2019 Bristol CC Deaf History Project on Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet

11/14/2019

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who followed this Bristol Community College project throughout the last two weeks. I want to also give a special shout out to my Deaf History class and teacher, Sandy Barbosa Lygren. Everyone you've seen me tag in the last two weeks has also been attempting the same project. I have garnered a lot of knowledge about Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet throughout this semester, but particularly through this project. What I enjoyed most about this project was being able to share this knowledge with others. I have profound respect for his zeal, as without that passion, who knows where if I would even be involved in a Deaf Studies program right now.

This is Jeremy Gable signing off with a picture taken in ASL class at BCC. 😀

11/14/2019

2019 Bristol CC Deaf Studies Project Laurent Clerc, good friend, as one of my closing posts, I wanted to dedicate it to you by sharing this video with you. It is a Gallaudet University visual narrative of how we, along with Dr. Mason Cogswell, came to be the founders of proper Deaf education in America. Does this reenactment bring back memories?

A visual narrative of how Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, with the help of Laurent Clerc and Dr. Mason Cogswell, established schools in America to provide an educa...

11/14/2019

I passed away on September 10th, 1851 from a complication with a lung disease that I have suffered since birth (Enders, 2003). However frail I may have been at times in life, I never let it stop me from garnering knowledge and passing it on to others in the name of God. While I may have passed, my legacy has lived on through not only my work, but through my childrens' storied lives as well.

11/13/2019

The Gallaudet University archives contains a wealth of knowledge that I implore everyone to explore. One such example is Gallaudet's Historical Timeline. You can find a good number of interesting facts that you may otherwise never have known. Take, for instance, a ship that I had christened in my name on this day in 1943 (Historical Timeline, 2019).

If you would like to learn more interesting facts about Deaf history, please I have taken the opportunity to link you for further information: https://www.gallaudet.edu/about/history-and-traditions/historical-timeline

11/12/2019

2019 Bristol CC Deaf History Project on Charles-Michel de I'Épée, curious as I am, I took it upon myself to look through the American Annals of the Deaf to read more about you. I was quite shocked, for instance, to learn that your father was an architect whose services were employed by a king. Lest we be fooled by this royal connection though, as your wealth did not seem much. More impressive, you organized your school at your own monetary risk (Ray, 1848).

I do invite others to read these eight pages to help understand you better, sir:

11/12/2019

Dr. Mason Fitch Cogswell, born in 1761, was a polite neighbor of mine. I knew him to especially be a partaker of poetry and a proficient player of music. To him was born my dearest Alice Cogswell. In her second year of life, she developed an illness that took her hearing. She would oft play our family garden alone while the other children played around her (Syle, 1887). After attempts to teach her simple English words like “hat”, I realized her mind was ripe for development (Remembering the Girl, 2011). I, along with Mason, began teaching her many more words. Dr. Cogswell discovered that there were around eighty-four deaf persons in Connecticut at the time. He called me to a meeting at his home on April 13th, 1815 with the resolution to send me to Europe to learn more about instructing the Deaf (Syle, 1887). A few weeks later, I set sail for England. After a few months, I met Abbe Siccard who extended an invitation to his school in Paris. There, Laurent Clerc agreed to return home with me to help open the American School for the Deaf. While I was away, Dr. Cogswell had already procured a bit of money for our school. Within eight months, we prepared for it’s opening. Dr. Cogswell’s influence and monetary help for both my trip to England and the opening of the school changed his Deaf education forever (Cleve and Crouch, 2010). I would be remiss to also not mention it changed dearest Alice’s life as well as she was one of the first three students admitted (Syle, 1887).

11/11/2019

2019 BCC Deaf Studies Project: Gertrude Ederle, have you read this childrens' book about yourself? Quite inspiring! Look in the comments from pictures I found from the book.

Here is a link:

Trudy Ederle loved to swim, and she was determined to be the best. At seventeen Trudy won three medals at the 1924 Olympics in Paris. But what she planned to do next had never been done by a woman: She would swim across the English Channel in fourteen hours and set a world record.

11/11/2019

On this day, World War I officially ended on November 11, 1918. One little known fact is that when United States entered WWI, the draft created a dire shortage of American workers. Deaf men, who were considered undraftable, became in great demand for employment. One such example was in Akron, Ohio. Goodyear and Firestone both actively hired deaf workers to meet tire production during this time. In fact, Ben M. Schowe, a Gallaudet College graduate, was hired to recruit more deaf employees at Goodyear as a result (Cleve and Crouch, 2010).

Deaf individuals still face a employment discrimination in present day. Let this example be a lesson that the stigma against Deaf workers are holding the work force back.

11/10/2019

2019 Bristol CC Deaf History Project on William Stokoe, good sir, would this be your name sign?

11/10/2019

This artwork of the fingerspelling alphabet was taken directly from a biography written about me in 1887, aptly named “A Biographical Sketch of the Rev. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, LL. D., the First Great Educator of the Deaf in America” by Henry Winter Style. This particular author also wrote another book titled “A Retrospect of the Education of the Deaf”.

(Artwork Source: Syle, 1887)

11/10/2019

During my trip to Europe, I initially spent time trying to precure knowledge in England, but the educational secrets of this school were “barred with gold, and opened but to golden keys” (Henry, 1887). Upon meeting Abbe Sicard and inviting me to learn at the Abbé de l'Épée's Paris School, I met a young teacher named Laurent Clerc. Clerc was a student-turned-teacher at the school. He was brilliant in mind. More studious that anyone I had met before. I began to get to know him during my stay at the Royal Institution for the Deaf. In May of 1816, he agreed to go with me back to the United States on his own accord (Cleve and Crouch, 2010). On our trip back to Connecticut, I began teaching him English, while he taught me how to sign. I understood that this was a big undertaking for Clerc, thus agreed to a contract to assure that he not be exploited. I also assured that if we were to fail in our mission to open the school, he was free to return to France and I would pay his traveling expenses. With his trust in hand, he, I, and Dr. Mason Cogswell raised around $5, 000 toward the opening of the school. That was followed by the Connecticut state legislator granting the American School for the Deaf with a charter of an additional $5,000. Unbeknownst to us at the time, this would begin a pattern of public support for education of disabled Americans (Cleve and Crouch, 2010). Not only did Clerc’s help allow us to open the doors to our school, his brilliant mind, determination, and knack for teaching helped change Deaf education forever.