Elements of French Deaf Heritage 1944838562, 9781944838560

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Elements of F r e n c h Deaf H e r i ta g e

Elements of F r e n c h Deaf H e r i ta g e Ulf Hedberg & Harlan Lane Foreword by Yves Delaporte

Gallaudet University Press Washington, DC 20002 http://gupress.gallaudet.edu © 2020 by Gallaudet University. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America Designed and typeset by 2k/denmark, aarhus. Cover design by Eric C. Wilder. The cover image is “Le banquet annuel des sourdsmuets” from Le monde illustré, Gallica, December 24, 1887. © Bibliothèque nationale de France. Used by permission. Chapter 3, particularly from pp. 139 to 149, contains excerpts from when the mind hears by Harlan Lane, © 1984 by Harlan Lane. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House, LLC. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Hedberg, Ulf, author. | Lane, Harlan, 1936–author. | Gallaudet University Press. Title: Elements of French deaf heritage / Ulf Hedberg, Harlan Lane. Description: Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, c2019. | "When ethnic minorities are educated nowadays, it is commonly in a language they have not mastered, a curriculum that is alien to their experience, and majority teachers who do not speak the minority language. In the 19th century, on the contrary, most French Deaf children studied all their subjects in their most fluent language, French Sign Language (langue des signes francaise, or LSF). In a school with a signing community, students were able to respond to the instruction; to get help from older students; to discuss local, national, and international events; to participate in student activities; to develop friendships; to choose a Deaf partner when marrying; to emulate older students; to have Deaf teachers; to acquire self-respect as a Deaf person"—Page 1. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019012590| ISBN 9781944838560 (pbk.: alk. paper) | ISBN 9781944838577 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Deaf culture—France. | Deaf culture—France—History— | 9th century. | Deaf—Education—France.| Deaf—Education—France—History—19th century. | Sign language. | French Sign Language. Classification: LCC HV2736 .H43 2019 | DDC 305.9/082094409034—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019012590 ∞ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992 (Permanence of Paper).

For Yves Delaporte Yann Cantin and Angélique Cantin Florence Encrevé

Contents

9Foreword 12Introduction

15

Chapter 1: Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

87

Chapter 2: Founders of the Deaf-World

135

Chapter 3: Ethnic Affiliation in the Deaf-World

159

Chapter 4: Founders in the Arts

189Epilogue 190

Appendix: Ethnicity and the Deaf-World

193Bibliography 210Acknowledgments 211Index

Foreword



Yves Delaporte ulie wept. She is seventy years old, she is deaf, her daughter Françoise is hearing. Françoise learned sign language as her mother tongue; she just discovered that her own daughter is deaf and made the decision to get her a cochlear implant. The other members of her deaf family, and extended network of deaf friends, are all horrified. Julie, an illiterate woman from the countryside, was informed of this decision by her deaf friends. Her question had not been “Is it true that with an implant a deaf person can hear?” but rather “Is it true that with an implant a deaf person can become hearing?” In France as in the United States, the signs hear and hearing are unrelated despite the fact that one of the written words derives from the other. hear is produced by pointing to the ear, the location of hearing. hearing is produced by rotating a finger (or two) in front of the mouth: the latter sign does not refer to hearing but to speech, the movement of the lips allows the deaf to identify those who are hearing. What is a person who can hear? For the hearing, it is someone who has the sense of hearing. For the deaf, it is someone who does not speak with their hands but speaks with their mouths: the definition, then, is tied to a linguistic criterion. The signs hearing and deaf function as two ethnonyms founded on the mode of communication. They split the world in two anthropological categories, “us” and “them,” as all ethnic groups do. All of this, the authors of the book that the reader now holds in their hands, already knew. But they did not stop at this observation, however revolutionary it may be in relation to prevailing notions of deafness. Instead, they drew the following conclusions: if the deaf are a sort of ethnic group, it is essential to identify the places where their cultural identity is built, to take inventory of communal productions across all sectors from education to works of art, as well as to name famous deaf people whose exploits are passed down from generation to generation. They do so here by presenting an exemplary event from the deaf in France. This event concerns all deaf people on earth since it was in Paris, around 1760, that Abbé de l’Epée founded the world’s first school for deaf children—a moment that led to the proliferation of schools across the globe in the following century. Despite the mediocrity of the education they might have received there, the foolishness of the schools forbidding them from signing, deaf people still feel a very strong attachment to them. This is evidenced by the indignation, the emotion, the tears that follow each announcement of the destruction of an old school building. We have seen it recently for those in Pont-de-Beauvoisin, Asnières, and Nantes. To be sorry for the confinement of deaf children behind the walls of

J

Foreword

9

the boarding school, as we often see it, is a cultural contradiction that further distances the values of deafness from the values of the hearing world. In these schools, hearing teachers were a somewhat strange minority, whose behavior was responsible for the feelings of distrust that many French deaf people have long felt toward the hearing world. On December 12, 1830, a mutiny broke out in the Paris institution to protest against the inability of hearing teachers to communicate with their students. A petition that was addressed to the Minister of the Interior listed their claims. Sixty-one students signed. In a panic, the administration attacked the students and tried to identify the leaders of the protest. The students then added on an appendix to their petition with these terrible words: “Now we hate Mr. Director and all the speaking teachers.” On December 20, a second manifesto was signed by fifty-three students. A century and a half before the Deaf President Now events of 1988 at Gallaudet, this revolt in France remained almost unknown. The revolt failed but, after a decent delay, the director was dismissed. Above all, this was a flash point for an unrelenting struggle to have the rights of the deaf and their language recognized. Four years later, in 1834, Ferdinand Berthier established the tradition of hosting annual banquets in homage to abbé de l’Épée; he invited representatives of the press who spoke with wonder about what they had witnessed in their newspapers the next day. And in 1838, the world’s first association of the deaf was founded. Some of the students whose names appeared in the petitions became future leaders in the deaf community: it was in the days of December 1830 that they had forged their first weapons. Both petitions had long been misplaced; even Yves Bernard, a seasoned scholar in the history of the Parisian institution, had not been able to find them to include in his doctoral thesis. After an amazing journey, these documents recently ended up at the Museum of History and Culture of the Deaf located in Louhans, a small provincial town and the birthplace of Ferdinand Berthier. Along with many other handwritten archives concerning the 1830 revolt, they await their historian. But what transpired in France, beginning in 1760, concerns American deaf people first and foremost. Laurent Clerc, a deaf teacher at the Paris institution, collaborated with Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet to found the first school for deaf children on the New Continent in Hartford in 1817. The sign language that would be taught there was the Parisian dialect imported by Laurent Clerc. Today, signs of French origin still abound in American Sign Language (ASL). But there is more: after the severe constraints imposed on him by the management of the Parisian institution, Laurent Clerc would surely have 10 Foreword

experienced his stay in Hartford as a sort of liberation; there he would teach the sign pÈre of his childhood, far from Paris. I found this sign, strictly identical to the American sign father, in three French villages in dying dialects. Preserved in ASL, therefore, are French signs unrelated to those generated and transmitted by Abbé de l’Épée and his successors, and which probably predate him. It should be noted in passing that a dissenting sign language, created by Father Jamet in Caen (Normandy) and borrowed by the Dominican Sisters of Dublin (Ireland), has spread as far as South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. With this book, Harlan and Ulf return to basics. They returned in the literal sense as they fearlessly took their pilgrim’s stick to France, reversing the journey that Laurent Clerc had made two centuries before. Going from one village to another, they crisscrossed several regions, rummaging through the municipal archives to uncover new information, such as the location of the important institution founded by a lesser­-known deaf woman, Pauline Larrouy, whose location had remained undiscovered until now. This is a lovely contribution to the corpus of Deaf French history. What society, or at least its hearing loss experts, has believed and still believes is that deafness is an individual misfortune. That deaf people have a collective and cultural dimension is something that is completely beyond their control. After publication of this book by Harlan and Ulf, one can hope that this position will become untenable. 

Translated by Emily Shaw

Foreword

11

Introduction

* Harlan Lane, Richard C. Pillard, and Ulf Hedberg, The People of the Eye: Deaf Ethnicity and Ancestry (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011); Fredrik Barth, Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Difference (Boston: Little, Brown and Co, 1969); Anthony D. Smith, The Ethnic Origins of Nations (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986).

T

he formation of French Deaf heritage is of interest in its own right and also because it influenced the formation of other Deaf cultures, notably American Deaf culture. We do not know when this formation began in France; but perhaps well before the abbé de l’Épée opened the first enduring school for the Deaf during the Enlightenment. By 1900, many important structures were in place for ethnic formation, such as residential schools for the Deaf, publications by and for Deaf persons, and Deaf organizations. Thus, we select the end of the nineteenth century as an end-date when cultural formation ceded to cultural maintenance. More recent events and interpretations must stand the test of time. We have aimed in this book to include virtually all of the French Deaf schools and leaders, all of the important national and international organizations and congresses, and a survey of French Deaf artists, up through about 1900. The index leads to brief readable texts on many topics, as with an encyclopedia. Although we did not conduct original research, we did consult numerous Deaf publications from 1760 to the present. We did that by scanning over some twenty thousand book and journal pages, giving us an insight into the activists, their values, and actions. We think this technological breakthrough will have a major impact on historical ­research. You may well ask, what brings two American Francophiles (one of them Deaf) to write about elements of French Deaf culture? For one, American Deaf culture is ­partly derived from it. Furthermore, we find that the works published so far are often narrowly focused or, on the other hand, vulgarizations. This book takes the middle road but not every element contributing to French Deaf culture can be examined in a single book. Published in English, it gives access to French Deaf culture to a wider audience. We have adopted the framework of ethnicity,* which itself provides a good fit to the issues of minority life. Ethnic communities existed before the start of written history and they are to be found virtually everywhere today. Ethnic ties are deeply meaningful and strongly felt. The strength of emotion evoked by ethnicity is reminiscent of that evoked by family ties, and may be based on them; as the aphorism goes, “Ethnicity is family writ large.” Like family, ethnicity is woven into the fabric of everyday life and involves shared obligations and traditions. However, ethnicity surpasses family in its scope: it evokes a rich history of one’s kind and a historic fate across generations; it entails stereotypes of “us” and “them.” Ethnicity involves distinct values, customs, and myths. These cultural traits are

12 Introduction

embedded in language and in behavior. In brief, shared culture is the cohesive force in an ethnic group and one that differentiates it from other such groups. What are the elements of French Deaf heritage? We begin with the residential schools where acculturation takes place (chapter 1). Next, “founders”—individuals who have played an important role in the formation of French Deaf heritage (chapter 2). Associations of the Deaf, with their leaders and followers, reinforce the connectedness of ethnic members long after school years are over (chapter 3). National and international congresses of the Deaf reinforce bonds while defining and executing strategies to enhance the interests of the Deaf (chapter 3). The Deaf press plays important roles in Deaf bonding (chapter 3); it allows Deaf readers to keep informed and schoolmates to keep in touch. Finally, Deaf people have played an outsized role in the fine arts, which elicited pride in Deaf culture and was a tool to persuade hearing people of the normalcy of Deaf people (chapter 4).

