Daisy Muir
Guest curator Melissa Anderson explains the early life and significance of Daisy Muir.
This is a portrait photograph of Daisy Damman Muir as a young woman.
1900s
Daisy Damman was a pupil at the Victorian Deaf and Dumb Institute in Melbourne from 1882 to 1890. Frederick J. Rose, the deaf founder of the school, was principal during her time there.
Daisy Muir enjoyed playing golf after she moved to Warburton in country Victoria with her husband John Muir. In this photo, Daisy (left) is playing with Dorothy Johnston (centre) and Nora Mansfield (right).
1920s
Daisy Muir is thought to have been one of the first deaf women drivers. She regularly drove the 80 kilometre journey to Melbourne and back in her Buick.
One of Daisy Muir’s paintings of the Warburton environment.
1912
Daisy Muir regularly read deaf newspapers and magazines from other countries, such as The Silent Worker from the USA. She used these magazines to make contact with deaf people in different countries to set up the Cosmopolitan Correspondence Club.
“I am starting a Deaf International Correspondence Club and should like you to join it if you can. The object of the club is to obtain new ideas and interests and establish friendships between the deaf of far lands.”
Daisy Muir
1913
Daisy’s Cosmopolitan Correspondence Club was interesting to many deaf people. Magazines such as Our Monthly Letter in Victoria, The Silent Worker in the USA and The British Deaf Times all published comments and articles about it.
Transcript of article in Our Monthly Letter:
Deaf Correspondence Club
Last December Mrs. J. E. Muir received the budget [package] of the Cosmopolitan Correspondence Club safely. She started it last June and it passed successively through the hands of Mlle Yvonne Pitrois and Miss Egan & Desmond of France; Mr Brodie of Scotland; Mrs Balis of Canada; Miss B. Edgar of Ohio; Mrs Schuyler Long of Iowa; Miss Annabel Kent of New Jersey. The letters were most interesting to read, the writers of which described their lives, their work, and the conditions of the deaf in their countries. Mlle Yvonne Pitrois who is a gifted authoress, sends many kind wishes to the deaf of Australia in whom she is greatly interested. She intends writing an article to French deaf papers, entitled “The Paradise of the Deaf in Australia”.
“Australia is regarded as a most advanced and desirable country by the English suffragettes, because Australian women have enjoyed the privilege of voting for many years.”
Daisy Muir
1915
During World War I, Daisy Muir helped to raise funds from the Australian Deaf community to help deaf refugees in Europe. She was asked to do this by Yvonne Pitrois, a French member of the Cosmopolitan Correspondence Club.
In this letter, Daisy writes to thank the South Australian Deaf community for helping to raise funds.
