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The education of Laura Bridgman: first deaf and blind person to learn language

2001; Association of College and Research Libraries; Volume: 39; Issue: 04 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5860/choice.39-2377

1943-5975

Ernest Freeberg,

Hearing Impairment and Communication

The Education of Laura Bridgman: First Deaf and Blind Person to Learn Language. By Ernest Freeberg. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001. Pp. 264. Illustrations. $27.95.) Millions of Americans are familiar with the story of Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan. Whether contact with them came via radio and newsreels prior to Keller's death in 1968 or through theater or film versions of The Miracle Worker, undoubtedly many, even most, have thought of Keller as the first deaf and blind person to learn to communicate through language. Yet, thanks to this work by Ernest Freeberg, we learn that this was not the case. That distinction belongs to Laura Bridgman, who, though hardly a familiar figure today, along with her mentor Samuel Gridley Howe gained a huge measure of fame both here and abroad during the 1830s and 1840s. For Charles Dickens, Laura Bridgman and Niagara Falls were the two highlights of his 1842 American tour. At the completion of her formal education in 1850, Howe would boast that only Queen Victoria was a more famous woman than Laura Bridgman. Despite similarities in their physical disabilities and their success in learning language, the story of Laura Bridgman as related by Freeberg is different in many respects from that of Helen Keller. The setting of Keller's education was her family's home, and Annie Sullivan was employed by Helen's parents. In Laura Bridgman's case, it was the teacher who initiated the relationship. Samuel Gridley Howe, noted supporter of reform causes and first director of the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston, had read of Bridgman in a newspaper article. Impressed by the story of the New Hampshire farm girl who had been stricken deaf and blind at the age of two as a result of scarlet fever and yet had mastered several household tasks, Howe gained permission from the Bridgmans to educate their seven-yearold daughter at his school. Except for a few brief intervals back in Hanover, Perkins was Bridgman's home for the remainder of her life. Helen Keller came to world attention after she left home and pursued an active career as author and lecturer. The years during which Laura Bridgman was the center of interest were limited to those of her formal education, between 1837 and 1850. That the public became aware of her was the result of a deliberate public relations policy of her teacher, who really is the central character of Freeberg's study. It is the author's vivid description and analysis of Howe's many social, philosophical, and scientific ideas and interests and their relationship to the educational program he designed for Bridgman that make for fascinating reading, Furthermore, as one proceeds through the book, it becomes apparent that the story of Bridgman and Howe reflects many of the significant social and intellectual currents of the era. Howe's commitment to reform went beyond the education of the blind to embrace the common school movement, care for the insane, prison reform, and abolition. His Unitarianism and attraction to phrenology and his hostility toward the pessimistic views of human nature espoused by orthodox Calvinists were important ingredients in shaping his goals and methods for the education of Laura Bridgman. Freeberg illustrates the multiplicity of Howe's interests and concerns that came to play in his relationship with Laura Bridgman. …