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Cited by 120Hearing Impairment and CommunicationDisability Rights and RepresentationHistorical Education Studies Worldwide

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Signs of Resistance: American Deaf Cultural History, 1900 to World War II

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Burch, Susan·2002·New York University Press eBooks
DOI 10.18574/nyu/9780814791240.001.0001
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Abstract

Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2003 During the nineteenth century, American schools for deaf education regarded sign language as the "natural language" of Deaf people, using it as the principal mode of instruction and communication. These schools inadvertently became the seedbeds of an emerging Deaf community and culture. But beginning in the 1880s, an oralist movement developed that sought to suppress sign language, removing Deaf teachers and requiring deaf people to learn speech and lip reading. Historians have all assumed that in the early decades of the twentieth century oralism triumphed overwhelmingly. Susan Burch shows us that everyone has it wrong; not only did Deaf students continue to use sign language in schools, hearing teachers relied on it as well. In Signs of Resistance , Susan Burch persuasively reinterprets early twentieth century Deaf history: using community sources such as Deaf newspapers, memoirs, films, and oral (sign language) interviews, Burch shows how the Deaf community mobilized to defend sign language and Deaf teachers, in the process facilitating the formation of collective Deaf consciousness, identity and political organization.

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  2. Thomas Francis Fox, "The Proper Place of the Sign Language in the Educa- tion of the Deaf and Its General Use in and out of School," Proceedings of the Eleventh Convention of the National Association of the Deaf (1915), 98 [hereafter NAD Proceed- ings (1915)].
  3. For more information on European Deaf history, see Renate Fischer and Harlan Lane, eds., Looking Back: A Reader on the History of Deaf Communities and Their Sign Languages (Hamburg: Signum Press, 1993).
  4. Alexander Graham Bell, "Is Race Suicide Possible?" Journal of Heredity 11 no. 8 (Nov.-Dec. 1920): 340.
  5. N. F. Walker, "Use of English," 34-37. Also see G. Hudson-Makunen, "The Medico-Education Problem of the Deaf Child," Volta Review 12 (1911): 221.
  6. For more on auricular training, see Tobias Brill, "The Education of the Deaf in the United States and in Great Britain," master's thesis, Rutgers University (1935), 20. Harlan Lane discusses this relationship at length in his books Mask of Benevolence and When the Mind Hears. However, Lane's contention of an audist con- spiracy-his term for opponents of Deaf culture-undermines the insightful inter- pretation of this issue.
  7. For example, see "Methods of Deaf-Mute Instruction," The Silent Courier (15 Oct. 1914): 4; "Address of Mr. Roberts," Proceedings of the Thirteenth Convention of the National Association of the Deaf (1920), 70-1;
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  10. For more on Native American education, see Richard Henry Pratt, Battlefield and Classroom (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964);
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  12. David Wallace Adams, Education for Extinction (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1995), 31.
  13. school, like Clarke, emphasized a pure oral approach, and Goldstein was a major researcher in acoustic training. In 1916, he expanded his institute, adding teacher training and extensive clinical research. CID immediately established a link to Washington University, enhancing the reputation and quality of its candidates. For more on Goldstein and his work, see "What the Physician May Do for the Deaf Child," Laryngoscope 20 no. 6 (June 1910). For more on otology and deafness, see Irving Voorhees, "Some Recent Ideas on Deafness," Laryngoscope vol. 47 no. 3 (March 1937): 192-5.
  14. Brill, "Education of the Deaf," 46; Beryl Lieff Benderly, Dancing Without Music: Deafness in America (Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 1980), 130.
  15. Margaret Winzer, History of Special Education (Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet University Press, 1993), 129;
  16. Douglas Baynton, Forbidden Signs: American Culture and sign language instruction, thereby encouraging its use and preservation in schools for the deaf. For a description of life as a Normal program student, see for example, Edward Scouten, Correspondence with author, 13 July 1995 (GUA). 23. Of 422 Gallaudet graduates between 1915 and 1940, 228 (54 percent) be- came teachers. I. Fusfeld, "Professional Preparation and Advancement of Deaf Teachers," AAD 86 (1941): 422-23. See List of Students by Degree, Date, and State (Washington, DC: Gallaudet College, 1944-45), 13-14;
  17. Harley Drake, "The Deaf Teacher of the Deaf," AAD 85 (1940): 148-49.
  18. Louis Cohen, "He Inspired and Encouraged Us,"Fanwood Journal (15 May 1933): 13. Commentary by other students at deaf schools describe similar Deaf he- roes. Jack Gannon, Correspondence with author, 5 Dec. 2000;
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  20. Ronald Emery Nomeland, "Beginnings of Vocational Education in School for the Deaf," master's thesis, University of Maryland (1967), 20. For more about gender differences in vocational training, see Robert Buchanan's Illusions of Equality (Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 1999).
  21. Leonard Elstad, "Normal Training of Deaf Teachers," Proceedings of the Twenty-Ninth Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf (Washington, DC: Govern- ment Printing Office, 1936), 195; Best, Deafness and the Deaf, 573.
