ASL history project1800-1860

Aliyah Epps A3

1690-1880 Deaf Culture Prominent in Martha's Vineyard

Many of the families in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, carry hereditary hearing problems; in some villages, as many as 25 percent of the residents are deaf. During this period, the Vineyard develops its own form of sign language. So many deaf people live in the community that most town meetings are also signed.

1814 When it started

The history of American Sign Language really started in 1814 with Dr. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet.

Gallaudet Travels to Europe

1800-1860

In 1815 Gallaudet headed for Europe in search of methods for teaching the Deaf.

1815 Gallaudet and Alice Cogswell

1815: Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, a Congregational minister who helped his neighbor's young deaf daughter, Alice Cogswell, traveled to Europe in 1815, to study methods of education for the deaf. In England, Abbe Roche Ambroise Sicard invited him to his school for deaf in Paris. After several months in Paris, Gallaudet returned to the United States with Laurent Clerc, a deaf teacher.

1817 Gallaudet Clerc’s school

Gallaudet and Clerc's school, which is now known as the American School for the Deaf, was established in Hartford, Connecticut in 1817 as the first public free deaf school in the U.S

1830 Who retires in 1830?

Gallaudet retired in 1830 and Clerc taught at the deaf school until the 1850s.

1851 Thomas hopkins gallaudet dies

When Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet died in 1851, his youngest son Edward Miner Gallaudet continued his legacy in deaf education. Edward became a teacher at the American School for the Deaf in Hartford.

1850s A Deaf State Is Proposed

John Flournoy, a former pupil of the Connecticut school, proposes to Congress that land be set aside in the western territories for the creation of a deaf state, where deaf people could better enjoy their own community and flourish unrestrained by prejudice and the often restrictive good intentions of hearing society.

1856 Land donated

In 1856 Amos Kendall donates 2 acres of land and a house to found a school for the deaf, dumb, and the blind.

1857 Deaf college

Edward always wanted to establish a deaf college and in 1857, Edward was asked to be the superintendent of the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind in Washington, D.C.

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