Mary Swift graduated from the Lexington Normal School in 1840 as a member of the first class of the first state normal school in the country. The Lexington Normal School would later relocate to West Newton before finally settling in its permanent home in Framingham. After graduating, she went to teach at the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind. Later, Swift was instrumental in establishing a deaf school of education emphasizing articulation, a method she learned in her travels to teach deaf children how to speak.
Born in Nantucket to Quaker parents, Swift was brought up in the Quaker community to believe that both boys and girls are suitable for advanced subjects like the classics, Greek, and Latin. She was allowed to study these difficult subjects, and her intelligence and diligence caught the eye of Cyrus Peirce, a visiting teacher to her school. He would later become the first principal of Lexington Normal School, and, impressed with Swift’s academic ability, asked her to come to the mainland to be a part of the very first class at the first state normal school. It was at the Lexington Normal School that she met her future employer, Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, who founded the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind. The institution is still in existence today, known as the Perkins School for the Blind.
Her most famous pupil was Laura Bridgman, although she did later have brief contact with Helen Keller. Laura Bridgman is seldom heard of today as she is often overshadowed by the younger Helen Keller’s story. But in her time, she was quite famous. Dr. Howe would actually travel with her to various social engagements to showcase her progress to the guests and the public. This was just one of many actions that caused a rift between Swift and Howe regarding Laura’s education. Swift utilized a method called “finger talk” to communicate with Laura; the two would spell words into each other’s hands. This method was taught to Laura by her previous instructor Lydia Drew, a fellow graduate of Lexington’s first class, but it was Mary Swift who perfected it, teaching Laura arithmetic, colors, parts of speech, and gender differences. Using “finger talk,” Laura was also able to ask questions on such topics as religion. Swift’s answers, now that she had turned from the Quaker community to evangelicalism, further drove the wedge between her and her employer.
After resigning from the Perkins Institution, Swift did keep in contact with Laura for over forty-two years despite no longer being her formal instructor. She later published a book about Laura Bridgman entitled Life and Education of Laura Dewey Bridgman: The Deaf, Dumb, and Blind Girl. She continued to work with blind and deaf students for many years, learning new methods of instruction through correspondence around the world. Hearing of Swift’s 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.
Mary Swift was also a founder of the YWCA, the Young Women’s Christian Association, in Boston, which she founded with Mrs. Abner Kingman in 1866. She was the Vice President and Honorary Manager of the organization and worked diligently to provide lodging and employment services for young Protestant women who were deemed “at risk” of otherwise falling into temptation. She was much beloved by the organization, as indicated by the beautiful memorial written by the committee upon her death.
She married a Congregationalist religious leader Edwin Lamson in 1846, and was thereafter known as Mary Swift Lamson. She died on March 2, 1909.