FOOTNOTES:
[162] In 1751 Diderot published his "Lettre sur les Sourds et Muets," in which there is reference to the education of the deaf.
[163] For accounts of the early work for the education of the deaf, both before and after it was taken up in the United states, the following may be referred to: Thomas Arnold, "A Method of Teaching the Deaf and Dumb Speech, Lip-Reading and Language", 1881; "The Education of Deaf-Mutes", 1888; E. M. Gallaudet, "Life of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet", 1888; H. N. Dixon, "A Method of Teaching Deaf-Mutes to Speak, with a Historical Introduction" (including a translation of Bonet's work), 1890; J. K. Love, "Deaf-Mutism", 1896; Henry Barnard, "A Tribute to Gallaudet", with other papers, 1852; Heman Humphrey, "Life and Labors of T. H. Gallaudet", 1857; H. W. Syle, "Retrospect of the Education of the Deaf", 1886; J. A. Seiss, "The Children of Silence", 1887; J. R. Burnet, "Tales of the Deaf and Dumb", 1835; E. J. Mann, "Deaf and Dumb", 1836; J. N. Williams, "A Silent People", 1883; W. R. Scott, "The Deaf and Dumb, their Education and Social Position", 1870; History of First School for Deaf-Mutes in America, 1883; Addresses delivered at the New York Institution, 1847; H. P. Peet, Address at Laying of Corner Stone of North Carolina Institution, 1848; Proceedings of Laying of Corner Stone of Michigan Institution, 1856; Collins Stone, "Address on History and Methods of Deaf-Mute Instruction", 1869; Addresses Commemorative of the Virtues and Services of Abraham B. Hutton, 1870; American Annals of the Deaf (especially early numbers, often giving accounts of individual schools as well as of the general work); North American Review, vii., 1818, p. 127; xxxviii., 1834, p. 307; lxxxvii., 1858, p. 517; civ., 1867, p. 512; American Journal of Education, (n. s.) i., 1830, p. 409; American Annals of Education, iv., 1834, p. 53; Literary and Theological Review, ii., 1835, p. 365; American Biblical Repository, viii., 1842, p. 269; De Bow's Review, xvii., 1854, p. 435; National Magazine, ix., 1856, pp. 385, 487 (Sketches of Humane Institutions); Scribner's Magazine, xii., 1892, p. 463; Association Review, ii.-v., 1900-1904 ("Historical Notes concerning the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf"); Proceedings of Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf, i., 1850, p. 99; v., 1858, p. 275 (H. P. Peet, "Memoirs on the Origin and Early History of the Art of the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb"); iii., 1853, p. 277; iv., 1856, p. 17; ix., 1878, p. 195; American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf, v., 1896, p. 27 (P. G. Gillet, "Some Notable Benefactors of the Deaf"); National Association of the Deaf, iii., 1889, p. 21; National Conference of Charities and Corrections, 1907, p. 512; Californian, iv., 1881, p. 376; Iowa Bulletin of State Institutions, viii., 1906, p. 175; xii., 1910, p. 24; Transactions of Royal Historical Society, viii., 1880; Encyclopedia Americana, 1883 (History of the Education of the Deaf in the United States, given in Annals, xxxi., 1886, p. 130); various reports of the several schools for the deaf in America (as that of New York Institution, 1839, p. 8; 1843, p. 11; 1876, p. 48; American School, 1844, p. 25; 1867, p. 13; Pennsylvania Institution, 1843, p. 9; 1892, p. 64; Kentucky School, 1857, p. 8; 1867, p. 13; Michigan School, 1858, p. 40; Illinois School, 1868, p. 42; New York Institution for Improved Instruction, 1869, p. 26; Mississippi School, appendices, 1907, 1909, 1911); "Histories of American Schools for the Deaf", edited and with an introduction by Dr. E. A. Fay, 1893 (containing accounts of individual schools, and a most valuable work).
CHAPTER IX
HISTORY OF EDUCATION OF THE DEAF IN THE UNITED STATES
Early Attempts at Instruction
The first instance of which we have record in America of an attempt to teach the deaf was in 1679[164] when a man named Philip Nelson of Rowley, Massachusetts, tried to instruct a deaf and dumb boy, Isaac Kilbourn by name, in speech, though with what success we do not know.[165] These, however, were the witchcraft days, and the work of Nelson seemed such an extraordinary thing that the ministers of the community are said to have made an investigation, fearing that witches might be involved in the affair. The next instance of which we have mention occurred in Virginia a century later, when John Harrower, a school-master of Fredericksburg, had in his school from 1773 to 1776 a deaf boy named John Edge, reference to whose instruction is made in his diary.[166]
The earliest effort for the establishment of a school for the deaf in America of which we know was made almost contemporaneously with the opening of the nineteenth century, and at the time that such schools were being created over Europe. There lived at this time in Boston a man named Francis Green, who had a deaf son. This boy he sent to the school in Scotland which Braidwood had started; while he himself became much interested in the subject of the education of the deaf. In 1783 he published in England a work entitled "Vox Oculis Subjecta." In 1803 he had, with the help of some of the ministers, a census made of the deaf in Massachusetts, when 75 were found, and it was estimated that there were 500 in the United States. Green felt the need of a school, and in several of the publications of the time appeared his writings, in which he urged the creation of one.[167]