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Les diagrammes sulvants iilustrent la m^thode. rrata o lelure. 3 32X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 • . ■ < ' • , v ' f ■ •Vi^^ > I 'i.^''' • ^ir ;''-^ ?;;■■■ :m ■ ■■ '■ fA ■'< ■'■y^fiW '=t AUTOBKKJBAPBY OP ,;-':?a5^''^^M ^ '■;,■* ■>■><■ . ■r.^. ■'•"'"■'■ tt ''^ k jyKhF. -MUTE, ?'W "■■' ■' WHO FIRST GAVE INSTRUCTION TO tHE DEAF AND . .;^.,, ,. ^. DW5 IN TB^ .■'v ''■^^-■■^ ^■y-'^'i^ ,*viat''^' ■ -^■..vi ,. ;■ *■ ^■'- VA^ v^^1 ALSO AN EXTRACT FROM AN AMERiqAN PAPER ON TEACHERS AND MODES OF TEACHING THE DEAF AND DUMB. '^■'■>^ MALIFAX, N. S. PRINTED BY JAMES B0WE8 & SONS, BEDFORD ROW. 31878. .■>-^v.-' *■: t ^9!i% 1^,^'i^^iJy^^PX^'- ^ { ' ' f' * \ *, V ./v tv ■h>. > >»^ ( J ^ [^^*>.» 1- *'•.. 1 •/» > J '?>'^ i' 'J v ■ .1 ' ,, ' / l^ \ / >■' V ;^ ^>>' u. F*-. »f _> t> -1,1 I' < 4 » ' Infttitiitioii f6t the 1]W ft,i^ Hximh, paliffti. V ^. -r^ / ( ^^\ t'j- ^^^' - * >»■''<' ^ ^\\ .t/ A- t'r Vx r^i l^ \x 'i i V'., _ -^ t >, ^; f\ ('y x;;*"^ - 'i , 1 ^■+' ■*, i A. I-,',.' ■' ■% ••( V-A. V ,' V . 1,:' >;•■" v.. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF GEORGE TAIT, V-T?' -i- >v;,^>,^^."■' ..■v-,■■■^^■■^•'"'|i '• ■ HALIFAX, N. S. PRINTED BY JAMES BOWES & SONS, BEDFORD ROW.. • 1878.. . : * '^Miftetf^*^ « :/i in the District of Columbia a college, which receives, as students, graduates oi the other institutions. This is the only institution to which appropriations are made by the general government, the several States making provision for the education of their own deaf mute beneficiaries as a part of their common school system, the institutions being responsible, in most instances, to the State Superin- tendents of Public Instruction. Their immediate government is intrusted to boards of trustees or directors which select the principal" or superintendent, make by-laws, direct and control the expenditures and exercise a vigilant guardianship, through frequent visitations^ Hcinicke,% however, is followed in an institution established in New York city in 1867, entitled the New York Institution for the Improved Instruction of Deaf Mutes, its principal teachers having been associated with the distinguished Mr. Deutsch, of the Jewish institution in Vienna. In this connection it may not be out of place to say that Braid wood is also represented in the Clarke Institution for the Deaf and Dumb in Northampton, Mass., where the distinctive principles he advocated seem to have been followed. This institution was also founded in 1867, having been endowed with* u large fund for its support by the late John Clarke, Esq., who took a peculiar interest in the deaf and dumb. The New York institution may be regarded as having been as inde- pendent in its origin as that of Hartford. In 181 (? William Lee, Esq., on his return from Bordeaux, France, where he had been consu, brought a letter from Mr. F. Gard, the distinguished pupil of the Abbe St. Sernin, the director of the institution at that place. The letter was written in excellent English, which Mr. Gard had studied, and was addressed to 'VPhilanthropists of the United States,** and contained an- offer of himself as teacher of the deaf and dumb, and Mr. Lee handed it to Samuel L. Mitchell, M. D., a celebrated physician in this city, who had attained a great reputation as a man of learning and benevolence. Dr. Mitchell's sympathies were at once aroused, and he conversed with £ev. John Stanford, chaplain of the alms-house, who had met a number of deaf mutes in the course of his ministrations, and with- Dr. Samuel Ackerly, whom he knew as a man with n heavt open t» 28 every call of benevolenco. These three gentlenmn called a meeting at the house of fiev. John Stanford, at which wore present, besides themselves, Jones Mapes, Elislia W. Kinv. John B. Scott, Silvanus Miller, R. Wheaton, James Palmer, Nicholas Koome, and llev. Alexander McLeod. This meeting resulted in another, more public at Tammany Hall, at which the feasibility of instructing the deaf and dumb was deu)onstrated by evidence which Dr. Mitchell had collected, and then arose the more practical question as to whether there were enough deaf mutes in the city to justify the establishment of a school. The result was the first census of deaf mutes ever made in this country. The Committees appointed presented, at a third iiioeling, on January 23, 1817, reports