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Establishing a College for the Deaf, 1864–1910 CHAPTER 1 p T he entire early history of the Columbia Institution revolves around the actions of one man—Edward Miner Gallaudet,the youngest son of Thomas Hopkins (T.H.) Gallaudet and Sophia Fowler Gallaudet.The elder Gallaudet is renowned as the founder,along with Laurent Clerc and Mason Fitch Cogswell,of deaf education in the United States.Together the three men established the Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons (now the American School for the Deaf),the first permanent school for the deaf,in Hartford,Connecticut,in 1817. The story of T.H.Gallaudet’s voyage to England and ultimately France in search of methods for teaching deaf children,and his return to Hartford with Clerc, an experienced deaf French teacher,is well known in the annals of American Deaf history.1 T.H.Gallaudet ’s trip was not at all unusual for Americans of that time who traveled to Europe,most often to France,in search of new ideas,especially in science,technology, and the arts.For example,the American painter Samuel F.B.Morse returned to the United States from France in 1832 with the idea for the electric telegraph,after having observed a long-distance system of visual communication in use in France.2 In 1844,the first long-distance telegraphic transmission in history traversed the estate of Amos Kendall, Morse’s business partner.Thirteen years later,Kendall founded the Columbia Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind,the institution that became Gallaudet University,on his estate in the northeast section of Washington,DC. The impetus for the school began in 1856 when P. H. Skinner approached Kendall to solicit donations to found a school for deaf and blind children in the area. Skinner had brought five deaf children from New York and recruited several deaf and blind children in Washington. On learning that the children were not receiving proper care, Kendall successfully petitioned the court to make them his wards. He donated two acres of his estate, named Kendall Green, to establish housing and a school for them.The school opened with twelve deaf and six blind students.3 At that time, the federal government controlled virtually all public business in the District of Columbia. However, Kendall, a confidant of President Andrew Jackson and former postmaster general, used his political connections to secure the passage of legislation authorizing the establishment of the school, which President Franklin Pierce signed into law on February 16, 1857. Federal appropriations to support the operation of the Columbia Institution began in 1858 (under the  Columbia Institution students, 1860. 2 the history of gallaudet university administration of President James Buchanan) and have continued annually up to the present.4 All in all, the consistency and longevity of this support indicates an abiding commitment by the government to the deaf citizens of the country.The fact that this support has been given to a private corporation (which Gallaudet has always been) is also testimony to a long-lasting bond of trust that the university would act in the best interests of deaf people and the country at large. In 1857, when Edward Miner Gallaudet (hereafter EMG) was just twenty years old, Amos Kendall offered him the superintendency of the Columbia Institution. Although both T. H. Gallaudet and EMG were hearing, EMG’s mother Sophia was deaf. Not surprisingly, EMG grew up as a native user of what then was known as the Sign Language and later came to be called American Sign Language or ASL.The importance of this fact should not be overlooked as the Institution he presided over was a constant haven for instruction in signed language, even when its use was prohibited or discouraged elsewhere.When EMG accepted Kendall’s offer, he was unmarried, but because the standards of propriety called for an adult female presence at the school, his mother accompanied him to serve as matron of the Institution.   Laurent Clerc was born December 26, 1785, near Lyon, France. He became deaf when he was a year old, but he did not go to school until he was twelve. He attended the Royal National Institute for the Deaf in Paris for eight years and then became a teacher at the school. In 1816 he traveled with Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet to America, where they and Mason Fitch Cogswell established the first school for the deaf in the U.S. Portrait...

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