1 00:00:02,440 --> 00:00:06,000 Speaker 1: Happy Saturday, everybody. This classic is coming out during Deaf 2 00:00:06,040 --> 00:00:09,799 Speaker 1: History Month, which goes from March thirteenth to April fifteenth 3 00:00:09,880 --> 00:00:13,920 Speaker 1: each year. It's first Today commemorates the successful conclusion of 4 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:17,159 Speaker 1: the Deaf President Now Protests, which we covered in a 5 00:00:17,239 --> 00:00:19,799 Speaker 1: previous episode of the show that has also been a 6 00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:23,240 Speaker 1: previous Saturday Classic, and then the last day of Deaf 7 00:00:23,239 --> 00:00:26,360 Speaker 1: History Month marks the establishment of the American School for 8 00:00:26,360 --> 00:00:29,159 Speaker 1: the Deaf, which was the first permanent school for the 9 00:00:29,200 --> 00:00:32,599 Speaker 1: deaf in the United States. So today we're sharing one 10 00:00:32,600 --> 00:00:35,400 Speaker 1: of our earlier episodes related to Deaf History, which is 11 00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:38,720 Speaker 1: on Laura Bridgeman. She was the first deaf blind person 12 00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:41,720 Speaker 1: in the US to receive a formal education, and she 13 00:00:41,760 --> 00:00:44,959 Speaker 1: also came up on our recent Saturday Classic on Charles Dickens. 14 00:00:45,520 --> 00:00:49,519 Speaker 1: In this episode, Sarah and Bablina talk about potential future 15 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:53,400 Speaker 1: episodes on Helen Keller and Louis Brail, both of whom 16 00:00:53,479 --> 00:00:59,960 Speaker 1: are still on our ongoing list of topics. So enjoy. 17 00:01:00,080 --> 00:01:02,720 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 18 00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:11,640 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome 19 00:01:11,680 --> 00:01:14,720 Speaker 1: to the podcast. I'm Sarah Dowdy and I'm Delinea chalk reboarding, 20 00:01:14,880 --> 00:01:18,200 Speaker 1: and earlier this year, some interesting news came out of 21 00:01:18,240 --> 00:01:21,840 Speaker 1: Georgia Tech here in Atlanta. Researchers there announced that they'd 22 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:25,000 Speaker 1: come up with a texting app called Brail Touch, which 23 00:01:25,360 --> 00:01:29,080 Speaker 1: applies computer brail, you know, a specific type of brail, 24 00:01:29,160 --> 00:01:32,319 Speaker 1: to touch screen devices. And the app has mostly been 25 00:01:32,319 --> 00:01:35,480 Speaker 1: in the news because it has potential as a general 26 00:01:35,680 --> 00:01:39,600 Speaker 1: eyes free texting app, even for people who aren't visually impaired, 27 00:01:39,600 --> 00:01:42,280 Speaker 1: you could text under the table or something. But for 28 00:01:42,319 --> 00:01:45,199 Speaker 1: folks who are visually impaired, a brail app could really 29 00:01:45,240 --> 00:01:48,440 Speaker 1: mean a lot less stuff to lug around, no keyboard, 30 00:01:48,480 --> 00:01:51,560 Speaker 1: just a phone, and easier communication. And it really got 31 00:01:51,600 --> 00:01:56,440 Speaker 1: me thinking about how much communication has improved for people 32 00:01:56,560 --> 00:02:00,560 Speaker 1: with visual disabilities in the past century. On today, we're 33 00:02:00,560 --> 00:02:02,760 Speaker 1: going to revisit a subject that we touched on briefly 34 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:05,640 Speaker 1: in our Dickens Visits America episode, and it's kind of 35 00:02:05,640 --> 00:02:09,960 Speaker 1: related to that topic of communication. It's about Laura Bridgeman, 36 00:02:10,040 --> 00:02:12,680 Speaker 1: who was the first deaf blind person to learn language 37 00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:16,440 Speaker 1: also to communicate with letters and writing and to be educated. 38 00:02:16,840 --> 00:02:19,720 Speaker 1: And she didn't use the now ubiquitous brail system that 39 00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:22,320 Speaker 1: we just talked about, which was only beginning at the time, 40 00:02:22,760 --> 00:02:26,080 Speaker 1: but instead she used the manual alphabet to spell out words, 41 00:02:26,160 --> 00:02:29,560 Speaker 1: and she also read from raised Roman text and I 42 00:02:29,680 --> 00:02:32,160 Speaker 1: learned to hand right with a special grid system. So 43 00:02:32,280 --> 00:02:36,040 Speaker 1: Bridgeman was about fifty years older than the more famous 44 00:02:36,040 --> 00:02:39,040 Speaker 1: Helen Keller. But if you remember from that earlier episode, 45 00:02:39,080 --> 00:02:42,280 Speaker 1: their stories are really closely connected, aside from the fact 46 00:02:42,400 --> 00:02:46,480 Speaker 1: that young Helen Keller annoyed Bridgeman by stepping on her 47 00:02:46,520 --> 00:02:49,519 Speaker 1: foot when the two of them metum. But while Keller 48 00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:53,960 Speaker 1: really became a champion of disability rights and an international figure, 49 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:57,360 Speaker 1: you know, somebody who's internationally famous, Bridgeman was on the 50 00:02:57,480 --> 00:03:01,440 Speaker 1: earlier end of the disability right story. And in fact, 51 00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:04,359 Speaker 1: when she started school in the eighteen thirties, people were 52 00:03:04,400 --> 00:03:07,560 Speaker 1: just starting to believe blind people could be educated. So 53 00:03:07,919 --> 00:03:11,680 Speaker 1: the idea of educating a deaf, blind person, this deaf 54 00:03:11,680 --> 00:03:15,320 Speaker 1: blind girl, seemed completely impossible. Yeah, so we're going to 55 00:03:15,400 --> 00:03:18,320 Speaker 1: tell you a little bit about her early story and 56 00:03:18,360 --> 00:03:21,880 Speaker 1: the challenges that she had to face before we get 57 00:03:21,919 --> 00:03:25,440 Speaker 1: to that story of her learning. Laura Dewey Bridgeman was 58 00:03:25,480 --> 00:03:29,399 Speaker 1: born December twenty one, eighty nine, near Hanover, New Hampshire. 