Blind Asylum

Summary

A view of Henshaw's asylum for the blind and the school for deaf and dumb children, at Old Trafford, Manchester. The building, completed in 1837 in an early Victorian gothic style, has a chapel in the centre. On the right of the image is the school and on the left is Henshaw's.Thomas Henshaw (1731-1810) was a hat manufacturer from Oldham who left provision in his will to care for blind people. In this image, the building is being painted or cleaned by men with ladders. The bottom right corner of the image has been torn off. There is a certain irony here, the photograph being of a caring institution that is in turn being cared for: the only thing that has not been cared for is the photograph itself.