Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 01.djvu/432

 RRIIKJMAN.

RRIDGMAN.

" Procession of the Bull A]iis and the "Women of Biskra." In 1S81 he was eleetetl an academician by the National academy of design of New York. Tlie great majority of liis siilon pictures after 1881 were of oriental or southern subjects, as: " The Embroiderer " (1886); " On the Terraces, Algiers " (1887); " In a Country Villa. Algiers "' (1888); "Bill chez le Gouverneur d'Alger""; (1889); "Cairo Horse - Market "' (1889). Mr. Bridgman exhibited about three hundred studies of his paintings in New York in 1881 and 1899. He ojHjned in Paris a large studio for women in 0<- tuber. 1890.

BRIDGMAN, George H., educator, was born at Oiiiario. L'anada. Aug. 2, 1841. He was gradu- ated at Victoria university, Canada, A.B. 18G4, A.M. 1867, and entered the Methodist Episcopal ministry. He was married in June, 1873, to Mar}' B. Eilititt of Braiitford, Ont., and was president of Wesleyan seminary, Lima, N. Y., 1873-'83,and of Hamline university, St. Paul. Minn., from 1SS3. He received the degree of D.D. from Syra- cuse imiversity in 1878.

BRIDGMAN, George Herbert, diplomatist, was born in Keene. N.H.. Jan. Hi. 18o3. He was gradu- ated from Dartmouth college in 1876 and from Harvard medical school in 1881, and was liouse surgeon at the City hospital, Boston, Mass., 1881-'82. He practised at Keene, N.H., 1882-'87; and at Elizabeth, N.J., l887-'97. He was ap- pointed U. S. minister to Bolivia by President Mc- Kinley in October 1897, and re.sided at La Paz, Bolivia.

BRIDGMAN, Laura Dewey, blind deaf-mute, wasl)orn:it Hanover, N. H., Dec. 21, 1829. In 1831 an attack of scarlet fever left her a deaf-mute, with sight, taste and smell almost destroyed. By crude arbitrary tactual signs her mother taught her to knit and sew, and to perform light household duties. Dr. Samuel G. Howe visited her in 1836. and pursuaded her parents to place her in the Perkins institution for the blind. She became totally blind about this time and but for her abnormally keen sense of touch and her in- quisitiveness the task of educating her would have been liopeless. The first step was to teach her the names of objects with which she was familiar. To do this, several articles upon which the names were pasted in raised letters were given her to ex- amine, after she had examined the names printed in raised tyj.e on a .slip of paper. She was next given the individual letters and taught to form them into words, and while engaged in this work awoke to the fact that the manoeuvres she had been so stupidly fierforminghad for their ulti- mate object the interchange of thought between herself and her fellow-beings. Tlien her soul awoke, horface became radiant, and her intellect was enlisted on the side of Jier teachers. The

manual alphabet u.'^ed in communicating with deaf-mutes was next taught her, and after that her progress was phenomenal. Every thought that flashed through her ever-active brain seemed to connect itself with the signs for its expression through her fingers. Even the fugitive ideas that jumbled through her brain when she was asleep were reflected on her fingers, and so swift and fleeting were these motions that they could not be followed bj' the most expert reader of the finger language. She learned nothing by intu- ition or imitation, as other children do, and each word had to be taught to her separately; but step by step, with infinite patience on her own part and on that of her devoted teachers, she pro- gressed until she had learned to read and write and to converse intelligently with any one who understood her finger language. She at times assisted in teaching other children similarly afilicted, and in a diary which she kept she has recorded her great joy at the success of her efforts in this direction. She became a good seamstress, could operate a sewing machine, and make all her own clothing; and the sale of various fancy articles which she crocheted, and to which she attached her autograph, netted her a neat little sum each year. She experienced all the various passions and emotions, being especially subject to fits of anger in her yoimger days; she had a high moral sense, was tractable, extremely modest, cheerful, sociable and very fond of fun. Her ability to read character by touching persons with her fingers was one of the most remarkable of her special gifts. She was very devout, and after the nature of God and his relations to man and the universe were explained to her, she became a sincere and earnest Christian, joining the Baptist church, to which her parents be- longed. There is little room for doubt in the light of to-day's improvements in the pedagogical methods employed with deaf-mutes, that Laura might have been tauglit the art of speech, for " by accident," she frequently uttered words. " I can say father, motlier, doctor,, baby, pie and ship with my mouth." wrote she to Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, and this testimony is corroborated by that of her teachers. She was visited by many distinguished persons, and her case was watched with the keenest interest by people in all parts of the world, especially after the appear- ance of Dickens's " American Notes, " in which he described his impressions u]>on visiting her. After her death her brain was submitted to scien- tific examination, for the purpose of determining, so far as possible, the effect of her peculiar aftlic- tion upon its shape, size and structure. See articles by H. H. Donaldson, Ph.D., in volumes iii. and iv. of the " American Journal of Psychol- ogy," also " Life and Education of Laura Dewey