from seven of the ten wards of this city, giving the names and residences of sixty-six deaf mutes. The population of the city was then 120,000, which showed a pro- portion of one to 1,818, which does not differ very much from that which obtains at the present time. A list of officers and directors, at the head of which was the name of the Flon. De VVitt Clinton, was then formed, and a petition presented to the Legislature for an act of incorporation. The high character of the applicants, and the u exceptionable, though novel, nature of the application, insured a ready and favorable hearing, and on the 15th of April, 1817, the New York Institution for^^the Deaf and Dumb acquired a legal existence with the usual corporate privi- leges. By an interesting coincidence, this was the same day that the asylum of Hartford was opened for the reception of pupils. On the 22nd of May, 1817, the board of directors met for the first timu. .The first a jt was to appoint a committee to write to England for a teacher, under the impression that the system of articu- lation introduced by Braidwood would be of more value than the French system, which discarded it. No answer was re- ceived until the summer of 1818, when the terms demanded were found so exorbitant that it was impossible to accede to them. On the twenty-fourth of March, 1818, the deaf and dumb of New York were collected in the court room of the city hall, and lent an affecting influence to an address delivered by Dr. Mitchell to an assemblage of the prominent ladies and gentlemen of the city, on tho necessity of making provision for their education. On the twentieth of May of the same year, was found in a room which the city authorities had kindly set apart in the alms-house, then situated in the City Hall park, a benevolent-looking gontlemaii, of liberal education, named Mr. Abraham O. Stansbury, who had been a year in the asylum at Hartford, in the capacity of superintend- ent of the administrative department, and whom, after waiting in vain to hear from Europe, the directors of the New Y'ork Institution had engaged to take cliarge of their new school. Around him were ^ groaped four young deaf mutes, who had been brought to him that morning, and whom he wns in the act of teaching the letters of the manual alphabet. They were to live at home, and come to him every day. Before the close of the year 1818, had been gathered thirty- three pupils, and Miss Mary Stansburry had been employed as an additional teacher. Twenty-four of these pupils were day scholars, and nine were boarders who were accommodated in rooms hired for their benefit. Some of these wore paying pupils, but the expenses of the majority were defrayed by charitable conlWbutions, and by the city of New York, which agreed to make an annual appropria- tion of $400. At the annual m*ieting af the members of the institu- tion, composed of ladies and gentlemen who had agreed to pay three dollars annually, or thirty dollars in one sum, held on the third Tues- day of May in that year, in accordance with the terms of the charter, Dr. Mitchel was elected president, in place of De Witt Clinton, who, having been elected Governor, felt constrained to retire. In the spring of 1819, as the number of pupils had reached forty-seven, it vas found impossible to support the institution on the limited resources they could command, and accordingly Dr. Mitchell, as president, and Dr. Ackerly, as secretary of the board of trustees, sccompanied by Mr. Stansbury and eleven of his pupils, proceeded to Albany, and held an exhibition before the Legislature. The result of the favorable impression thus created was the passage, on the 13tb of April, 1819, of two acts — one making a direct appro- priation of $10,000 from the State treasury, and the other securing to the institution a moiety of a tax on lotteries in the city of New York, from which, for fourteen years thereafter, a considerable part of its income was derived. In the June following, Mr. Horace Loofborrow was engaged as an assistant teacher. In 1321, a furthei grant was obtained from th'j Legislature of $2,500, and on the 16th of April, 1822, was passed an act appropriating 8150 each per annum for thirty«two indigent State pupils, four of whom 'were to be sent from each Senate district, and authorizing the supervisors of any county in such district to send to the iri'/itution, at the