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Student athletes at the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind, Philadelphia, PA, circa 1910.
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Blind athletes work out on equipment.

Credit: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress).

Founded in 1832, the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind, (today's Overbrook School for the Blind) like other schools for people with disabilities, embraced athletics during the early 1900s to help build their students" the confidence, physical fitness, and independence. Today, the Overbrook School for the Blind's Nevil Field House contains a gymnasium, indoor track, physical fitness room, and bowling alleys.

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