  22. Most programs focused on male students and funded male-oriented job training, such as carpentry, shoe making, and farming. Classes for girls enforced the expectation that their primary role would be as mothers and wives, teaching them cooking and sewing skills. While cosmetology and simple secretarial courses Press, 1998), 16; there is anecdotal evidence of this kind of treatment at many strict oral schools. Lester Guenter, "From the Darkness of Ignorance to the Light of Knowledge," Missouri Record (April 1971): 5;
  23. "The Nebraska Oral Law," NAD Proceedings (1915): 27, 29-31. See also the publication of the Nebraska Association of the Deaf, the Silent Facts.
  24. Charles Rawlings, "A Survey of Facilities for the Education of the Deaf in Ne- braska," AAD 83 (1938): 442-43;
  25. irst, antipa- thy of the deaf themselves to all oral work and incidentally to oral teachers; and second, the fact that the little deaf youngsters when associated with the older deaf very early master the sign language and naturally prefer to use this." Frank Driggs, "Speech Problems in Combined-Method Schools," Proceedings of the Twentieth Meet- ing of the Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf (1914), 111-20 [hereafter CAID Proceedings (1914)].
  26. Manuel Crockett, "The Employment Status of the Negro Deaf in NC," mas- ter's thesis, Hampton Institute (1949), 23. Harry Burton Davis was the first of his peers to earn a certificate at the Missouri School, in 1914.
  27. Robert Buchanan discusses this issue at length in his dissertation, "Deaf Students and Workers in the United States, 1800-1950," Ph.D. dissertation, Uni- versity of Wisconsin at Madison (1995). For a thoughtful comparison of vocational issues in the Deaf community in general and in the African American mainstream community, see Tricia Leaky, "Vocational Education in the Deaf American and African-American Communities," in Van Cleve, ed., Deaf History Unveiled, 74-91.
  28. For commentary on school chapel services see "Present Tendencies Not Fa- vorable to the Moral and Religious Development of the Deaf," Proceedings of the Fifth Convention of the National Association of the Deaf (1896), 20-21;
  29. Grace Warren Rowell, "The Relationship between Religion and a System of Education for the Deaf," mas- ter's thesis, Gallaudet College (1937).
  30. J. W. Jones, "One Hundred Years in the Education of the Deaf in America and Its Present Status," AAD 39 (1918): 11;
  31. Dolores V. Palumbo, "An Investigation into the Educational, Social and Legal Status of the Deaf in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries," master's thesis, Southern Connecticut State College (1966), 65.
  32. Jack Gannon, Deaf Heritage: A Narrative History of Deaf America (Silver Spring, MD: NAD, 1981), 183. One of them was the Reverend J. M. Kochler, who had the states west of the Mississippi as his parish in the early 1900s. For more on this priest and the Episcopal work done by signing hearing and Deaf men, see, for ex- ample, Silent Review (1 Oct. 1911): 1; Proceedings of the Seventh Convention of the Na- tional Association of the Deaf (1904), 158-59 [hereafter NAD Proceedings (1904)]; Rustler (Sept. 1906): 1.
  33. John Van Cleve, ed., Gallaudet Encyclopedia of Deaf People and Deafness 2 (Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 1987), 427;
  34. Otto B. Berg, A Missionary Chronicle: Being a History of the Ministry to the Deaf in the Episcopal Church, 1850-1980 (Hollywood, MD: St. Mary's Press, 1984), 39.
  35. Amos Draper, "Rise and Progress of Religious Work for the Deaf," CAID Proceedings (1914), 97-100; CAID Proceedings (1914), 175-78.
  36. For example, see The Jewish Deaf, Silent Worker, or Deaf Mute's Journal. Often, ministers published reviews and updates of Deaf ministry, as seen in Herbert Mer- rill's "Church Work among the Deaf," Digest of the Deaf (Dec. 1938) [hereafter Di- gest]: 26-27;
  37. Philip Hasenstab, "The Moral and Religious Status of the Deaf in the United States," NAD Proceedings (1904), 153-54.Some Deaf people interviewed said that Deaf religious organizations were central to their identity. Anonymous corre- spondence with author, 7 July 1995.
  38. Lawrence S. Little, Disciples of Liberty: The African Methodist Episcopal Church in the Age of Imperialism, 1884-1916 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2000), 4, 8-9, 13.
  39. For more on African American churches see Paul Harvey, Redeeming the South: Religious Cultures and Racial Identities among Southern Baptists, 1865-1925 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997);
  40. Timothy E. Fulop and Al- bert J. Raboteau, eds., African-American Religion: Interpretive Essays in History and Cul- ture (New York: Routledge, 1997);
  41. C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamilya, The Black Church in the African American Experience (Durham: Duke University Press, 1990);
  42. Elwood Stevenson, "Educating Deaf Children the Democratic Way for Ample Life," report (22 Oct. 1945): 4; see also Edward Allen Fay's comments on children's sign language use in his "Constant Language Environment," Volta Review 18 (Feb. 1916): 496-98. One CODA deaf educator described the passionate com- mitment she and her parents had to sign language, protecting Deaf teachers, and Deaf culture. Anonymous correspondence with author, 20 July 1995.
  43. Elizabeth Peet, "The Philology of the Sign Language," reprinted in Buff and Blue, (March) 1921 (revised, 1934 Washington, DC: Gallaudet College Press, 1934), 2. Text of a lecture delivered before undergraduates.
  44. Tom L. Anderson, "What of the Sign Language?" AAD 83 (1938): 120-21, 126. Anderson encouraged greater interaction between Deaf children and the re- maining master signers and promoted public presentations by those with articu- late signing skills.
