Gallaudet University

DATE The parent institution, the Columbia Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind, started in 1857; blind students transferred and name changed to the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb in 1865. Renamed Gallaudet College in 1894 and Gallaudet University in 1986.

SIGNIFICANCE: Gallaudet is the world’s only institution of higher education whose programs and services are all designed specifically to accommodate deaf and hard-of-hearing people. A small number of hearing students are admitted to the undergraduate program each year. The graduate program accepts hard-of-hearing, deaf, and hearing students and conducts research in deafness and educating the deaf.

LOCALE: About two miles north and east of the Capitol

The partial or complete loss of hearing is a major disadvantage in any human society. Deaf people have always devised ways of communicating with others and among themselves by signs. In some countries, even today, the rights of the deaf are limited and they are severely restricted from joining the workforce. The history of Gallaudet University is the history of educating deaf people and instructing the hearing about deaf people, not only in the United States but globally as well.

Formal training, and therefore education, for the deaf to communicate with others began in Europe. In the seventeenth century, a Spanish monk started training the deaf in a sign language that was probably derived from the signs used by monks sworn to silence. His method was popularized by countryman Juan Pablo Bonet (who nevertheless recommended that the deaf be taught to speak and understand speech rather than to perform sign language). These two mainstreams of deaf communication are still current, although there are a number of variations.

While the oralist tradition was centered in Scotland, the Abbé Charles-Michel de l’Epée started a sign-language school in Paris in 1760. His successor at the school was the Abbé Roch-Ambroise Cucurron Sicard, who made the Paris Royal Institute for the Deaf the preeminent institution for teaching the deaf in the Western world. A most successful student of this institution was Laurent Clerc. In one of their many lecture tours, the Abbé Sicard and Clerc met American minister Thomas Gallaudet in London.

Gallaudet and Deaf Education in the United States

Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (1787–1851), after whom Gallaudet University is named, had no direct relationship with the institution, as he died even before its the precursor was established in 1857. However, Gallaudet brought organized education for the deaf to the United States, and his family had a substantial, if not determinant, influence on the formation and development of the university.

Gallaudet was born in Philadelphia, although he moved to Hartford, Connecticut, with his family while quite young and spent most of his life there. A brilliant scholar, Gallaudet graduated, first in his class, from Yale University in 1804, at the age of seventeen. He joined Andover Theological Seminary in 1812 and graduated in 1814.

Gallaudet's interest in educating the deaf was initiated by an affluent neighbor, Dr. Mason Cogswell. Cogswell had a nine-year-old deaf daughter, Alice, whose education he wanted to entrust to Gallaudet. (A statue of Gallaudet teaching Alice Cogswell, by Daniel Chester French, can be found on the campus of Gallaudet University.) At the time, there were no suitable institutions in the country, so in 1815 Cogswell and a number of other interested persons financed a trip to Europe for Gallaudet to study the methods of teaching the deaf. The Braidwood family of Scotland was well known at the time for having developed a method of teaching speech articulation to deaf people. Gallaudet first visited them but found that they were unwilling to share their secrets. Disappointed, he looked for other sources. Gallaudet met the Abbé Sicard, director of the Royal Institute for the Deaf in Paris, and his student Laurent Clerc in London. Impressed by their views and results, Gallaudet traveled to Paris to learn their techniques.

Having mastered their techniques, Gallaudet returned to Hartford in 1816 accompanied by Clerc. (Clerc spent the rest of his life in the United States helping Gallaudet and the cause of deaf education; the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center at Gallaudet University is named for him.) They were able to raise some private and public money and in 1817 established the Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons in Hartford, Connecticut. This, the oldest institution of its kind, still exists and operates as the American School for the Deaf.

Gallaudet married one of his students, Sophia Fowler, with whom he had eight children. Two of their sons were actively involved in the cause of deaf education. One son, Thomas Gallaudet, established churches for the deaf; another, Edward Miner Gallaudet, would become the first superintendent, and his mother the first matron, of Gallaudet University's precursor institution.

Origins of the Institution

The modern Gallaudet University began in 1857 as the Columbia Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind. The moving force behind this institution was Amos Kendall (1789–1869), a rich philanthropist with a large estate in northeastern Washington, DC Born on a Massachusetts farm, Kendall graduated at the head of his class at Dartmouth College in 1811. By 1829, he was a well-known newspaper editor in Georgetown, Kentucky, and he became a powerful political supporter of Andrew Jackson. With Jackson’s election to the presidency, and the subsequent election of Martin Van Buren, Kendall became an important political figure in Washington. He was a principal member of Jackson’s Kitchen Cabinet and held some consequential federal administrative jobs, such as auditor of the Treasury and postmaster general. Later, he became very rich as the business manager of Samuel F. B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph. A man of great probity and sincere religiousness—he established the Calvary Baptist Church of Washington—Kendall was appalled by the condition of some deaf, mute, and blind children who had been brought to Washington, DC, by a man named P. H. Skinner. Kendall adopted them, donated 2 acres of land from his own estate to house them, and started a school for their education.