59 00:03:29,520 --> 00:03:32,880 Speaker 1: Her parents Daniel and Harmony had a farm, and Laura 60 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:35,720 Speaker 1: was their third daughter. She was a pretty baby with 61 00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:38,960 Speaker 1: bright blue eyes, but she was really sickly. At twenty 62 00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:42,880 Speaker 1: months she finally started getting bigger and lively. She was 63 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:47,000 Speaker 1: chatty and seemed very smart. But at twenty four months 64 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:49,960 Speaker 1: she and her two older sisters came down with scarlet fever. 65 00:03:50,520 --> 00:03:53,360 Speaker 1: Her two sisters died, but for Laura the fever went 66 00:03:53,440 --> 00:03:56,800 Speaker 1: on four weeks after that, and when she finally started 67 00:03:56,840 --> 00:03:59,920 Speaker 1: to get better, she was blind in one eye, nearly blind, 68 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:03,240 Speaker 1: and the other death and she had very little of 69 00:04:03,240 --> 00:04:06,800 Speaker 1: her senses of smell and taste left. Her vision in 70 00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:09,680 Speaker 1: her non blind eye was destroyed when she walked into 71 00:04:09,720 --> 00:04:12,800 Speaker 1: the spindle of her mother's spinning wheel. So a really 72 00:04:13,120 --> 00:04:17,599 Speaker 1: sad start here, But remarkably, by age four, she had 73 00:04:17,640 --> 00:04:20,039 Speaker 1: recovered the strength she had lost during the fever. She 74 00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:23,600 Speaker 1: was strong again, and while she wasn't talking anymore, she 75 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:26,919 Speaker 1: was still very smart. She was still displaying that interest 76 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:29,440 Speaker 1: she had as a two year old in everything she 77 00:04:29,480 --> 00:04:33,000 Speaker 1: came across. She would touch everything she encountered. She had 78 00:04:33,080 --> 00:04:35,640 Speaker 1: cling to her mother and feel her arms in her 79 00:04:35,640 --> 00:04:38,400 Speaker 1: hands and try to mimic her mother's hands, so she 80 00:04:38,800 --> 00:04:40,880 Speaker 1: learned how to help out with housework that way. She 81 00:04:40,920 --> 00:04:44,240 Speaker 1: even learned how to knit and too so and from 82 00:04:44,279 --> 00:04:47,920 Speaker 1: a workman on her family farm, Asa Tenney, who himself 83 00:04:47,960 --> 00:04:51,400 Speaker 1: had some impairments that made speech difficult for him, she 84 00:04:51,560 --> 00:04:55,280 Speaker 1: did pick up some ability to communicate, or at least 85 00:04:55,279 --> 00:04:59,960 Speaker 1: communicate more fully with her family. She had a way 86 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:02,200 Speaker 1: of sort of understanding what she was going through and 87 00:05:02,240 --> 00:05:06,200 Speaker 1: helped her perfect this basic sort of sign language. And 88 00:05:06,279 --> 00:05:09,360 Speaker 1: so each family member had a name sign that they 89 00:05:09,400 --> 00:05:12,520 Speaker 1: could respond to, and a pat on her head meant 90 00:05:12,600 --> 00:05:14,599 Speaker 1: yes or okay, a pat on her back meant no. 91 00:05:15,080 --> 00:05:18,000 Speaker 1: She had a way of expressing really basic needs at least. 92 00:05:18,680 --> 00:05:21,719 Speaker 1: But by age seven she started throwing these really violent 93 00:05:22,240 --> 00:05:26,120 Speaker 1: temper tantrums. She'd only obey her father, who would stomp 94 00:05:26,160 --> 00:05:28,440 Speaker 1: on the ground when he was upset with her. And 95 00:05:28,480 --> 00:05:32,400 Speaker 1: she'd reached the limit of communication basically with her family, 96 00:05:32,520 --> 00:05:35,280 Speaker 1: and she was just overwhelmed and they were overwhelmed too. 97 00:05:35,360 --> 00:05:37,720 Speaker 1: They were busy farmers, and they didn't know what they 98 00:05:37,720 --> 00:05:40,880 Speaker 1: were going to do to help her. So fortunately at 99 00:05:40,920 --> 00:05:44,200 Speaker 1: that time an article was written by a Dartmouth professor 100 00:05:44,279 --> 00:05:48,599 Speaker 1: on Laura's ability to sign, and that got the attention 101 00:05:48,680 --> 00:05:52,240 Speaker 1: of Samuel Gridley how And a few years earlier, actually 102 00:05:52,240 --> 00:05:55,880 Speaker 1: the very same year Laura was born, how had founded Perkins, 103 00:05:55,920 --> 00:05:58,640 Speaker 1: which was a school for the blind, and it had 104 00:05:58,720 --> 00:06:02,880 Speaker 1: opened for students in eighteen thirty two with a mission um, 105 00:06:03,120 --> 00:06:05,880 