  45. J. S. Long, A Manual of Signs (Washington, DC: Gallaudet College Press, 1918), 10.
  46. Tom L. Anderson would concur in 1938 when he complained that the at- tempt to put signs in English word order had altered the true structure of the signs. See Anderson, "What of the Sign Language?" AAD 83 (1938): 122.
  47. George Veditz, "President's Message," NAD Proceedings (1910), 22.
  48. John B. Hotchkiss, Memories of Old Hartford. Film. In Preservation of the Sign Language (Burtonsville, MD: DawnSign Press, 1997).
  49. John S. Schuchman offers a comprehensive study of Deaf people and the media, the silent-film era in particular, in his book Hollywood Speaks: Deafness in the Film Entertainment Industry (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988).
  50. Melinda Weinrib, "A Study of the Minority Status of Independent Films in the Deaf Community and Implications for Deaf Studies and Development," mas- ter's thesis, University of Arizona (1994), 40.
  51. The double discrimination against those who were both African American and female barred this minority group from graduating anyone from Gallaudet until 1957. Mabs Holcomb and Sharon Wood, Deaf Women: A Parade through the Decades (Berkeley: DawnSign Press, 1989), 48.
  52. Elizabeth Peet, "Memorial to Dr. John Burton Hotchkiss," SW (Jan. 1924): 129. NOTE TO CHAPTER 3
  53. For more on Bell, his invention, and his role as an educator, see Robert V. Bruce, Bell: Conquest of Solitude (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1973).
  54. "Mr. Frieman's Address," NAD Proceedings (1913), 13.
  55. "Knights of De L'Epée," NAD Proceedings (1913), 39-40.
  56. Ferdinand Moeller, "Address of the Chairman of the Catholic Deaf-Mute Section," National Catholic Education Associa- tion Bulletin 27 no. 1 (Nov. 1930): 522-26.
  57. Keith McClellan, The Sunday Game: At the Dawn of Professional Football (Akron: University of Akron Press, 1998), 6.
  58. David S. Neft, Richard Cohen, and Michael L. Neft, The Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999), 120.
  59. "Home for Aged Deaf in Prospect in W. VA," ADC (13 Sept. 1929): n.p.; "Home for Aged and Infirm Deaf," ADC (13 May 1932): 4; "Gallaudet Home News," ADC (8 Aug. 1930): 2; "Home for Deaf Mutes," Silent Review (1 Nov. 1911): 1; Silent Review (1 May 1912): n.p. Occasionally, Deaf leaders encouraged the cre- ation of a national home. For example, NAD members raised the issue at their 1910 convention, and the National Fraternal Society of the Deaf (NFSD) had col- orful debates over one in honor of their late leader, Francis Gibson. See John Shilton, "In Support of a Home and Hospital," The Frat (April 1930): 3;
  60. For example, see DMJ (27 Feb. 1930): 1; "The New England Home for Aged and Infirm Deaf" and "Gallaudet Home," SW (June 1929): 209, 212; "A Valued De- piction," SW (June 1928): 402-3; Silent Review (1 Dec. 1911): 1.
  61. Samuel Frankenheim, "Culmination of Our Labors," NAD Proceedings (1930), 63;
  62. See David Beito, From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and So- cial Services, 1890-1967 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000).
  63. Beito, From Mutual Aid, 2. Including German-speaking, native-born Ameri- can Jews and East Europeans, Jewish orders alone enrolled nearly half a million in- dividuals in close to three thousand lodges by 1917. Daniel Soyer, "Entering the 'Tent of Abraham': Fraternal Ritual and American-Jewish Identity, 1880-1920," Re- ligion and American Culture 9 no. 2 (1999): 163.
  64. Daniel Soyer, Jewish Immigrant Associations and American Identity in New York, 1880-1939 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), 103.
  65. Hannah Kliger, ed., Jewish Hometown Associations and Family Circles in New York: The WPA Yiddish Writer's Group Study (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992), 31. 20. Ibid., 35.
  66. Schowe, The NFSD Story, 51. The NFSD also denied member- ship to African Americans. See Louis Cohen, "The National Fraternal Society of the Deaf," NAD Proceedings (1913), 36-38.
  67. See, for example, Soyer, Jewish Immigrant Associations, Seltzer and Cohen, The Americanization of the Jew, David Beito, "To Advance the 'Practice of Thrift and Economy': Fraternal Societies and Social Capital, 1890-1920," Journal of Interdiscipli- nary History vol. 29 no. 4 (spring 1999): 585-612.
  68. A. L. Roberts, "The National Fraternal Society of the Deaf," NAD Proceedings (1940): 54-55.
  69. CAID Proceedings (1914), 69; "Report of the Industrial Committee of the NAD" (1934), 44-46; "Report of the Industrial Committee of the NAD," DMJ (6 Sept. 1934): 2, 7. See also Alexander Pach, "With the Silent Workers," SW (May 1919): 144.
  70. See Harris Taylor, "The New York System of Securing Employment for the Deaf," CAID Proceedings (1914), 67-68; JD 5 no. 6 (July 1919): 5-6. The SWJD actu- ally began its work in 1912.
  71. "Minnesota Association of the Deaf," Proceedings of the Minnesota Association of the Deaf (1915), passim.
