Winifred Holt

Born in New York on November 17, 1870, she was the daughter of publisher Henry Holt and studied at the Brearley School before taking lessons in sculpture, anatomy, and drawing in Florence. Although she began as an artist, her life’s work shifted after she and her sister Edith saw blind students in Italy and were inspired to create better opportunities for blind people.

In 1903, the sisters started New York’s Ticket Bureau for the Blind, and in 1905 she founded the New York Association for the Blind at her family home. That work grew into the Lighthouse movement, with centers focused on education, vocational training, job placement, and recreation; the organization later became known as Lighthouse International.

She also played a major role in wartime and international work, helping establish Lighthouse programs in France and elsewhere for soldiers blinded in World War I. Remembered as both a sculptor and a determined philanthropist, she spent decades showing that blindness should never be treated as a barrier to useful, creative, independent life.