Dr. Edward Miner Gallaudet

Dr. Edward Miner Gallaudet

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Miner_Gallaudet
• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/26131773/edward-miner-gallaudet
• https://gallaudet.edu/archives/archives-collections/manuscript-coll...

Gallaudet son of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Sophia Fowler Gallaudet, was a famous early educator of the deaf in Washington, DC. As a youth, he enjoyed working with tools and also built an "electrical machine." He kept birds, fowl and rabbits, spending most of his time in the city, but also occasionally venturing into the country. He had a fond memory of climbing a hill with his father, and another fond memory of his father introducing the subject of geometry to him. His father died when he was 14, just after he graduated from Hartford High School. He then went to work at a bank for three years. He didn't like the "narrowing effect" of the mental monotony of the work, and he quit to go to work as a teacher at the school his father founded. He worked there two years, from 1855 to 1857. While he was teaching, he continued his education at Trinity College in Hartford, completing his studies for a bachelor of science degree two years later.

In 1857, Amos Kendall donated 2 acres (8,100 m2) of land for the establishment of a school for the deaf and blind in Washington, D.C., and asked Gallaudet to come to Washington to help lead this school. Edward Miner quickly agreed and became the first principal of the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Blind.

In 1864, Gallaudet sought college status for the Columbia Institution and got it when President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill into law which authorized the Columbia Institution to award college degrees—a law which was not strictly necessary, but which Gallaudet desired. This first college of the deaf became Gallaudet University.

Edward Miner Gallaudet was the president of Gallaudet College/Columbia for 46 years (1864–1910), was the head administrator for 53 years (1857–1910), and was the President of the Board of Directors for 47 years (1864–1911). He was a staunch advocate of sign language. He recognized the value of speech training, but also recognized that speech training was not for everyone.

Gallaudet was awarded honorary degrees by Trinity College in 1859 (M.A.) and 1869 (LL.D.), the Columbian University (later George Washington University) also in 1869 (Ph.D.), and Yale University in 1895 (LL.D.).

After retiring from Gallaudet College, Edward Miner Gallaudet returned to his hometown of Hartford, Connecticut.

A statue commemorating Gallaudet's life and works resides on the campus of Gallaudet University, which was sculpted by Pietro Lazzari.

He is buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford.

Edson Fessenden Gallaudet, who was Edward Miner Gallaudet's fifth child (and second child with his second wife Susan) was an early pioneer in the field of aviation, being the first to experiment with wing warping, and the founder of the first aircraft factory in America.