Speaker 1: not just to educate blind children, that's kind of how 106 00:06:05,880 --> 00:06:08,119 Speaker 1: you'd see it today, but to really prove that blind 107 00:06:08,160 --> 00:06:13,119 Speaker 1: children could be educated and could become independent adults. Kids 108 00:06:13,120 --> 00:06:17,000 Speaker 1: at the school learned everything from history to philosophy, plus sports, 109 00:06:17,640 --> 00:06:21,280 Speaker 1: music including piano tuning, and domestic work. So it was 110 00:06:21,320 --> 00:06:24,760 Speaker 1: really a very broad education getting them ready for life. 111 00:06:25,279 --> 00:06:28,760 Speaker 1: How's quite a character himself, we should mention. He idolized 112 00:06:28,800 --> 00:06:32,119 Speaker 1: Lord Byron and fought in the Greek Revolution where Byron died. 113 00:06:32,600 --> 00:06:37,240 Speaker 1: He financially supported radical abolitionist John Brown, and he was 114 00:06:37,279 --> 00:06:39,640 Speaker 1: married to Julia Ward, who wrote The Battle Him of 115 00:06:39,640 --> 00:06:43,520 Speaker 1: the Republic. But he was also a proponent of education reform, 116 00:06:43,640 --> 00:06:48,760 Speaker 1: and not just for blind students. He wanted wrote memorization 117 00:06:48,880 --> 00:06:53,160 Speaker 1: replaced with a curriculum following the child's interests. He disliked 118 00:06:53,240 --> 00:06:56,680 Speaker 1: John Locke's idea of the tabula raza the blank slate, 119 00:06:57,000 --> 00:06:59,760 Speaker 1: and instead thought that the mind came with certain innate 120 00:06:59,800 --> 00:07:03,800 Speaker 1: for sility, something in line with the pseudoscience of phrenology. Yeah, 121 00:07:03,880 --> 00:07:07,479 Speaker 1: so when How heard about Laura, he realized that she 122 00:07:07,520 --> 00:07:10,840 Speaker 1: would really be his perfect subject. She was an opportunity 123 00:07:10,920 --> 00:07:13,120 Speaker 1: for him to do good. Clearly, he was very interested 124 00:07:13,120 --> 00:07:16,840 Speaker 1: in that. She was excellent pr for his school, and 125 00:07:17,160 --> 00:07:19,960 Speaker 1: she'd be a way for him to test his theories 126 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:23,440 Speaker 1: on the mind and probably most importantly, a challenge for him. 127 00:07:23,480 --> 00:07:27,160 Speaker 1: At this point, he was doing so successfully with his school. 128 00:07:27,200 --> 00:07:30,920 Speaker 1: He wanted a challenge. So Laura's parents met with How 129 00:07:31,080 --> 00:07:34,000 Speaker 1: and they agreed to send her to Perkins and Laura 130 00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:37,680 Speaker 1: arrived there in October eighty seven, when she was just 131 00:07:37,800 --> 00:07:41,200 Speaker 1: shy of eight years old. She just got a little 132 00:07:41,200 --> 00:07:43,960 Speaker 1: bit of time to settle into her new surroundings. She 133 00:07:44,040 --> 00:07:47,880 Speaker 1: was obviously very scared, very disoriented, but How gave her 134 00:07:47,960 --> 00:07:59,200 Speaker 1: two weeks to get used to the new world. So 135 00:07:59,320 --> 00:08:02,400 Speaker 1: after that onerous two week period that she got he 136 00:08:02,440 --> 00:08:06,120 Speaker 1: started to teach her. He quickly decided to scrap the 137 00:08:06,120 --> 00:08:09,200 Speaker 1: basic sign language that she'd been using at home and 138 00:08:09,240 --> 00:08:12,400 Speaker 1: instead teach her English. So here's kind of how it worked. 139 00:08:12,880 --> 00:08:15,720 Speaker 1: He would give her something basic like a key or 140 00:08:15,760 --> 00:08:19,640 Speaker 1: a fork or a knife that was labeled with embossed writing, 141 00:08:20,240 --> 00:08:24,000 Speaker 1: and then after she familiarized herself with the objects, he'd 142 00:08:24,040 --> 00:08:27,080 Speaker 1: separate the object from that label and she would have 143 00:08:27,200 --> 00:08:30,520 Speaker 1: to match them to each other. Yeah, and he wrote 144 00:08:30,520 --> 00:08:33,360 Speaker 1: of this time quote, it was as though she were 145 00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:36,640 Speaker 1: underwater and we were on the surface over her, unable 146 00:08:36,679 --> 00:08:39,280 Speaker 1: to see her, but dropping a line and moving it 147 00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:41,880 Speaker 1: about here and there, hoping it might touch her hand 148 00:08:42,080 --> 00:08:44,920 Speaker 1: so that she would grasp it instinctively, hoping that she 149 00:08:44,960 --> 00:08:47,960 Speaker 1: would put two and two together and realize it wasn't 150 00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:54,400 Speaker 1: just a matching game. These labels actually signified something about 151 00:08:54,400 --> 00:08:57,080 Speaker 1: the objects that they went with. But according to Jane 152 00:08:57,120 --> 00:09:01,600 Speaker 1: seymour Ford and Perkins, help leaved that her ability to 153 00:09:01,640 --> 00:09:03,560 Speaker 1: match really was just kind of a game. It was 154 00:09:03,600 --> 00:09:06,760 Speaker 1: just memorization. At this point, she liked getting approval, so 155 00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:09,960 Speaker 1: she knew the knife label went with the knife, and 156 00:09:09,960 --> 00:09:12,360 Speaker 1: and so on. So the next step for him was 157 00:09:12,400 --> 00:09:15,719 Speaker 1: to cut up the labels into their separate letters, and 158 00:09:16,080 --> 00:09:18,920 Speaker 1: he would spell out the word that she was