Bridgman

Bridgman, Laura, a celebrated and everywhere-quoted example of a deaf, dumb, and blind child who learned to read, reason, and to more or less enjoy life. She was born in 1829, in New Hampshire, United States. There was nothing abnormal about her till her second year, when a fever destroyed her sight, hearing and smell, and partially taste. It was not till the age of eight that a serious attempt was made at an institution for the blind to educate her. The success of this attempt was so notable that Laura Bridgman may be said to have marked the beginning of the new era of education for deaf-mutes, which has advanced of late years to a point of perfection not even dreamt of at the beginning of the present century. Laura Bridgman made herself useful as a teacher of the blind and deaf and dumb. Dickens gives an interesting account of her in his American Notes.