Clovernook began as a project of the Trader sisters, a family from Cincinnati, Ohio. Georgia Trader had congenital cataracts, and through the advocacy of her mother, she became the first student who was blind to be admitted to a Cincinnati Public School. In 1903, the sisters bought Cary Cottage, intending to open a home for the blind, and later that year, they opened Clovernook as the first Home for Blind Women in Ohio. Georgia and Florence Trader went on to open a library for the blind and a school for blind children.

The National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) is the United States federal program that coordinates and provides materials for people who are visually impaired or otherwise print disabled.

Timeline:

• Library services for the blind began as early as 1868, with services provided by a number of local and regional libraries.
• By 1880, Perkins began providing these services, when our library was formally established.
• In 1931, the Pratt-Smoot Act authorized the Librarian of Congress to have a nationally coordinated program of collecting and providing access to books for the blind. Sound recordings were added beginning in the 1930s, and by 1966 access was expanded to include other print disabled library users.

Perkins School for the Blind was incorporated in 1829 under this name which lasted until 1832.  The school was located at 140 Pleasant Street in Boston during this time.

The name of Perkins School for the Blind from 1832 to 1839, which was located at a mansion on Pearl Street in Boston.

The New York Institute for Special Education first opened in 1831 in the Bronx, New York as a private school as the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind. In 1986, the school's name was changed to its current iteration. The institution now serves children from newborn to age 21. Some sources confuse it with the New York State School for the Blind, in Batavia, New York.

The New York State School for the Blind in Batavia, New York, was founded in 1868. It was originally known as the New York Institution for the Blind. It may be confused in some sources with the New York Institute for Special Education in New York City (previously known as the New York Institution for the Education of the Blind.)

The Overbrook School for Blind opened in 1832 as the Pennsylvania Institute for the Instruction of the Blind. The school helped to produce the first embossed book. It currently serves students who are visually impaired.

The name of Perkins School for the Blind from 1839 to 1877, which was located in South Boston. 

The name of Perkins School for the Blind from 1877 to 1955. From 1877 to 1912, the school was located in South Boston. In 1912 the school relocated to Watertown where it remains today. 

The current name of the organization.

Previous names: 

• 1829: Incorporated as New England Asylum for the Blind
• 1832: Opened on Pearl Street in Boston as New England Institution for the Education of the Blind
• 1839: The Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, located in South Boston
• 1877: The Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind, located in South Boston
• 1912: Perkins Institution for the Blind opens in Watertown, Massachusetts
• 1955: Perkins School for the Blind
• 2012: Perkins
• 2015: Perkins School for the Blind

The Royal National College for the Blind first opened in 1872 in London, England by Thomas Rhodes Armitage and Frances Joseph Campbell. 
Previous names included: 

• Royal Normal College and Academy for the Blind (1872) 
• Royal National College for the Blind (1978) 

The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) first opened in 1869 and was founded by Thomas Rhodes Armitage as a charity for the blind in the United Kingdom. 
Previous names include: 

• British and Foreign Blind Association for Improving Embossed Literature of the Blind and Promoting the Employment of the Blind (1869) 
• British and Foreign Association for Promoting the Education and Employment of the Blind (1871)
• National Institute for the Blind (1914)
• Royal National Institute for the Blind (1953)

The Walter E. Fernald Developmental Center was founded in 1848 by Samuel Gridley Howe (the first director of Perkins) in Boston as the oldest public institution serving people with developmental disabilities. It was a Victorian sanitorium that hosted medical experiments well into the 20th century that explored eugenics and other medical experiments under its third superintendent, Walter E. Fernald. It closed in 2014.

Timeline and names: 

• 1848: Experimental School for Teaching and Training Idiotic Children. 
• 1850: Incorporated as Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble-Minded Youth
• 1883: Massachusetts School for the Feeble-minded
• 1890: School moves to Waltham. 
• 1925: Walter E. Fernald State School (named for the third director)

The Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children was first established in 1887. A private charter school, it currently serves students from age three to twenty-one years old who are legally blind or deaf. In 2011, the school began a transitional program for students graduating high school and is partnered with a local community college.