Mary Swift Lamson

Last updated
Mary Swift Lamson
BornMary Swift
(1822-06-22)June 22, 1822
Nantucket, Massachusetts
DiedMarch 2, 1909(1909-03-02) (aged 86)
Cambridge, Massachusetts
OccupationEducator
Alma materLexington Normal School
SpouseEdwin Lamson (1846-1876)

Mary Swift Lamson (b. 1822 - d. 1909), was an American educator and writer best known as a teacher of Laura Bridgman, at the Perkins Institute for the Blind. She wrote the book Life and Education of Laura Dewey Bridgman, the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Girl (1884) about her experiences teaching Bridgman. [1] [2]

Contents

Early life and education

Lamson was born Mary Swift in Nantucket, Massachusetts, on June 22, 1822. Her parents were Dr. Paul Swift and Dorcas Swift (née Gardner). [3] In 1840, she graduated with the first class of Lexington Normal School (now Framingham State University) [4] and married Boston varnish gum importer Edwin Lamson (1811-1876) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 22, 1846, her twenty-fourth birthday. [3]

Career

Perkins Institute for the Blind

Lamson worked at the Perkins Institute for the Blind under superintendent Samuel Gridley Howe. [5] In 1841, Lamson replaced Lydia Drew as the primary teacher and companion of deafblind student Laura Bridgman, a position which she held until her marriage to Edwin Lamson in 1846. [6] [7]

When Lamson left her position at the Perkins Institute, Howe wrote that Lamson was an "able and excellent teacher...Indeed, to Miss Swift  and Miss [Sarah] Wight belong, far more than to any other persons, the pure satisfaction of having been instrumental in the beautiful development  of Laura's character." [7]

Writing

In 1884, Lamson published a book about her experiences teaching Bridgman titled Life and Education of Laura Dewey Bridgman, the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Girl. The book reportedly drew heavily from journals kept by Lamson during her time as a teacher at the Perkins Institute. [1] It was published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. and includes an introduction by Edwards A. Park of Andover Theological Seminary. [2]

In the book's preface, Lamson wrote that she published the book in response to requests for a published account of Bridgman's life and education from Howe, Dr. Frances Lieber, and others. In this preface, Lamson writes, "My aim will be simply to state facts, and in making selections from the daily reports of her teachers to omit nothing which can be of service in any department of science." [2]

Lamson also wrote journals about her travels through the American South in 1855 and her travels by steamboat on the Great Lakes in 1868, though these were not published in her lifetime. [8]

Private life

Mary and Edwin Lamson had four children: Mary (1847-1848), Helen (born 1852), Gardner (born 1855) and Kate (born 1859). [3]

Mary Swift Lamson died in Cambridge, Massachusetts on March 2, 1909. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helen Keller</span> American author and activist (1880–1968)

Helen Adams Keller was an American author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer. Born in West Tuscumbia, Alabama, she lost her sight and her hearing after a bout of illness when she was 19 months old. She then communicated primarily using home signs until the age of seven, when she met her first teacher and life-long companion Anne Sullivan. Sullivan taught Keller language, including reading and writing. After an education at both specialist and mainstream schools, Keller attended Radcliffe College of Harvard University and became the first deafblind person in the United States to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julia Ward Howe</span> 19th-century American abolitionist, social activist, and poet

Julia Ward Howe was an American author and poet, known for writing the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" and the original 1870 pacifist Mother's Day Proclamation. She was also an advocate for abolitionism and a social activist, particularly for women's suffrage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Gridley Howe</span> American educator and abolitionist

Samuel Gridley Howe was an American physician, abolitionist, and advocate of education for the blind. He organized and was the first director of the Perkins Institution. In 1824 he had gone to Greece to serve in the revolution as a surgeon; he also commanded troops. He arranged for support for refugees and brought many Greek children back to Boston with him for their education.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Sullivan</span> Teacher and companion of Helen Keller (1866–1936)

Anne Sullivan Macy was an American teacher best known for being the instructor and lifelong companion of Helen Keller.

Perkins School for the Blind, in Watertown, Massachusetts, was founded in 1829 and is the oldest school for the blind in the United States. It has also been known as the Perkins Institution for the Blind.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura E. Richards</span> American writer and poet

Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards was an American writer. She wrote more than 90 books including biographies, poetry, and several for children. One well-known children's poem is her literary nonsense verse Eletelephony.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz</span> American educator

Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz was an American educator, naturalist, writer, and the co-founder and first president of Radcliffe College. A researcher of natural history, she was an author and illustrator of natural history texts as well as a co-author of natural history texts with her husband, Louis Agassiz, and her stepson Alexander Agassiz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Bridgman</span> American deaf-blind woman

Laura Dewey Lynn Bridgman was the first deaf-blind American child to gain a significant education in the English language, twenty years before the more famous Helen Keller; Laura's friend Anne Sullivan became Helen Keller's aide. 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julia Brace</span>

