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Contact: Dr. Karen Dilka Eastern Kentucky University. Date submitted to deafed.net – May 29, 2007 To contact the author for permission to use this PowerPoint, please e-mail: Karen.Dilka@EKU.EDU To use this PowerPoint presentation in its entirety, please give credit to the author.
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Contact: Dr. Karen DilkaEastern Kentucky University • Date submitted to deafed.net – May 29, 2007 • To contact the author for permission to use this PowerPoint, please e-mail: Karen.Dilka@EKU.EDU • To use this PowerPoint presentation in its entirety, please give credit to the author.
Dr. Mason Fitch Cogswell 1761-1830
Childhood • Dr. Mason Cogswell was born in Canterbury, Connecticut on September 28, 1761. • Because his mother died young that Samuel Huntington adopted him. • Samuel Huntington was the President of the Continental Congress and Governor of Connecticut.
Medical Accomplishments • Samuel sent him to Yale. • He graduated in 1780 as Valedictorian and as the youngest member of his class. • Under instruction of his brother, Dr. James Cogswell, Mason received medical training at Soldiers Hospital in New York City. • In 1803, Mason was the first, in the United States, to successfully remove a cataract from the eye.
Medical Accomplishments • Mason also was the first to tie the carotid artery in 1803. • He became one of the most distinguished surgeons in the country. • Mason was one of the founders of the Connecticut retreat for the insane at Hartford. • For ten years, he was the president of the Connecticut medical society.
Family Life • He married Mary Austin Ledyard, and settled in Hartford, Connecticut. • They had one son and one daughter. • His daughter, Alice, became ‘deaf and dumb’ from cerebra-spinal meningitis at the age of 2. • She lost her speech and hearing. • Her father's attention was called to the possibility of educating deaf-mutes. • He was determined that his daughter would overcome her ‘handicap,’ and he had the intelligence, love, and wealth needed to assist her.
Acquaintances • Mason was fortunate to be the neighbor of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. • Thomas Gallaudet was studying to be a minister and devised a sign language in which each word was spelled out letter by letter. • Cogswell convinced Gallaudet to go over to Europe, because Mason knew that France led the world in education of the deaf. • Thomas studied the work of Laurent Clerc, and Abbe De L’Epee
Progress Towards ASD • While Gallaudet was in Europe, Cogswell was trying to create a school in Hartford for the Deaf. • Cogswell took a census that showed: • 84 Deaf in Connecticut • 400 in New England • 2000 in the whole U.S. • On August 22, 1816, Gallaudet returned to America with Laurent Clerc.
Traveling with Purpose • Between October 1816 and April 1817, Clerc, Gallaudet, and Dr. Cogswell traveled to Boston, New York, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and other places. • They were delivering speeches and demonstrations of teaching methods for support across the spectrum.
Preparation for ASD • The three men raised around $12,000 from public support. • To show support, the Connecticut General Assembly voted to give $5,000 for the school. This was the first appropriation ever for the education of ‘handicapped’ people.
ASD is Created • On April 15, 1817, seven students, including Alice Cogswell, attended school in rented rooms. • This school was called The Connecticut Asylum at Hartford for the Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons. • It is now referred to as The American School for the Deaf. • Attendance increased quickly. By 1818, 40 students attended the school, more than 100 by 1822, and more than 200 by 1824.
The End • Cogswell continued to write and lecture on behalf of the Deaf until he died in Hartford on December 10, 1830. • Also buried with Mason is Alice Cogswell. She died 13 days after he did.
Works Cited • http://www.dreamstime.com/familysilhouette-thumb133738 • http://dict.die.net/deaf-and-dumb%20person/ • http://www.grayswatercolors.com/images/bystate/Connecticut/East%20Hartford/slides/Goodwin_School_House_c1761.jpg • http://www.asd-1817.org/history/hartford_history.pdf
Works Cited Cont. • www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6168694 • http://hartford.omaxfield.com/springgrove.html • www.firn.edu/schools/wakulla/wakulla/deafed/origins.html
Works Cited Cont. • www.deafed.net/PublishedDocs/sub/sld027b.htm • http://members.aol.com/deafcultureinfo/deaf_history1800s.htm • http://info.med.yale.edu/library/exhibits/yalemed1/medinstyalcoll.html
Works Cited Cont. • www.ctheritage.org/encyclodpedia/ct1818_1865/amschooldeaf.htm • http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~dav4is/people/HNTN336.htm • www.famousamericans.net/masonfitchcogswell/
Works Cited Cont. • http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/Literacy?MSSDLRC/clerc • www.disabilitymuseum.org/lib/docs/691.htm • Irvine, Paul. (1985) “Mason Fitch Cogswell.” Journal of Special Education. Vol. 19 Issue 3.