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May 12, 2025
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Winning, losing, and learning through sports
Together in the dorms: Community life at boarding school
Trades and Training for Boys
State School in an Expanding Nation
Segregated Schools in the post-war South
Lincoln signs act of congress to authorize Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind to confer degrees
Little Paper Family: Deaf students turn to newspapers and magazines
Home away from home: Schools for the Deaf
Home Skills – Training in sewing, cooking, and hairstyling
From Asylum to School: Families pool their resources
Family ties: Deaf children away at school get creative for writing to parents
Classroom learning for Deaf students
After school: Extracurricular activities at Gallaudet
A language shared by hand and heart: Laurent Clerc brings sign language from Paris
A place of our own: the first permanent school for deaf children
GU
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National Deaf Life Museum
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History Through Deaf Eyes
Formation of a Community
A solemn responsibility, a cup of...
“. . . a cup of consolation, for the deaf and dumb who heretofore had been wandering in a moral desert, from the same fountain the Hinddo, the African, and the savage are beginning to draw the water of eternal life.” Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was a Congregational minister, who described his life’s work as hastening Christ’s return to earth by spreading the gospel. Like many early teachers of deaf children in America, Gallaudet learned sign language for the same reason other missionaries learned Native American or African languages to bring the gospel to people seen living beyond its reach. “No other object that the salvation of souls of the pupils can be named as of the highest moment; and to accomplish this object a very solemn responsibility is devolved upon all who are concerned in the affairs of the Asylum.” ~ Reverend Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, 1817 Students from the Michigan School for the Deaf sign the hymn “Nearer My God to Thee.” Public performances of signed songs, particularly religious songs, were popular. The Silent Worker, 1906. Gallaudet University Archives Gallaudet wrote this “Catechism for the Deaf and Dumb” to teach students religious lessons. Pennsylvania School for the Deaf Collection
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was a Congregational minister, who described his life’s work as hastening Christ’s return to earth by spreading the gospel. Like many early teachers of deaf children in America, Gallaudet learned sign language for the same reason other missionaries learned Native American or African languages to bring the gospel to people seen living beyond its reach.
“No other object that the salvation of souls of the pupils can be named as of the highest moment; and to accomplish this object a very solemn responsibility is devolved upon all who are concerned in the affairs of the Asylum.”
~ Reverend Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, 1817
Students from the Michigan School for the Deaf sign the hymn “Nearer My God to Thee.” Public performances of signed songs, particularly religious songs, were popular.
The Silent Worker, 1906.
Gallaudet University Archives
Gallaudet wrote this “Catechism for the Deaf and Dumb” to teach students religious lessons.
Pennsylvania School for the Deaf Collection
A solemn responsibility, a cup of consolation