familiar with, 159 00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:21,920 Speaker 1: and he'd jumble them up, and then he would leave 160 00:09:22,040 --> 00:09:24,960 Speaker 1: Laura to figure out how to piece them back together 161 00:09:25,000 --> 00:09:28,640 Speaker 1: again into something she was familiar with. And he describes 162 00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:32,839 Speaker 1: the aha sort of moment when she finally got this 163 00:09:33,040 --> 00:09:37,280 Speaker 1: that letters made up words, and words signified things, and 164 00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:40,040 Speaker 1: he wrote quote, the truth began to flash upon her. 165 00:09:40,360 --> 00:09:43,600 Speaker 1: Her intellect began to work. She perceived that here was 166 00:09:43,640 --> 00:09:45,720 Speaker 1: a way by which she could herself make a sign 167 00:09:45,760 --> 00:09:48,920 Speaker 1: of anything that was in her own mind and show 168 00:09:48,960 --> 00:09:52,600 Speaker 1: it to another mind. And at once her countenance lighted up. 169 00:09:52,760 --> 00:09:55,760 Speaker 1: So from there Laura tried to learn the name of 170 00:09:55,840 --> 00:09:59,480 Speaker 1: every single thing that she encountered. Communication got faster when 171 00:09:59,520 --> 00:10:02,199 Speaker 1: she learned them manual alphabet and could put aside those 172 00:10:02,520 --> 00:10:05,839 Speaker 1: embossed letters that she had initially learned with. She only 173 00:10:05,920 --> 00:10:09,319 Speaker 1: needed about a year of instruction and vocabulary building before 174 00:10:09,320 --> 00:10:11,640 Speaker 1: she could join in the regular classes for the blind, 175 00:10:12,160 --> 00:10:15,200 Speaker 1: and she would have a personal teacher with her who 176 00:10:15,280 --> 00:10:17,520 Speaker 1: was fingerspelling everything out for her so that she could 177 00:10:17,559 --> 00:10:19,840 Speaker 1: follow along in class. But other than that, just following 178 00:10:19,840 --> 00:10:23,520 Speaker 1: along with the lessons pretty remarkable. One thing to mention here, though, 179 00:10:23,720 --> 00:10:27,880 Speaker 1: how promoted Laura's ability? That ah sort of moment? He 180 00:10:27,880 --> 00:10:30,720 Speaker 1: he promoted that is something innate, like she just had 181 00:10:30,760 --> 00:10:34,640 Speaker 1: the capacity for language. There but two of her recent biographers, 182 00:10:34,679 --> 00:10:38,520 Speaker 1: Elizabeth Jeter and Ernest Freeberg, suggests that she probably did 183 00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:41,760 Speaker 1: have some distant memory of spoken language before she was deaf. 184 00:10:41,800 --> 00:10:44,760 Speaker 1: Even if she might not have remembered being two years old, 185 00:10:44,840 --> 00:10:47,760 Speaker 1: she probably had something left in her head. And Jeter 186 00:10:47,840 --> 00:10:50,760 Speaker 1: also thinks that she had likely been imprinted with the 187 00:10:50,800 --> 00:10:55,240 Speaker 1: capacity for grammar, since her later ability to understand all 188 00:10:55,240 --> 00:10:58,960 Speaker 1: these different complex tenses um kind of put her apart 189 00:10:59,080 --> 00:11:02,440 Speaker 1: from a lot of their deafline people who've learned language, 190 00:11:02,480 --> 00:11:04,920 Speaker 1: which to me just sounds like another way of saying inadability. 191 00:11:05,200 --> 00:11:08,360 Speaker 1: So maybe so we should also point out that while 192 00:11:08,440 --> 00:11:10,800 Speaker 1: Braill was by this point being used in some parts 193 00:11:10,800 --> 00:11:13,560 Speaker 1: of the world, Laura and the other students that Perkins 194 00:11:13,600 --> 00:11:16,439 Speaker 1: read with raised Roman letters, which was known as Boston 195 00:11:16,559 --> 00:11:19,760 Speaker 1: line type, and it made for some really huge book 196 00:11:19,760 --> 00:11:21,680 Speaker 1: because they had to blow up the letters so big 197 00:11:21,720 --> 00:11:25,400 Speaker 1: that you could actually feel the differences between them. And 198 00:11:25,520 --> 00:11:28,840 Speaker 1: Laura would write with a grooved guide that was slid 199 00:11:28,920 --> 00:11:31,960 Speaker 1: under her paper, so you'd write a letter in one 200 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:34,439 Speaker 1: of the grooves, cover it and then move on to 201 00:11:34,520 --> 00:11:37,600 Speaker 1: the next letter. And it was called square handwriting because 202 00:11:37,600 --> 00:11:40,520 Speaker 1: it has this very strange sort of square look to it. 203 00:11:40,600 --> 00:11:43,960 Speaker 1: You can, um, you can see letters that Laura herself wrote, 204 00:11:44,040 --> 00:11:47,600 Speaker 1: and it is a very unusual looking hand, but pretty remarkable. 