expense of the county, any detif mutes not provided for by the preceding arrangement. In this way, it was thought, no deaf mute need be left without instruction. The term of instruction was, however, unfortunately limited to three years. In the meantime, important changes had taken place in the organiza- tion of the institution. Mr. Stansbury departed for Europe in May, 1821, and Mr. Horace Loofborrow was made principle, an office which he held for nearly ten years. The admmistrative department of the institution was placed in the hands of Dr. Samuel Ackerly as superin- tendent and physician, who occupied this post till February 1881. In 1827, an act of the Legislature was passed, granting $10,000 to .^■■sm-. .f ^ jaid in the •erection of buildings for the pcrmnnoiat use of the institHtiou ■coupled with three conditions : Ut. That the director? shtiU raise an equal nmount ; 2d. That the location and plans shall receive the approval of the Superintendent of Common Schools and the espeno ditures accounted for to the State Comptroller, and, 8d. Thnt th« institution should be subject to the inspection of the Superindent of Public Schools, this otficer being, at the same time, authorized to visit other institutions for the deaf and dnmh, and to su(;gc8t to the •directors such in |^r 'Vements in th3 system of instruction as might eeera to him desirable. The directors having complied with all the conditions, tho coroer- stono of the new building was laid on Fiftieth street, between the Fourth and Fifth avenues, by the Hon. A, C. Flagg, Secretary of State and ex officio iSuperitendent of Ijommon Schools in proeience of a large assemblage of friends of tho institution. The site selected was an acre of ground donated by the city, but some ten acres of land adjoining were leased from the city for the use of the pupils. Fur one who vsees it now, densely built up with elegant stone struc- tures, it is difficult to realize that this was then a rt:ral spot, sur- rounded by green fields, woods and pasture lots, and reached only by country roads. The building was dedicated to its humane pur- poses on the 80th of September 1829. The address on tho occasion, was delivered by Rev. James Miloor, D.D., Eector of St. George's church, who at the election in May, had beeti chosen as the successor of Dr. Mitchell, in the office of president. Though the cost had exceeded the original estimate by $15,000, amounting in all to $35,000, the entire amount, except 810,000 given by the State, was secured by the directors, who thus far exceeded the condition imposed upon tbem by law. While these events were transpiring, the Superintendent of Com- mon Schools visited the institutions at Hartford and Philadelphia, and made a careful comparison of their system of instruction, with that which had been pursued in New York, and made a careful report of his observations, which indicated his opinion as to the course it Was rlesirablc for the dh f.tors to pursue. The labors and anxieties connected with erecting a suitable building having been brought to an cud, the directors now turned their attention to making improvements in the internal management and especially in the personnel of tho corps of instruction. Under the inspiring guidance of their new president, they in ugurated measures designed to give the institution u leading positidu in this country and in the world. Dr. Milnor visited Europe in 1830, at his own expense, and inspected a large number of institutions. On his return he brought with him from the Paris Institution, Prof Leon Vaisse, an instructor who held high xank in the corps of tUe Paris Institution, •to which he returned after c tl n: it & w ci in es en ev an Tl: tb( ^^^lO*^' . WWMiisiWi^W. ^^^'^Sw^ji H., ■^ I. ■; • ■ • ,-ti ■''■*., ;ri'?; '-■1. 'r''V. f ■ *:;f.;' ../ ' ^v ■!i;.-j. ;•■»<' •I*''*' ^■■n IfV >.V' i *« ) I J 1- if H> '^ ?i.?.''f.r rr/J r\\^V .'^ ~J^'>J M< <>^; ^' J.^ -5' (>i^y '». (H V V ) »> ^ ":0?v ^t >\ 1 J ^- - ';.'.,•• ^ \ e. '«->*^^' ,V V#> f i-> i , u H'>~'*^'m'^'^ ** ^■< ■.', ' m, r^^'-'','/!!' r' ^ .♦ r ,'\ 4 y'4 .V iv'* s'*' N t i I * .«>.,?*> ^A-. .i- <''* 7 f ' r Jt V^ 'V . < i ,\ V ( f ^; ' .y X'i I > r*^' V ^i' /' V.'' 1 J' ' ■^,r '*/-' '/,^^ iVX ,v 1 > , 1 / 1 ^■f 'rt- ; /- ^A. / r<>f . ^^ >"'' A f '- V' f t^ ,1 < .' J t ^ < \'" '. *A ' V V / tr':?» .K-l ■** " ' ^* jKi ^' /^T^*t '1 > r^ 'j.. (.'-'■ ». r ..J*^' —I >*,