DOORWAYS:

Doorways, an organization for the deaf and hard of hearing, traces its roots to January 1936 when the St. Paul League for the Hard of Hearing and the Lip Readers Guild joined forces and formed a new organization, which they called the St. Paul Society for the Hard of Hearing. They established headquarters in the Frontier Building at Fourth and Robert, and were, at first, primarily a social club with day and evening groups that offered sewing, book reviews, and Tuesday luncheons. Early detection of hearing impairments soon became a major goal of the Society. Through the leadership of Father James A. Byrnes, a Society board member and superintendent of the St. Paul parochial schools, the Society cooperated with the Minnesota Department of Education in providing audiometric testing services of elementary school students throughout the state. At first the Society provided equipment and personnel, but by the late 1940s most school districts did their own testing. The Society, however, remained active in pre-school testing and did testing on a referral basis. Another priority was lip reading instruction. Initially two instructors were hired with Works Progress Administration (WPA) funds but within three years the program became self-supporting. The Society was the only organization previous to 1947 to provide lip reading classes to area schools. In 1947 the St. Paul public schools, with support of the Society, began their own instruction. The Society continued lip reading instruction for adults until 1970. For many years the Society also offered hearing tests and information on hearing aids at the Minnesota State Fair.

In late 1946 the Society, in order to project a more positive image and recruit more hearing members, changed its name to the St. Paul Hearing Society. From the late 1940s through the 1960s, the Society greatly expanded its role as an information and referral service for hearing aids. They offered classes for new hearing aid users and purchased hearing aids for those who could not otherwise afford them. Lip reading classes were expanded, as was auditory training for pre-school children who needed hearing aids. Parents also were offered classes on the special needs of their hearing impaired children and the issues they would face as parents. Though most of these classes were self-supporting, the Society received funding from the St. Paul United Fund, which by 1967 totaled $25,000 per year. Through the years it became obvious that any organization concerned with hearing impairment had to also address speech and language problems, which often accompanied hearing loss. In 1969 they joined forces with the St. Paul Rehabilitation Center to form a hearing and speech service, which they called the St. Paul Hearing and Speech Center.

In 1975 the St. Paul Hearing and Speech Center became the Minnesota Foundation for Better Hearing and Speech. This marked a change from a direct service organization serving largely St. Paul to a statewide organization focusing on consumer advocacy and information referral. Funded largely through grants and by the St. Paul United Way, the Foundation ran a statewide interpreter referral program; served as an information resource center on hearing, speech, and language impairments; published a quarterly newsletter called The Communicator; and ran a signing Santa program. They also promoted Better Hearing and Speech Month and provided a network for educators in the field of hearing and speech impairment. In March 1999 the Foundation changed its name to Doorways to better reflect its mission to improve communication between the deaf and hard of hearing and their families and society as a whole. However, within a year or so, Doorways developed financial problems and closed its doors, after serving the hearing impaired community of Minnesota for over sixty years.

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This collection is arranged into seven series, which include articles of incorporation and bylaws (1936-1990), annual reports (1947-1996), minutes of the annual meeting (1971-1985), minutes of the board of directors, financial records (1938-1997), subject files, and posters. The articles of incorporation and bylaws document the various name and administrative changes in the organization's history. The annual reports (1968-1976 are missing) and the annual meeting minutes give an overview of the organization's history year by year. The board of directors' minutes, fairly complete from late 1935 to 1998, and the financial records reveal more specific and detailed information.

The alphabetical subject files contain lists of members of the board of directors, brochures, correspondence, historical pamphlets, and newsletters (widely scattered). Also included are minutes from the day group, 1936-1968 and evening group, 1936-1943; interpreter referral services; and minutes of a related organization, the St. Paul League for the Hard of Hearing, 1933-1935. The collection contains three posters highlighting Better Hearing and Speech Month and the 1985-1987 Better Hearing and Speech Poster Children.

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Doorways Organizational Records. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 15,768

Processing Information:

Processed by: Rich Arpi , August 2005

Catalog ID number: 990037107740104294

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Some annual reports and newsletters of this organization are catalogued separately in the Minnesota Historical Society serials collection, under earlier names of the organization.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Deaf -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Deaf -- Services for -- Minnesota.

Hearing aids.

Hearing impaired -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Interpreters for the deaf -- Minnesota.

Lipreading.

Speech disorders -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Organizations:

St. Paul League for the Hard of Hearing.

St. Paul Society for the Hard of Hearing.

St. Paul Hearing Society (Saint Paul, Minn.).

St. Paul Hearing and Speech Center.

Minnesota Foundation for Better Hearing and Speech.

Types of Documents:

Photographs.

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