Introduction

13

1

Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

A

major force in the development of Deaf ethnicity was cultural and language acquisition in the residential schools. During socialization, children internalize ethnic repertories, such as language and cultural beliefs and practices that are highly resistant to change. Children are often socialized by people to whom they are not related biologically; call it proxy socialization.1 For example, foster children and orphans are not socialized by their biological parents. Moreover, when parents and children move to another country, peers will socialize the children in the language and culture of their new homeland long before the parents will have mastered these skills and practices. Deaf socialization is often proxy socialization, conducted by peers and Deaf adults to whom the Deaf child is not related. It is during the period of socialization to the DeafWorld that Deaf children learn their Deaf identity, acquire sign language and all the cultural contents, rules and values, history and myths, and with them a deep attachment to that Deaf-World. If parents are unable to model Deaf-World language and culture for their Deaf child, proxy socialization begins when the child is able to mingle in the Deaf-World—for example, upon enrolling at a school or program for the Deaf. There, many acquire language for the first time. Interacting with members of the Deaf-World, the Deaf child finds a positive identity and Deaf role models, whose ways of being and doing present possible lives for that child. There is nothing in the Deaf child’s past or future that can compete with the importance of the residential school. When ethnic minorities are educated nowadays, it is commonly in a language they have not mastered, a curriculum that is alien to their experience, and with majority teachers who do not speak the minority language. In the nineteenth century, on the contrary, most French Deaf children studied all their subjects in their most fluent language—French Sign Language (langue des signes française, or LSF).2 In a school with a signing community, students were able to respond to the instruction; to get help from older students; to discuss local, national, and international events; to participate in student activities; to develop friendships; to choose a Deaf partner when marrying; to emulate older students; to have Deaf teachers; to acquire self-respect as a Deaf person. The children who do best in school are the fortunate few who have the standard ethnic profile—ethnicization by their minority parents. These “native signers” outperform Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

15

their Deaf classmates from hearing homes—even in learning to read and write English. They are also better adjusted, better socialized, and have more positive attitudes. The superior performance of Deaf children of Deaf parents highlights the change that needs to be made in the education of Deaf children, namely, a return to sign language, Deaf teachers, and Deaf administrators—in short, Deaf schools.

Table 1. An Inventory of French Schools for the Deaf in Chronological Order

Founder Abbé de l’Épée Abbé Deschamps Abbé Jean-Marie du Bourg Abbé Fremond Abbé Jacques-Louis Huby Archbishop Jérôme Champion de Cicé Sœurs Saint-Joseph du Bon Pasteur Abbé Salvan National Assembly Dr. Saux Laurine Duler Gabriel Deshayes Abbé André-François Beulé Abbé Pierre-Jean-Louis Périer David Comberry Paul-Denis Dudesert Laurine Duler Abbé Pierre-François Jamet Mlle. Elisabeth Genestet Madeleine Barthélémy Soeur Rouzot Joseph Bernhard Sœurs de Saint-Thomas de Villeneuve David Comberry René Dunan Abbé Breuillot Hospice Saint-Louis Sœurs du Sacré-Coeur Abbé Treilhou Auguste Jacoutôt Abbé Louis-Guillaume Chazottes Pierre Guès Joseph Piroux G.-V. Pothier Soeur Saint Anne Marguerite Mirandon Roch-Ambroise Auguste Bébian Abbé Benoît Dessaigne Antoine Bertrand Gabriel Deshayes Abbé Chaillet Jean Massieu Gabriel Deshayes Abbé François Lefebvre Benjamin Louis Dubois

16 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Location Year Founded Paris (Paris) 1760s Orléans (Loiret) 1775 Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) 1775 Angers (Maine-et-Loire) 1777 Rouen (Seine-Maritime) 1780 Bordeaux (Gironde) 1786 Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme) 1788 Rioms (Drôme) 1788 Paris (Paris) 1791 Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) 1800 Rouen (Seine-Maritime) 1803 Auray (Morbihan) 1810 Nogent-le-Rotrou (Eure-et-Loir) 1811 Rodez (Aveyron) 1814 Saint-Étienne (Loire) 1815 Condé-sur-Noireau (Calvados) 1816 Arras (Pas-de-Calais) 1817 Caen (Calvados) 1817 Le Puy-en-Velay (Haute-Loire) 1818 Le Puy-en-Velay (Haute-Loire) 1818 Besançon (Doubs) 1819 Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône) 1819 Nîmes (Gard) 1822 Lyon (Rhône) 1824 Nantes (Loire-Atlantique) 1824 Besançon (Doubs) 1824 Laval (Mayenne) 1825 Périers (Manche) 1825 Albi (Tarn) 1826 Colmar (Haut-Rhin) 1826 Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) 1826 Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône) 1826 Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle) 1828 Langres (Haute-Marne) 1828 Saint-Étienne (Loire) 1829 Saint-Étienne (Loire) 1830 Rouen (Seine-Maritime) 1832 Chaumont (Puy-de-Dôme) 1833 Limoges (Haute-Vienne) 1833 Poitiers-Pont Achard (Vienne) 1833 Goux (Jura) 1835 Lille (Nord) 1835 Orléans (Loiret) 1835 Rouen (Seine-Maritime) 1835 Paris (Paris) 1837

Founder Gabriel Deshayes and the Frères de Saint-Gabriel Josephine and Marie Galien Abbé Édouard Saint-Romain Gabriel Deshayes Abbé Samson Garnier Auguste Jacoutôt Louis Rauh Abbé Frédéric Dupont Madeleine Barthélémy Madeleine Barthélémy Sœurs de Bon Sauveur Sœurs du Sacré-Coeur Unknown Dames de la Sainte-Famille Abbé Le Taillandier Abbé Subtil and Mère Supérieure des Sœurs de Saint-Joseph Mlle. Constance Esther Léonard dit Drouville Pierre Auguste Houdin Alexandre Louis-Paul Blanchet Abbé Lebret Sœurs de Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Les religieuses de la Sainte-Enfance Abbé Alexandre Lebecq Soeur Marie du Divin-Coeur Mme. Marson of the Sœurs de la Providence and M. le chanoine Lagier Père Pierre Bonhomme Les filles de la Charité de Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Mlle. Marie Guieu Pierre Auguste Sardinoux and Jean Samuel Conrad Kilian Msgr. Georges Chalandon M. Fourty Abbé Louis-Toussaint Dassy Jean Samuel Conrad Kilian Père Pierre Bonhomme Abbé Damourette Abbé Benoît Dessaigne Augustin Grosselin Abbé Joseph-Victor-Fortuné Champavier Père Flavien and the religious order of the Dominicans Abbé Casimir Grimaud Abbé Étienne Gaussens Frères de la Sainte Famille de Belley Frères de Saint-Gabriel Louis-Augustin Capon Elien Lagrange Jacques Hugentobler The Imperial Government of Germany Jacob-Émile, Isaac, and Eugène Pereire Père Jean-Louis Peydessus Abbé Casimir Grimaud and Mme. Meissonnier Pauline Larrouy

Location Year Founded Poitiers-Loudun (Vienne) 1837 Vizille (Isère) 1838 Vernoux (Ardèche) 1838 Orléans (Loiret) 1839 Saint-Brieuc (Côtes-d’Armor) 1839 Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin) 1839 Grenoble (Isère) 1840 Saint-Médard-lès-Soissons (Aisne) 1840 Chambéry (Savoie) 1841 Chambéry (Savoie) 1841 Pont-l’abbé (Manche) 1842 Villedieu-les-Poêles (Manche) 1843 Viricelles (Loire) 1845 Aurillac (Cantal) 1846 Rillé-Fougères (Ille-et-Vilaine) 1846 Bourg-en-Bresse (Ain) 1847 Fontainebleau (Seine-et-Marne) Paris (Paris) Paris (Paris) Bourges (Cher) Montpellier (Hérault) Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine) Alençon (Orne) Avignon (Vaucluse) Gap (Hautes-Alpes)

1848 1848 1849 1850 1850 1851 1853 1853 1853

Gramat (Lot) Tours (Indre-et-Loire) Embrun (Hautes-Alpes) Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort (Gard)

1854 1855 1856 1856

Bourg-en-Bresse (Ain) Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales) Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône) Schiltigheim (Bas-Rhin) Bourg-la-Reine (Hauts de Seine) Chateauroux (Indre) Moingt (Loire) Paris (Paris) Saint-Laurent-en-Royans (Drôme) Veyre-Monton (Puy-de-Dôme) Avignon (Vaucluse) Bordeaux (Gironde) Saint-Laurent-du-Pont (Isère) Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme) Elbeuf (Seine-Maritime) Angoulême (Charente) Lyon (Rhône) Metz (Moselle) Paris (Paris) Ponsan-Soubiran (Gers) Avignon (Vaucluse) Oloron-Sainte-Marie (PyrénéesAtlantiques)

1857 1857 1859 1860 1861 1862 1863 1865 1865 1866 1869 1870 1870 1871 1871 1872 1872 1875 1875 1877 1880 1880

Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

17

Table 1 Continued Founder City of Strasbourg Sœurs de la Providence Theophilus Mettenet Sœurs de la Divine Providence de Ribeauvillé The City of Limoges Charles Piepenbring François Boyer Abbé Joseph Forgues Abbé Bénac Conseil Général de la Seine Abbé Castellan Félicien Luciani Frère Gabriel Marie of the Frères des écoles chrétiennes M. Fargeix Pierre Matrand Sœurs de la Croix Unknown Guy Perdoncini

Location Year Founded Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin) 1880 Annonay (Ardèche) 1884 Bourogne (Territoire de Belfort) 1884 Guebwiller/Issenheim (Haut-Rhin) 1885 Limoges (Haute-Vienne) 1885 Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin) 1885 Dijon (Côte d’Or) 1890 Tarbes (Hautes- Pyrénées) 1890 Auch (Gers) 1892 Asnières-sur-Seine (Hauts-de-Seine) 1893 Nice (Alpes-Maritimes) 1896 Toulon (Var) 1896 Lyon (Rhône) 1897 Le Havre (Seine-Maritime) 1899 Ajaccio (Corsica) 1900 Stasbourg-Neuhof (Bas-Rhin) 1901 Villefranche-sur-Mer (Alpes-Martimes) 1940s Arpajon (Essonne) 1950

In France, 106 residential schools for the Deaf were founded, from 1808 up through the year 1900. Our catalog contains entries for virtually all of them, in chronological order of founding. For convenience, we designate schools primarily by their location, and by the department in which the town or city is located (see map). Of the 106 residential schools (table 1), religious orders founded a total of sixty-two schools. There were, further, forty private schools and four founded by government. Ten percent were avowedly to be “pure oral” on founding—that is, the language of instruction was to be exclusively French. All the rest presumably used some form of manual communication, most of them what is now called LSF. Valid classification is hard to achieve; for example, there were some small private schools that later converted to religious or government funding. Founders’ names may help in resolving an ambiguity when the founder’s religious name is given. The two predominant sets of schools were those founded or directed by Deaf educators (table 2) and by religious orders (table 3).

Table 2. Schools for the Deaf Founded or Directed (or Both) by Deaf Educators

Name of Founder or Director David Comberry Martin Plantin (Director) Ulysse-Edmond Parot (Director) David Comberry René Dunan J. L. Bonnefous (Director) Antoine Bertrand Jean Massieu (Director and Founder) Benjamin Louis Dubois Joséphine and Marie Galien Claudius Forestier (Director) Louis-Augustin Capon

Location Saint-Étienne Le Puy-en-Velay Nîmes Lyon Nantes Besançon Limoges Rodez, Lille Paris Vizille Lyon Elbeuf

18 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Year Founded 1815 1818 1822 1824 1824 1824 1833 1835 1837 1838 1840 1871

Name of Founder or Director Pauline Larrouy

Location Oloron-Sainte-Marie

Year Founded 1880

French Schools for the Deaf Founded by Gabriel Deshayes (GD), the Frères de Saint-Gabriel (FSG), and Sœurs de la Sagesse (SDS) Founder GD FSG SDS GD FSG SDS GD SDS SDS

Place name Angers Auray Auray (Chartreuse) Besançon

Genders B, G B, G G B, G

FSG

Year Founded 1777 1810 1810, 1812, 1824 G: 1819 B: 1824 1881, 1785–1786 1870 1872, 1788 1827 1871

Bordeaux Bordeaux Clermont-Ferrand Clermont-Ferrand Clermont-Ferrand

G B B G B

GD SDS FSG FSG FSG GD FSG GD SDS GD SDS GD FSG FSG GD SDS FSG FSG SDS

1835, 1839 1919 1824, 1835–1843 1839 1835 1833 1829, 1856 1870 1840–1841 1955–1984 1859

Lille Marseille Nantes (Persagotière) Orléans Orléans Poitiers Poitiers Saint-Laurent-du-Pont Soissons Strasbourg [GDS] 128 Toulouse

B, G B, G B, G B G G B B B, G B B, G

FSG FSG

Table 3.

