Gallaudet was born in Philadelphia on December 10, 1787, and educated at Yale College (now Yale University) and Andover Theological Seminary. He became interested in the teaching of the deaf and went to Europe to learn the methods, including sign language, used there. After studying at the Institut Royal des Sourds-Muets in Paris, he returned to the United States in 1816 with a French teacher, Laurent Clerc. Helped by a land grant from Congress, the two founded the first free public school for the deaf in the U.S., the American Asylum for Deaf-Mutes (now the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut). Some of the people Gallaudet trained went on to lead similar institutions and gave a strong impetus to the previously neglected education of the deaf.

Gallaudet retired in 1830 and devoted himself to various educational causes; he advocated establishing public schools for teacher training and providing higher education for women. He died in Hartford on September 10, 1851.

His two sons, Thomas Gallaudet and Edward Miner Gallaudet, continued his work as teachers of the deaf. In 1852 Thomas, an Episcopal priest, opened Saint Ann's Church for Deaf-Mutes in New York City. He also founded the Gallaudet Home for elderly deaf-mutes in Poughkeepsie, New York. Edward became head of the Columbia Institute for the Deaf and the Dumb and the Blind (now Gallaudet University) in Washington, D.C., the first American institution of higher education for the deaf. In 1894 its senior division was among the earliest proponents of the teaching of lipreading and speech to the deaf.

Gallaudet, Thomas Hopkins," Microsoft. Encarta. Online Encyclopedia 2000 http://encarta.msn.com ) 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.