Gallaudet, << `gal` uh DEHT, >> is the name of three American educators, father and two sons, who pioneered in the education of deaf people in the United States.
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet
(1787-1851) became interested in teaching a 4-year-old deaf girl, Alice Cogswell. He was sent by her father and others to study in Europe. He was discouraged from learning England’s oral method, preferring instead the manual, or sign method, favored in France. Gallaudet founded the Hartford School for the Deaf in 1817. He wrote many children’s books. Gallaudet was born in Philadelphia on Dec. 10, 1787, and died on Sept. 10, 1851.
Thomas Gallaudet and Edward Miner Gallaudet.
Thomas Gallaudet (1822-1902), the older son, opened a church for the deaf in New York City. Edward Miner Gallaudet (1837-1917), the younger son, became president of the Columbia Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind (now Gallaudet University) in Washington, D.C. Both sons were born in Hartford, Connecticut, Thomas on June 3, 1822, and Edward on Feb. 5, 1837. Thomas died on Aug. 27, 1902, and his brother on Sept. 26, 1917.
