Faulkner
Portrait Image courtesy of Independent Association of Framingham State Alumni
Sophia
1851-1933
international educator for
the blind
Sophia Faulkner graduated from Framingham Normal School in January 1867. After graduating, she taught at
the renowned Perkins Institution, a specialized school for the blind founded by Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe. It was
here that she met her husband, blind Tennessean Sir Francis Campbell, co-founder of the Royal Normal College
for the Blind in London and a lifelong advocate for education for blind pupils. He selected Faulkner to be one of his
teachers on staff at the newly opened Royal Normal College for the Blind at his urging. The Royal Normal College
flourished under Lady Sophia Campbell’s supervision. She was appointed Lady Superintendent, and thus had
some power over curriculum and staff, and was widely respected by her pupils, and by notable people in involved
in the British educational system. The Campbells’ children would go on to follow in their parents’ very large
footsteps by raising funds for blind education, teaching at Perkins, and managing the American office of the Royal
Normal School. Lady Campbell’s daughter and granddaughter were