:Grace Crosby Hamman

Grace Dorothy Crosby was born in Bonshaw, Prince Edward Island, the daughter of John Beecher Crosby and Annie Laurie Robertson Crosby; she and her siblings were raised in the United States. She majored in psychology as an undergraduate at the University of Colorado, studied education at Harvard and blind education at the Perkins Institute and Columbia University.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34266567/grace_c_hamman_1948/|title=Sightless Receive Help Here by Tireless Efforts of Grace Hammon|last=Lawder|first=Katharine W.|date=May 8, 1948|work=Honolulu Star-Bulletin|access-date=July 26, 2019|page=25|via=Newspapers.com}} She moved to Hawaii in 1928,{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34275929/grace_c_hamman_1954/|title=Honolulan Wins Migel Medal for Services to the Blind|date=October 6, 1954|work=Honolulu Star-Bulletin|access-date=July 26, 2019|page=23|via=Newspapers.com}} and earned a master's degree at the University of Hawaii in 1935, with a thesis titled "A survey of the Japanese schools in Hawaii".

Hamman taught a sight conservation class at Kawananakoa until 1935. She was the founding director of the Bureau of Sight Conservation and Work with the Blind, a government agency in the Territory of Hawaii, appointed by territorial governor Joseph B. Poindexter in 1935.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34275172/direct_aid_for_the_blind_1935/|title=New Deal for Hawaii Blind Gets Started|date=November 5, 1935|work=Honolulu Star-Bulletin|access-date=July 26, 2019|page=1|via=Newspapers.com}} As head of the agency she oversaw rehabilitation, vocational and instructional services, vision screening for children, annual eye clinics, and other community projects.{{Cite web|url=https://humanservices.hawaii.gov/vr/hoopono/hoopono-history/|title=Ho'opono History|website=Hawaii Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, Department of Human Services|language=en|access-date=2019-07-26}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34275329/grace_c_hamman_1936/|title=New Campaign to Guard Children's Eyesight|date=October 14, 1936|work=The Honolulu Advertiser|access-date=July 26, 2019|page=4|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34275506/grace_c_hamman_1946/|title=Blind Aid Program Given Boost By U. S. Check for $21,651|date=August 5, 1946|work=Honolulu Star-Bulletin|access-date=July 26, 2019|page=2|via=Newspapers.com}} In 1945 she was invited to join the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America's national committee on school lighting.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34279527/grace_c_hamman_1945/|title=Mrs. Hamman Named to Lighting Group|date=February 25, 1945|work=The Honolulu Advertiser|access-date=July 26, 2019|page=2|via=Newspapers.com}} In 1953, she took an extended leave to research blindness in Micronesia, working with Marshallese eye surgeon Isaac Lanwi.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34275598/grace_c_hamman_1953/|title=Skilled Surgery by Native Doctor is Saving Pacific Islanders' Eyesight|last=Stewart|first=Lois|date=August 16, 1953|work=The Honolulu Advertiser|access-date=July 26, 2019|page=14|via=Newspapers.com}} She retired in 1955.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34279395/grace_c_hamman_1983/|title=Grace Hamman|date=July 26, 1983|work=Honolulu Star-Bulletin|access-date=July 26, 2019|page=6|via=Newspapers.com}}

Hamman also co-authored research on blindness in the Pacific Islands, including a 1941 paper on "Causes of Blindness in Hawaii" (Archives of Ophthalmology 1941),{{Cite journal|last1=Hamman|first1=Grace C.|last2=Holmes|first2=W. John|date=1941-04-01|title=Causes of Blindness in Hawaii|url=https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaophthalmology/fullarticle/615772|journal=Archives of Ophthalmology|language=en|volume=25|issue=4|pages=643–650|doi=10.1001/archopht.1941.00870100121010|issn=0093-0326|url-access=subscription}} and a technical report on blindness in Micronesia, titled Ophthalmological Survey of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (1954).

In 1937, she was involved in welcoming Helen Keller to Hawaii for a visit.{{Cite web|url=https://www.afb.org/HelenKellerArchive?a=d&d=A-HK01-02-B037-F03-002&e=-------en-20--1--txt--------3-7-6-5-3--------------0-1|title=Letter from Grace C. Hamman, Director, Conservation of Sight and Work with the Blind, Honolulu, HI t...|date=March 9, 1937|website=American Foundation for the Blind|access-date=2019-07-26}} In 1954, Grace Hamman received the Migel Medal from the American Foundation for the Blind. Helen Keller gave a speech at the presentation ceremony, in New York{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34277358/grace_c_hamman_migel_award_helen/|title=Grace C. Hamman Honored|date=October 24, 1954|work=The Honolulu Advertiser|access-date=July 26, 2019|page=79|via=Newspapers.com}} concluding that "It must indeed be a source of pleasure and gratification to you that you have enabled the Hawaiian blind to form part of the universal brotherhood that shall bring inner light and cheer to every continent and island of darkness."{{Cite web|url=https://www.afb.org/HelenKellerArchive?a=d&d=A-HK01-03-B057-F09-007.1.2|title=Speech given by Helen Keller on Grace Hamman's receipt of the Migel Medal. October 21, 1954|website=American Foundation for the Blind|access-date=2019-07-26}}

Grace Crosby married businessman Marshall Sherman Hamman. Her husband died in 1960.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34279360/marshall_sherman_hamman_1960/|title=Funeral Notices|date=April 3, 1960|work=The Honolulu Advertiser|access-date=July 26, 2019|page=77|via=Newspapers.com}} She died in 1983, in La Jolla, California, aged 84 years; her grave is in Oahu Cemetery.

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Category:1899 births

Category:1983 deaths

Category:People from Queens County, Prince Edward Island

Category:People from Honolulu

Category:American educators

Category:University of Colorado alumni

Category:University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni