Samuel Gridley Howe

Samuel Gridley Howe ( born November 10, 1801 in Boston, USA, † January 9, 1876 in Massachusetts ) was an American physician, civil rights, Philhellene and founder of the first school for the blind in the USA.

Biography

Howes father Joseph Gridley Howe was a ship owner and rope manufacturer and his mother was Patty Gridley Howe, who he owes his ideal view of the world. Howe attended the Latin School in Boston, and then at Brown University in Providence, where he completed his doctoral studies in 1821. He left in 1824, the United States and traveled to Greece, where he was active in the Greek revolution as a doctor and a soldier in the next three years.

In 1827 he returned to Boston, where he began to practice. However, he was also involved here continue to apply to the Greeks by collecting donations. These he handed over personally, as he traveled a second time to Greece. He funded the construction of schools, churches and homes in the vicinity of Corinth. In 1830 he returned to the United States.

After Howe had returned to Boston, inspired him the stories of his friend John D. Fisher. This had just returned from Paris and reported by the school for the blind in Paris, founded by Valentin Haiiy. In 1831 he finally made ​​trips through Europe, to make sure the spot of what is being done for the education of the blind. His first destination was Paris, where he studied new teaching techniques for blind people. In the same year he visited Prussia. He went to Berlin and saw there the school for the blind to. However, he also led money for the support of the Polish insurgents in East Prussia with himself, which had been collected in cooperation with the America - Polish Committee, which is why he was arrested the Prussian authorities. After six weeks of incarceration him eventually to emigrate to the United States was allowed.

1832 founded Howe, inspired by his experiences in Paris, in Boston, the Perkins School for the Blind. Soon he was in this area for the leading experts in the U.S. and initiated more schools for the blind in Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia. Howes famous student was the deaf and dumb and blind Laura Bridgman, who became known as the "miracle child." It was an extensive literature. During his lifetime Howe sought a successor; he was found in Michael Anagnos.

In 1843 he married Julia Ward, who later wrote the words to "Battle Hymn of the Republic ". Both had 6 children. Howe died in 1876, the same year it a great commemoration in the " Boston Music Hall " was held in honor.

Samuel Howe and Florence Nightingale

The meeting of the Florence Nightingale was born in 1820 with Samuel Howe is classified by many biographers as a turning point in the life of Florence Nightingale. Florence Nightingale was increasingly safe in the summer of 1844 that she wanted to devote her life to nursing. The main reason for their decision, however, was the encounter with Samuel Howe and his wife, Julia Ward, who were during their honeymoon guest at Embley Hall. At Florence Nightingale taught him the question whether he considered it inappropriate when a young woman as she devoted herself in a similar form of nursing, how to do this Catholic nuns from the nursing orders. Howe replied to her:

However, Mark Bostridge draws attention to one aspect of this episode that highlights his view, how unusual was Florence Nightingale's life decision. Julia Ward, who nearly twenty years younger wife of Samuel Howe developed in their second half of life to become an influential abolitionists, campaigner for women's rights and well-known writer, who wrote, among other things, The Battle Hymn of the Republic. With her ​​husband she found during her first twenty years of marriage no support in their literary and political activity. On her accusation that he had Florence Nightingale encouraged in their decision while he does not even allow her to release a tape of poetry, Samuel Howe replied that he had, he would have been engaged to Florence Nightingale, this engagement immediately solved once they would be entered in any way public appearance.