Edmund Booth: Deaf Pioneer

Notes

Notes O} Chapter 1. The Early Years 1. Edmund Booth, Autobiography, Private collection of Wilma Spice. Booth began to write his autobiography in 1885/1886, when he was 75 years old. He continued writing over a period of years and finally finished it sometime in 1898. Permission for all quotes from this autobiography has been granted by Wilma Spice, Edmund Booth’s great-great-granddaughter. 2. Ibid., 8. 3. Ibid. 4. Ibid., 10, 8. 5. Ibid., 14. 6. Ibid. 7. This book will use “American Asylum,” “Asylum,” and “American School for the Deaf” interchangeably. 8. Margaret H. Hall, The Aristocratic Journey; Being the Outspoken Letters of Mrs. Basil Hall Written during a Fourteen Months’ Sojourn in America, 1827–1828 (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1931), 110. 9. E. Booth, Autobiography, 14–15. 10. Ibid., 15. Through much of his life, Edmund held an interest in phrenology , the study of mental capacity and character based on the structure of the human skull. 11. Edmund Booth, “Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet,” Iowa Hawkeye (1881). 12. American School for the Deaf Archives, File “July 6 1829.” 13. Edmund Booth, “Mr. Flournoy’s Project,” American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb 10 (1858): 73. 14. Fifteenth Report of the Directors of the American Asylum at Hartford for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb (1831): 21. 15. Fourteenth Report of the Directors of the American Asylum at Hartford for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb (1830): 28. 187 188 Notes 16. Seventeenth Report of the Directors of the American Asylum at Hartford for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb (1833): 5–6. 17. See Harry G. Lang and William Stokoe, “A Treatise on Signed and Spoken Language in Early-19th-Century Deaf Education in America,” Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 5 (2000): 196–216. Barnard had planned to have a legal career but changed his mind because of his hearing loss. His friends remembered that during his years at Yale his mood sometimes bordered on despair. Barnard ’s mother and brother were also deaf. At Hartford, Barnard focused on learning to sign and on developing his teaching philosophy. He was interested in the science of education, and this led him to systematically examine the communicative dimensions of instruction. He went on to have a distinguished career as a teacher and administrator at several universities; he served as president of Columbia College (now University) for 25 years. 18. Booth remembered Mary Ann’s appearance at the school: “In this class of Barnard’s and which I, still being a pupil, taught eight months, was the girl, Mary Ann Walworth, 14 years old, that, years later, became my wife” (Autobiography, 16). 19. E. Booth, Autobiography, 2. 20. Edmund Booth, “Miss Martineau and Deaf-Mutes,” American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb 22 (1877): 81. 21. Lewis Weld to the President and Directors of the American Asylum, January 27, 1835. American School for the Deaf Archives. 22. E. Booth, Autobiography, 17. 23. See Phyllis Valentine, “Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet: Benevolent Paternalism and the Origins of the American Asylum,” in Deaf History Unveiled: Interpretations from the New Scholarship, ed. John V. Van Cleve, 53–73 (Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 1993). 24. E. Booth, Autobiography, 17. Chapter 2. Journey to Iowa 1. E. Booth, Autobiography, 18. 2. Bertha Finn, Pat Worden Sutton, JoAnn McRoberts Walters, and Mildred Barker Brown, Anamosa—1838–1938: A Reminiscence (Monticello, IA: Monticello Express, 1988), 66. 3. E. Booth, Autobiography, 21. 4. Ibid., 21–22. 5. Ibid., 22–23. 6. Ibid., 26. 7. Ibid. 189 Notes 8. Ibid. 9. Emily’s story is found in Thomas E. Booth, Reminiscences (ca. 1923), 6. Private collection of Wilma Spice. Chapter 3. Anamosa 1. E. Booth, Autobiography, 27. 2. Ibid., 28–29. 3. Edmund Booth, “Early Education of Iowa Mutes,” Annals of Iowa (1871): 686. 4. E. Booth, Autobiography, 29. 5. Booth made a claim west of the military road a mile south of what was later called Fairview. Then, it was known as “Russell’s Place.” 6. Edmund Booth, “Anamosa—Origin of Its Name,” Annals of Iowa 12 (1874): 29. 7. Finn et al., Anamosa 1838–1938, 2, 69. Thus, it was in the framed house built by Edmund Booth, which became the Wapsipinicon Hotel, that the town’s name—Anamosa—was born. 8. Edmund Booth to Mary Ann Booth, January 18, 1844. Hereafter, letters...