Clerc-Gallaudet Week

The first full week of December celebrates the remarkable partnership between deaf-education pioneers Laurent Clerc and Thomas Gallaudet. Gallaudet, founder of the first deaf school in the US (and for whom Gallaudet University here in DC is named), began a partnership with a young French teacher, Laurent Clerc, to promote the education of deaf children. Read more about Gallaudet and Clerc at Gallaudet University's Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center. 

Louis Laurent Marie Clerc (26 December 1785 – 18 July 1869) was called "The Apostle of the Deaf in America" by generations of American deaf people.

Reverend Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, LL.D., (December 10, 1787 – September 10, 1852) was a renowned American pioneer in the education of the Deaf. Along with Laurent Clerc and Mason Cogswell, he co-founded the first institution for the education of the Deaf in North America, and he became its first principal.

Thomas Gallaudet (June 3, 1822 – August 27, 1902), an American Episcopal priest, was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He taught and ministered to the deaf.  His father, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, was the renowned pioneer of deaf education in the United States. 


See some of the library's resources about deaf culture and American Sign Language in the display cabinet on the main level.



All photos, public domain.