Library Collections: Document: Full Text


Helen Keller. A Second Laura Bridgman.

From: Fifty-Sixth Annual Report Of The Perkins Institution And Massachusetts School For The Blind
Creator: Michael Anagnos (author)
Date: 1888
Publisher: Rand Avery, & Company, Boston
Source: Perkins School for the Blind


Introduction

Michael Anagnos, the superintendent of the Perkins Institution and Samuel Gridley Howe’s son-in-law, played a major role in turning Keller and Sullivan into celebrities. In this annual report from the Perkins Institution, Anagnos reflects on Bridgman’s education and compares her work with Keller’s startlingly quick progress under Sullivan’s tutelage.


Next Page   All Pages 


Page 1:

1  

"No iron so hard, but rust will fret it;
No perch so high, but climbing will get it;
Nothing so lost, but seeking will find it;
No night so dark, but there is daylight behind it."

2  

THE discovery of ways and means for rescuing persons afflicted with combined blindness and deafness from the dread dungeon of deathlike darkness and stillness, and for enabling them to come into communion with the outer world, is one of the grandest achievements of the nineteenth century.

3  

History has preserved the names of only a few members of the human family who have been doomed to that terrible state of mental and spiritual incarceration, which one of its more recent victims, Mr. Morrison Heady of Kentucky, delineates so pathetically in his most powerful and perfect poem, "The Double Night;" but there is no mention of any serious attempts having ever been made to teach them systematic language as a means of intercourse with their fellows. The ideas expressed on the subject by the renowned Abbé de l'Epée in his learned speculations were merely vague theories, which had no foundation in fact and were never confirmed by practical tests.

4  

It was just fifty years last autumn since the popular heart of this country first went out in sympathy toward Laura Bridgman in her dreadful affliction. Attacked early in childhood by that dire disease, scarlet fever in a malignant form, she was shorn of the senses of sight and hearing, taste and smell, and was left in a most deplorable condition. For five months she lay in a darkened room. After long suffering she began to rally. She improved slowly, and two years had passed before her health was fully restored; but her mind was shut up by what appeared to be an impenetrable wall. Her deprivations were simply appalling. She was left with the meagre equipment of touch as her sole means with which to find her way into the world of thought, speech and light. Benevolent persons, amazed at the immensity of her calamity, asked, "Who will free this imprisoned soul? Who will bridge the chasm which separates this isolated spirit from her kind?" In the midst of general silence the illustrious founder of this institution answered, "I will try;" and hastened to Hanover, New Hampshire, to ascertain the facts in the case and induce the parents of the little girl to send her to Boston and place her under his care.

5  

Dr. Howe was by constitution a champion of freedom, by impulse a philanthropist, and by genius and purpose a reformer. Like many another gallant worker in the world he had the soldier spirit with the savior intent -- and the love of adventure as well. He was the very man to go out as an apostle of liberation. He entered upon the task of piercing a trackless forest and purveying mental pabulum to the starving mind of Laura with undaunted courage and indomitable will. He had no precedent to follow, no indices to be guided by. But he was determined to succeed. In his estimate, obstacles of whatever magnitude were only "things to be overcome," and nothing more. He was confident that his little pupil possessed the desire and capacity for acquiring a complete arbitrary language, and resolved to enable her to do so. Perseverance, skill, sagacity, ingenuity and in fact all the resources of his fertile brain and the forces of his unbending will were brought to bear upon this point. Finally, after numberless trials and heroic efforts for weeks and months, the first and most important step was taken. Laura was made to understand that all things have names which can be expressed by complex signs or letters embossed on paper or formed by the fingers. Thus a grand victory was won. The means were discovered for reaching the human soul in its saddest and completest imprisonment. A new jewel was added to the crown of philanthropy; and the name of Dr. Howe was engraved on the golden tablets on which are inscribed the names of the benefactors of mankind.

6  

Laura's happy deliverance from so fearful an entombment became widely known all over the civilized world, and was hailed with great delight and universal wonder. Philosophers and thinkers of both Europe and America have made it the subject of much profound thought and serious comment. Titled nobles, nay, even crowned heads, have confessed the merit of this marvellous achievement, and have bowed in homage to the noble spirit of the deed. The royalty of genius, culture and goodness -- too princely for coronet, diadem, or any badge of distinction -- has rendered its tribute of praise; and the devotees of the science of education have found a mine of study and suggestion in this extraordinary case.

7  

The achievement of Dr. Howe, like a column of holy fire, blazed upon the pathway and indicated the course to be traversed by his successors. The methods and processes employed in Laura's case were soon applied to that of Oliver Caswell and proved to be most efficacious. They have since become standard and are now used on both hemispheres with great success.

8  

"All can raise the flowers now,
For all have got the seed."

Next Page

Pages:  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10    All Pages