Gallaudet, Thomas Hopkins (găl'ədĕt`, gô`lə–), 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.

Bibliography

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. Gallaudet University, at Washington, D.C.; coeducational; with federal support. It was founded (1856) as the Kendall School, a training school for deaf and blind students, by Edward Miner Gallaudet (see under Gallaudet, Thomas Hopkins ).
..... Click the link for more information. , which is now partially funded by the U.S. government.

Gallaudet, Thomas Hopkins

(born Dec. 10, 1787, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—died Sept. 10, 1851, Hartford, Conn.) U.S. philanthropist and founder of the first American school for the deaf. He graduated from Yale College and later studied in England and France, where he learned the sign method of communication. In 1816 he established the school for the deaf in Hartford, Conn.; for more than 50 years it would remain the main American training centre for instructors of the deaf. Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., is named in his honour.