Women’s History Month: Dorothy Harrison Eustis
March is Women’s History Month: a time to remember and reflect on the many contributions of girls and women. This week btw takes a closer look at Dorothy Harrison Eustis, an important twentieth-century philanthropist (someone who donates money, time, and expertise to social causes). Eustis was responsible for opening the world’s first guide dog school, called The Seeing Eye. Thanks to Eustis’s contributions, thousands of people with visual impairments have enjoyed more freedom and a higher quality of life.
Who was Dorothy Harrison Eustis?
Dorothy Harrison was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1886. She was raised and educated there, but in 1906 she moved to New York with her husband, Walter Abbott Wood. The couple operated an experimental dairy farm. On this farm, they tested which cattle breed produced the most milk. Dorothy continued this work for two years after her husband’s death in 1915, while raising two children on her own. At the same time, however, she began to observe that her German shepherd, Hans, was especially smart and loyal and affectionate. She wondered if she could identify and develop special dog breeds that would interact especially well with humans. With that question, Dorothy’s legacy was born.
An International Inspiration
In 1921, Dorothy Harrison moved to Switzerland and began to breed dogs instead of cattle. Together with her second husband, George Morris Eustis, they bred and trained German shepherd dogs to be used by the police and military. She heard about a school in Potsdam that trained dogs to serve as guides for blind war veterans. Inspired, she wrote an article about it called “The Seeing Eye” for the Saturday Evening Post.
A blind American man named Morris Frank read the article and wrote to Eustis, asking for a guide dog. She agreed and brought Frank to Switzerland for the dog’s training. Soon, Frank returned to the U.S. with his newly trained dog, Buddy. With a crowd of reporters looking on, Frank and Buddy successfully navigated a busy New York City street. Once other blind Americans heard the story, they were filled with hope and wrote to Eustis as well.
The Seeing Eye
Eustis and her husband returned to the United States in 1929. There, she and Morris Frank co-founded the world’s first guide dog school, called The Seeing Eye, in Nashville, Tennessee. (Eustis served as the first President, and Morris as the first Managing Directory). After two years, the organization relocated to New Jersey, because the climate there was better for dog training. The current headquarters was built in 1965 in Morris Township, New Jersey.
Today, the Seeing Eye is now a sixty-acre campus that includes administrative offices, student residences, a veterinary clinic, and kennels. There are also an additional breeding station and training center located nearby.
The Seeing Eye does more than just train dogs. The organization also
- works to shape public policy about service animals;
- performs cutting-edge research on canine genetics, breeding, and disease control; and
- develops computer programs that help determine the best dogs for breeding.
Eustis always said that the success of the organization was because they focused on understanding the dog’s way of thinking.
Eustis served as the organization’s President until 1940, and as Honorary President until her death in 1946. As of 2024, The Seeing Eye has made more than 18,000 human-guide dog matches.