Transfer Saint-Marie la Forêt, 1844 Nantes, 1843 Lons-le-Saunier, 1807; Pelousey, 1878; St. Claude

St. Germain-l’Herm, 1871; Royat-les-bains, 1890 Ronchin, 1872; Fives, 1843

St. Jean de la Ruelle, 1892 Larnay, 1847; Pont Achard Rouillé, 1837; Loudun Currière, 1877 Laon, 1882

Most schools for the Deaf in this inventory aligned themselves with “oralism” or with “manualism”—two opposing educational philosophies since at least the sixteenth century. In fact, what was at issue was a struggle over minority language rights. Culturally Deaf people wanted their sign language used in their schools but the educational establishment insisted on French.3

Religion and the Deaf Schools The clergy played a very large role in establishing and conducting schools for the Deaf in nineteenth-century France; the leading figure was Gabriel Deshayes, curate of Auray, in Brittany. In 1810, when he discovered that there were Deaf children in his parish, he took steps that would lead to the founding of ten schools for the Deaf. One of those steps was to form a religious community devoted to instructing the Deaf—the Frères de Saint-Gabriel. He also persuaded the Congregation of the Sœurs de la Sagesse, devoted to instructing children of the poor, to take on the instruction of Deaf children. On Deshayes’ death there were 135 Frères de Saint-Gabriel in forty-three schools. There were 1,628 Sœurs de la Sagesse in 128 schools. Table 3 shows the schools founded by Deshayes directly, or by the two orders he led. For more information about the founding of the schools cited in this table, the reader may turn to the following catalog of schools. Other religious schools were forced to convert to secular schools, often under department/national government, such as the school at Clermont-Ferrand. Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

19

40 8

38

60 55 81

71 44

54 17 7 30

9

26

66

3

62 61

65 28

20

51

37

72 74 73

47

25 53

11

35

36

19

4

78

48

27 18

32

14

22

57 58

16 41

5

24 80

15

83 42 67

39

12

33

23

45

6 79

31 29 64

63 68

2

Map of schools for the Deaf in France and Corsica (1760–1950). Map by Charles H. Eckstein. Made with Natural Earth.

10 52

75

21 69 34 70 84

77

59

20 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

50

13

49

46 43

82

76

56

1

Number of Schools Founded Ajaccio (Corsica) 1 Albi (Tarn) 1 Alençon (Orne) 1 Angers (Maine-et-Loire) 1 Angoulême (Charente) 1 Annonay (Ardèche) 1 Arpajon (Essonne) 1 Arras (Pas de Calais) 1 Asnières-sur-Seine (Hauts1 de-Seine) Auch (Gers) 1 Auray (Morbihan) 1 Aurillac (Cantal) 1 Avignon (Vaucluse) 3 Besançon (Doubs) 2 Bordeaux (Gironde) 2 Bourg-en-Bresse (Ain) 2 Bourges (Cher) 1 Bourg-la-Reine (Hauts-de-Seine) 1 Bourogne (Territoire de Belfort/ 1 Vesoul (Haute-Saône) Caen (Calvados) 1 Chambéry (Savoie) 2 Chateauroux (Indre) 1 Chaumont (Puy-de-Dôme) 1 Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme) 2 Colmar (Haut-Rhin) 1 Condé-sur-Noireau (Calvados) 1 Dijon (Côte-d’Or) 1 Elbeuf (Seine-Maritime) 1 Embrun (Hautes-Alpes) 1 Fontainebleau (Seine-et-Marne) 1 Gap (Hautes-Alpes) 1 Goux (Jura) 1 Gramat (Lot) 1 Grenoble (Isère) 1 Guebwiller/Issenheim (Haut-Rhin) 1 Langres (Haute-Marne) 1 Laval (Mayenne) 1 Le Havre (Seine-Maritime) 1 Le Puy-en-Velay (Haute-Loire) 2 Lille (Nord) 1 Limoges (Haute-Vienne) 2 Lyon (Rhône) 3 3 Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône)

Number of Schools Founded Metz (Moselle) 1 Moingt (Loire) 1 Montpellier (Hérault) 1 Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle) 1 Nantes (Loire-Atlantique) 1 Nice (Alpes-Maritimes) 1 Nîmes (Gard) 1 Nogent-le-Rotrou (Eure-et-Loir) 1 Oloron-Sainte-Marie 1 (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) Orléans (Loiret) 3 Paris (Paris) 7 Périers (Manche) 1 Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales) 1 Poitiers-Loudun (Vienne) 1 Poitiers-Pont Achard (Vienne) 1 Ponsan-Soubiran (Gers) 1 Pont-l’abbé (Manche) 1 Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine) 1 Rillé-Fougères (Ille-et-Vilaine) 1 Rioms (Drôme) 1 Rodez (Aveyron) 1 Rouen (Seine-Maritime) 4 Saint-Brieuc (Côtes-d’Armor) 1 Saint-Étienne (Loire) 3 Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort (Gard) 1 Saint-Laurent-du-Pont (Isère) 1 Saint-Laurent-en-Royans (Drôme) 1 Saint-Médard-lès-Soissons 1 (Aisne) Schiltigheim (Bas-Rhin) 1 Strasbourg-Neuhof (Bas-Rhin) 1

Number Location on Map

Number Location on Map

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 18 17 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43

53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84

Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin) Tarbes (Hautes-Pyrénées) Toulon (Var) Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) Tours (Indre-et-Loire) Vernoux (Ardèche) Veyre-Monton (Puy-de-Dôme) Villedieu-les-Poêles (Manche) Villefranche-sur-Mer (AlpesMartimes) Viricelles (Loire) Vizille (Isère)

3 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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Catalog of Schools 1760s. Paris School for the Deaf (Paris)—Founded by the abbé Charles-Michel de l’Épée and then in 1791 by the National Assembly Ever since its founding as a national institution in 1791, the Paris school has been known to Deaf people by its nickname, Saint-Jacques, which refers to its location on the street of the same name on the Left Bank of the Seine river. Saint-Jacques was the first public school for the Deaf in the Western world and became an inspiration and model for hundreds of schools to follow. In creating educated Deaf leaders, Saint-Jacques fostered a changing conception of Deaf identity. The events leading up to the founding of the school began in Paris in the 1760s, when Charles-Michel, abbé de l’Épée, son of King Louis XIV’s architect, encountered twin Deaf girls in their teens. Their mother implored him, he later recounted, to take on their Christian education. Although this took place in the middle of the Enlightenment, children born deaf were generally thought to be uneducable. How then to teach them French? In a move of astonishing humility, Épée recognized that he himself must first learn the manual language that he could see was in use between them.4 Then, with the help of his pupils, he associated signs and French words in what he called “methodical signing.” Once his pupils learned those associations, they could read French text. The number of Épée’s students grew, as did the audiences for his public demonstrations on rue des Moulins. Leading figures of the Enlightenment came to see the miracle—several philosophers, the papal Nuncio, the archbishop of Tours, the Holy Roman Emperor, Joseph II, Marie Antoinette, and so on.5 In Épée’s lifetime he had seen a dozen schools for the Deaf founded by his disciples throughout Europe—from Rome to Amsterdam, from Madrid to Vienna. During his successor’s career that number would An 1894 engraving by Auguste Colas depicting a bird’s-eye view of the Paris institution. (Courtesy of Gallaudet University Archives)

22 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

grow fivefold. In France alone, numerous residential schools for the Deaf opened in Clermont-Ferrand (1788), Auray (1810), Nogent-le-Rotrou (1811), Rodez (1814), Saint-Étienne (1815), Arras and Caen (1817), Puy (1818), Marseille (1819), Besançon, Lyon, and Nantes (1824), Laval (1825), Albi and Toulouse (1826), Nancy (1828), Chaumont (1833), Lille, Orléans, and Rouen (1835), Poitiers (1837), Vizille (1838), Saint-Brieuc (1839), Soissons (1840), Aurillac and Fougères (1846), Bourg-en-Bresse (1847), and Montpellier (1850). Épée’s school grew from the two women in the 1760s to sixty-eight pupils by 1783, and over one hundred in 1789 when he became mortally ill. A delegation from the legislature, the National Assembly, joined the pupils at his bedside to tell him that his most fervent wish, the certain continuation of his school, was assured; the National Assembly would proclaim it a national institution.6 Épée’s leading disciple, the man who would carry forward the education of Deaf children upon the master’s death, was abbé Roch-Ambroise-Cucurron Sicard of Bordeaux (1742–1822). Sent to Paris by his bishop to study under Épée for a year, Sicard then returned home to direct the Bordeaux school until he was called to direct Saint-Jacques in 1790. He died at his post in 1822. The Paris School for the Deaf is situated on the plateau of the Montagne SainteGeneviève next to the Luxembourg Palace and gardens. Saint-Jacques has gardens of its own, and alleys lined with linden trees. The school building is shaped like an H, embracing a large courtyard in front and a spacious terrace overlooking the gardens behind. The facade is sculpted limestone and the two stories, each with more than a dozen lofty windows spaced a yard or so apart, are topped by a steep slate roof with little mansard windows and jutting chimneys. Today, the structural elements remain unchanged. It had been built by the Fathers of the Oratory in the seventeenth century on the site of the ruins of a refuge constructed in the thirteenth century by the monks of the nearby church of Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas. The original refuge was the first in a chain of refuges that served one of the most traveled pilgrimages in Christendom, from Paris to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, where a miracle had placed the body of the apostle Saint James. For over a century, the Oratorians trained the priests of the diocese of Paris there, and those destined for the provinces as well, until the church property was abolished by the Revolution and the seminary was seized by the new Republic for Saint-Jacques in 1794. On the interior, a stately sweeping staircase of stone and wrought iron rises to the second floor where the sleeping quarters were comprised of a long rectangular room with rows of windows on each side and at each end. While formerly each window had illuminated a monk’s cell, the partitions were removed to create a spacious dormitory. Plain stone columns marched single file down the middle of the room, separating two rows of little beds, some fifty in all. Each bed was covered with a counterpane and bore a sign at its foot giving the name of its tenant (all boys; girls were quartered at the House of Refuges for Indigent Deaf and Dumb Girls, also on rue Saint-Jacques). The coverpane, sign, and the chest alongside each bed were made in the school. Early morning and late afternoon were devoted to the workshops—printing, carpentry, sewing and shoemaking, design, engraving, and mosaic work. In the evening, from 6:30 to 7:30, students studied under supervision; they then went to supper, which consisted of a vegetable, wine, and Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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boiled or roast meat. On Thursdays and Sundays there would also be a dessert. Weather permitting, students flowed out of the dining room and into the gardens for recreation at the end of the meal.7 It appears that Épée’s methodical sign was used in the classroom but the manual language of the Deaf community, with a vocabulary and a grammar all its own, was the primary language outside the classroom. The pupils were never formally taught this manual language (what we may call Old French Sign Language)—they simply acquired it from the older pupils and from the Deaf faculty who used it in the classroom much as any foreign language teacher might use the native language of the pupils to teach them another tongue. Learning to fingerspell and to read, write, and sign French nouns took up most of the formal instruction of the first year. In the curriculum for the second level, French verbs, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, and pronouns were also taught and an introduction to catechism was given. The emphasis at the third level was on French syntax, although there was some mathematics and more catechism and confession, and pupils were required to give original definitions of terms and descriptions of objects. Only at the fourth level were the students finally given books, instructed in history and geography, and prepared for communion. It generally took five years to complete the four levels.8 In 1831, under the second director of note, Désiré Ordinaire (1773–1847), a medical doctor, Saint-Jacques began to veer away from signing in or out of the classroom, in favor of articulation (i.e., speech) training and spoken and written French. Deaf teachers were marginalized such that in 1829, there were only two Deaf professors—Ferdinand Berthier and Alphonse Lenoir—among the six professors for the boys, and no Deaf women among the four professors for the girls. As the century progressed, the lines of battle were drawn between advocates of two very different languages in Deaf education, French and Old French Sign Language. Then, from 1838 to 1858, during the term of Adolphe de Lanneau, Ordinaire’s successor, spoken French was reduced to a minor role. Edward Miner Gallaudet, Thomas Hopkins’ son and president of the American Conference of Principals of Institutions for the Deaf, visited Saint-Jacques in 1867. He found that the director, Léon Vaïsse, advocated sign language in Deaf education, complemented with speech training for those students who could profit from it. Gallaudet put the students through their paces and was effusive in his praise.9 However, such moderation would not last. A series of international congresses (to be discussed in chapter 3) convened by hearing teachers of the Deaf demanded the exclusive use of spoken and written language in the classroom and out. Their demands were met, and Deaf teachers were summarily fired and the oppression of sign language continued for another century. The Paris school had many distinguished graduates who went on to establish schools of their own (table 2). Saint-Jacques graduates who opened schools in other European countries include Joseph Henrion (1793–1868) in Liège, Isaac Chomel (1796–1871) in Geneva; and for the Americas, Jacques Lejeune (1820–1897) in Montréal, François Delfariel (1845–?) in Santiago, Edouard Huet (1822–1882) in Bourges, Rio-de-Janeiro, and then Mexico City. Of particular note for American readers, a Saint-Jacques pupil who then became a teacher, Laurent Clerc (1785–1869), cofounded the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut, with Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. This gave rise in Clerc’s lifetime to a network of residential schools for the Deaf in the United States with a common sign language. 24 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

