Susan B. Merwin

Merwin was born in Louisville, Kentucky, one of the five children of Samuel Miles Merwin and Mary Irvine Merwin.^[1] Her father was from Connecticut,^[2] and her mother was from Pennsylvania. She attended Girls' High School in Louisville, and trained in the city's normal school to become a teacher.^[3]

Merwin taught at the Kentucky School for the Blind beginning in 1895,^[4] and was superintendent of the school from 1913 to her death in 1923. She was the second woman in the United States to become superintendent of a state school for the blind.^[5] She started Boy Scout^[6] and Girl Scout troops at the school,^[1] and wrote articles about the school's work.^[7] She was elected vice-president of the American Association of Instructors of the Blind in 1915. She also served as president of the Louisville Council of Social Workers.^[1]

Beginning in 1919, Merwin was also secretary of the American Printing House for the Blind,^[8] and associate editor of the national magazine Outlook for the Blind.^[9] She served on the Commission on Uniform Type for the Blind.^[10] She testified before a Congressional committee in 1920, explaining the work of the American Printing House for the Blind, and its need for federal funding.^[11]

Merwin died in 1923, from pneumonia and influenza, aged 48 years, in Louisville.^[12][13][3]