| Laura Bridgman |
Article Index for Laura |
Website Links For Laura |
Information AboutLaura Bridgman |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT LAURA BRIDGMAN | |
| 1829 births | |
| 1889 deaths | |
| deaf blind people | |
| people from new hampshire | |
| american schoolteachers | |
|
Laura Dewey Bridgman ( December 21 , 1829 - May 24 , 1889 ) is known as the first Deaf-blind person to gain a significant education in the English language, fifty years before the more famous Helen Keller . She was born in Hanover, New Hampshire and became deaf-blind from Scarlet Fever at age 2. She learned through touch to sew and knit as a child but had no language. She was brought to the Perkins School For The Blind in October 1837, age 7, by Samuel Gridley Howe , the director of the school. Howe had been recently met Julia Brace , a deafblind resident at the American School For The Deaf who communicated using Tactile Sign , and developed a plan to teach the young Bridgman to read and write through tactile means — something that had not been attempted previously. At first he used words printed with raised letters, and later they progressed to using a Manual Alphabet expressed through tactile sign. Eventually she received a broad education. Charles Dickens visited the school in 1842 and, impressed by Bridgman's successful education, wrote about her in his American Notes . Decades later, Helen Keller 's mother Kate Keller read this account and was inspired to seek advice which led to her hiring a teacher and former pupil of the same school, Anne Sullivan . Bridgman remained at the school as a sewing teacher for the rest of her life. A Liberty Ship was named after her. PUBLICATIONS
REFERENCES
EXTERNAL LINKS |
|
|