Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was born in Philadelphia Penn

Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was born in Philadelphia, Penn. He attended Yale University, earning his bachelors degree in 1805, graduating at the age of seventeen, with highest honors. December 10, 1787 – September 10, 1851 painting by George F. Wright in 1851

Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet He earned a masters at Yale in 1808. In 1814, Gallaudet became a preacher following his graduation from Andover Theological Seminary after a two-year course of study.

Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was a renowned American pioneer in the education of the Deaf. Along with Laurent Clerc and Mason Cogswell, he co-founded the first institution for the education of the Deaf in North America, and he became its first principal. When opened in 1817, it was called the "American Asylum for Deaf-Mutes" in Connecticut, but it is now known as the American School for the Deaf.

Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet While still in Great Britain, he met Abbe Sicard, head of the Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets a Paris, and Institution of its deaf faculty members, Laurent Clerc and Jean Massieu. Sicard invited Gallaudet to Paris to study the school's method of teaching the Deaf using manual communication. Impressed with the manual method, Gallaudet studied teaching methodology under Sicard, learning sign language from Massieu and Clerc, who were both graduates of the school.

Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet Having persuaded Clerc to accompany him, Gallaudet sailed back to America. The two men toured New England successfully raised private and public funds to found a school for deaf students in Hartford, which later became known as the American School for the Deaf. This is where his school began. Even some hearing students came to this school to learn.

Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet In 1821 he married one of his former students, Sophia Fowler. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet died at his home in Hardford. Gallaudet, E. M. , "Life of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, " p. 319. Gannon, Jack. 1981. Deaf Heritage–A Narrative History of Deaf America, Silver Spring, MD: National Association of the Deaf, p. 6 Creative Commnication