  72. For more on Petra Fandrem Howard, see Deaf Biographical and Subject File, "Petra Fandrem Howard," GUA; Wesley Lauritsen, "Division for the Deaf of the Minnesota Department Labor and Industry," New York Journal of the Deaf (9 Feb. 1939): 2 [hereafter NYJD].
  73. Petra Howard, "After School, What?" AAD 81(1936): 314-15.
  74. Robert Buchanan offers an excellent analysis of this point in Illusions of Equality. 57. See, for example, Howard, "After School, What?" 492-93. See also Buchanan, Illusions of Equality. 58. Several states failed to establish labor bureaus in the 1930s, including Idaho, Kentucky, Iowa, West Virginia, Texas, Washington, Oregon, Virginia, Indi- ana, and Illinois again. NAD Bulletin 1 no. 6 (April 1935): 3; NAD Bulletin (Feb. 1935): 1; NAD Bulletin (March 1935): 4; NAD Bulletin 1 no. 7 (May 1935): 1; The Frat (May 1938): passim; "What Is Needed to Procure Economic Conditions for the Deaf?" DMJ (22 Sept. 1921): 1;
  75. The Civil Service Commission previously classified Deaf workers as unem- ployable during Teddy Roosevelt's administration. A campaign ensued that re- sulted in Deaf people's readmittance to the Service. For more, see Buchanan, Illu- sions of Equality; Susan Burch, "Signs of Protest," Organization of American Histori- ans Conference, Los Angeles, CA, April 2001.
  76. For an excellent study of this issue, see Paul Longmore and David Gold- berger, "League of the Physically Handicapped and the Great Depression," Journal of American History 87 no. 3 (Dec. 2000), online at <http://www.historycoopera- tive.org/journals/jah/87.3/longmore.html>(11 Apr. 2001).
  77. Unfortunately, it excluded deaf people from jobs involving vehicles or con- struction. "WPA Rulings," The Frat (Feb. 1940): 5; "WPA Rulings," The Frat (March 1940): 5; "WPA Committee," The Frat (June 1940): 5. According to Schowe, the May "Walsh-McCormack Bill for Deaf Re-Introduced in Congress," Silent Cavalier (1 March 1941): 1; Proceedings of the Thirty-Second Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1942), 280. NOTES TO CHAPTER 5
  78. See, for example, Bruce Harry and Park Elliott Dietz, "Offenders in a Silent World," Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law 13 no. 1 (1985): 86.
  79. Ernest Hairston and Linwood Smith, "Black Signs: What Ever Happened to the Sign for 'Cornbread'?" in Lois Bragg, ed., Deaf World (New York: New York University Press, 2001), 97-98.
  80. Philip Reilly, The Surgical Solution (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991).
  81. Amram Scheinfeld, You and Heredity (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1939), 144-146, 194;
  82. Thomas Y. Crowell, 1914), 104ff; NAD Proceedings (1910), 53.
  83. Superintendent Bjorlee, in Maryland, was also outspoken in his opposition to the use of the Binet test with deaf students. Proceedings of the Twenty-First Conven- tion of American Instructors of the Deaf (1917), 132-133.
  84. G. K. Chesterton offers a cri- tique of the legal definition of feeblemindedness and its potential damage to nu- merous populations. Chesterton, Eugenics and Other Evils (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1927), 24-25. For commentary on classifications of feebleminded and the deaf, see "The Classification of the Feeble Minded," AAD 45 (1910): 232-33.
  85. For a closer examination of the nomenclature campaigns see chapter 2. In 1901, the NAD passed resolutions calling for the end of the practice of grouping the Deaf with the feebleminded and other "undesirables." See Proceedings of the Con- vention of the National Association of the Deaf (1901), 41; SW (July 1927): 382; See also Best, Deafness and the Deaf, 334.
  86. Osborn, Preface to Eugenics, 31. 23. "Marriage," AAD 40 (1895): 310.
  87. "All Deaf-Mutes Are Imbeciles," SW (Jan. 1927): 94. For a similar story on a deaf girl remanded to an insane asylum, see "Why?" Oregon Outlook (14 Feb. 1920): 1, 4. In Dr. Karl Menninger's article "The Mental Effects of Deafness," he noted that deaf people often had developmental difficulties. Volta Review 25 (Oct. 1923): 439-45.
  88. Best, The Deaf, 179; AAD 54 (1909): 444.
  89. L. E. Milligan, Montana School, "The Backward and Feeble-Minded Deaf," Proceedings of the Eighteenth Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf (1908), 91-3. Milligan had sent six of his students to the school for the feebleminded that year.
  90. Susan Pilant Rose, "Genetic Studies of Profound Prelingual Deafness," Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University (1975), 18.
  91. Richard Winefield, Never the Twain Shall Meet (Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 1987), 140;
  92. The committee specifically proposed legislation against deaf marriages in 1904. NAD Proceedings (1904), 16; "A Committee to Investigate Heredity and Its Ap- plications," Rustler (Dec. 1906): 2.
  93. "A Few Thoughts Concerning Eugenics," National Geographic 19 (1908): 118-23;
  94. Mark Haller, Eugenics: Hereditarian Attitudes in American Thought (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1963), 33. For more on Bell's continued work and attitude, see David Fairchild, "Alexander Graham Bell," Journal of Heredity 13 no. 5 (May 1922): 198;
  95. For example, "Will Deafness Persist," Literary Digest (12 Feb. 1921); "Mar- riages of the Deaf," AAD 61 (1916): 283-84; "The Socially Inadequate," AAD 67 (1922): 348-49.