Biographical Article in the National Cyclopædia of American Biography

GALLAUDET, Edward Miner, educator, was born at Hartford, Conn., Feb. 5, 1837, youngest son of Rev. Thomas Hopkins and Sophia (Fowler) Gallaudet. After attending the high school of his native city for three years, he became, at the age of fourteen and a half, a clerk in the Phœnix Bank in the same place. He was several times promoted, and received flattering offers from other banks, but in 1854 gave uр business and entered Trinity College. In two years' time he completed a course of study which entitled him to the degree of B.S. In this time he covered ground ordinarily requiring four years of study, and often had recitations with the four college classes at the same time, in December, 1855, he began teaching three hours a day in the School for Deaf-Mutes, at Hartford, founded by his father, and on his graduation at college, in 1856, he assumed full duties as an instructor in that institution. In May, 1857, Mr. Gallaudet was invited to Washington, D. C., by Hon. Amos Kendall, to organize a new school for deaf-mutes, chartered by congress, in February of that year. Though not of legal age he at once took charge of this important institution, with the assurance from the board of directors, of which Mr. Kendall was president, that they looked with favor on his scheme, then definitely proposed, to develop the new school into a college. In 1864 congress gave the Columbia Institution collegiate powers, and Mr. Gallaudet, at the age of twenty-seven, was made president of the college he had founded. Liberal appropriations from congress have enabled the college to carry out the plans of its president for the higher education of the deaf, and after thirty-five years of most successful work it is still the only college for the deaf in the world. Beautiful grounds and buildings have been provided by congress, and an ample corps of professors carries forward the education of young deaf-mutes of both sexes to the point of graduation in the liberal arts. Pres. Gallaudet, besides conducting the affairs of the institution in all its departments, planning and superintending the erection of its buildings, has found time for considerable literary work, and has visited Europe four times in the interest of his profession. He has been a contributor to the "American Annals of the Deaf," the "New Englander," the "Penn Monthly," "Harper's Monthly," "International Review," and other publications. In 1879 he published a "Manual of International Law," now used as a text-book in many colleges. In 1887 he published a "Life of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (his father). Founder of Deaf-Mute Education in America." His first visit to Europe was in 1867, after which he published a report on schools for the deaf in Europe, which exerted an important influence in promoting the oral teaching of the deaf in this country. His second official Visit to Europe was made in 1880, when he went as a delegate to an international convention of instructors of the deaf at Milan. He took an active part in the discussions of the convention, and commented on its proceedings in the London "Times" and several American journals. In 1886 Dr. Gallaudet was invited by the British government to visit London for the purpose of giving testimony before the royal commission on the blind, deaf and dumb, etc. He appeared before the commission in November, and it is understood that his account of methods approved in America had an important influence in shaping the policy of the commission, whose recommendations have been favorably considered by parliament. Dr. Gallaudet has been for thirty years chairman of the executive committee of the convention of American institutes of the deaf; was one of the founders and has been president of the Cosmos Club; was Garfield's successor as president of the Literary Society of Washington; is an active member of the American Social Science Association, and has been chairman of the department of education: is a member of the Philosophical and Anthropological societies of Washington, and of the American Historical Society and the Huguenot Society, and is president of the District of Columbia Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. The degree of Ph.D. was conferred upon him by Columbian University [George Washington University], in 1869, and that of LL.D. by Trinity College, Hartford, the same year, and by Yale University, in 1895. Dr. Gallaudet was married, in Hartford, Conn., July 20, 1858, to Jane M. Fessenden, daughter of Edson and Lydia W. Fessenden. Mrs. Gallaudet died in 1866. He was married again, Dec. 22, 1868, to Susan, daughter of Joseph A. and Elizabeth (Skinner) Denison. He has three sons and three daughters.

(National Cyclopædia of American Biography, Volume 9, New York: James T. White & Company, 1899, pp. 140–141.)

Quotations

"Deafness, though it be total and congenital, imposes no limits on the intellectual development of its subjects, save in the single direction of the appreciation of acoustic phenomena."--Edward Miner Gallaudet, 1869.

"As eternity is longer than time, as mind is stronger than matter, as thought is swifter than the wind, as genius is more potent than gold, so will the results of well-directed labors toward the development of man's higher faculties ever outweigh a thousand fold any estimate in the currency of commerce, which man can put upon such efforts."--Edward Miner Gallaudet, 1870.

• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Jan 9 2016, 3:44:33 UTC

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Educator. A staunch advocate of sign language, he is remembered as the first administrator and superintendent of the deaf school that is now known as Gallaudet University in Washington DC. He was the son of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, who co-founded with Louis Laurent Clerc the first deaf school in North America (now known as the American School for the Deaf). His mother, Sophia Fowler Gallaudet, was deaf and was one of his father's first pupils. After graduating from Hartford High School in Hartford, Connecticut at the age of 14, his father died and he obtained employment with a bank. When he was 20, he worked at his father's school while studying at Trinity College in Hartford, graduating with a Bachelor of Science Degree. In 1857 philanthropist and former US Postmaster General Amos Kendall requested him to come to Washington DC to become the first head administrator of a new school that he had established, the Columbia Institution for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind and he accepted, a position that he served from 1857 until 1910. In 1864 he obtained college status for the Columbia Institution from President Abraham Lincoln and it became known as the National Deaf-Mute College. The following year, the US Congress renamed it Columbia Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb and he served as its president from 1864 until 1910, as well as the president of its board of directors from 1864 until 1911. During his life he received many honorary degrees, including a Master of Arts from Trinity College (1859), a Doctor of Laws and Doctor of Philosophy from Columbian University (later renamed George Washington University) in Washington DC (1869), and a Doctor of Laws from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut (1895). He died at the age of 80. In 1954 Congress changed the corporate name to Gallaudet College, which had been the official name since 1894, and in 1986 Congress again changed the name to Gallaudet University. A statue in his honor resides on the University's campus. (bio by: [fg.cgi?page=mr&MRid=47016546" target="_blank William Bjornstad)]

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Jan 9 2016, 4:43:01 UTC