille. This is
     why we helped establish the National Association to
     Promote the Use of Braille (NAPUB).
          The production of the Monitor takes a sizable
     chunk of our resources, but it is one of the best
     expenditures we make. Most people (friend and foe
     alike) recognize the fact that the Monitor is the most
     influential publication in the affairs of the blind
     today. It informs, encourages, synthesizes, and calls
     to action.
          The Monitor is (and will continue to be) an
     indispensable element in our march to freedom. Let us
     see that it is widely distributed, read with care, and
     thoroughly discussed and understood. The words which
     appear at the beginning of the Monitor each month are
     not simply a slogan. They are a reminder and a
     reaffirmation: "The National Federation of the Blind is
     not an organization speaking for the blind--it is the
     blind speaking for themselves."
                      ____________________
     The first recorded edition of the Braille Monitor was not,
as many believe, produced in the late '60's. It was brought out
in the '50's. As has already been noted, the April-May, 1957,
issue marked a definite change in the magazine's history. One of
those changes was the inauguration of the Monitor on tape.
     From April-May, 1957, through March, 1958, I did the
reading. After I moved to Iowa to become director of the state
commission for the blind (April, 1958) the Monitor was first
recorded by the women of the Jewish Temple Sisterhood and then
(sometime during the fall of that year) by the inmates of the
state penitentiary at Fort Madison, Iowa. One of the women from
the Jewish Temple Sisterhood who did the reading was Dorothy
Kirsner, the chairman of the Iowa Commission for the Blind. The
recorded Monitor continued through December of 1960, at which
time it was stopped, as were the Braille and print editions. I
had forgotten some of the details and called them to mind only
after listening to selections from some of those early tapes.
     Everything (the recording, the duplicating, and the finished
product) was done on open reel tape. As I remember it, we did not
have duplicators but simply produced each tape from reel to reel
at standard speed. It was a slow process, but the labor pool was
sizable with a lot of surplus time. We had established a Braille
and recording project at the state prison, and the production of
the recorded Monitor was one of the results.
     As to the duplication during 1957 and early '58 when I was
still in California, there is some indication that at least part
of it was done by inmates at San Quentin. But a major portion of
it was done by one of the unsung heroes of our movement, a man
named Victor Torey. Most Federationists have never heard of
Victor Torey, but he deserves remembering. He was sighted and, to
the best of my knowledge, had no blind family members.
Nevertheless, he moved from Phoenix, Arizona, to the San
Francisco Bay Area for the sole purpose of volunteering his time
to do recording for us. Day after day, hour after hour he
duplicated open reel tapes by patching two recorders together,
and he did it without one penny of compensation. It was Victor
Torey who produced the hundreds of open reel tapes that we
distributed after the New Orleans convention in 1957.
     The first professionally recorded edition of the Braille
Monitor was produced in July of 1968. As a number of you will
remember, it was a memorial issue honoring Dr. Jacobus tenBroek--
our founder, first president, and long-time leader. Dr. tenBroek
died March 27, 1968, and the recordings entitled "Jacobus
tenBroek: The Man and the Movement" were ready in time for the
1968 national convention in Des Moines. What many Federationists
do not know is that these recordings were approaching completion
at the time of Dr. tenBroek's death and that I finished the final
portion of the work only an hour or so after I was told that he
had died.
     The early recorded issues of the Monitor were produced at
the American Printing House for the Blind on ten-inch 16-2/3 hard
discs. Three changes occurred with the December, 1970, issue.
Larry McKeever was the reader for the first time; the records
changed from ten to twelve inches in diameter; and we moved
production from the American Printing House for the Blind to a
commercial firm in Arizona.
     With the December, 1972, issue we shifted from 16-2/3 rpm to
8-1/3 but continued to use a twelve-inch hard disc. In February
of 1974 we switched to nine-inch flexible discs, still recording
at 8-1/3 rpm as we do today. With the introduction of flexible
discs, we moved back to the American Printing House for the
Blind, but we shifted to Eva-Tone the very next month and have
stayed there ever since. From March, 1974, through May, 1978, we
used eight-inch flexible discs but changed back to nine-inch
flexible discs in June of 1978.
     In January, 1987, we began issuing the Monitor on four-track
15/16 ips cassettes, but we went back to August of 1985 and put
the Monitor on cassette from that date forward. With the
February-March, 1988, issue we started recording the Monitor in
our own studios at the National Center for the Blind in
Baltimore, and Jim Shelby succeeded Larry McKeever as reader.
Ronald B. Meyer, the present reader, began in June of 1989. The
cassette issue was first duplicated by a commercial firm in
Washington, D.C., but is now produced at the American Printing
House for the Blind.
     When we started recording the Monitor in 1968, we were
producing only a little over a thousand copies. Today the number
is more than 15,000 per month. Because of the cost differential,
almost half of the Federationists who read the Monitor in
recorded form still use flexible discs, but the shift from disc
to cassette continues at an accelerating pace. The time may come
in the not-too-distant future when we move entirely from disc to
cassette--but not yet. Today (with Braille, print, disc, and
cassette editions) we are producing more than 30,000 copies of
the Monitor each month--not to mention what we distribute through
the NFB's computer bulletin board.
     A small number of Braille, disc, and print back issues are
available from January, 1971, to present--but as already noted,
only issues from August, 1985, to present are available on
cassette. While we have a few copies of older issues (that is,
prior to January, 1971), we would be glad to have more if any of
you are willing to dispose of them.
     Bound yearly volumes of the Monitor are available in print.
The first of these covers July through December of 1957 and, as
already mentioned, was transcribed from Braille. It and the
volumes from 1958 through 1974 are hardbound. The volumes from
1975 to present are softbound. As long as they last, bound copies
of the Monitor may be purchased by contacting the Materials
Center at the National Center for the Blind.
     To make research practical, we produce a Monitor index.
While the index is published only in print, the entries refer
both to Braille and print page numbers. The first volume,
covering 1957-1973, is hardbound in three parts. Years 1974,
1975, 1976, and 1977 are published in separate volumes. The index
for 1978 through 1984 is in one volume. Everything after 1975 is
softbound. Everything before that date is hardbound. We are in
the process of developing and refining a new computerized Monitor
index. There are gaps in some of the years during the 1980's, but
we hope to be up-to-date in the not-too-distant future.
     There is a final tidbit of information I want to give you.
The column titled "Monitor Miniatures" was originally called
"Here and There." From 1961 through mid-1964 (when the Monitor
was in eclipse and the Blind American was being published) the
column was called "Brothers and Others." When we resumed
publication of the Monitor in 1964, we adopted the name "Monitor
Miniatures"--and have kept it ever since.
     One more thing: The Monitor is a dynamic organism, always
changing. With this issue, for instance, we begin tone indexing
the cassette edition. We plan to tone index all future recorded
issues.
     In providing all of these details I realize that I may have
given you more information than you want, but at least you now
have in one place as much of it as I can remember. The Monitor is
our principal means of communication, both internally and
externally--and I think it is worthwhile for us to know its
history.