  96. Michael Grossberg, "Guarding the Alter: Physiological Restrictions and the Rise of State Intervention in Matrimony," American Journal of Legal History 26 (July 1982): 197-226.
  97. "Another 'Authority' Condemns Marriages of the Deaf," Oregon Outlook (4 May 1917): 1-4; "Hereditary Deafness," Oregon Outlook (4 May 1917): 2. In another issue, C. L. McLaughlin continued the debate. "InterMarriage of the Deaf," Oregon Outlook (12 Jan. 1918) 1, 4. For a proponent of legislation, see Professor of Eugenics R. H. Johnson, "The Marriage of the Deaf," JD 9 (March 1918): 5-6; "Marriages of the Deaf," AAD 63 (1918): 489-90.
  98. Maxamillian Hurwitz, "The Problems of Peace," JD (Feb. 1919): 37. 47. NAD Proceedings (1907), 69-70.
  99. For example, "Children of Deaf Parents," Digest (Oct. 1938): 11. For a mem- oir by a CODA, see Ruth Sidransky, In Silence (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990). 60
  100. See Ernest Elmo Calkins, Louder Please! Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, (1924).
  101. ERI, "Wise and Otherwise," The Frat (May 1930): 2. Calkins appeared in The Jewish Deaf as well and received a similarly chilly response. 63. See Volta Review 26 (June 1924): 258, 205.
  102. See, for example, Proceedings of the Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf (1858), 351-55. 66. NAD Proceedings (1915), 58-59.
  103. "A Law against Impostors," Silent Review (1 June 1911): n.p.; "Run Out Im- postors," Silent Review (15 Dec. 1911): n.p.; "A Club for Deaf Impostors," Companion (19 April 1911): 5; Companion (22 Feb. 1911): 8; "Punishment for Imposture," AAD 56 (1911): 230; "Deaf Impostors," AAD 56 (1911): 355; "Legislative Protest for the "Real" Deaf Mutes Sought by State Chief," Silent Observer (27 March 1915): 1.
  104. "Meagher in the Washingtonian," Mississippi Bulletin (16 April 1913): 10; Mis- sissippi Bulletin (1 June 1915): 4; NAD Proceedings (1915), 56-57; DMJ (27 May 1915): 3.
  105. For example, "Mr. Howard's Report on Impostors," NAD Proceedings (1913), 104-5. See also Alan Crammatte, Correspondence with author, 30 June 1995 (GUA);
  106. Illinois Laws 1915, p. 384; Indiana Laws 1915, Chapter 152, p. 598;
  107. See, for example, "Those Impostors," ADC (28 Nov. 1930): 2; "Suckers Will Still Bite at the Old 'Deaf-Mute' Plea," ADC (24 July 1931): 2; NAD Proceedings (1913), 66; "Fake Deaf-Mute Talks, Asks to See Office; Date Set in Few Weeks," Modern Silents (March 1938): 1; "Wisconsin," NYJD (4 April 1940): 3; "Rev. Cloud Exposes 'Deaf Swindler,' Silent Courier (24 Dec. 1914): 1; "New York," Once a Week (19 April 1900): 5; "Impostor Is Detected by Local Mutes," Mississippi Institute for Deaf and Dumb (1 March 1916): 13; "Impostor Fares Ill in the Rubber City," ADC (21 June 1929): n.p.; "New York," Once a Week (19 April 1900): 5; "Deaf Do Not Beg!" Digest (Jan. 1940): 1; "Mutes as Sleuths Expose a Faker," Silent Review (15 Nov. 1912): 1;
  108. Laura McDill Bates, "Ephpheta," AAD 59 (1919): 154-55.
  109. Myers, The Law and the Deaf, 151; ADC (18 April 1930): 2; NAD Proceedings (1915); AAD 60 (1915): 354.
  110. A. G. Leisman, "Some Observations in the Deaf World," NAD Proceedings (1940), 74-75. See also Alan Crammatte, Correspondence with author, 30 June 1995 (GUA);
  111. For more on automobiles and American culture, see James J. Flink, The Au- tomobile Age (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1988), passim.
  112. "The Deaf Driver," Volta Review 25 no. 4 (April 1923): 197.
  113. The push for labor bureaus was also under way, and the existing organiza- tions contributed greatly to the driving rights campaigns. For more on labor bu- reaus, see chapter 4. See also Buchanan, Illusions of Equality, passim. 91. AAD 68 (1923): 342-44; AAD 69 (1924): 290-91; AAD 70 (1925): 361; AAD 74 (1929): 417. 92. AAD 68 (1923): 245.
  114. See Buchanan, Illusions of Equality. Frequent warnings not to antagonize op- ponents of deaf drivers appeared in Deaf publications. For example, see the March 1925 issue of the Maryland Bulletin.
  115. J. L. Smith, Minnesota Companion, reprinted in Maryland Bulletin (Jan. 1923);
  116. W. W. Beadell, "The Deaf and the Automobile," Proceedings of the Twenty-Third Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf (1923), 155-57. 101. Speed laws, for example, became commonplace by 1906.
