Autobiography of Laura E. Richards. "Laura Elizabeth Howe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 27, 1850. Her father was Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, an abolitionist and the founder of the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind.[1] She was named after his famous deaf-blind pupil Laura Bridgman.[2] Her mother Julia Ward Howe wrote the words to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic". In 1871 Laura married Henry Richards. He would...