Laura Bridgman wore a green ribbon or band over her eyes because scarlet fever had left them visibly damaged and disfigured. The covering served a dual purpose: it shielded others from the unsettling appearance of her eyes, and it protected her eyes themselves from dust and irritation. The green ribbon became one of her most recognizable features in portraits and public appearances throughout her life at the Perkins Institution for the Blind in Boston.
How Scarlet Fever Changed Her Body
At about two years old, Laura Bridgman contracted a severe case of scarlet fever that swept through her family in Hanover, New Hampshire. Two of her siblings died from the illness. Laura survived, but the infection destroyed nearly all of her sensory world. She lost her sight, her hearing, and almost all of her sense of taste and smell. For five months after the fever, she lay in a darkened room recovering. When she finally emerged, touch was essentially her only remaining way to interact with the world around her.
The scarlet fever didn’t just take her vision. It physically ravaged her eyes. The infection caused severe inflammation that scarred her corneas and left the eyes noticeably altered in appearance. Historical accounts describe her eyes as clouded and sunken, clearly marked by the disease. This kind of damage was not uncommon in severe scarlet fever cases in the 19th century, when the disease could attack multiple organ systems with no antibiotics available to stop it.
The Green Ribbon as a Practical Solution
Samuel Gridley Howe, the director of the Perkins Institution who became Bridgman’s teacher and advocate, arranged for her to wear a green ribbon tied across her eyes. Green was a deliberate choice. In the 1800s, green was widely believed to be soothing to the eyes and was commonly used in eyeshades and tinted glasses for people with eye conditions. The ribbon kept the damaged eyes covered in a way that looked neat and intentional rather than clinical.
The covering also had a straightforward protective function. Without the ability to see, Bridgman couldn’t blink reflexively in response to approaching objects or debris. The ribbon acted as a simple barrier against dust and accidental contact. And because her eyes were no longer functional but still present, keeping them covered reduced the chance of further irritation or infection in tissue that was already badly scarred.
Public Image and Victorian Sensibility
Bridgman was arguably the most famous disabled person in America before Helen Keller. Charles Dickens visited her at Perkins in 1842 and wrote about her at length in his “American Notes,” bringing her story to an international audience. She received visitors regularly, and her education was held up as proof that people with severe disabilities could learn and think. In that context, appearance mattered enormously.
Victorian culture placed a high value on visual presentation, and visible disfigurement made people deeply uncomfortable. The green ribbon allowed visitors to focus on Bridgman’s remarkable accomplishments, her ability to communicate through a manual alphabet, read raised-letter books, and sew with impressive precision, rather than being distracted or disturbed by her eyes. It was a small accommodation that made social interactions smoother for everyone involved, though particularly for the sighted people around her.
Bridgman herself seemed to accept the ribbon as simply part of how she presented herself. She was known to be particular about her appearance in other ways too, paying careful attention to her clothing and hair through touch. The ribbon became so associated with her identity that nearly every portrait and sketch from her lifetime includes it.
How She Compared to Helen Keller
Helen Keller, who became deaf and blind from a similar childhood illness about 50 years later, also sometimes wore coverings or dark glasses over her eyes for the same basic reasons. Keller’s teacher, Anne Sullivan, had actually lived at the Perkins Institution alongside the aging Bridgman as a student. The two deaf-blind women are permanently linked in history, with Bridgman often described as “the first Helen Keller.” But Bridgman came first, and the green ribbon over her scarred eyes became one of the earliest and most enduring images of deaf-blind experience in American culture.