205 00:11:47,679 --> 00:11:50,480 Speaker 1: It sounds really time consuming, it does, but apparently she 206 00:11:50,679 --> 00:11:53,640 Speaker 1: was a voracious letter writer, so she must have gotten 207 00:11:53,640 --> 00:11:56,960 Speaker 1: pretty fast at it. While she studied reading writing in 208 00:11:57,000 --> 00:12:00,559 Speaker 1: geography and algebra and geometry and all the their subjects 209 00:12:00,559 --> 00:12:04,240 Speaker 1: in the classroom, she would pepper her teachers with questions 210 00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:07,559 Speaker 1: at the same time outside of the classroom, things like 211 00:12:07,960 --> 00:12:11,360 Speaker 1: why don't flies have names? Why can't we sail to 212 00:12:11,400 --> 00:12:14,520 Speaker 1: the sun and boats? If I eat fish hooks, could 213 00:12:14,559 --> 00:12:20,040 Speaker 1: I be dead? Questions? Yes, And she flourished socially too. 214 00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:22,840 Speaker 1: She could recognize people that she hadn't seen in a 215 00:12:22,840 --> 00:12:27,080 Speaker 1: long time by feeling their faces. She made distinct noises 216 00:12:27,120 --> 00:12:30,200 Speaker 1: for friends, which were kind of like individual names that 217 00:12:30,360 --> 00:12:35,280 Speaker 1: people could recognize other people. And how describes this sort 218 00:12:35,320 --> 00:12:40,800 Speaker 1: of girlish social butterfly behavior that Laura had um in 219 00:12:40,840 --> 00:12:43,120 Speaker 1: a passage I really liked, he said, quote When Laura 220 00:12:43,200 --> 00:12:46,480 Speaker 1: is walking through a passageway with her hands spread before her, 221 00:12:46,800 --> 00:12:49,800 Speaker 1: she notes instantly everyone she meets and passes them with 222 00:12:49,840 --> 00:12:52,280 Speaker 1: a sign of recognition. But if it be a girl 223 00:12:52,360 --> 00:12:55,040 Speaker 1: of her own age, and especially if one of her favorites, 224 00:12:55,280 --> 00:12:58,840 Speaker 1: there is instantly, a bright smile of recognition and intertwining 225 00:12:58,880 --> 00:13:02,520 Speaker 1: of arms, a grasping of hands, and a swift telegraphing 226 00:13:02,640 --> 00:13:05,320 Speaker 1: upon the tiny finger. So I think that really conveys 227 00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:08,400 Speaker 1: how happy she was to finally be able to communicate 228 00:13:08,440 --> 00:13:10,600 Speaker 1: with people and say what was on her mind and 229 00:13:10,640 --> 00:13:13,240 Speaker 1: hear what was going on in the world. And um, 230 00:13:13,280 --> 00:13:16,120 Speaker 1: she'd joke around too. That's another important thing to mention, 231 00:13:16,160 --> 00:13:19,520 Speaker 1: because she does have a reputation being older as kind 232 00:13:19,559 --> 00:13:21,800 Speaker 1: of severe. But as a kid, she'd joke her on. 233 00:13:21,880 --> 00:13:25,320 Speaker 1: She'd purposely misspell words and then strike it out with 234 00:13:25,360 --> 00:13:27,920 Speaker 1: the other hand, or she would spell with her nose 235 00:13:28,080 --> 00:13:32,480 Speaker 1: when finger spelling instead of her fingers. Um, she'd spin 236 00:13:32,559 --> 00:13:35,120 Speaker 1: donuts on her finger, something that she actually did her 237 00:13:35,160 --> 00:13:37,880 Speaker 1: her whole life. And when she was alone too, she 238 00:13:37,920 --> 00:13:40,240 Speaker 1: could entertain herself. She liked to always be able to 239 00:13:40,280 --> 00:13:43,360 Speaker 1: ask people questions, but she could entertain herself. She kept 240 00:13:43,360 --> 00:13:47,040 Speaker 1: a journal her whole life. She would practice new words, 241 00:13:47,080 --> 00:13:49,800 Speaker 1: spelling out the names of new words. She would carry 242 00:13:49,800 --> 00:13:53,040 Speaker 1: out these sort of private dialogues, and she would knit 243 00:13:53,120 --> 00:13:55,240 Speaker 1: and so and had a very strong sense of fashion. 244 00:13:55,320 --> 00:13:59,240 Speaker 1: She was always very neatly dressed, very stylish, she'd so 245 00:13:59,400 --> 00:14:02,480 Speaker 1: all her own clothes and had some things that almost 246 00:14:02,520 --> 00:14:05,000 Speaker 1: sound like amazing party tricks too. She could thread a 247 00:14:05,080 --> 00:14:10,160 Speaker 1: needle with her tongue. Um, just really cool talents that 248 00:14:10,679 --> 00:14:14,360 Speaker 1: kind of get overshadowed by some of the other abilities, 249 00:14:14,360 --> 00:14:17,400 Speaker 1: but just these everyday things she was also able to 250 00:14:17,440 --> 00:14:19,760 Speaker 1: do an addition to reading and writing. But even in 251 00:14:19,800 --> 00:14:22,880 Speaker 1: spite of these more entertaining aspects of her personality and 252 00:14:22,920 --> 00:14:25,560 Speaker 1: that sense of humor that she had, Laura would also 253 00:14:25,680 --> 00:14:29,200 Speaker 1: still sometimes throw tantrums. And this was something that how 254 00:14:29,280 --> 00:14:32,240 Speaker 1: of course, didn't cover much in that pr campaign that 255 00:14:32,320 --> 00:14:37,320 Speaker 1: made Laura so famous. She had hit students, sometimes shoved teachers. 256 00:14:37,360 --> 00:14:41,080 Speaker 1: She would get very upset with slow finger spellers too, 257 00:14:41,360 --> 00:14:44,360 Speaker 1: And since she'd work so closely with her teachers, sometimes 258 00:14:44,360 --> 00:14:47,080 Speaker 1: spending twenty four hours a day with them, she had 259 00:14:47,120 --> 00:14:51,080 Speaker 1: also formed these really deep attachments and really truly suffer 260 00:14:51,200 --> 00:14:54,920 Speaker 1: when changes happened. In her time at Perkins. As a student, 261 00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:59,760 Speaker 1: she had four main teachers, Lydia Drew Morton, Eliza Rodgers, 262 00:15:00,160 --> 00:15:04,320 Speaker 1: Mary Swift Lambsome, and Sarah White Bond, and she stayed 263 00:15:04,360 --> 00:15:07,160 Speaker 1: lifelong friends with all of them. But when they leave 264 00:15:07,200 --> 00:15:10,240 Speaker 1: Perkins to marry or to get new jobs, she would 265 00:15:10,280 --> 00:15:12,720 Speaker 1: beg to go with them, and when she would get upset, 266 00:15:12,800 --> 00:15:15,160 Speaker 1: when things like this would happen, she wouldn't be able 267 00:15:15,200 --> 00:15:18,280 Speaker 1: to eat. And one of those really traumatic transitions came 268 00:15:18,320 --> 00:15:21,720 Speaker 1: when How himself mary Julia Ward in eighteen forty three. 