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Laura Dewey Lynn Bridgman (December 21, 1829 – May 24, 1889) was the first deaf-blind American child to gain a significant education in the English language, forty-five years before the more famous Helen Keller; Laura's friend Anne Sullivan became Helen Keller's aide.
Laura Dewey Bridgman (born December 21, 1829, Hanover, New Hampshire, U.S.—died May 24, 1889, Boston, Massachusetts) was the first blind and deaf person in the English-speaking world to learn to communicate using finger spelling and the written word.
- Intellectual Awakening
- Known Around The World
- Later Years
- Additional Digital Collections
- Suggested Citation For Scholars
No one had succeeded in teaching language to someone who was deafblind, and Howe was now faced with creating a method of education. Instead of expanding upon Bridgman’s natural sign language, he decided to teach her English. He gave her familiar objects, such as forks and keys, with name labels made of raised letters pasted upon them. When he gave ...
Howe published the account of Bridgman’s education in the Perkins Annual Reports, making both teacher and student internationally famous. In 1842, British writer Charles Dickens visited Perkins and wrote of his encounter with Bridgman in his book, American Notes.Dickens described the twelve-year-old girl in sentimental terms, dwelling upon her inno...
Bridgman’s instruction at Perkins ended in 1850 when she was 20, and she returned to New Hampshire to be with her family. After years of being with a constant teacher companion, Bridgman was suddenly on her own day and night, and her busy farming family had little time for her. Her health began to deteriorate, and Howe realized that Bridgman should...
McGinnity, B.L., Seymour-Ford, J. and Andries, K.J. (2004) Laura Bridgman. Perkins History Museum, Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown, MA.
Mar 2, 2017 · Laura Bridgman was the most famous woman of her day, second only to Queen Victoria, according to her teacher, Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, director of the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston.
Born Laura Dewey Bridgman on December 21, 1829, in Hanover, New Hampshire; died on May 24, 1889, in South Boston, Massachusetts; daughter of Daniel and Harmony Bridgman (both farmers); had two brothers and three sisters, two of whom died from the scarlet fever, which destroyed her senses of sight, hearing, and smell; educated by Dr. Samuel ...
Sep 15, 2014 · Before the remarkable accomplishments of Helen Keller, there was Laura Dewey Bridgman (1829-1889), a deaf and blind woman from New Hampshire, who amazed educators and the American public with her exceptional achievements in language and education.
Laura Dewey Lynn Bridgman (December 21, 1829 – May 24, 1889) was the first deaf-blind American child to gain a significant education in the English language, twenty years before the more famous Helen Keller; Laura's friend Anne Sullivan became Helen Keller's aide.
