Symonds, Elizabeth Blomquist,

The silk ribbon was given to Elizabeth Blomquist Symonds by a Chinese deaf-mute student. Both attended the Bevier Art School of the Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute. In a letter to RIT President Dr. Paul Miller, Symonds wrote: "I told you about our classmate, a deaf mute from China. He was attending the School for the Deaf in Rochester then changed his enrollment to our school, then known as Bevier Art School of Mechanics Institute. While here he began to know simple words and phrases. He even learned to dance by feeling the vibrations of the music as his feet touched the floor ... His father, a man of position and wealth, was having his son educated to head a school for deaf mutes in China upon his return from Rochester."