Gallaudet, Thomas Hopkins

Gallaudet, Thomas Hopkins găl˝ədĕt´, gô´lə– [key], 1787–1851, American educator of the deaf, b. Philadelphia, grad. Andover Theological Seminary. In England and France he studied methods of education in schools for the deaf, and in Hartford, Conn., he founded (1817) the first such free school in the United States. He was interested also in many other philanthropies.

See biography by his son, E. M. Gallaudet (1888).

His oldest son, Thomas Gallaudet, 1822–1902, was ordained (1851) as an Episcopal priest. He devoted most of his time to missionary work among the deaf, founding St. Ann's Church for Deaf-Mutes in New York City and the Gallaudet Home for aged deaf-mutes at Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Edward Miner Gallaudet, 1837–1917, youngest son of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, opened a school for deaf-mutes in Washington, D.C.; the upper branch of this became Gallaudet Univ., which is now partially funded by the U.S. government.

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