1775. Orléans (Loiret)—Founded by abbé Deschamps Abbé Deschamps provided oral instruction to a dozen Deaf pupils in his home from 1775 to 1784.10 He died in 1791. He was the author of De la manière de suppléer aux oreilles par les yeux (How to substitute vision for hearing) and Cours élémentaire d’éducation des sourds et muets (A basic course in Deaf education). The latter work was assailed in defense of sign language by the Deaf Parisian bookbinder, Pierre Desloges, in his book, Observations d’un sourd et muèt sur un cours élémentaire d’éducation des sourds et muèts (Observations of a Deaf person of a basic course in Deaf education), published in 1779.

1775/1800. Toulouse (Haute-Garonne)—Founded by abbé Jean-Marie du Bourg in 1775 and founded in 1800 by Dr. Saux In 1774, abbé Jean-Marie du Bourg attended Épée’s lectures. One year later, he opened a school for the Deaf in his family’s chateau in Sail near Toulouse in the south of France, making him one of the earliest Épée disciples. Separately, the department of Haute-Garonne authorized a certain Dr. Saux to rent the former convent of the Carmélites de Toulouse, rue du Périgord, for the purpose of educating children from Toulouse who were born Deaf. He recruited a Deaf man, “Citizen” Barutaud, who had been a pupil of the abbé de l’Épée for ten years. Toulouse archives reveal annual payments were made over a period of twenty-five years to a Deaf woman named Angélique Martres for her operation of a school for Deaf girls. It is not known what became of these schools.11

1777. Angers (Maine-et-Loire)—Founded by abbé Fremond Despite the fact that the abbé de l’Épée had conducted classes for the Deaf for over twenty years by the time of his death in 1789, there were still very few places where such classes could be found in France. Angers was one of a half dozen, thanks to abbé Fremond, who was the vicar general there. As early as 1772, he had attended a few of Épée’s lectures and then organized the first class in Angers. This class was conducted by a French teacher, Nicolas Blouin, who was aided by his hearing daughter Charlotte Blouin (1758–1829).12 In 1781, Charlotte took over her father’s class and taught Deaf students reading, writing, mathematics, and religion. She, too, attended Épée’s lectures in Paris and in 1783 the city of Angers hired her to direct a Deaf school installed within the abbey Saint-Nicolas. Three years later, with thirty students, the school moved to larger quarters. However, Charlotte was fired in 1792 for refusing to sign an oath of allegiance to the new Revolutionary government. Consequently, her school was closed but it reopened under her direction five years later. Épée’s methodical signs were the basis of instruction in Charlotte’s time, but their role waned in the mid-nineteenth century and ended entirely in 1885 in favor of the “pure oral” method espoused by the Milan Congress of 1880. Charlotte’s two nieces, Victoire Blouin (1799–1842) and Ursule Jeanne Taudon (1793– 1865), took up her career of teaching Deaf pupils. Both took lessons from abbé Sicard. Ursule joined the Filles de la Sagesse, an order of nuns, and taught at Deaf schools in Auray, Orléans, and Poitiers. The other, Victoire, replaced her aunt Charlotte when Charlotte Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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died. In 1842, the Congrégation des Sœurs de la Charité de Sainte-Marie took charge and the school moved to a new location, Sainte-Marie-la-Forêt. In 1959, an agreement was signed with the Frères de Saint-Gabriel to provide instruction to Deaf boys. In 1966, the school moved to new buildings and took on a new name, Centre Charlotte Blouin. Since that time, two medico-social agencies for disabled people have managed the school.

1780. Rouen (Seine-Maritime)—Founded by abbé Jacques-Louis Huby In 1780, abbé Jacques-Louis Huby (1748–1832), vicar at Saint-Paul Church of Rouen, began to gather a few Deaf children at his home to prepare them for their first communion. A parishioner paid for abbé Huby to receive lessons from the abbé de l’Épée on how to best educate deaf pupils. Upon his return from Paris, Huby opened a private school to educate Deaf children. In 1788, King Louis XVI approved Huby’s request to set up a public school and to receive financial support from the government for a period of two years. In 1793, abbé Huby was arrested because he refused to take the oath of allegiance to the new Revolutionary French government. He was imprisoned and awaited deportation to French Guyana. However, his attorney was persuasive and Huby was allowed to return to the Deaf school.13 Instruction at the school was focused on vocational work for the boys and domestic work for the girls. The combined number of boys and girls never exceeded some two dozen. When abbé Huby died in 1832, Roch-Ambroise Auguste Bébian, a hearing teacher at the Saint-Jacques school in Paris, was nominated to take his place but the city council did not accept this proposal and the school closed.

1786. Bordeaux (Gironde)—Founded by Archbishop Jérôme Champion de Cicé The Bordeaux school was founded in 1786 by Archbishop Jérôme Champion de Cicé, who had visited Épée’s school for the Deaf in Paris. At this time, he assigned as director Roch-Ambroise-Cucurron Sicard, who was born in Le Fousseret, near Toulouse. Sicard studied for the priesthood and took his vows in the Congregation of Christian Doctrine, as the abbé de l’Épée had done before him. Forty-three years old at the time, Sicard went to the capital to learn a new career, spending about a year attending Épée’s classes and public exercises with numerous other disciples from throughout Europe. Upon returning to Bordeaux, Sicard recruited an experienced teacher, Jean SaintSernin (1741–1816), who provided the daily instruction in the new school, while Sicard presented the fruits of that instruction to a general audience at the museum and described its rationale in several published papers.14 The French government earmarked funding for the Bordeaux school in 1793 just as it had for the Paris school two years earlier. In 1789, the abbé de l’Épée died and there was a competition for his position at the Paris school; each candidate was to display his best student and explain his methods of instruction. Sicard was staking everything on his best pupil, Jean Massieu; and he won.15 Sicard directed the Paris school until his death in 1822. Saint-Sernin took over in Bordeaux from 1790 until his death in 1816. Under the direction of Jean-Jacques 26 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

The majestic school for the girls at rue abbé de l’Épée. (Courtesy of Ulf Hedberg)

Valade-Gabel (1801–1879) from 1838 to 1850, the methodical signs that were adopted from Épée and implemented at the school were replaced by the director’s own “intuitive method,”16 which was based on written French. There were approximately one hundred pupils at the Bordeaux school. They would usually study traditional subjects as well as vocational courses in drawing, decorative painting, photography, hairdressing, and sewing. By 1860, the Paris school admitted boys exclusively while the Bordeaux school was dedicated to girls. The range for admission was nine to fifteen years of age and the duration of studies was six years—this increased to eight years when the oral method was adopted in 1879. The teaching corps included a mother superior, a lead instructor, fifteen sisters of the order Sœurs de Nevers who were professors or tutors, three Deaf monitors, a design instructor, and a sewing instructor. Thus the Deaf tutors were replaced by hearing sisters who were charged with instruction in articulation. These sisters attended special classes taught by a professor from the Toulouse school on how to teach Deaf children. In 1867, Edward Miner Gallaudet (son of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet) visited this school (among four other schools in France) and stated that the combined method was in use—sign language in the classroom and speech training in the curriculum.17 Today the Bordeaux school is officially called the Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Bordeaux. In 1958, it moved to its present quarters in Gradignan, a Bordeaux suburb.

1788. Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme)—Founded by the Sœurs Saint-Joseph du Bon Pasteur for boys The first ten schools for the Deaf in France were founded in the second half of the eighteenth century. Deaf education flourished in the following half century as twenty-five new schools were founded; Clermont-Ferrand was one of the latter. Founded initially in 1788, the school for Deaf boys lasted only two years. Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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1788. Rioms (Drôme)—Founded by abbé Antoine Salvan Abbé Antoine Salvan (1755–1838) was born in the town of Loubeysargue, department of Cantal, region of Auvergne. Abbé Salvan gave lessons in writing French to a Deaf child from his village. It appears that this led him to learn the basics of Épée’s methods, presumably by joining his disciples in Paris. Meanwhile, the Marquise de Lafayette (wife of Lafayette, the hero of the American Revolution) told Épée of her wish to found a school for the Deaf in Auvergne. Épée brought Salvan to Paris for further training and Salvan opened his school in Rioms in 1788. When Épée died, abbé Sicard published a memoir announcing his candidacy for the position of director of the newly nationalized school. In it he stated that there were only four suitable contenders in France to succeed Épée: abbé Masse, who had worked with Épée and was his choice of successor; abbé Salvan; abbé Deschamps, director of a school for the Deaf in Orléans who was mortally ill; and of course himself. Salvan preferred to take the post of assistant director of the national school and was charged especially with recruitment, for which he dispensed government scholarships. He died in Paris in 1838.

