Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet

Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (* December 10, 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, † September 9, 1851 in Hartford, Connecticut ) was an American clergyman who in 1816 with the deaf Laurent Clerc from France 's education for the deaf in Hartford, Connecticut / USA founded.

The age of 14 attended Gallaudet Yale University, where he graduated in 1805 with a Diploma. Then he returned to the free trials and cooperation in the legal field back to Yale back, he ( until 1810 ) as a " tutor" left with a Master of Arts and a further two years back in 1808. He then worked as a commercial traveler.

From a Huguenot family coming Gallaudet was deeply rooted in Protestantism. He felt called to be a preacher and wrote in 1812 in Newton (Massachusetts ) to study at Andover Theological Seminary one, which he left in 1814 as Reverend. He wrote next to children's books. His life took a turn when he met Alice Cogswell, the nine -year-old deaf daughter of his neighbor, Dr. Mason Cogswell. This asked Gallaudet, in Europe after teaching methods for deaf children to do research, especially those of the family of Thomas Braidwood in Edinburgh.

Gallaudet found the Braidwoods unwilling to share their knowledge, also the results of the used there " oral " ( phonetic ) method were unsatisfactory. While he was in the UK, he met the Abbé Sicard, director of the French National Institution of Sourds - muets in Paris and two deaf teachers in this school, Laurent Clerc and Jean Massieu at a demonstration event. Sicard invited Gallaudet one to Paris to study the local methods. Impressed by the sign language "manual" method Gallaudet studied teaching methods under Sicard and learned sign language from Massieu and Clerc, who were both highly educated graduates of the school.

Gallaudet persuaded Clerc, zurückzubegleiten him to America. The two men toured New England and accumulated private and public support funds with which they were able in 1817 to found a school for the deaf in Hartford ( now called the American School for the Deaf ). It was Alice Cogswell one of the first seven students. Gallaudet served as headmaster until 1830, when he retired to write children's books again to exercise his office as preacher.

Gallaudet married his former student Sophia Fowler ( 1798-1877 ). She bore him four sons and four daughters.

His youngest son, Edward Miner Gallaudet founded 1857 in Washington, DC, with the philanthropists and U.S. Postmaster General Amos Kendall, the " Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind ," which was later renamed after his father in Gallaudet University. His mother Sophia was the first Matron ( matron ) of deaf students.

His eldest son Thomas was also a clergyman and engaged primarily in the mission and founding a church for the deaf. Edward Miner Gallaudet Together with he took in 1880 at the Milan Congress of 1880 in part and argued and voted against the resolution, in which sign language was banned from classrooms.

Literary works

• Sermons Preached to an English Congregation in Paris (London, 1818)
• Bible Stories for the Young (London, 1838)
• Child's Book of the Soul (London, 1832; 3d ed, 1850)
• The Youth 's Book of Natural Theology (New York, 1832)
• Annals of the Deaf and Dumb (Hartford ), 6 volumes.