269 00:15:22,080 --> 00:15:25,320 Speaker 1: Laura had of course been How's pet project. He promoted 270 00:15:25,320 --> 00:15:29,720 Speaker 1: her in medical journals, periodicals, children's magazines enough to make 271 00:15:29,760 --> 00:15:33,520 Speaker 1: them both internationally famous. People from around the world would 272 00:15:33,560 --> 00:15:36,200 Speaker 1: come to see her, sometimes just visiting but sometimes just 273 00:15:36,320 --> 00:15:40,160 Speaker 1: watching her behind partitions which ray, it reminded me a 274 00:15:40,240 --> 00:15:43,440 Speaker 1: little of some of the Barnum episodes we've been talking about, 275 00:15:43,480 --> 00:15:46,880 Speaker 1: which this is around the same time, and um, I 276 00:15:46,920 --> 00:15:50,640 Speaker 1: don't know, it's it's a more disturbing side of the story. Yeah, 277 00:15:50,640 --> 00:15:53,560 Speaker 1: And another kind of disturbing aspect of this. According to 278 00:15:54,160 --> 00:15:57,080 Speaker 1: Louis Menand in The New Yorker, she was so well 279 00:15:57,120 --> 00:16:00,360 Speaker 1: known little girls would poke out their dolls eyes and 280 00:16:00,480 --> 00:16:04,040 Speaker 1: named them Laura. A very special kind of fame there, Yes, 281 00:16:04,120 --> 00:16:07,480 Speaker 1: but Laura also had kind of become How's adopted daughter 282 00:16:07,560 --> 00:16:10,320 Speaker 1: by this point. According to seymour Ford at Perkins, she 283 00:16:10,400 --> 00:16:12,440 Speaker 1: even lived in his apartment with him and his sisters. 284 00:16:12,480 --> 00:16:15,440 Speaker 1: So they were really very close. So Laura was really 285 00:16:15,440 --> 00:16:18,480 Speaker 1: feeling kind of abandoned when How married and spent a 286 00:16:18,560 --> 00:16:20,840 Speaker 1: year and a half after that on a working honeymoon 287 00:16:20,880 --> 00:16:24,480 Speaker 1: in Europe. She wrote to him constantly and often asked 288 00:16:24,560 --> 00:16:28,080 Speaker 1: questions about one subject that she was particularly interested in 289 00:16:28,160 --> 00:16:39,280 Speaker 1: learning more about, and that was religion. So How had 290 00:16:39,280 --> 00:16:44,880 Speaker 1: always planned to include religion in his process of educating Laura, 291 00:16:44,960 --> 00:16:47,280 Speaker 1: but he had kind of strange ideas about it. You 292 00:16:47,360 --> 00:16:51,400 Speaker 1: normally think of a religious education starting as young as possible, 293 00:16:51,440 --> 00:16:53,680 Speaker 1: but he didn't think she should have any kind of 294 00:16:53,680 --> 00:16:57,880 Speaker 1: religious instruction until her mid teens, after her physical and 295 00:16:58,040 --> 00:17:02,160 Speaker 1: intellectual educations were complete, at least to his idea, So 296 00:17:02,320 --> 00:17:05,360 Speaker 1: he hoped that just as she had shown people possessed 297 00:17:05,440 --> 00:17:08,199 Speaker 1: some sort of natural, innate understanding of language, or at 298 00:17:08,280 --> 00:17:11,719 Speaker 1: least he believed that she would also eventually show that 299 00:17:11,760 --> 00:17:16,000 Speaker 1: people possessed an innate understanding and love of God. That 300 00:17:16,119 --> 00:17:18,560 Speaker 1: was his hope. So his plan when he came back 301 00:17:18,600 --> 00:17:21,359 Speaker 1: from his honeymoon was to present her. You know, he 302 00:17:21,359 --> 00:17:23,960 Speaker 1: had a plan just like his labeling system. He would 303 00:17:23,960 --> 00:17:28,080 Speaker 1: present her with these everyday miracles instead of everyday items 304 00:17:28,119 --> 00:17:30,359 Speaker 1: like forks and knives, in this case, it would be 305 00:17:30,400 --> 00:17:34,199 Speaker 1: something like plants growing from seeds, and he expected that 306 00:17:34,240 --> 00:17:38,240 Speaker 1: if she was presented with enough of these, ultimately she'd realize, 307 00:17:38,280 --> 00:17:42,120 Speaker 1: just as she'd realize those significance of those embossed letters, 308 00:17:42,119 --> 00:17:45,639 Speaker 1: that there was something divine about these things, something divine 309 00:17:45,640 --> 00:17:49,280 Speaker 1: about the whole process. And also, according to Menan, he 310 00:17:49,359 --> 00:17:53,840 Speaker 1: hoped that these innate inclinations and understandings of hers would 311 00:17:53,920 --> 00:17:57,800 Speaker 1: match up with his own Unitarian beliefs rather than more 312 00:17:57,840 --> 00:18:02,080 Speaker 1: serious evangelical beliefs. So to make sure that this plan 313 00:18:02,160 --> 00:18:05,639 Speaker 1: of education worked, he knew that she needed to have 314 00:18:05,800 --> 00:18:09,720 Speaker 1: no sort of religious instruction beforehand, so he banned her 315 00:18:09,760 --> 00:18:13,440 Speaker 1: teachers from discussing religion while he was gone, from answering 316 00:18:13,480 --> 00:18:16,719 Speaker 1: any kind of questions, and while she was writing him 317 00:18:16,760 --> 00:18:20,720 Speaker 1: about religion, he himself didn't really answer questions in the letters, 318 00:18:21,080 --> 00:18:24,720 Speaker 1: so she was left pretty frustrated and wondering what was 319 00:18:24,760 --> 00:18:28,359 Speaker 1: going on. Yeah, knowing curious Laura by this point, you 320 00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:31,960 Speaker 1: can probably