1803. Rouen (Seine-Maritime)—Founded by Laurine Duler In 1803, abbé Sicard complied with a request from the Seine Inférieure department and sent a hearing teacher of the Deaf, Laurine Duler, to open a school for the Deaf in a nursing home in Rouen. Duler taught two nuns from the Filles de la Sagesse, who would instruct the girls, and also a M. Humphrey from Larnay, who would instruct the boys. Both instructors were judged satisfactory by abbé Sicard. Humphrey soon left for the school at Auray and the order of the Frères de Saint-Gabriel took his place in Rouen.

1810. Auray (Morbihan)—Founded by P`ere Gabriel Deshayes for boys and transferred to Nantes in 1843 The Deaf school, la Chartreuse d’Auray, was founded in 1810 by Père Gabriel Deshayes (1767–1841), curé d’Auray in Brittany. He was Supérieur général of three congregations, including the Sœurs de la Sagesse and the Frères du Saint-Esprit (which later took the name Frères de Saint-Gabriel). In 1805, Auray had some 3,400 inhabitants and was thus considered a large town for the period. In 1808, Deshayes purchased the Chartreuse convent with the idea of creating a Deaf school in mind. The construction of the convent had begun in 1482. The convent stood empty for some time following the Revolution in 1789, as the Pères Chartreux had to flee once the National Assembly seized the properties held by the Catholic Church and its religious orders. Deshayes had attended classes conducted by abbé Sicard and asked him to spare one of his teachers in order to launch the new school in Auray. Sicard sent Laurine Duler in 1810 (he had previously sent her to the Rouen school in 1803). In 1811, there were a dozen Deaf girls enrolled at Deshayes’ new school. One year later there were twenty-one girls when the order of nuns, Filles de la Sagesse, commenced instruction in the Chartreuse convent with Duler as director. In 1814, Deshayes took two of the nuns to Paris to learn Sicard’s methods of teaching the Deaf. Duler moved to the Deaf school in Arras in 1816 and a few years later, the director of the boys’ school in Auray also left. To replace him, 28 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Deshayes chose René Dunan, who was born Deaf and was just finishing his studies at Saint-Jacques. In 1820, Dunan became head tutor at the Chartreuse. Four years later, he moved to his native city, Nantes, and opened a Deaf school there. As was typical of the time period, Deshayes was opposed to mixing genders, so the boys and girls were kept apart. The buildings and land of the Chartreuse were extensive so it was easy to implement this separation. The Filles de la Sagesse taught the girls and the Frères de Saint-Gabriel taught the boys. In the first seventeen years, ninety-one children were educated and more than half of them received financial aid. In 1843, it was decided that Auray would be a girls’ school under the Filles de la Sagesse, and the boys’ school was relocated to Nantes. Deshayes used the Chartreuse as a training school, drawing experienced teachers from there to launch other schools for the Deaf. For example, MarieVictoire, a sister in the order Filles de la Sagesse, taught at the Chartreuse until Deshayes sent her to Poitiers to create a Deaf school there. Her civil name was Jeanne Taudon and she was a niece of Charlotte Blouin—the woman who had attended Épée’s lectures and founded the school for the Deaf in Angers, the second in France. Also sent from Auray to Poitiers were Sister Sainte-Sophie and Sister Sainte Léon (the latter was Deaf). The Frères de Saint-Gabriel had long placed great importance on the use of signs in instruction. Sign language was the medium of instruction in all of them and was the method employed in Poitiers by Sister Marie-Victoire, for example.18 The Congress of Milan in 1880 had disastrous consequences for these schools. Most of the professors in the schools for the Deaf had no experience with oralism and many were Deaf themselves. In addition, many schools had Deafblind students and it seemed impossible to educate them without sign.19 Deshayes affirmed his greatest joy was seeing Deaf children learn the catechism and attend communion and other sacraments. He welcomed Deaf adults into the congregation and into the teaching corps. In 1859, abbé Larnay created a congregation for Deaf nuns within the Filles de la Sagesse with the name Sœurs Oblates de la Sagesse. In 1962, the school was still operating in the Chartreuse d’Auray but in 1976 it was relocated to the facility in Nantes, the Persagotière. The Filles de la Sagesse continued to operate the school until the Association Gabriel Deshayes took the reins in 1992. Today, the Association Gabriel Deshayes in Auray provides family education and school integration services.

1811. Nogent-le-Rotrou (Eure-et-Loir)—Founded by abbé André-François Beulé It is not uncommon for hearing directors of schools for the Deaf to have started out by “discovering” Deaf people, of whom they were not previously aware. That was the case for abbé Beulé (1766–1839), the future founder of the Deaf school in Nogent-le-Rotrou (some thirty miles west of Chartres). On a routine visit in another town, as the abbot relates it, he stopped at a shoe repair shop and asked for an estimate but the shoemaker did not reply. A customer explained that the shoemaker was Deaf.20 Beulé had founded the Congregation of the Immaculate Conception in 1808, and he recounted this experience to the cardinal of Nogent-le-Rotrou, who encouraged him to do something for these “misfortunates.” Beulé sent one of the sisters, Catherine Fleury, to Paris to study under abbé Sicard for seventeen months. In 1811, he opened a school for Deaf Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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girls at 70 rue Dorée (now rue Gouverneur) with funding from the town. Beulé wanted to admit Deaf boys as well, but the sisters resisted. In order to create a class for Deaf boys at his school, Beulé went to Paris and studied under Sicard for three months. Upon his return he admitted one boy to his school, and over the years, enrollment increased to nine.21 Sister Catherine Fleury died in 1820. Beulé could not maintain classes for both girls and boys, so the boys were returned home to their families. Upon abbé Sicard’s death in 1822, Beulé was offered the post of director at Saint-Jacques, but he declined. In 1824, abbé Beulé moved his school to 84 rue Dorée, and four years later the school moved to the former Ursulines convent down the street. Beulé directed and taught in his school without interruption until his death in 1839. The school must have had a reputation that extended well beyond the town, as two eminent Deaf educators, Jean Massieu and Laurent Clerc, paid his school a visit.22 With Beulé died, the school began to close classes. In 1843, the Mother Superior sent two sisters to the Deaf school in Caen for training. They returned to Nogent-le-Rotrou in 1845, and reopened classes for Deaf children.23 In 1863, there were twenty-eight students and in 1886, there were thirty-one. Since its founding, the school had strictly practiced Sicard’s methods for educating Deaf children. However, after the Milan Congress of 1880, this school, as so many others, adopted the oral method. One of the teachers at the Nogent school, Henriette Cochereau, was Deaf. Because of the Milan resolution to use oral methods and the assumption that Deaf teachers could not teach articulation, Deaf teachers were commonly discharged and Cochereau was forced to leave. She took up work as a seamstress. During World War I, the school was transformed into a hospital. In 1919, the school had forty students. During World War II, the area around Nogent was bombarded by the German army and residents were urged to leave. The school teachers fled with the Deaf children to a town in southern France, some 365 miles away, where they continued to educate them. In 1950, the school began to modernize, adding technology such as amplifiers and microphones. The curriculum was upgraded with more advanced courses, such as mathematics, sciences, civics, geography, history, and religion. In 1991, the school was renamed Institut André Beulé in honor of its founder. It is currently located at 1 bis, rue Maute Lelasseux. In 2004, the school and its branches had 120 students. It remains one of the oldest surviving Deaf schools in France.24

1814. Rodez (Aveyron)—Founded by abbé Pierre-Jean-Louis Périer In 1810, abbé Périer (1756–1833) of Rodez, the capital of Aveyron in southern France, undertook the instruction of three Deaf students in his home. Rodez was the third city in France to have a Deaf school: only the schools at Paris and Bordeaux preceded it. (Some scholars give 1810 or 1814 as the date of the formal founding of the Rodez school.)25 With the death of abbé Sicard in 1822, the famed Jean Massieu (1772–1846) who had saved Sicard’s life (winning Sicard his post as director of the Paris school) and who had himself been appointed head teacher of that school by Louis XVI, was now forced into retirement. Périer hired Massieu to teach at his school in Rodez. Then, when Périer was called to Paris to succeed the late abbé Sicard, he offered Massieu the post of director of the Rodez school. Thus, Massieu joined a long list of Deaf founders or directors of schools 30 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

for the Deaf, among them René Dunan in Nantes, David Comberry at Saint Étienne, and Pauline Larrouy at Oloron. The abbé Périer died in 1833, leaving his house and furnishings to the department, provided they were always used for a Deaf school.26 Two years later, Massieu and his wife and son left Rodez for Lille to found the first Deaf school in the north of France. He was succeeded by a director recruited from the faculty at Saint-Jacques, a certain M. Rivière. In 1837, the Rodez school became departmental (i.e., receiving state funding), with funding from the department of Aveyron and several nearby departments. In that year, the Deaf school in Nîmes closed and the boys were sent to Rodez. An 1838 report finds the Rodez school with fifty-six pupils. In 1882, the Rodez school, directed by abbé Croquette, had forty-three boys and girls, seven teachers, and five classes. As was typical with oral schools, the classes were small with eight or nine pupils per class. The age of admission was nine to fourteen years of age and the duration of studies was six years. In the early years, Épée’s “methodical signs” were the basis of instruction. However, a movement in Deaf education arose in reaction to the analytical approach of Épée and Sicard. Instead, the “intuitive method” of Valade-Gabel advocated language learning in social context. For example, pupils were given orders to carry out27 that introduced them to understanding requests and were increasingly complex. Speech and lipreading allied comfortably with this orally based approach, so when the Milan resolutions were voted they were warmly received at the Rodez school. Professional education was an important part of the curriculum and began in the fifth year of studies. The school assisted alumni in finding work after graduation.28 In 1857, the Rodez school moved to its present address of 15 boulevard Francois Fabié. Today, the school is known as the Centre Départemental pour Déficients Sensoriels, and provides several kinds of services for Deaf and blind young boys and girls.29

1815. Saint-Étienne (Loire)—Founded by David Comberry David Comberry (1792–1834), born in Bordeaux in 1792, attended the Bordeaux school. Upon graduation, Comberry became an itinerant tailor. He chanced to meet the mayor of Saint-Étienne, who sought to have a Deaf school in his town. At the mayor’s insistence, Comberry founded a Deaf school in 1815 on rue Froide (renamed rue Denis Escoffier). Both Deaf boys and Deaf girls were accepted, which was unusual for the time. Com­ berry taught the boys and Sister Sainte-Anne Perrin taught the girls. David Comberry directed the school for nine years before leaving for the bright lights of Lyon in 1824.30 After Comberry’s departure, the school continued for four years. The next director, a M. Meillier, was Deaf and had been a pupil of Louis-Pierre Paulmier (1775–1847) at Saint-Jacques. Next, a M. Daniel took the reins, and after him a M. Murat. An 1828 report decried the mixing of the sexes in the classroom.31 The journal L’ami des sourds-muets reported that the school was still active in 1838.32

1816. Condé-sur-Noireau (Calvados)—Founded by Paul-Denis Dudesert In 1816, Paul-Denis Dudesert (1798–1851), a disciple of abbé Jamet of Caen, founded a Deaf school in Condé-sur-Noireau, about thirty miles south of Caen. The school was Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

31

nonresidential, private, and open to both sexes. In 1836, there were twelve students. Later, the school was managed by a religious order, the Filles de l’Immaculée-Conception. Dudesert taught his students Sicard’s methodical signs. He believed that the goal of Deaf education was to teach written French. He was a severe critic of French Sign Language, which he called “pantomime.”33 The school was in operation for the next thirty-five years and closed in 1851.

