Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet

Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet,(December 10, 1787 – September 10, 1851[1]) was an American educator. Along with Laurent Clerc and Mason Cogswell, he co-founded the first permanent institution for the education of the deaf in North America, and he became its first principal. When opened on April 15, 1817, it was called the "Connecticut Asylum (at Hartford) for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons," but it is now known as the American School for the Deaf.

For Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet's eldest son, see Thomas Gallaudet (Episcopal priest).
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet
Painting by George F. Wright in 1851.
Born(1787-12-10)December 10, 1787
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
DiedSeptember 10, 1851(1851-09-10) (aged 63)
Hartford, Connecticut, US
OccupationMinister, educator, co-founder of the first permanent school for the deaf in North America.
Spouse(s)Sophia Fowler

Biography

He attended Yale University, earning his bachelor's degree in 1805,[2] graduating at the age of seventeen,[3] with highest honors,[4] and then earned a master's degree at Yale in 1808.[5][6] He engaged in many things such as studying law, trade, and theology. In 1814, Gallaudet graduated from Andover Theological Seminary after a two-year course of study.[7] However, he declined several offers of pastorates, due to ongoing concerns about his health.[8]

His path in life was altered when he met Alice Cogswell, on May 25, 1814, the nine-year-old deaf daughter of a neighbor, Dr. Mason Cogswell.[9] Gallaudet had returned to his parents' home in Hartford to recuperate from his seminary studies. On that day, as he observed Alice playing apart from other children, he wanted to teach her. Gallaudet started to teach Alice what different objects were called by writing their names and drawing pictures of them with a stick in the dirt. Dr. Cogswell was impressed and invited Gallaudet to continue teaching Alice through the summer. While many of his friends became pastors or found mission fields overseas, Gallaudet found his mission field at home.[lower-alpha 1] The next year Cogswell, with several businessmen and clergy, asked Gallaudet to travel to Europe to study methods for teaching deaf students, especially those of the Braidwood family in England. Gallaudet found the Braidwoods unwilling to share knowledge of their oral communication method and himself financially limited. At the same time, he also was not satisfied that the oral method produced desirable results.

While still in Great Britain, he met Abbé Sicard, head of the Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets à Paris, and two of its deaf faculty members, Laurent Clerc and Jean Massieu. Sicard invited Gallaudet to Paris to study the school's method of teaching the deaf using manual communication. Impressed with the manual method, Gallaudet studied teaching methodology under Sicard, learning sign language from Massieu and Clerc, who were both highly educated graduates of the school.

Having persuaded Clerc to accompany him, Gallaudet sailed back to America. The two men, with the help of Dr. Cogswell, toured New England and successfully raised private and public funds to fund a school for deaf students in Hartford, which later became known as the American School for the Deaf (ASD), in 1817. Young Alice was one of the first seven students at ASD.

In 1821, he married one of his former students, Sophia Fowler. They had 8 children as well.

Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet died in Hartford on September 10, 1851,[10] aged 63, and was buried in Hartford's Cedar Hill Cemetery.[11] There is a residence hall named in his honor at nearby Central Connecticut State University in New Britain. There is also a residence hall named in his honor at the University of Hartford in West Hartford.

Family

His youngest child Edward Miner Gallaudet (1837–1917) founded in 1864 the first college for the deaf, which, in 1986, became Gallaudet University. He was president for 46 years. The university also offers education for those in elementary, middle, and high school. The elementary school on the Gallaudet University Campus is named the Kendall Demonstration Elementary School (KDES); the middle and high school is the Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD). he went to France with Dr Mason Cogwell.

Gallaudet had another son, Thomas Gallaudet, who became an Episcopal priest and also worked for the deaf.

Gallaudet's father, Peter Wallace Gallaudet, was a personal secretary to US President George Washington, when the office of the President was located in Philadelphia.[12][13]

Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was the eldest of 13 children. His younger siblings' names were: Edgar (1789–90), Charles (1792–1830), (unnamed twins, 1793), Catherine (1793–1856), James (1796–1878), William Edgar (1797–1821), Ann Watts (1800–50), Jane (1801–35), Theodore (1805–85), Edward (1808–47), and Wallace (1811–16).[14] William Edgar Gallaudet graduated from Yale with a B.A. in 1815.

Statue of Alice Cogswell and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet.

Legacy

References

Notes
  1. Gallaudet later wrote to a friend that the deaf school stood "on the hell grounds." No other object than the salvation of the souls of the peoples can be named of the highest moment.[8]

Citations
  1. Barnard 1852, p. 44.
  2. Gallaudet 1888, pp. 19–25.
  3. Barnard 1852, p. 10.
  4. Humphrey 1857, p. 23.
  5. Dexter's volume on early Yale graduates
  6. Bishop 1939, p. 272.
  7. Gallaudet 1888, pp. 38–41.
  8. Chang 2010.
  9. Gallaudet 1888, p. 46.
  10. "Recent Deaths". The New York Times. September 18, 1851. p. 2. Retrieved July 7, 2016.
  11. Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation
  12. Boatner 1959, p. 1.
  13. Notable Gallaudet's in American history at the Wayback Machine (archived 2004-01-14)
  14. Boatner 1959, p. xiv:citing Virginia W. Somerville
  15. Gallaudet 1888, p. 319.
  16. Gannon 1981, p. 6.

Sources
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