guess what happened. She managed to get something 321 00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:34,760 Speaker 1: out of her teacher, Mary Swift, and she was also 322 00:18:34,880 --> 00:18:39,000 Speaker 1: secretly visited by a group of evangelicals who were protesting 323 00:18:39,040 --> 00:18:42,200 Speaker 1: How's methods. She was attracted to what they told her, 324 00:18:42,359 --> 00:18:45,520 Speaker 1: and evangelical religion became a major part of her life 325 00:18:45,520 --> 00:18:48,520 Speaker 1: from then on. When How finally came back, he was 326 00:18:48,680 --> 00:18:51,960 Speaker 1: disappointed that his plan had been wrecked, and he kind 327 00:18:51,960 --> 00:18:54,160 Speaker 1: of wrote the whole thing off as a failure, not 328 00:18:54,280 --> 00:18:58,639 Speaker 1: just the religious education but educating Laura. Almost Yeah, he 329 00:18:58,720 --> 00:19:01,439 Speaker 1: became more distant from or after this, and according to 330 00:19:01,520 --> 00:19:04,679 Speaker 1: menand he even said that her religious education was the 331 00:19:04,760 --> 00:19:07,840 Speaker 1: greatest disappointment of his life, and it caused him to 332 00:19:07,920 --> 00:19:09,800 Speaker 1: take back some of the praise he had for the 333 00:19:09,880 --> 00:19:13,600 Speaker 1: blind in general. So he took a very extreme took 334 00:19:13,640 --> 00:19:17,600 Speaker 1: it pretty hard this definitely. But when Laura was about 335 00:19:17,600 --> 00:19:21,439 Speaker 1: twenty years old, her last and favorite teacher, Sarah White, 336 00:19:21,560 --> 00:19:25,320 Speaker 1: left to be married, and at this point, especially considering 337 00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:28,280 Speaker 1: that she and How had drifted apart by this point, 338 00:19:28,280 --> 00:19:30,840 Speaker 1: a little bit um school was going to be over 339 00:19:31,040 --> 00:19:33,920 Speaker 1: for Laura. So she stayed on at Perkins for a time, 340 00:19:34,000 --> 00:19:37,320 Speaker 1: but she really found life a lot lonelier and isolated 341 00:19:37,359 --> 00:19:41,160 Speaker 1: without having a constant companion with her anymore. So it 342 00:19:41,240 --> 00:19:43,879 Speaker 1: was thought best by everyone that she'd go home to 343 00:19:43,960 --> 00:19:46,639 Speaker 1: her family farm, but that didn't really work out either. 344 00:19:46,760 --> 00:19:50,639 Speaker 1: The family was too busy running the farm, doing their 345 00:19:50,760 --> 00:19:54,239 Speaker 1: everyday things that they did, and Um, they didn't have 346 00:19:54,400 --> 00:19:57,960 Speaker 1: time for the twenty four hour companionship and the constant 347 00:19:58,040 --> 00:20:01,119 Speaker 1: questions that she was used to, and so she started 348 00:20:01,119 --> 00:20:03,880 Speaker 1: to get depressed, she started to get sick, and how 349 00:20:03,960 --> 00:20:07,160 Speaker 1: eventually got worried enough to loop in Dorothea Dix, who 350 00:20:07,160 --> 00:20:10,399 Speaker 1: we've talked about on an earlier podcast, UM, who was 351 00:20:10,480 --> 00:20:13,479 Speaker 1: also a friend of Laura's, to help raise the money 352 00:20:13,520 --> 00:20:17,040 Speaker 1: for a lifetime endowment for her to live at Perkins 353 00:20:17,080 --> 00:20:19,280 Speaker 1: as long as she wanted to, and she ended up 354 00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:21,399 Speaker 1: staying there for the rest of her life, returning to 355 00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:24,840 Speaker 1: her family farm only for summers. As an adult. At 356 00:20:24,840 --> 00:20:27,560 Speaker 1: the school, she lived in a cottage and she taught needlework. 357 00:20:27,880 --> 00:20:30,200 Speaker 1: Apparently she was a really strict teacher too. I think 358 00:20:30,200 --> 00:20:33,120 Speaker 1: we mentioned that before. If you if you didn't have 359 00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:35,840 Speaker 1: neat stitches, she'd just make you rip the whole thing 360 00:20:35,840 --> 00:20:39,120 Speaker 1: out and start over. That's tough. But she'd also read 361 00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:42,879 Speaker 1: a lot. She'd write letters constantly, she'd travel occasionally to 362 00:20:43,600 --> 00:20:47,080 Speaker 1: she'd knit, she'd embroider, she'd make lace and so things 363 00:20:47,160 --> 00:20:50,159 Speaker 1: to sell to people who came to see her. Often 364 00:20:50,240 --> 00:20:53,960 Speaker 1: she would include an attached autograph with that, and she 365 00:20:54,080 --> 00:20:56,639 Speaker 1: liked having money of her own. She liked having some 366 00:20:56,720 --> 00:20:59,280 Speaker 1: money to give to charity and buy presents for her 367 00:20:59,320 --> 00:21:02,320 Speaker 1: friends while she was home. One summer, she was baptized 368 00:21:02,320 --> 00:21:05,200 Speaker 1: in a brook near the family farm, and she also 369 00:21:05,280 --> 00:21:08,439 Speaker 1: convinced the pastor's wife to learn the manual alphabet so 370 00:21:08,480 --> 00:21:11,080 Speaker 1: that they could communicate and that way Laura could get 371 00:21:11,119 --> 00:21:14,320 Speaker 1: more religious instruction. And we mentioned this a little bit 372 00:21:14,320 --> 00:21:17,720 Speaker 1: when talking about her her sense of humor, but too strangers. 