On this Date: Julia Brace was born
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Julie Brace was born on June 13, 1807. At the age of 17, the deafblind woman enrolled at the American School for the Deaf, in Hartford, Connecticut.
The story of Julia Brace:
Born in Hartford County, Connecticut.
Became deaf-blind at age five from typhoid fever.
Developed a home sign that she used with her parents.
On June 11, 1825, she moved to the Hartford Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb (now called the American School for the Deaf).
She learned tactile signing, depite being the only blind person attending the school.
On April 6, 1842, Brace enrolled as a student of the Perkins School for the Blind, the oldest school for the blind in the US, located in Watertown, Mass.
Brace preferred to communicate in sign language rather than English, returning to the Hartford school after a year at Perkins.
In 1860, she left the school and moved in with her sister in Bloomfield, Connecticut, where she died on August 12, 1884, at the age of 77.
Read more about Julia Brace from the Dartmouth University Libraries here.