Dyslexia is much more than a learning disability. While the condition was identified in the late 1800s, the terminology and categorization took longer to evolve. Documenting the physicians that shaped the identification and evaluation of the disability, this article pinpoints how “word blindness” was first discovered. Looking at contributions from medical scholars such as Adolph Kussmaul, Rudolph Berlin, James Hinshelwood and Samuel Torrey Orton, this article explains critical early history of dyslexia.