Bridgman (Laura) is born in Hanover, New Hampshire.

Left deaf and blind by scarlet fever at age 2, Laura Bridgman is recruited at age 7 by Samuel Gridley Howe to attend the Perkins School for the Blind in October 1837. The first person deaf and blind person known to learn to read, write, and communicate, Bridgman attracts visitors from around the world. Charles Dickens describes her as “[A] gentle, tender, guileless, grateful-hearted being . . . her face was radiant with intelligence and pleasure,” and she represents the U.S. at the Crystal Palace Exposition of 1851. Bridgman lives at the school until her death on May 24, 1889.