Orginally it was Hartford Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb on April 15, 1817 in the old Bennet's City Hotel, Hartford, Connecticut. it evolved into Gallaudet Univesity.
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet
The first hearing impaired school in the United States was established by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc in 1817. Gallaudet and Clerc founded the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut.
John Braidwood opened the first American school for deaf children in 1815. The Braidwood school in Cobb, Virginia would be shut down by 1817. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc founded the American School for the Deaf in April, 1817.
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet & Laurent Clerc
Laurent Clerc is famous for being a Deaf educator and co-founder of the first school for the Deaf in the United States, the American School for the Deaf in Connecticut. He was instrumental in promoting the use of American Sign Language and the advancement of Deaf education in America.
Sophia Gallaudet was the widow of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, and mother of Edward Miner Gallaudet, who started Gallaudet University for the deaf. Sophia Gallaudet became the University's first school matron. Source: Gallaudet University website
The oldest permanent school for the deaf in the U.S is the American School for the Deaf or ASD. It was founded by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc on April 15, 1817 in Hartford, Connecticut.
Laurent Clerc and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet did not invent sign language. They were instrumental in establishing the first permanent school for the deaf in the United States, the American School for the Deaf, and in spreading the use of American Sign Language. They recognized the importance of using sign language as a primary means of communication for deaf individuals.
The first school for the Deaf was founded by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet wanted to find a way to teach deaf children. His neighbor Mason Gogswell had a deaf daughter, Alice, and Gogswell did not want her locked away in a mental institution, as was common practice during those times. Thomas left the U.S. in search of a way to educate deaf people, in 1816, while in England seeking their method of educating the deaf he attended a deaf-mute show which featured it's star pupil: Laurent Clerc, a brilliant deaf student from France. Gallaudet convinced Clerc to come to the U.S. and help set up a school and hence in 1817 the first school for the Deaf opened in Hartford Connecticut. Source: "Learning to See: Teaching American Sign Language as a Second Language" by Sherman Wilcox and Phyllis Perrin Wilcox (Pp. 17-19)
he created the first school for the deaf
West Hartford, Connecticut. It was established April 15, 1817, and it is still running today.
American Sign Language (ASL) began to take shape in the early 19th century when Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc founded the first permanent school for the deaf in the United States in 1817. This marked the beginning of ASL being used as a formal means of communication among the deaf community in America.