373 00:21:17,720 --> 00:21:20,520 Speaker 1: She did seem less friendly and less pleasant as she 374 00:21:20,560 --> 00:21:23,720 Speaker 1: grew older, but perhaps that's in part due to all 375 00:21:23,800 --> 00:21:27,240 Speaker 1: her losses. She got very close to her younger sister 376 00:21:27,400 --> 00:21:30,560 Speaker 1: on these trips back to the farm um and her 377 00:21:30,600 --> 00:21:34,119 Speaker 1: sister passed away, how died in eighteen seventy six, and 378 00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:36,919 Speaker 1: just within a year or so after that, two of 379 00:21:36,960 --> 00:21:40,320 Speaker 1: her teachers died. So at age fifty nine, Laura got 380 00:21:40,359 --> 00:21:44,440 Speaker 1: sick with aery sypolis, which is a streptococcus infection, and 381 00:21:44,520 --> 00:21:49,000 Speaker 1: died May nine. The last word that she spelled out 382 00:21:49,080 --> 00:21:52,359 Speaker 1: was a mother. A year before she died, though, Laura 383 00:21:52,440 --> 00:21:55,000 Speaker 1: did meet Helen Keller, and as we mentioned, the eight 384 00:21:55,040 --> 00:21:58,040 Speaker 1: year old annoyed Laura by stepping on her foot. So 385 00:22:00,160 --> 00:22:03,280 Speaker 1: bad first impression. But Keller's parents, who were dealing with 386 00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:07,040 Speaker 1: the same tantrums that Laura's family had dealt with years earlier, 387 00:22:07,359 --> 00:22:11,120 Speaker 1: happened to read Dickens forty two American Travels, where, if 388 00:22:11,119 --> 00:22:14,160 Speaker 1: you'll remember from the Dickens podcast, he wrote at length 389 00:22:14,200 --> 00:22:17,439 Speaker 1: about the then sensational twelve year old Laura who was 390 00:22:17,520 --> 00:22:20,760 Speaker 1: imprisoned in a quote more marble Cell. He was very 391 00:22:20,760 --> 00:22:23,800 Speaker 1: poetic in his descriptions of her, and the promise of 392 00:22:23,880 --> 00:22:27,719 Speaker 1: Laura's story made Keller's parents contact Perkins, where they were 393 00:22:27,720 --> 00:22:30,800 Speaker 1: connected with recent grad and Sullivan a good friend of 394 00:22:30,920 --> 00:22:34,480 Speaker 1: Laura's and someone who was familiar with How's method of instruction. 395 00:22:35,040 --> 00:22:38,280 Speaker 1: So the famous ah ha moment in Keller's story came 396 00:22:38,320 --> 00:22:41,600 Speaker 1: when Sullivan spelled out water on Keller's hand while running 397 00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:44,199 Speaker 1: water over the other. It's a very famous scene that 398 00:22:44,240 --> 00:22:47,480 Speaker 1: I think we all probably learned to grade school yet exactly, 399 00:22:47,640 --> 00:22:51,720 Speaker 1: and Keller is so I guess I should say Bridgeman 400 00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:55,200 Speaker 1: is so closely connected with Keller because of that link 401 00:22:55,640 --> 00:22:58,720 Speaker 1: in her parents and Dickens and all of that. But 402 00:22:59,160 --> 00:23:03,240 Speaker 1: Keller did all is acknowledge Bridgeman's earlier education and its 403 00:23:03,280 --> 00:23:06,960 Speaker 1: effect on her own life. But Laurie's stories may be 404 00:23:06,960 --> 00:23:10,000 Speaker 1: best summed up with something that she said as a child, 405 00:23:10,040 --> 00:23:12,760 Speaker 1: when her teacher was explaining to her that while most 406 00:23:12,800 --> 00:23:16,600 Speaker 1: people had five senses, she just had three senses. And 407 00:23:16,640 --> 00:23:20,720 Speaker 1: according to Krista De Luzio in American nineteenth Century History, 408 00:23:21,119 --> 00:23:24,280 Speaker 1: Laura thought about this for a moment, and then she 409 00:23:24,400 --> 00:23:28,400 Speaker 1: answered her teacher that no, she actually had one more 410 00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:31,159 Speaker 1: sense than that. She had the sense of touch, She 411 00:23:31,240 --> 00:23:34,960 Speaker 1: had taste, smell, and then a fourth sense, which she 412 00:23:35,080 --> 00:23:38,600 Speaker 1: called think. And I mean that, how does that not 413 00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:42,560 Speaker 1: just sum up everything she learned and did? That You 414 00:23:42,600 --> 00:23:45,520 Speaker 1: can think, but if you have the ability to express it, 415 00:23:45,600 --> 00:23:53,760 Speaker 1: you can live a full life. Thank you so much 416 00:23:53,760 --> 00:23:56,679 Speaker 1: for joining us on this Saturday. If you have heard 417 00:23:56,920 --> 00:23:59,000 Speaker 1: an email address or a Facebook you are l or 418 00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:02,000 Speaker 1: something similar over the course of today's episode, Since it 419 00:24:02,119 --> 00:24:04,360 Speaker 1: is from the archive that might be out of date now, 420 00:24:04,880 --> 00:24:07,960 Speaker 1: you can email us at History Podcast at how Stuff 421 00:24:07,960 --> 00:24:09,920 Speaker 1: Works dot com, and you can find us all over 422 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:13,440 Speaker 1: social media at missed in History. And you can subscribe 423 00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:16,600 Speaker 1: to our show on Apple Podcasts, Google podcast, the I 424 00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:19,800 Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, and wherever else. You listen to podcasts. 425 00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:26,000 Speaker 1: Stuff You Missed in History Class is a production of 426 00:24:26,040 --> 00:24:29,080 Speaker 1: I heart Radio's How Stuff Works. 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