Lotta S. Rand

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

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.{{Cite news |date=1908-07-01 |title=Women Hold Offices |pages=7 |work=St. Louis Globe-Democrat |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/124126499/women-hold-offices/ |access-date=2023-05-06 |via=Newspapers.com}} She was a delegate to the International Conference for the Blind, held in London in 1914.{{Cite book |last=International Conference on the Blind |url=http://archive.org/details/reportofinternat1914inte |title=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 |date=1914 |publisher=Agnew, & Co. Ld. |others=Inc American Printing House for the Blind |pages=16}} 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.{{Cite web |title=Introductions & Initial Impressions |url=https://www.perkins.org/archives/halifax-disaster/introductions-initial-impressions/ |access-date=2023-05-06 |website=Perkins School for the Blind |language=en-US}}{{Cite book |last=Edward E. Allen others |url=http://archive.org/details/halifaxdisasterc0000edwa |title=Halifax Disaster Collection |date=1917–1919 |publisher=Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind |others=Perkins School for the Blind}} Later in 1918 she went to France to work with the Red Cross in the care of American soldiers blinded in World War I.Lotta Stetson Rand, United States passport application, dated June 26, 1918; National Archives, via Ancestry.{{Cite news |date=1918-09-27 |title=Personals |pages=16 |work=The Evening Mail |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/124127363/personals/ |access-date=2023-05-06 |via=Newspapers.com}}

In the early 1920s, Rand was executive secretary of the Harvard Graduate School of Education Course in Education of the Blind, an extension program.{{Cite web |title=Collection: Harvard Graduate School of Education correspondence and other records relating to education of the blind |url=https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/4/resources/12341 |access-date=2023-05-06 |website=Harvard University Archives}}{{Cite journal |date=January 1921 |title=News Items |url=https://archive.org/details/americanjournalo3419unse/page/n97/mode/2up?q=Lotta+ |journal=American Journal of Ophthalmology |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=72 |via=Internet Archive}}{{Cite news |date=July 3, 1921 |title=Harvard Has School for Blind Teachers |pages=84 |work=Boston Sunday Post |url=https://www.newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-jul-03-1921-3877030/ |access-date=May 6, 2023 |via=NewspaperArchive.com}} In the 1920s and 1930s she was associate director of the American Foundation for the Blind, based in New York.{{Cite news |date=1934-03-03 |title=Re-Education Problem of 65 Per Cent of Blind; Foundation Director is Here for Visit |pages=6 |work=El Paso Herald-Post |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/124107615/re-education-problem-of-65-per-cent-of/ |access-date=2023-05-05 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1932-01-30 |title=Worker for Blind is Miami Visitor; Miss Lotta S. Rand will Confer with Florida Group |pages=5 |work=The Miami Herald |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/124107286/worker-for-blind-is-miami-visitor-miss/ |access-date=2023-05-06 |via=Newspapers.com}} As AFB field representative,{{Cite news |date=1935-12-04 |title=Leader in Work for Blind Here; American Foundation Field Representative is Guest of Commission |pages=7 |work=Clarion-Ledger |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/124127058/leader-in-work-for-blind-here-american/ |access-date=2023-05-06 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1936-12-03 |title=Blind Efforts Are Explained; Tampa Jewish Women Hear Talk by Foundation Director |pages=2 |work=The Tampa Times |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/124127512/blind-efforts-are-explained-tampa/ |access-date=2023-05-06 |via=Newspapers.com}} she toured in the United States speaking to community groups and raising funds.{{Cite news |date=June 3, 1928 |title=Work Done for Blind in Utah Given Praise |pages=2 |work=Salt Lake City Telegram |url=https://www.newspaperarchive.com/other-articles-clipping-jun-03-1928-3877031/ |access-date=May 6, 2023 |via=NewspaperArchive.com}}{{Cite news |date=1932-02-05 |title=Speaker Urges Funds for Blind |pages=5 |work=The Miami Herald |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/124126742/speaker-urges-funds-for-blind/ |access-date=2023-05-06 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1933-11-22 |title=Call Meeting in Interest of County Blind |pages=1 |work=The Times-News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/124126910/call-meeting-in-interest-of-county-blind/ |access-date=2023-05-06 |via=Newspapers.com}} She often spoke on issues affecting people who became blind in adulthood.

Rand also made advance arrangements and accompanied some of Helen Keller's speaking engagements in the 1930s.{{Cite news |date=1938-02-11 |title=Helen Keller's Visit Planned; Mrs. Rand Meets with Local Group |pages=8 |work=The Orlando Sentinel |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/124127897/helen-kellers-visit-planned-mrs-rand/ |access-date=2023-05-06 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1938-02-04 |title=To Visit Orlando |pages=1 |work=The Orlando Sentinel |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/124128026/to-visit-orlando/ |access-date=2023-05-06 |via=Newspapers.com}} 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.{{Cite news |date=August 8, 1908 |title=Helen Keller Opens Shop for Blind |work=Boston Globe |url=https://www.disabilitymuseum.org/dhm/lib/detail.html?id=3420&print=1 |access-date=May 6, 2023 |via=Disability History Museum}}

• Agencies for the blind in America: Directory of activities for the blind in the United States and Canada (1926, compiled by Rand){{Cite book |last1=American Foundation for the Blind |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/102670540 |title=Agencies for the blind in America. Directory of activities for the blind in the United States and Canada |last2=Rand |first2=Lotta S. |date=1926 |publisher=American foundation for the blind, inc. |series=Directory of activities for the blind. |location=New York}}

Rand died in 1956, at the age of 88.{{Cite journal |date=February 1957 |title=Lotta Stetson Rand |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0145482X5705100210 |journal=Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness |language=en |volume=51 |issue=2 |pages=82–83 |doi=10.1177/0145482X5705100210 |s2cid=220532815 |issn=0145-482X|url-access=subscription }}

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Category:1868 births

Category:1956 deaths

Category:People from Lynn, Massachusetts

Category:American social workers

Category:American women in World War I