1817. Arras (Pas-de-Calais)—Founded by Laurine Duler In 1810, Père Gabriel Deshayes of Auray, located in Brittany, contacted abbé Sicard for his assistance, asking him to send one of his teachers to open a new school in Arras. It was agreed that Sicard send Laurine Duler, who was employed at the Rouen school, to fill the position. Laurine Duler moved to Arras in 1816 to found a second Deaf school. Arras is the capital of the Pas-de-Calais department. The city of Arras put its old-age home at Duler’s disposal. She would be assisted by two sisters, who passed an exam administered by abbé Sicard.34 The school was formally founded in 1817. An 1857 decree assigned the operation of the school to the Sœurs de la Charité de Saint-Vincent-de-Paul and the instruction of blind children was added to its mission. At mid-century, there were some twenty pupils. In 1887, there were ten teachers and eighty-seven pupils at the Arras school. Mlle. Teissier, a sister in the order Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, was director. The school continues today at 10 rue des Augustines, albeit with an expanded mission and a different title, Association Jules Catoire: Audition, Parole et Communication.35

1817. Caen (Calvados)—Founded by abbé Pierre-François Jamet In 1816, abbé Pierre-François Jamet (1762–1845), who would become superior of the Congrégation du Bon Sauveur, took an interest in educating Deaf people when he learned that he had a Deaf relative whose sister was in his congregation. As he knew nothing of methods to educate the Deaf, he went to Paris and met with abbé Sicard36 who, despite an advanced age, was still the director of Saint-Jacques. About a decade earlier, Jamet had purchased the convent of the Capuchins in Caen to house his congregation and to serve as an asylum for the mentally ill. In 1817, he added a school for the Deaf and in a mere two years he had twenty-two Deaf boys prepared for a public demonstration.37 At the time of Jamet’s death in 1845, some eighteen sisters of the congregation were employed in his school and its branch in Albi and there were 130 boys and girls enrolled. Madeleine Barthélémy is credited with founding the girls’ department (she had founded Deaf schools in Le Puy and Chambéry). Not surprisingly, Jamet’s initial method was that of Épée passed down to Sicard— methodical signs. However, the distortion of the sign language to make it align with spoken French was too great for most pupils, as the word order is drastically different between sign and spoken language. After Bébian showed the flaws in that system, Jamet was the lone director using it for a time.38 Jamet had heard about German schools for the Deaf that gave priority to speaking and lipreading and used speech in the classroom. So Jamet 32 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

gave lessons in articulation to a few pupils. He had little success and concluded that it is impossible to rely on spoken language for instructing the Deaf.39 After the Congress of Milan (discussed further in chapter 3), Jamet’s school, like most others, adopted the “pure oral” method—“pure” meaning without any accommodation whatsoever for the language of the Deaf. Further, the younger students were separated from the older ones so they would not be contaminated and all signs, methodical or not, were banished. In 1887, there were fifty pupils, five teachers, and three assistant teachers, making Caen one of the larger French schools for the Deaf. The duration of studies was ten or eleven years. Training in trades accompanied general education. One wonders how effective it was, as school policy was to hire graduates who were not claimed by their families.40 Abbé Jamet played an important role in the founding of two other schools for the Deaf—Albi and Pont-l’abbé-Picauville. In Albi, in southern France, an abbot by the name of Treilhou founded a Deaf school around 1826. Treilhou had heard of the Deaf school established in Caen ten years earlier. In need of trained teachers and a director for his school, Treilhou applied to the order of Bon Sauveur. Thus abbé Jamet took on the direction of the school for a time and five sisters taught twenty-five Deaf boys and girls there. In the post-Milan era, under the superior of the congregation, Sister Germond, oral instruction was the rule and class size fell to six pupils in a class.

1818. Le Puy-en-Velay (Haute-Loire)—Founded by Mlle. Elisabeth Genestet for girls, instruction by Sœurs de la Présentation de Sainte-Marie & founded by Madeleine Barthélémy for boys, directed by Martin Plantin, instruction by the Frères du Sacré-Cœur In the 1840s, this residential school for Deaf girls was conducted by Sœurs de la Présentation de Sainte-Marie. The boys were instructed by the Frères du Sacré-Cœur. The seat Located in the former bishopric medieval city, the school founded by Madeleine Barthélémy. (Courtesy of ­Gallaudet University Archives)

Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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of this religious order was in the department of Haute-Loire, near Le Puy. They also taught in Chambéry. The basis of instruction in this era was the methods of Bébian and Sicard. The school had some thirty boys in 1881. There was education for trades: Sewing, shoe repair, dressmaking, agriculture, horticulture, gardening, arboriculture, and the care of animals.41 The school was private, residential, open to boys only and had a capacity of one hundred. Girls were admitted to a separate facility, also in Haute-Loire. Today, the school has a residential program for fifty Deaf boys and girls, aged five to twenty, who are having academic or emotional difficulties. Eleven students are enrolled in a program to equip them in trades and employment. Another eleven students are in a program designed for Deaf adults with disabilities.

1819. Besançon (Doubs)—Founded by Sister Rouzot of the Congrégation de Notre Dame des Sept Douleurs for girls M. Lefroy of Villers-Sexel, a lawyer in the Besançon area, had a retreat he wanted to put to good use. Around 1817, he set up a free school there for poor children and hired two teachers. Two girls born Deaf were among the children attending this school, but the teachers had no idea how to instruct them.42 Abbé Jean Maurice Breuillot (1758–1837), director of the Besançon seminary and treasurer of the retreat, arranged for one of the teachers, Sister Rouzot (also Rousot, Roussot), to study under a M. Pernet (also Perrenet), a former teacher at Saint-Jacques, who had retired in nearby Lons-le-Saulnier, where he received a small pension from the town for instructing Deaf-mutes. Rouzot spent a year and a half with him and a similar amount of time at Saint-Jacques. On return to Besançon in 1819, she gathered some girls who were born Deaf and undertook their education. In 1858, Mme. Chauvigney took the reins, but she was elderly and soon asked for help from the Filles de la Sagesse who ultimately sent three sisters in 1877. They found the school overcrowded with two pupils to each bed. In 1882, there was a five-year program and the method of instruction was “pure oral.” A flood left the school partly under water so it moved the following year to the Château de Pelousey some seven miles away. An 1890 survey reports that the school had five professors and fifty students, thirty-nine of them on scholarship. The duration of studies was five years. The director was Sister Céleste de la Croix.43 Blind students were admitted in 1898. The number of Deaf girls declined, perhaps because of the school’s remote setting, and the school was closed in 1937.

1819. Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône)—Founded by Joseph Bernhard and founded after 1826 by Pierre Guès In 1818, Joseph Bernard (17??–1841) and his wife taught some Deaf girls, which led Bernard to meet with city officials in Marseille to ask for funding for more pupils. During the meeting, two of the girls were brought in; they were asked questions and wrote short essays. The city council was impressed with M. Bernard and gave him a certificate conferring the right to found and operate a school. 34 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Bernard opened a public school for Deaf children of both sexes in 1819 with funding from the city of Marseille. The neighboring departments, particularly Var, Gard, Alpesde-Haute-Provence, Hautes-Alpes, Drôme, and Corsica, as well as Ardèche and Vaucluse, contributed scholarships. Both boys and girls learned reading, writing, principles of religion, French, arithmetic, history, and geography; they also received vocational training.44 In 1826, Bernard’s school had twenty-two students and sought an additional teacher. He hired a young dedicated educator named Pierre Guès. The school flourished, but disagreements arose between Bernard and Guès. They separated. Guès opened his own school, hired five Deaf assistant teachers, and rivaled Bernard’s school. The teaching method in both was based on Sicard’s principles. The city council gave the same funding to both schools, partly at Bernard’s expense. This did not improve relations between the rivals. Bernard died in 1841, whereupon Guès acquired long-term annual funding from the city council. In 1866, after thirty-five years as director, Guès resigned and sold his property. The French government awarded him the Chevalier de la Legion d’honneur.45

1822. Nîmes (Gard)—Founded by the Sœurs de Saint-Thomas de Villeneuve Nîmes is located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Cévennes mountains of southern France; it is the capital of the Gard department. The Deaf school in Nîmes was founded in 1822, but closed in 1837, and the children moved to the Rodez school, about 140 miles northwest of Nîmes. In 1848, Cheylat, a former pupil of Saint-Sernin at the Bordeaux school, reopened the Nîmes school. He had ten Deaf students in 1858. A Deaf director, Ulysse-Edmond Parot (1823–1893), a graduate of the Paris school, directed the one in Nîmes.46 We have no information on when (or why) the school closed.

1824. Lyon (Rhône)—Founded by David Comberry David Comberry (1792–1834) was one of a cadre of Deaf founders of early Deaf schools in France. He graduated from the Bordeaux school and took up the trade of itinerant tailor, traveling from town to town seeking employment. In his travels, Comberry met the mayor of Saint-Étienne who persuaded him to found a school for Deaf children there.47 Opened in 1815, it was the first Deaf school in the nation to accept both sexes:48 Comberry taught the boys and his hearing wife, Jeanne Monnier, taught the girls. The instructional method was based on Sicard’s, which is to say the methodical signs of Épée’s Signed French. Nine years later, in 1824, the city of Lyon induced Comberry to move his school there. In Lyon, Comberry demonstrated his pupils’ skills in a public exercise; the school took up residence in the Fourvières district and subsequently in the Place des Minimes. After nine years, there were sixty-five pupils, forty-five boys and twenty girls, aged five to twenty-five. There were two sets of buildings, one for boys, the other for girls. The girls were taught to make thread, to embroider, and to sew. The boys were taught shoe repair, tailoring, and carpentry.49 Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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Then, in 1834, Comberry died and direction of the school passed to his collaborator, abbé Plasson, the school chaplain and assistant teacher. In 1840, Plasson recruited Claudius Forestier (1810–1891). Forestier was born in Aix-les- Bains, one of seven children. He attended Saint-Jacques, a student of Bébian, where he went on to become a monitor and then a teacher. Under Forestier’s direction, nearly everyone employed at the school was Deaf; the one exception was Comberry’s hearing daughter, Agathe (1820–1885), whom Forestier proceeded to marry and place in charge of the girls’ facility. A few years later, Forestier brought his Deaf brother, Hyacinthe (1819–1895), onto the faculty. Forestier annexed a trade school for boys aged twelve to eighteen. On May 27, 1838, the influential Central Society of the Deaf was officially declared by Ferdinand Berthier (first president), Claudius Forestier (vice-president), and Alphonse Lenoir (secretary).50 In 1854, Forestier’s school moved to 1 Montée de Balmont in the Vaise quarter. Forestier believed deeply in the role of sign language in Deaf education and refused to adopt oralism and to spurn sign. In 1854, he published a book criticizing “pure oralism” both practically and pedagogically. However, his school relied on government subsidies and those were choked off gradually. As scholarship students graduated, the funds to replace them were transferred instead to an oral school in Lyon, the Institution Hugentobler (see p. 71).51 There was an asylum for needy Deaf women adjacent to Forestier’s school on the Montée de Balmont: La Providence des sourds-muets délaissés. It was founded in 1851 by Father Joseph Danielli (known as Père Charles), who was also Chaplain of Forestier’s school. In 1873, there were eighty-three females; in 1888, there were eighty-eight females and seven males. Seven Sœurs de Saint-Joseph taught embroidery, fashion, underwear, trimmings, and fabrication of artificial flowers. The facility and its services continue to this day, with a change in names in 1978 from Asile des sourdes-muettes to Foyer Clairefontaine. It provides a range of services to Deaf adults with disabilities.52 It is located in the heights of the Vaise district, facing the Colline Fourvière. In 1886, Forestier was awarded the distinction Officier d’académie (now l’Ordre des palmes académiques) because he devoted much of his life to teaching the so-called brother of misfortunes.

