[Nfb-history] {Disarmed} FW: History & Happenings: Laura Bridgman

Thu Aug 11 17:45:48 UTC 2016

Hello Colleagues:

     This list has been too quiet. I hope the following will be of interest.

Regards,

Robert

From: Perkins School for the Blind [mailto:supportperkins at perkins.org] 
Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2016 8:31 AM
To: Robert Jaquiss
Subject: History & Happenings: Laura Bridgman

A deafblind trailblazer you've probably never heard of.
 <http://support.perkins.org/site/R?i=XtuuL6ZZb-4hDVo_mVmBTQ> View this email as a webpage.

 <http://support.perkins.org/site/R?i=2ThFNn5K8uqxHn2RSEXFmQ> Perkins School for the Blind

 August 2016 issue of History and Happenings. Photo Laura Bridgman. <https://secure2.convio.net/psb/images/content/pagebuilder/fy17-history-and-happenings-aug-outlook-header.jpg> 

August 2016

History & Happenings

Laura Bridgman

Before  <http://support.perkins.org/site/R?i=lw-QhytVPVlp4N_G8SD10g> Helen Keller (1880-1968), there was  <http://support.perkins.org/site/R?i=L1-TELd7Rbxs0qIw3YYYJQ> Laura Bridgman (1829-1889). As the first person in the United States with deafblindness to learn to read and write, the young Bridgman was considered one of the most famous women in the world—second only to Queen Victoria. She was the subject of an entire chapter in Charles Dickens' 1842 travelogue, American Notes, and counted the American activist, Dorothea Dix, among her friends.

Born in 1829 to hardworking New England farmers, Bridgman was by all accounts a weak and fragile child who nonetheless possessed a sprightliness and intelligence uncommon for her age. When she was two, Bridgman fell ill with scarlet fever. The illness, which killed her two older sisters, stripped the curious toddler of her sight, hearing, sense of smell and nearly all of her sense of taste—leaving only her sense of touch intact.

After her illness, Bridgman tried to make sense of her world by exploring every object and surface she encountered. She loved to imitate what her mother did, helped with household chores, and learned to knit and sew. Though she developed a rudimentary sign language—with gestures for food and other basic needs, and a name sign for each family member—communication between Laura and her family was very limited. Given to frequent temper tantrums, Bridgman's family resorted to physically overpowering the seven year-old when she disobeyed them.

While Bridgman's family struggled to keep her in line,  <http://support.perkins.org/site/R?i=UPtOEcGQd-mpuNxrofVUIg> Samuel Gridley Howe was looking for a way to break new ground in the fledgling field of blindness education. Five years earlier, Howe had opened the doors to the nation's first chartered school for the blind. With his students thriving, the director now sought out a new challenge. After reading an article about Bridgman and her family, Howe traveled to the family farm in Hanover, New Hampshire and convinced Bridgman's parents to send her to his school, the New England Institution for the Education of the Blind—known today as  <http://support.perkins.org/site/R?i=tnihvPLhdTIblWdgZA0MVQ> Perkins School for the Blind. 

 Front and back view of a doll wearing clothes made by Laura Bridgman. The clothing includes a red coat with buttons down the front and fur lining the collar and cuffs and a red matching cap. <https://secure2.convio.net/psb/images/content/pagebuilder/fy16-history-and-happenings-aug-sec1.jpg> 

An exquisite needleworker throughout her life, Bridgman sold her creations for spending money and helped teach sewing and needlecraft at Perkins. She also made clothes for dolls, including the red, fur-trimmed jacket and matching cap pictured here. When Perkins alumna Anne Sullivan went to Alabama in 1886 to teach Helen Keller, she brought Helen a doll wearing clothing that Bridgman had sewn herself.

Laura Bridgman arrived at Perkins in October of 1837. An insatiable curiosity spurred her to master reading and writing at a time when many believed that individuals who were deafblind could not be taught language or educated at all. She eagerly demanded to be taught the name of everything she encountered, and learned the manual alphabet swiftly, which allowed her to communicate unencumbered by the cut-out letters Howe employed in her first months at Perkins. A little over a year after entering the school, her curriculum was much like that of the other pupils. With a teacher constantly at her side to fingerspell to her, she attended classes and studied reading, writing, geography, arithmetic, history, grammar, algebra, geometry, physiology, philosophy and history.

In 1850 Bridgman, now 20 years old, left Perkins and returned home to her family in New Hampshire. After years of being with a constant teacher-companion, she was suddenly on her own day and night. Her busy farming family had little time or patience for her and she grew increasingly depressed and frustrated.

Upon learning of her deteriorating health, Howe and Bridgman's friend, Dorothea Dix, raised an endowment to support Bridgman and brought her back to Perkins where she lived in one of the four cottages with the students. As a teacher of needlework, she intimidated generations of students with her notorious intolerance of shoddy workmanship. Bridgman died peacefully at Perkins in 1889, at the age of 59. 

Laura Bridgman's legacy lives on in  <http://support.perkins.org/site/R?i=23DqswEvlX9S1fGkzmOBYQ> Perkins' Deafblind Program, which serves students age 3 to 22 who are deafblind or deaf with additional disabilities by taking a developmental approach to language, communication and curriculum. This program continues to be one of the few worldwide dedicated specifically to working with students with deafblindness.

 <http://support.perkins.org/site/R?i=Jcp54pnpDkhYP9WaiKr50w> View the Laura Bridgman Collection on FlickrView Laura Bridgman Photos 

 An illustration with Laura Bridgman sitting on Samuel Gridley Howe's lap. <https://secure2.convio.net/psb/images/content/pagebuilder/fy16-history-and-happenings-aug-sec2-then.jpg> 

 A handwritten entry from Laura Bridgman's journal circa 1859. <https://secure2.convio.net/psb/images/content/pagebuilder/fy16-history-and-happenings-aug-sec2-now.jpg> 

Known around the world

Then & Now

On the left,In the top image, an illustration from  <http://support.perkins.org/site/R?i=b5Wph75GgZSjElqOEeLMdw> Perkins' 1887 Annual Report with Laura Bridgman sitting on Samuel Gridley Howe's lap. During the 1830s and '40s, Howe published detailed accounts of Bridgman's education in Perkins' Annual Reports, making both teacher and student internationally famous.

On the right,In the bottom image, a handwritten entry from Laura Bridgman's journal circa 1859. Thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the  <http://support.perkins.org/site/R?i=u67CaTvoDSdoy2D3sLjPfQ> Perkins Archives processed a collection of textual material, photographs, artwork, and artifacts that help illuminate Bridgman's extraordinary life and education. The  <http://support.perkins.org/site/R?i=a9RrCQuj4aqXS9dhAGAT6w> finding aid is an attempt to make the unique and groundbreaking story of Laura Bridgman more widely known and accessible.

Give the gift of a brighter future

Since 1829, Perkins School for the Blind has been committed to helping children and young adults who are blind, deafblind or visually impaired. Your gift today will fund the teachers, training and technology that help people with a visual impairment prepare for all of life's opportunities.

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 View of Research Library at the Perkins Institution with woman wrapping books for mailing. <https://secure2.convio.net/psb/images/content/pagebuilder/fy15-history-_-happenings-responsive-image-005.jpg> 

The Perkins Archives include collections related to the history of the education of the blind and deafblind, institutional archives, and correspondence of significant figures in the school's history, such as Helen Keller, Annie Sullivan and Samuel Gridley Howe.

To learn more about the Perkins Archives and sign up for their newsletter, visit  <http://support.perkins.org/site/R?i=tGN7DH2Ts88Jam0yYbl6jw> PerkinsArchives.org. 

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