Julia Brace was a deafblind woman who enrolled at the American School for the Deaf, in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1825 and remained there as an employee after her graduation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucy Fitch Perkins</span> American childrens book illustrator and writer (1865-1937)

Lucy Fitch Perkins was an American illustrator and writer of children's books, known best for Dutch Twins (1911) and its sequels, the Twins series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ragnhild Kåta</span> Norwegian deafblind girl who inspired Helen Keller

Ragnhild Tollefsen Kåta was the first deafblind person in Norway who received proper schooling. Despite being deafblind, she learned to talk. The story of her success was an inspiration to Helen Keller.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred L. Elwyn</span> American physician, author and philanthropist

Alfred Langdon Elwyn was an American physician, author and philanthropist. He was a pioneer in the education and care of people with mental and physical disabilities. He was one of the founding officers of the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind in 1833 and founded the Pennsylvania Training School for Feeble-Minded Children in 1852. The community of Elwyn, Pennsylvania and the Elwyn Institute are named in his honor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Dix Fisher</span> American physician

John Dix Fisher was a physician and founder of Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston, Massachusetts. He is credited with introducing the stethoscope into the United States and was an early advocate for the practice of mediate auscultation. He discovered what was called "cephalic bellows-sound" or "cerebral murmur", a phenomenon related to cerebral circulation which was thought to be a physical symptom of diseases of the brain. He was a founding member of the American Statistical Association.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Tyler Peabody Mann</span>

Mary Tyler Mann was a teacher, author, and mother. She was the wife of Horace Mann, American education reformer and politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howard Hille Johnson</span> American educator and school founder

Howard Hille Johnson was a blind American educator and writer in the states of Virginia and West Virginia. Johnson was instrumental in the establishment of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind in 1870, after which he taught blind students at the institution's School for the Blind for 43 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elias Hofgaard</span>

Elias Peter Hansen Hofgaard was a Norwegian pioneer educator of the deaf.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edith Bryan</span> Teacher and activist for the deaf

Edith Bryan was an English teacher of the deaf, who after teaching in England and Ireland, emigrated to Australia and became one of the educators who contributed to the development of Special Education in Queensland. Though trained in the oralist tradition, she supported the use of sign language and fingerspelling for teaching purposes. From 1901 to 1926, she was the head teacher of the school operated by the Queensland Blind Deaf and Dumb Institute. An activist, she pressed for the training of special education students to become mandatory, and fought for their teachers to be paid the same salaries as other teachers. From 1926 to 1937 she taught at the Queensland school where she became responsible for the courses for deaf students. After her retirement, she volunteered at the Edith Bryan Hostel, a facility that offered housing and medical assistance to deaf citizens. She is considered to be one of the two most influential pioneers of special education in Queensland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Anagnos</span> American Educator

Michael Anagnos was a trustee and later second director of the Perkins School for the Blind. He was an author, educator, and human rights activist. Anagnos is well known for his work with Helen Keller.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julia R. Anagnos</span> American poet

Julia Romana Howe Anagnos was an American poet, daughter of Samuel Gridley Howe and Julia Ward Howe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Stringer (carpenter)</span> American deafblind carpenter

Thomas Stringer was an American carpenter. Deafblind from a young age, Stringer was brought to the Perkins Institution for the Blind through the fundraising of Helen Keller. He was well-regarded at the school for his carpentry skills, which he used to help support himself after graduating from Perkins in 1913.

References

  1. 1 2 "Review of Life and Education of Laura Dewey Bridgman, the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Girl". American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb. 24 (1): 46–48. 1879. ISSN   0093-1284.
  2. 1 2 3 Lamson, Mary Swift (1884). Life and education of Laura Dewey Bridgman : the deaf, dumb, and blind girl / by Mary Swift Lamson. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Boston : Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Lamson, William J. (William Judson) (1917). Descendants of William Lamson of Ipswich, Mass. 1634-1917. New York Public Library. New York, T.A. Wright.
  4. "Portrait of Mary Swift Lamson". www.digitalcommonwealth.org. Retrieved 2023-05-18.
  5. "Laura Dewey Bridgman | American educator | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2023-05-19.
  6. Nielsen, Kim; Gitter, Elisabeth; Freeberg, Ernest (June 2002). "The Imprisoned Guest: Samuel Howe and Laura Bridgman, the Original Deaf-Blind Girl". The Journal of American History. 89 (1): 212. doi:10.2307/2700818. ISSN   0021-8723.
  7. 1 2 Perkins Institute for the Blind (1843). Annual Report of the Trustees of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind to the Corporation. Inc American Printing House for the Blind. John H. Eastburn.
  8. "Mary Swift Lamson Journal, 1868 - Leisure, Travel & Mass Culture: The History of Tourism - Adam Matthew Digital". www.masstourism.amdigital.co.uk. Retrieved 2023-05-19.