Bridgman, Laura Dewey, 1829-1889
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Bridgman, Laura Dewey, 1829-1889
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Surname :
Bridgman
Forename :
Laura Dewey
Date :
1829-1889
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Biographical History
Laura Dewey Lynn Bridgman (b. December 21, 1829, Hanover, New Hampshire-d. May 24, 1889, Boston, Massachusetts), known as the first deaf-blind American child to gain a significant education in the English language, fifty years before the more famous Helen Keller. Bridgman was left deaf-blind at the age of two after contracting scarlet fever. She was educated at the Perkins Institution for the Blind where, under the direction of Samuel Gridley Howe, she learned to read and communicate using Braille and the manual alphabet developed by Charles-Michel de l'Épée.
Bridgman gained celebrity status when Charles Dickens met her during his 1842 American tour and wrote about her accomplishments in his American Notes. Her fame was short-lived, however, and she spent the remainder of her life in relative obscurity, most of it at the Perkins Institute, where she passed her time sewing and reading books in Braille.
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External Related CPF
https://viaf.org/viaf/27977901
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q271758
https://id.loc.gov/authorities/nr92000517
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Blind
Deaf
Deafblind people
Deafblind women
Deafblind women
Deafblind women
Poetry
Teachers of deafblind people
Women educators
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Deafblind women
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United States
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United States
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New England
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<conventionDeclaration><citation>VIAF</citation></conventionDeclaration>