1824. Nantes (Loire-Atlantique)—Founded by René Dunan (La Persagotière) The name René Dunan (1793–1885), founder of the Nantes school for the Deaf, joins a long list of Deaf founders or directors of schools for the Deaf (table 2). After graduating from the Paris school under abbé Sicard, Dunan accepted a post in Brittany as head tutor at the Deaf school in Auray, founded in 1810 by Gabriel Deshayes, curé d’Auray in Brittany. Four years later, Dunan went to his native city, Nantes, and opened a Deaf school there. Dunan taught some six Deaf pupils in his home in 1820. By 1826 the enrollment had grown to ten or eleven pupils and the city council voted on a budget. The boys were to be housed in the Sanitat Hospital, whose buildings dated from the Middle Ages, and the girls in the Maison de la Providence, which belonged to the Filles de la Sagesse, an order of nuns that had been conducting schools for the Deaf for nearly a decade. In 1835, the boys’ section took over the Saint-Jacques Priory, formerly a hospice for the indigent, orphaned, and mentally ill.53 36 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

The curriculum in the Nantes school included sign language, writing, math, grammar, and principles of religion. There was also sewing for the girls and for the boys, as well as mechanics, carpentry, weaving, and hosiery. The shops were directed by former students of the school. There were also four Deaf Frères de Saint-Gabriel in the teaching corps. The term of instruction was six years. The year 1843 brought a major reorganization. It was caused by a decision at the Deaf school in Auray: because the mixing of genders there was deemed inappropriate, the girls in Nantes were to be transferred to Auray, and the boys at Auray were to be transferred to Nantes and instructed there by the Frères de Saint-Gabriel. Dunan was fired, in part for meting out severe punishment to pupils.54 (He retired to a family home not far from his school and took up painting.) A year later, there were twenty-four pupils and Frère Louis became director. With the decision of the Milan Congress of 1880 to adopt the “pure oral method,” Frère Louis felt obliged to require spoken French in the classroom; however, outside of class, during recreation and excursions, sign language was permitted. It was necessary to double the number of classes in order to accommodate smaller class sizes and to keep signing students away from their orally trained peers.55 The present quarters were not large enough and in 1856, the Nantes school was moved to La Persagotière, a large walled vineyard with many buildings. Dunan’s request to live his remaining years there among the Deaf was accorded in 1875.56 In 1881, twenty blind students were admitted. The two professors who taught them used the system of raised dots, invented by Louis Braille in 1824.57 In 1887, there were seventy students. In 1914, La Persagotière was converted into a military hospital and it was not until four years later that classes could resume. Instruction was again interrupted with the advent of World War II and the allied bombing of Nantes, a city which had become a German naval base. La Persagotière was bombed, as was the Hospital Saint-Jacques. Today, the Persagotière continues its mission to educate Deaf students and prepare them for careers. The adult Deaf of Nantes have a Dunan Deaf club, a Deaf seniors club, and a sports club.58

1824. Besançon (Doubs)—Founded by abbé Breuillot for boys Abbé Breuillot brought to Besançon in 1824 a Deaf-mute teacher of the Deaf, J.-L. Bonnefous, who had studied at the Bordeaux school. In Besançon, Bonnefous rented a space and gathered a small number of Deaf students for instruction. The abbé Breuillot found a large acreage on which he had two buildings constructed for a Deaf school. By late 1828, the boys and girls were installed in their new quarters. There were two schools (thirty boys, forty girls) in one place.59 The Besançon school had several distinguished alumni and Deaf faculty. We cite three. Eugène Graff (1862–1935) was the founder of the Ligue pour l’union amicale des sourds-muets in 1886. He was also treasurer of the Fédération des sociétés françaises de sourds-muets (Federation of Deaf-Mutes French Societies), founded in 1897. He was president of the Alliance Républicaine des sourds-muets (Republican Alliance of the Deaf) and secretary of the Société d’appui fraternel des sourds-muets (Society for the Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

37

Fraternal Support of Deaf-Mutes). Graff was awarded the Legion of Honor by the French government. Joseph Berthet (1868–1904) was a Besançon graduate and director of the newspaper, Sourd-muet illustré (The Illustrated Deaf). He was also president of the Union française des sourds-muets (French Union for the Deaf). Henri Jeanvoine (1863–1948) was an alumnus and a professor at the Besançon school. He was editor-in-chief of the Journal des sourds-muets, president of the Association des sourds-muets de Franche-Comté, and general secretary of the Fourth International Congress of the Deaf in 1900. He was a Deaf person who could speak reasonably well and was hostile to sign language. Jeanvoine announced the closing of the Besançon school in 1926.

1825. Laval (Mayenne)—Founded by Hospice Saint-Louis Hospice Saint-Louis, founded in 1678, was a refuge for the sickly, the elderly, and abandoned children. In 1825, the hospice opened a day school for Deaf boys and girls. A M. Sénégond, hired to teach eight Deaf students, was praised for his work. In 1839, the Sœurs de la Charité de Notre-Dame d’Evron took over the management of the Deaf school at Rue de Nantes. By 1881, the school had become residential and, under pressure from parents, tuition fees were reduced.60 The departments of Sarthe and Mayenne provided subsidies for tuition. The roster of students quickly grew to seventy-one. As with most French Deaf schools of the era, the Laval school used sign language for instruction, but buckled under pressure from government to switch to the oral method after the Milan Congress. Later the school became a departmental institution. In 1967, the school closed and all students were transferred to Alençon.

1825. Périers (Manche)—Founded by the Sœurs du Sacré-Cœur The sisterhood of the Sœurs du Sacré-Cœur founded a small school for Deaf children of both sexes in 1825 in Périers, Normandy. Only four pupils were enrolled in 1836 and a like number in 1845. An 1848 report stated that Deaf students were sent to Pontl’abbé-Picauville for their education.61 There was no further correspondence regarding the school after 1854, which was last mentioned in the journal Le Bienfaiteur des sourds-muets et des aveugles. We have no information on that school.62

1826. Albi (Tarn)—Founded by abbé Treilhou In Albi, in southern France, an abbé by the name of Treilhou founded a Deaf school around 1826. Treilhou had heard of the Deaf school established in Caen ten years earlier. As previously mentioned, the director of the school in Caen was abbé Pierre-François Jamet (1762–1845) and it was sponsored by the religious order Bon Sauveur. Treilhou applied to them for a director and trained teachers for his school. They sent abbé Jamet to direct the school and five sisters from the order of Bon Sauveur to teach there. In the beginning, classes were taught in sign language, according to the principles of the abbé Jamet, who had developed them without the aid of a guide or 38 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

The building for the deaf children, managed by the Bon Saveur congregation. (Courtesy of Ulf Hedberg)

teacher. After the Milan Congress of 1880, however, the school adopted the “pure oral method” of instruction. New students were separated rigorously from the others to prevent their contamination by sign language. Pupils were admitted starting at age seven and they stayed until they were at least seventeen years of age—in all, ten years. This was longer than at most schools for the Deaf where only seven or eight years of instruction were provided. Upon graduation, some students stayed on as employees. The school flourished. Peak enrollment (both sexes combined) between 1845 and 1887 passed forty and by 1901, it grew to sixty.63 Nowadays, the Deaf school is known as the Centre Spécialisé Déficients Auditifs (Specialized Center for Auditory Impairments).64

1826/1839. Colmar (Haut-Rhin) & Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin)—Founded by Auguste Jacoutôt In the Alsace region of France, bordering Germany, Auguste Jacoutôt (1800–1879) studied at a seminary in Besançon to become a priest. His cousin, Sister Rouzot, Mother Superior of the Congrégation de Notre Dame des Sept Douleurs, founder and director of the Besançon school for the Deaf, encouraged him to become a missionary and help Deaf children. In 1824, Jacoutôt taught at the Besançon school for the Deaf. Two years later, he founded a Deaf school for both sexes in Colmar (one hundred miles to the northeast). Colmar already had a Deaf Protestant school, founded in 1825 by a M. Reussner, so the two schools competed for enrollment. The Colmar school became a center for Deaf education in the Haut-Rhin department. The Colmar authority subsidized nine boys and seven girls in 1832. Jacoutôt was responsible for teaching boys, while a sister from the order Saint-Vincent-de-Paul taught the girls. The Colmar Protestant school closed shortly after its founding. Another Deaf school near Colmar (in Cernay) was founded by a Mlle. Vaterloss. Upon her death in 1842, Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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the school closed. There was yet another Deaf school founded in the region in 1830, specifically in Kuttolsheim (forty-six miles north of Colmar). This school was directed by a M. Zopfmann, who had only two students, and it closed before 1836. In 1839, Jacoutôt’s school moved to 14 Place du Foin in Strasbourg. Strasbourg already had a Deaf school conducted by a certain Selligsberger. Jacoutôt proved the better of the two, at least in securing subsidies from the municipality and department. Selligsberger concluded he could not compete successfully with Jacoutôt and thus closed the doors of his school. Jacoutôt found his school quarters on the Place du Foin too small. Taking an indirect approach to solve that problem, he campaigned with the public, with local government, and with clergy and organized an outreach to the many Deaf children who remained uneducated in the Bas-Rhin department. The bishop of Strasbourg found it a worthy cause and encouraged the priests of his diocese to solicit charitable contributions. To receive the additional enrollments, in 1845, Jacoutôt moved his school to larger quarters in the Robertsau neighborhood. The Bas-Rhin department provided one thousand francs for the move and start-up costs.65 Jacoutôt sought to improve the quality of instruction in his school. He met with Joseph Piroux (1800–1884), founder of the Nancy school. He recounted his experience, views, and reflections in several books about Deaf education.66 Jacoutôt’s pupils studied classic academic subjects such as arithmetic, writing, and drawing, and also trades. In the classroom, written language was taught with the “methodical signs” promoted by Épée and Sicard. The general council was pleased with the progress of the students and provided a continuation fund of two thousand five hundred francs.67 In 1858, there were thirty-four students and five instructors including Jacoutôt, his wife, his Deaf godson, Henri Toulouse, and two nuns. The peace treaty ending the Franco-German War in 1871 provided that both HautRhin and Bas-Rhin departments were to become part of the German Imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine. Formerly, French schools for the Deaf had to abandon sign language (the so-called “French method”) in favor of oralism (the “German method”). Auguste Jacoutôt, founder of the Strasbourg school, died in 1879. His son, Charles Jacoutôt (1841–1915), who had been leading the school for more than a decade, formally took charge. A contemporary claimed that the Strasbourg school had educated altogether some seven to eight hundred Deaf children and taught them trades, making it possible for them to earn a living.68 In the decade following Auguste Jacoutôt’s death, son Charles confronted grave difficulties in operating the Strasbourg school. He had to deal with the Germanization of the entire curriculum and the replacement of French methods by German ones. During the same period, three new schools for the Deaf (Strasbourg, Neuhof, and Bruckhof) were founded and began competing with his school for enrollments, which meant recruiting new deaf children became difficult. The Jacoutôt school’s enrollment was seventy-nine in 1887, but over the next few years it fell gradually to fifty-three. Two sisters died and lay teachers quit. Charles was in despair and asked two of his competitors, Sœurs de la Divine Providence and Sœurs de la Croix to take direction of his school, but they refused. Charles closed his school in 1901.69 40 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

