The inaugural meeting of the Tasmanian Braille Writers Association was held in August 1897. The first president was Margaret Clemes, whose husband was founder of the Friends School in Hobart and was instrumental in founding the Blind and Deaf Society in Tasmania. Other foundation members included Georgeana Dobson, who initiated the Braille Library in Tasmania, and Francis Sydney Smith, Braille instructor educated at the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind. The Association's object was to provide and maintain a free library for the use of Braille readers in Tasmania and to assist the social, physical and educational welfare of the blind.