  117. James Flink, The Car Culture (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1975), 25-27. 102. In 1909, only a dozen states required licenses for nonprofessional drivers, to obtain one, applicants had to provide little more than stated information about their abilities. Flink, Car Culture, 25-27. Flink ascribes much of the slow accept- ance of licensing to the power and popularity of automobile clubs and their lobby- ists. 103. "Ohio," DMJ (26 April 1923): 1. 104. J. F. Meagher, "NAD Fratalities," SW (Nov. 1919): 49. 105. For example, DMJ (8 Jan. 1925). 106. Bjorlee, The Deaf and the Automobile, 11-12 (Frederick, MD: State School for the Deaf Press; 1940) "Auto Legislation," NAD Bulletin (Nov. 1939): 2. 107. "Business Ethics for Our Profession," AAD 69 (1924): 285. 108. He also met A. G. Bell there but makes no mention of it in his autobio- graphical article. 109. For more on Bjorlee, see "Ignatius Bjorlee," Nebraska Journal (Feb. 1929): 1-4; Deaf Biographical and Subject File "Ignatius Bjorlee," GUA. 110. E. Austin Baughman, in Bjorlee, The Deaf and the Automobile 18; "Automo- bile Drivers," Post (Frederick, MD) (5 Dec. 1924). 111. Ignatius Bjorlee, The Deaf and the Automobile (1930, 1940). 112. The presence of medical specialists in this case reveals the common per- ception of Deaf people as handicapped, since the doctors apparently had no experi- ence with actual deaf drivers. 113. "Deaf Autoist Loses Case," Maryland Bulletin (Feb. 1925). 114. "The Status of the Deaf Automobile Driver in Maryland," Maryland Bul- letin (March 1925): 100-102. 115. "The Deaf Are Good Drivers," Maryland Bulletin (Dec. 1925): 32. 116. "Deaf Autoists Get Concessions," Maryland Bulletin (Feb. 1926): 72. 117. "Restrictions Concerning Deaf Drivers Removed," Maryland Bulletin (March 1927): 104-5. 118. For more information, see J. P. Nelson, "The Deaf Autoist," DMJ (1 Mar. 1923): 1;
  118. Fred Murphy, "Out of the Silence," ADC (1 May 1931): 2; "AAA Asked to See How Deaf Drive Cars," ADC (2 Aug. 1929): 1; "New York State" NYJD (16 March 1939): 4; "Los An- geles," DMJ (22 Feb. 1923): 1; "Los Angeles," DMJ (22 March 1923): 1; "Auto Legis- lation," NAD Bulletin (April 1939): 2; "Bill Dropped," SW (October 1927): 26;
  119. Joseph F. Din- neen's article "It Always Happens to Somebody Else," Redbook Magazine (Feb. 1939), was noted in "The Deaf as Automobile Drivers," AAD 84 (1939): 185; the other was a story by Ted Leberthon. His column "Night Court" appeared in the L.A. Evening News and supported Deaf people as good drivers. See "Night Court Reporter Ted Leberthon Follows Up and Secures Facts," Modern Silents (March-April 1939): 11. 122. As motor vehicle legislation became more sophisticated, many states re- quired insurance, and Deaf people again found themselves excluded. The NFSD helped convince several insurance companies to accept deaf drivers. 123. For example, one Deaf leader encouraged marriage bans against all "help- less classes" but not the Deaf.
  120. Don- ald Pickens, Eugenics and the Progressives (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1968);
  121. Martin Pernick, Black Stork (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996);
  122. National Association of the Deaf, producer. An Address at the Tomb of Garfield [Willie Hubbard]. Gallaudet University Archives: NAD, 1941 National Association of the Deaf, producer. A Chapter from the Life of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Archives, 1920.
  123. NEWSPAPERS, PERIODICALS, AND JOURNALS American Annals of the Deaf; American Deaf Citizen; American Era; American Industrial Journal; Buff and Blue; California News; Catholic Deaf Mute; Colorado Index; The Compan- ion; Daily Journal; Deaf Apprentice; Deaf Carolinian; Deaf Citizen; Deaf Herald; The Deaf Oklahoman; Deaf-Mute's Journal; Digest of the Deaf; Empire State News; Fanwood Journal; The Frat; Gallaudet Alumni Bulletin; Illinois Advance; Iowa Hawkeye; Jersey Booster; Jersey School News; The Jewish Deaf; Kansas Star; Literary Digest; Maryland Bulletin; Michigan Mir- ror; Minneapolis Journal; Minnesota Companion; Mississippi Bulletin; Mt. Airy World; Mod- ern Silents; NAD Bulletin; NADIC; Nebraska Journal; New York Journal of the Deaf; Ohio Chronicle; Once a Week; Oregon Outlook; The Pelican; Pennsylvania Society News; The Recorder; Rocky Mountain Leader; The Rustler; Silent Broadcaster; Silent Courier; Silent Facts; Silent Newsletter; Silent Observer; Silent Review; Silent Southerner; Silent Success; Silent Worker; Silent World; Vocational Teacher; Volta Review; Wisconsin Times; Ye Silent Crier PRIMARY DOCUMENT S Ballin, Albert. The Deaf Mute Howls. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 1998.
  124. Calkins, Ernest. "Louder Please!": The Autobiography of a Deaf Man. Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1924.
