Pausing to Mark Samuel Gridley Howe’s Birthday

Last February auntie, Jan and I were in New York City. Among other things we took in a couple of Broadway shows. One was a new production of the Miracle Worker. Really liked it. But I found myself annoyed at one small plot point. In it the redoubtable (and she really, really was) Annie Sullivan figures out how to communicate with deafblind Helen Keller. She worked a miracle. But the tools she used were in fact already in her head.

Samuel Gridley Howe had figured the system out close to a century before.

Howe was part of that tumultuous intellectual and spiritual upheaval that was Unitarian antebellum Boston. Actually his father feared the direction of that era and sent the boy to Providence’s Brown University. But he returned to attend Harvard’s medical school and was completely caught up in the spirit of revolution, spiritual and political. Uncertain of a next step professionally he threw himself into the Greek war for independence from the Ottoman Empire. Later while continuing his medical studies in Parish he was swept up into the July Revolution. Over the years he would continue to be involved in radical politics, he was a fervent abolitionist, including supporting John Brown as one of the Secret Six.

Returning to America and a dashing and handsome figure he swept the young Julia Ward off her feet and married her.

Looking for the next thing to do he was offered the directorship of the newly formed Perkins School for the Blind. (Where today my spouse serves as Research Librarian.)

He thought long and hard about the issue of deafblindness and how to address it. Finally he decided he had a way, and began looking for a good candidate. In 1837 he found her. He brought Laura Bridgman to Perkins where he successfully gave her language.

Many years later when Mrs Keller didn’t know what to do she read Charles Dickens’ account of meeting Laura Bridgman, wrote Perkins, and they sent her Annie Sullivan…

By most all accounts Howe was a difficult man. He bitterly resented his wife’s fame which eventually overshadowed his own.

But…

But…

He also liberated the deafblind community.

Liberator.

What can be said after that?

Samuel Gridley Howe should forever be celebrated as one of humanity’s liberators.

So, happy birthday, Sam!

And thank you!