Portland Woman Aided Girl Like Helen Keller
Item Information
- Title:
- Portland Woman Aided Girl Like Helen Keller
- Description:
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When Helen Keller and her teacher, Mrs. Ann (Sullivan) Macy, come to Portland for her lecture engagement, March 27-28, they will find among those who welcome them a woman who was a personal chum of Mrs. Macy when a teacher in the Perkins Institute in Boston, and who has as a student, another blind, deaf mute, who, in her lifetime, made almost as remarkable development in education as has Helen Keller herself. / Mrs. Lillian (Fletcher) Moore, of 386 Third street, Portland, is the woman who accomplished with her ward, Edith Thomas, the same work that Mrs. Macy at the same time accomplished with Helen Keller. Mrs. Moore and Mrs. Macy were closely associated for many years as teachers of the blind and deaf. When Mrs. Moore left the institute in Boston, early in the '90s and went to Hawall, her pupil was taken by another teacher and her contract with Miss Keller's teacher thereafter became less intimate. / It has been 17 years since the two teachers have met. Mrs. Moore is looking forward with much pleasure to the meeting with her old friend and the renewal of her acquaintance with Miss Keller, who, when she saw her last, was a little girl. / Helen [Laura] Bridgman Was First Test. "The training which has enabled Helen Keller to achieve all that she ahs, and which made it possible for Edith Thomas to make similar progress, was in a large measure made possible by the time and care which Dr. Howe expended in the education of Laura Bridgman, who was the first blind deaf mute ever educated in this country by those methods," say Mrs. Moore. / "Laura Bridgman lived to an advanced age and became very deft in many things, although she never learned articulate speech, with the exception of a single word, "money." The methods used in educating her, however, formed the basis of the training of Helen Keller and my own pupil, Edith Thomas, and later of Tommy Ryder, of Boston, and Willie Robbin, a little Texas girl. / "Miss Sullivan took charge of Helen Keller's education in about 1886 and Edith Thomas, then nine years old, was placed in my charge the following year. Edith had lost her sight following an attack of scarlet fever and diptheria at the age of four years, and lost her hearing soon after. She had not the slightest conception of how to make herself understood. / "Some supposed that she was feeble-minded. She would beat her head against the wall and kick and struggle and bite anyone who happened to touch her. It later developed that these outbursts were due to intense suffering from pain in her earts, which was cured by a special physician shortly after I took charge of her. Edith was a girl of remarkable memory and keen intelligence. Once a system of communication was established she learned with wonderful rapidity. / First Efforts Were Fought. "For a long time she rebelled against my efforts to teach her the association between objects and the signs, for they seemed to be arbitrary and foolish to her. When she did finally grasp the idea that the sign I was teaching her were signs that not only I, but all the other teachers understood, and which made it possible for her at last to tald with the world outside her own mind, you couldn't 'stop her.' / "It took years to teach these signs to Laura Bridgman. I had Edith able to grasp them within a few months, as well as the meaning of verbs and formation of sentences.["] / "In two years she had taken reading, writing and arithmetic. I then went to Hawaii. Edith remained in the institute for about six years. She learned to speak articulate language and advanced in her studies similarly to Miss Keller. / "After she left the institute she became ill, and was sent to a hospital, where she remained for a long time. A few years ago she died. She was quite as quick to learn as Miss Keller, but was more inclined toward the practical than the ideal. She was wonderfully clever at sewing and handwork. Miss Keller is inclined more to literary work." / Edith Thomas and Helen Keller met in the Perkins Institute, and became friends. / Mrs. Macy does not know that Mrs. Moor lives in Portland, and her reunion with her former friend will be one of the unexpected features of the visit to Portland.
- Date:
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[ca. 1878–1910]
- Format:
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Newspapers
- Genre:
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Clippings
- Location:
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Perkins School for the Blind
Samuel P. Hayes Research Library - Collection (local):
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Students with Deafblindness at the Perkins School for the Blind
- Subjects:
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Deafblind people
Special education
Teachers of deafblind people
Perkins School for the Blind
Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind
- Extent:
- 1 clipping
- Permalink:
- https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/mk61sk46n
- Terms of Use:
-
Samuel P. Hayes Research Library, Perkins School for the Blind, Watertown, MA
Contact host institution for more information.
- Notes:
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Newspaper clipping from a Portland, Oregon publication about Edith Thomas and her teacher Lillian Moore (formerly Lillian Fletcher).
- Notes (acquisition):
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From the collection of Howard Hickman
- Accession #:
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Lillian_Fletcher Moore_Newspaper