  125. Cloud, John Keble. "Language Teaching for the Deaf in Pure Oral and in Com- bined Method Schools." Master's thesis, Gallaudet College, 1917. Church Missions to Deaf-Mutes. Annual Reports for the Gallaudet Home for Deaf Mutes, 1907-1912. New York: Fanwood Press, 1907-1912.
  126. Davies, Everett H. "The Legal Provisions for the Education of the Deaf in the States East of the Mississippi River and North of the Mason-Dixon Line." Master's thesis, Gallaudet College, 1936.
  127. Higgins, D. D. How to Talk to the Deaf. Newark, NJ: Mount Carmel Guild, 1923. History of the Gallaudet Home for the Aged and Infirm Deaf-Mutes in the State of New York. New York: St. Ann's Church Press, 1936.
  128. Hodgson, Edwin Allan. Benefits of Education to the Deaf: A Centennial Address. New York: Fanwood Press, 1917.
  129. Long, John Schuyler. The Sign Language: A Manual of Signs. Washington, DC: Gal- laudet Press, 1918.
  130. Martens, Elsie H. Residential Schools for Handicapped Children. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office Bulletin, 1939.
  131. Phelps, Grace Warren Rowell. The Relationship between Religion and a System of Educa- tion for the Deaf. Master's thesis, Gallaudet College, 1937.
  132. Pugh, Bessie. "A Century and a Quarter of Progress in the Education of the Deaf in the United States." Master's thesis, Gallaudet University, 1943.
  133. Tinkle, William John. "Deafness as a Eugenical Problem." Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1932.
  134. Whildin, Oliver A. "The Manual Alphabet Method-The Best for Teaching Lan- guage." Master's thesis, Gallaudet College, n.d.
  135. Yale, Caroline. Years of Building: Memories of a Pioneer in a Special Field of Education. New York: Dial Press, 1931.
  136. Adams, David Wallace. Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience, 1875-1928. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1995.
  137. Baynton, Douglas. Forbidden Signs: American Culture and the Campaign against Sign Language. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
  138. Beito, David T. From Mutual Aid to the Welfare State: Fraternal Societies and Social Ser- vices, 1890-1967. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000.
  139. Berg, Otto B. A Missionary Chronicle: Being a History of the Ministry to the Deaf in the Episcopal Church (1850-1980). Hollywood, MD: St. Mary's Press, 1984.
  140. Berson, Robin Kadison. Marching to a Different Drummer: Unrecognized Heroes of Amer- ican History. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994.
  141. Church, Robert L., and Michael W. Sedlak. Education in the United States: An Interpre- tive History. New York: Free Press, 1976.
  142. Coleman, Michael C. American Indian Children at School, 1850-1930. Jackson: Univer- sity of Mississippi Press, 1993.
  143. Crockett, Manuel Houston. "A Study of the Employment Status of the Negro Deaf in North Carolina." Master's thesis, Hampton Institute, 1949.
  144. Flink, James J. The Automobile Age. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1988.
  145. Haller, Mark H. Eugenics: Hereditarian Attitudes in American Thought. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1963.
  146. Holcomb, Mabs, and Sharon Wood. Deaf Women: A Parade through the Decades. Berke- ley: DawnSign Press, 1989.
  147. Jacobs, Leo. A Deaf Adult Speaks Out. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 1989.
  148. Jacobson, Matthew Frye. Special Sorrows: The Diasporic Imagination of Irish, Polish, and Jew- ish Immigrants in the United States. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995.
  149. Jones, William L. "The Employment Status of the Negro Deaf in Virginia." Master's thesis, Hampton Institute, 1951.
  150. Nomeland, Ronald Emery. "Beginnings of Vocational Education in Schools for the Deaf." Master's thesis, University of Maryland, 1967.
  151. Palumbo, Dolores V. "An Investigation into the Educational, Social, and Legal Sta- tus of the Deaf in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries." Master's thesis, Southern Connecticut State College, 1966.
  152. Pickens, Donald. Eugenics and the Progressives. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1968.
  153. Pratt, Richard Henry. Battlefield and Classroom: Four Decades with the American Indian, 1867-1904. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964.
  154. Reilly, Philip R. The Surgical Solution: A History of Involuntary Sterilization in the United States. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991.
  155. Schowe, B. M. Identity Crisis in Deafness: A Humanistic Perspective. Tempe, AZ: Scholars Press, 1979.
  156. Schuchman, John S. Hollywood Speaks: Deafness and the Film Entertainment Industry. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988.
  157. Soyer, Daniel. Jewish Immigrant Associations and American Identity in New York, 1880-1939. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997.
  158. Van Cleve, John Vickrey, ed. Deaf History Unveiled: Interpretations form the New Scholar- ship. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 1993.
  159. Van Cleve, John, and Barry A. Crouch. A Place of Their Own: Creating the Deaf Commu- nity in America. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 1989.
  160. Weibrib, Melinda. "A Study of the Minority Status of Independent Film Makers in the Deaf Community and Implication for Deaf Studies and Development." Master's thesis, University of Arizona, 1994.
  161. Winzer, Margaret A. The History of Special Education: From Isolation to Integration. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 1993.
