Mary
Swift
1823-1909
first graduate of lexington
normal school
Mary Swift graduated from Lexington Normal School in 1840 as a member of the first class of the very first
state normal school in the country. After graduating, she went to the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts
Asylum for the Blind to teach. Among her pupils was Laura Bridgman, famous in her day for being deaf, blind,
and mute. Swift utilized a method called “finger talk” to communicate with Laura; the two would spell words
into each other’s hands. Swift used this method to teach Laura arithmetic, colors, parts of speech, and gender
differences. She later published a book about Laura Bridgman entitled Life and Education of Laura Dewey
Bridgman: The Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Girl. Swift was later instrumental in establishing a deaf school of education
emphasizing articulation, a method she learned in her travels to teach deaf children how to speak. Her
interactions with Ragnhild Kaata of Norway, a blind and deaf young woman who learned how to speak orally,
inspired Helen Keller to learn how to speak using similar methods. In 1866, Mary Swift founded the YWCA, Young
Women’s Christian Association, in Boston, with Mrs. Abner Kingman. She married a Congregationalist religious
leader Edwin Lamson in 1846, and was thereafter known as Mary Swift Lamson. She died on March 2nd, 1909.