Laura Bridgman, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Laura Bridgman

American deaf-blind woman

Date of Birth: 21-Dec-1829

Place of Birth: Hanover, New Hampshire, United States

Date of Death: 24-May-1889

Profession: writer, teacher, poet

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius

Laura Dewey Lynn Bridgman (December 21, 1829 – May 24, 1889) is 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.For several years, 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.