  162. Woods, W. H. The Forgotten People. St. Petersburg, FL: Dixie Press, n.d. Acculturation of Deaf: community re- sponses to, 65; unintended results, 40; irony in education, 10-11; religion, 10. See also Americanization; Assimilation African American Deaf: clubs for, 92; and employment limitations, 37; eugenics and, 129-32, 137; and Gallaudet College, 37-39; inferior education of, 36-39, 130, 183n; lack of deaf teachers, 36-39; lan- guage and cultural isolation, 39, 62-63, 131; oralism and, 39, 137, 184-85n; racism in the Deaf community, 39, 62, 87-88, 92-94, 169, 193n; segregated southern schools, 35-39, 38, 130; Junius Wilson, 129-32, 134, 136-37 African Americans (hearing): churches simi- lar to Deaf churches, 51-52; organiza- tions, 71 American Annals of the Deaf, 55-56 American Association for the Promotion and Teaching of Speech to the Deaf (AAPTSD): support for driving rights, 14, 18, 157. See also Oralism American Breeders Association (ABA), 134, 141-42; NAD watchdog committee on, 143 American Deaf Citizen (ADC): on Deaf ped- dlers, 154; images of deaf women, 146; racism in, 93. See also Little Paper Family newspapers (LPF) Americanization: community response to, 65, 72; mainstream society's efforts, 8, 40-41; and patriotism, 165; and ties to oralism, 8 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 172-73
  163. Clerc, Laurent, 2; and NAD sign language films, 58 Cloud, James, 110-11, 116 Clubs. See Associations for the Deaf "Combined Methods": Deaf leaders' opinion on, 11; rise after the 1920s, 32 Communications methods debate: Thomas Fox, 41; history, 11-12; impact of au- diometer, 33; Nebraska's oral law, 27-28. See also "Combined Methods"; Oralism de L'Epée, Abbé: Catholicism and sign lan- guage, 49, 95; statue, 94-97, 96 Deaf members of Deaf families: Ernest Mar- shall, 29; as master signers, 144 Deaf President Now! Movement (DPN), 173 Deaf-Mute's Journal: on CODAS, 145; and reli- gion, 50. See also Little Paper Family news- papers (LPF) Digest of the Deaf, 145. See also Children of Deaf Adults (CODAs); Little Paper Family newspapers (LPF) Disability: Deaf attitudes toward, 5, 62, 121, 123-24, 136, 165-66, 202n; and employ- ment, 103-4, 112, 120-24; eugenic cate- gories including the Deaf, 133-35; and federal labor bureau campaign, 125-26; "feebleminded," 135, 138; groups resist- ing eugenic discrimination, 135; and homes for the elderly Deaf, 86-87; impli- cations of label for deaf, 4, 133, 156, 160 Discrimination by Deaf toward Deaf, 5, 20, 86-87, 111, 138, 143-44, 149, 152-53, 155, 169 Education: and Deaf unity, 41; post World War II, 171-72; and trends supporting sign language, 32-33 Elite Deaf people: and clergy, 50; and clubs, 50; and correct language, 62; Deaf teach- ers, 9, 21-23, 54-55; expectation of behav- ior, 59, 145, 149, 170; ideas of normalcy, 4-5, 103, 133, 136, 166; intolerance of di- versity, 93, 169; and the NAD, 88-89, 143-44; and patriotism, 165; and sign lan- guage films, 58-61; strategies against dis- crimination, 52, 101-2, 117-18, 124, 167;
  164. James Vestal and North Carolina, 119 Laws and the Deaf, the Americans with Dis- abilities Act (ADA), 172. See also Automo- biles and deaf driving campaigns; Eugen- ics; Imposters; Peddlers, Deaf Little Paper Family newspapers (LPF): advo- cacy in, 31, 49; and athletics, 81; censor- ship of, 27; on CODAs, 145; as commu- nity bridge, 50; and deaf-deaf marriages, 142-45; elite Deaf and, 170-71; imposters and, 152-53; Modern Silents, 50; New York Journal of the Deaf, 9; and oralism, 26; on peddlers, 154; racism in, 93; and religion, 50; Alice Terry, 68; on women, 146. See also American Deaf Citizen (ADC); Deaf- Mute's Journal; Frat; Jewish Deaf; Silent Broadcaster; Silent Worker Los Angeles Silent Club (LASC), 68-70, 72-74, 74 Marriage of the deaf. See Eugenics Marshall, Ernest: master signer, 29; sign lan- guage films, 61. See also Deaf members of Deaf families McGregor, Robert: and NAD, 88; sign lan- guage films, 58-59

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Metadata

Authors
Burch, S.
Corresponding author
Burch, Susan
ORCID
Burch, Susan
Venue
New York University Press eBooks
Publisher
New York University Press
Published
2002-12-31
DOI
10.18574/nyu/9780814791240.001.0001
OpenAlex
W2383865520
Cited by
120
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 80 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 3 · 2014: 2 · 2012: 1
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0.00
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en
Open access
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cc-by-nc-sa
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  • New York University Press eBooks (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
  • New York University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
  • Directory of Open access Books (OAPEN Foundation) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Hearing Impairment and Communication
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Disability Rights and Representation
  • Social Sciences › Education › Historical Education Studies Worldwide
Keywords
deaf history, sign language, oralism, deaf education, deaf community, deaf culture, deaf identity, resistance, deaf teachers, lip reading, early 20th century, collective consciousness, political organization

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