Edward Miner Gallaudet, the First President

Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet had died, so Kendall invited the twenty-year-old Edward Miner Gallaudet to take over the superintendence of the new institution, with his mother as the first matron. Born in 1837, Edward had known deaf people since his birth, and while a student at Trinity College he had also taught at the Connecticut Asylum. In 1857, Kendall helped persuade Congress to incorporate the new institution. In 1858, there were seventeen students; two years later, the number had increased to thirty, as Maryland had funded some of its deaf and blind students to be educated there. Under Gallaudet’s leadership and with Kendall as the chairman, the Columbia Institution progressed well, and by 1864, during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, the school was authorized to confer college degrees. The first college class had eight students. By 1865, the college was committed to educating only the deaf; the blind students were transferred, and the institution changed its name to the more appropriate Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. The college section was now known as the National Deaf-Mute College.

In 1867, Edward Miner Gallaudet introduced speech training for suitable students; previously, only sign language had been taught. Kendall died in 1869, and 81 acres of his estate were sold to the college. The main campus and the primary school (moved to a new building in 1885) are named after him, and a statue of Edward Miner Gallaudet can be seen on campus. Before his retirement in 1910, Gallaudet introduced many new activities. Women were admitted from 1887 to 1893, and Agatha Tiegel became the first woman to graduate with a bachelor of arts. A department was inaugurated in 1891 to educate hearing teachers of the deaf. In 1894, at the request of the alumni, the name of the graduate institution was changed to Gallaudet College.

The Years of Continued Expansion

Under the leadership of its presidents and faculty, Gallaudet College had a consistently progressive and expanding influence in global deaf education. During the first half of the twentieth century, technical courses were introduced so that students could take up manufacturing jobs. Many alumni and students participated in the war effort during World War II.

The curriculum was revised and expanded after the war. In 1954, the corporate name of the entire institution was changed to Gallaudet College, and the college sought and received full accreditation by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools' Commission on Higher Education. Subsequent expansions have included the Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD), which researches and tests new, innovative, and improved courses for deaf and hard-of-hearing high school students (1969); the Center for Continuing Education (1970); the International Center on Deafness (1974); the Gallaudet Research Institute (1978); and the Laurent Clerc National Information Center on Deafness (1980). A doctoral degree program in special education administration was introduced in 1975.

Increased funding from the government and the public have allowed expanded physical facilities, barrier-free access for the physically disabled, and a larger number of national and international students. Gallaudet College had been a leader in deaf education for many years, and the enactment of the Education of All Handicapped Children Act (Public Law 94-142) in 1973 increased its activities, which are now facilitated through seven regional information centers.

Gallaudet University

The Education of the Deaf Act (Public Law 99-371) was passed in 1986, during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Gallaudet College was simultaneously given university status and became a full member of the consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area.

In 1988, a new, seventh president for the university had been selected. However, the alumni launched a strong movement called Deaf President Now (DPN). Their demands were met, and the eighth president was Dr. I. King Jordan, a graduate of the class of 1970 and the first deaf president of the institution.

In 2016, Gallaudet University had more than 1,500 students in more than seventy programs (forty undergraduate, thirty graduate) in the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Education, Business and Human Services. The courses utilize internet and computer resources extensively. Gallaudet has an active and successful athletic program. It remains a leader in the education of the deaf and hard of hearing, allowing them to “mainstream” into society without losing their special identity nationally and globally. The university is one of the largest employers (and therefore an economic mainstay) of the region.

The extensive and beautifully landscaped physical plant is about two miles from the Capitol. Part of the campus (about 7 acres of the original facilities) is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2017, the university and the Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center had a total of 934 employees, of whom more than half were deaf or hard of hearing. The university actively recruits deaf and hard-of-hearing students nationally and internationally. Staff and students regularly put out a number of publications, including the Gallaudet Link for prospective students, the Research at Gallaudet newsletter, and the specialist journal American Annals of the Deaf.

Housing for visitors is provided on campus, and there are many hotels and motels nearby. The visitors’ center on campus offers guided tours Monday through Friday, and a virtual tour is available on the university website. There are open-house programs for prospective students and deaf awareness sessions that provide basic information about deafness and Gallaudet programs. Special tours of specific facilities can be arranged. Voice-interpreted tours for visitors who do not sign must be requested at least three days in advance.

Bibliography

Aquino, Steven. "Gallaudet University President Roberta J. Cordano Talks Her Life, Deaf Innovation, and Overseeing a ‘Global Beacon’ for Millions." Forbes, 15 Dec. 2022, https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenaquino/2022/12/15/gallaudet-university-president-roberta-j-cordano-talks-her-life-deaf-innovation-and-overseeing-a-global-beacon-for-millions/?sh=45f44d636e64. Accessed 28 May 2024.

Enders, Katalin. “Gallaudet, Thomas Hopkins.” Learning to Give, www.learningtogive.org/resources/gallaudet-thomas-hopkins. Accessed 28 May 2024.

“Fast Facts.” Gallaudet University, www.gallaudet.edu/about/news-and-media/fast-facts. Accessed 28 May 2024.

“History of Gallaudet University.” Gallaudet University, www.gallaudet.edu/about/history-and-traditions. Accessed 28 May 2024.

Lane, Harlan. When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf. Random House, 1984. An excellent and detailed history of deaf education seen through the eyes of Laurent Clerc. Well documented with an extensive bibliography.

Van Cleve, John, editor in chief. Gallaudet Encyclopedia of Deaf People and Deafness. McGraw-Hill, 1987.