Henriette Jeannette en Gualtherus Johannes Kolff

Gualtherus was a great-grandson of Adrianus Quirinus (1745-1826), wine trader, ship owner and governor from Middelharnis. Gualtherus’ father Johannes (1799-1868) was a business man as well; he earned his living as a broker in coffee and lived with his family at Rotterdam. His first wife died after giving birth to their second child. Johannes remarried and got twelve more children with his second wife. Their eldest daughter. Hermine Agnes (1833-1870) married the famous dr. Hendrik Pierson (1834-1923), theologist, philantropist, fighter of prostitution and director of the Heldringgestichten at Zetten. Ninth child from this marriage was a boy named Gualtherus Johannes. The young Johannes had a weak health. At the age of twenty he was sent to Baden-Baden in Germany to strengthen his health. The stay at this spa did not do well for him: he got an eye infection which, after a couple of years, made him blind. The infection also started to affect his hearing which caused him to become deaf at the end of his life as well. Walking also became more and more difficult and Gualtherus became dependant of a wheelchair. At first Gualtherus worked with his family in the coffee broker’s trade, later – after 1871 – with his brother Marie Henri who was a merchant in the Dutch East Indies. It seemed that Gualtherus would, just as his father and brothers did (one of his brothers was a partner at Kolff & Witkamp), stay in commerce. His handicap however made him follow a different track.

When his blindness limited him more and more he left for France to acquire a new skill: the blind script that was developed by the blind Louis Braille (1809-1852). Back in Holland he moved in with his elder sister Henriette (1835-1927) at The Hague. There he joined the recently founded ‘brailleerbeweging’ (movement to translate to braille-script), of which the members worked to translate literature into braille, to teach, and to give more attention to braille-scrypt in general.

Gualtherus who was, just like his sister, not married and financially independant, put all of his time in the movement, helping and organizing. His efforts lead to the founding of the Nederlandse Blindenbibliotheek (Neth. Library for the Blind) at The Hague. An institution that still exists. Gualtherus was the founder and he became it’s first director.

Thanks to the active Gualtherus an association for the interests of the blind was also erected. Together with some adversaries he founded the Nederlandse Blindenbond (Netherlands Union for the Blind). The founding of the library and the union have contributed to the emancipation of blind or malsighted Dutch. This way they organized the help they needed themselves.