1826. Toulouse (Haute-Garonne)—Founded by abbé Louis-Guillaume Chazottes Credit for the most enduring Deaf school in Toulouse goes to abbé Louis-Guillaume Chazottes (1794–1858) who was born in Castres, in the department of Tarn. Chazottes was a professoral candidate at Saint-Jacques. Abbé Périer (1756–1833) became director and offered Chazottes a post as his assistant or as director of the Rodez school, but Chazottes preferred Toulouse. He began classes for Deaf boys in his home in 1826 (on the corner of Grande Allée, Boulingrin) but relocated four times in the first decade. Enrollment grew from four boys at opening (the city provided four scholarships) to forty-one in 1833. Chazottes’ teaching methods were based on those of Sicard and included vocational training at the Paris school. The same year, the department provided another four scholarships, and the school moved to 75 Grande Rue SaintMichel. The following year, eleven new pupils arrived thanks to scholarships from three departments. In 1829, the city of Toulouse provided the funds for five workshops and the school moved to the Collège de Saint-Raymond (4 place Saint-Sernin). In class, pupils studied written French, mathematics, the catechism, and the Bible. Chazottes ran a family business: two of his brothers, a sister and a cousin taught at his school, and Chazottes’ mother managed the kitchen. He also hired eight graduates of his school to serve as teachers, monitors, and tutors.70 In 1836, the boys’ school moved to free quarters at 49 rue des Trente-Six Ponts, Domaine de Bénech, where it remained until 1859, after Chazottes’ death. Deaf girls were admitted starting in 1833. First they were housed at 85 rue du Taur, near the boys at the Collège de Saint-Raymond, then rue du Period in the heart of downtown and finally, 29 rue des Trente-Six Ponts, Domaine de Bénech. In addition to Chazottes himself, there were two professors for the girls, Louise Chazottes who served from 1841 to 1843, and a first cousin, Mlle. Boulade. In religion, there was Sister Saint-François of the Community of Saint-Joseph d’Oulias. Four sisters taught the girls from 1850 to 1862. The hired female staff had no training in educating the Deaf. They were replaced in 1851 by the Sœurs de Saint-Joseph d’Oulias, who were equally untrained. Church officials launched another appeal—this time to the Sœurs de la Sagesse, who had experience educating the Deaf; six sisters arrived and started classes with twenty-eight girls. When Chazottes died in 1858, church officials called on the Frères de Saint-Gabriel for aid. Four Brothers were sent to Toulouse to educate some thirty Deaf boys. By 1882 the school counted more than one hundred fifty pupils of both sexes—about a third of whom were born Deaf—and there was a corresponding growth in the teaching corps. Instruction in speech and lipreading was greatly reinforced after the Congress of Milan. The school devoted four hours a day to that instruction with new pupils; these students were kept apart as much as possible from the older students, who had been educated with sign language. The Sisters from the Communauté de Saint-Joseph d’Oulias continued to educate the girls, but in 1862 the Filles de la Sagesse succeeded them. When the Frères de Saint-Gabriel withdrew, Sister Marie-Thérèse took over administration of the entire school but the post was ultimately given to a lay person in 1976. The school’s official title is Centre d’Éducation Spécialisée pour Déficients Auditifs (CESDA) (Center of Specialized Education for the Hearing Impaired). Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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The most famous graduate of the Toulouse school was Pierre Pélissier (1814–1863), an educator, poet, and community organizer. Chazottes used sign language in the classroom with the goal of teaching his pupils to read and write French like a native. He succeeded in this endeavor with Pélissier, who became a professor at the Paris school as well as a published essayist and poet. Pélissier authored a sign language dictionary.71

1828. Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle)—Founded by Joseph Piroux This school for the Deaf opened initially in Nancy in 1828. Director Piroux (1800–1884) went to Saint-Jacques to learn how to educate the Deaf and was deeply impressed observing Sicard’s methods in practice, as based on Épée’s methodical signs for teaching French. He also came away with a Deaf cofounder of the Nancy school, Claude-Joseph Richardin. The town gave the new school a locale and in 1830 there were twenty-four boys and ten girls enrolled. Half of their number were supported by the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle, and a further five by the town of Nancy. During his long career, Piroux published extensively on pedagogy, edited the journal L’Ami des sourds-muets (The Friend of the Deaf), and even invented a system of writing signs, which was put in use for many decades. Further, he created a teacher training course for new faculty at his school. The eminent American educator of the Deaf, Edward Miner Gallaudet, visited the Nancy school in 1867 (among four other schools in France) and reported that the combined method was in use—sign language in the classroom and speech training in the curriculum.72 Seventeen Deaf graduates of the school were employed as professional trainers; they were selected because they had relevant skills and could not find employment elsewhere. The school got high marks for the quality of its professional training, no doubt in large part because of the role of former graduates. In 1885, the school moved to thirty-two acres in nearby Jarville-la-Malgrange. Some sources attribute the move to damage from a fire in the Nancy facility; others to the death Jarville-laMalgrange school, three miles south of Nancy, founded by Joseph Piroux. (Courtesy of Gallaudet University Archives)

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of Piroux a year earlier when abbé Linsmeister became director. The instruction was provided by Sisters and Brothers of the order of Saint-Jacques. By 1900, the school had some one hundred pupils, twelve instructors, and hundreds of alumni. Over the years, many school functions were gradually transferred to lay people. Today, the Institut des Sourds de la Malgrange operates a school for Deaf children and children with language disorders, and provides services to Deaf adults. A bilingual class for Deaf children, conducted by Deaf and hearing collaborators, was founded in Nancy in 1984 as part of the reform movement called Deux Langues Pour une Éducation (2LPE) (Two Languages for an Education). It lasted only four years. According to one participant, the class could not compete for pupils with the venerable La Malgrange and its oralist orientation.73 Many outstanding Deaf people have been associated with the Nancy school during its long career. Claude-Joseph Richardin (1810–1900) became Deaf at age four and entered Saint-Jacques eight years later. Apparently, Piroux met him at Saint-Jacques and invited him to teach at his school. Richardin taught there for fifty-seven years and taught an estimated one thousand two hundred pupils. After graduating from the Nancy school, Jacques Lejeune (1820–1897) went on to teach at the school in Soissons and then at the Lyon school directed by Claudius Forestier. He was widely admired in the Deaf community for his mastery of French Sign Language and mime. He entered the religious order, Clercs de Saint-Viateur and, in 1854, at the urging of the Bishop of Montreal, he left to direct the Institution des Sourds-Muets de Montréal. As in most schools for the Deaf in that era, the languages of the classroom in his school were the sign language of the Deaf community and written French. The school flourished, with more than one hundred students enrolled in 1897, the year of Lejeune’s death. (Lejeune took the name Frère Joseph-Marie Young; also Jung, Yonge, and several first names.) Henri Rémy (1867–1895), a Nancy graduate and instructor, was fired for being Deaf and thus presumably unable to promote the oral agenda of the Milan Congress. Rémy found work as a typographer then launched the first enduring newspaper in France for and by the Deaf, La Gazette des Sourds-Muets (The Gazette of the Deaf). After his untimely death, other Deaf journalists took up the title until 1961 when the name was changed to La Voix du Sourd (The Voice of the Deaf). Gustave Hennequin (1834–1918), born in Metz, and an outstanding pupil at the Nancy school, was a painter and sculptor of considerable accomplishment. He submitted his work to the annual Salon of the French Academy of Arts fifteen times. He worked on the fountains of Versailles, the facades of buildings on the Champs-Élysées and at the Sorbonne.74

1828. Langres (Haute-Marne)—Founded by Mlle. G.-V. Pothier Mlle. G.-V. Pothier founded a small school in 1828, apparently only for Deaf girls. In 1832, she had four female pupils. The department of Haute-Marne funded four halfscholarships for them. Mlle. Pothier was known as a devoted teacher. The school moved to Chaumont, the capital of Haute-Marne, about twenty miles north of Langres during the years 1838–1839. In 1843, the school was closed. Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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1829. Saint-Étienne (Loire)—Founded by Sister Saint Anne of the Sœurs Saint-Charles In 1829,75 a school for Deaf girls opened on rue Saint-Roch (renamed rue Antoine Durafour) at the initiative of the mayor, who asked the nuns of the congregation Sœurs Saint-Charles to operate it. Sister Saint Anne was the founder, assisted by Sister Ramié Saint-Hilaire and Sister Olympiade. The director had studied at the Besançon school. In 1834, Ramié Saint-Hilaire became director; she died in 1855. After moving twice over the years—in 1830 to rue Villeboeuf (renamed rue Henri Barbusse) and in 1840 to rue Fontainebleau (renamed rue Étienne Mimard)—the school settled in 1895 at 7 Place Tardy, where up to ninety Deaf girls, age seven and older, were taught sewing, embroidering, ironing, and how to make artificial flowers. Some pupils had scholarships from the department or the town; others were sponsored by their families. The girls’ school closed in 1963 and pupils were transferred to the school in Bourg-en-Bresse.

1830. Saint-Étienne (Loire)—Founded by Marguerite Mirandon for boys In 1830, Marguerite Mirandon founded a boys’ school on rue Tarentaise. When she died, in 1842, the direction of the school was taken on by a M. Buisson, seconded by M. Dupuis and M. Protière, but in 1844 Buisson announced the closing of the school. The following year, Père Vilmin of the Frères des écoles chrétiennes, took over the sixty-two Mirandon pupils. (Arriving in Saint-Étienne in 1805, the Brothers created¸ all told, nineteen schools in that town over several decades.) The course of instruction was similar to that at Saint-Jacques. Initially located at Place Jacquard, this Deaf school moved to rue Victor Duchamp and then to rue du Roanne (later renamed rue Charles de Gaulle). The course of instruction was six years for pupils age eight or older. In 1854, with five professors, one of them Deaf, the school moved into larger quarters at 40 rue Franklin on the Colline Sainte-Barbe overlooking the town. New buildings were constructed and new workshops taught Institut de Plein Vent for boys before the remodeling. (Courtesy of Ulf Hedberg)

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bookbinding, shoemaking, locksmithy, and tailoring. The school had 104 students in 1870 and 120 in 1883. A workshop was created for Deaf adults; seventy-seven of them lived off campus. In 1889, the boys’ and girls’ schools each had about seventy pupils and seven professors. The Saint-Étienne school was of course subject to popular educational movements including oralism and mainstreaming. In the post-Milan era, the school provided oral education and prohibited the use of sign. In 1990, the Frères des écoles chrétiennes quit the school, which was best known then as today by the title Institut de Plein Vent.

1832. Rouen (Seine-Maritime)—Founded by Roch-Ambroise Auguste Bébian Roch-Ambroise Auguste Bébian was the academic dean at the Paris National School until he was forced out for his severe critiques of the administration. In 1832, he launched a school of his own for the Deaf in Rouen. However, Bébian proved unable to raise the funds necessary to keep it going and the school closed its doors two years later.

1833. Chaumont (Puy-de-Dôme)—Founded by abbé Benoît Dessaigne In 1833, abbé Dessaigne founded a private school for Deaf boys and girls in the small town of Chaumont (now Chaumont-le-Bourg) in the region of Auvergne, southcentral France. In 1845, there were twenty pupils. In those years, the emphasis was on articulation. When the Frères du Sacré-Cœur took charge of the school, however, they found oralism gave poor results, so they began to use sign language instead. Like most other schools for the Deaf, this one shifted to the oral method after the Milan Congress. The school closed in 1903 because of the law passed that year requiring schools to be secularized.76

1833. Limoges (Haute-Vienne)—Founded by Antoine Bertrand M. Antonio Bertrand (ca. 1796–1837), himself Deaf, a former student of abbé Sicard, founded a school for Deaf boys and girls in Limoges in 1833. It was located on rue Pont-Hérisson (now rue Jean-Jaurès) and funded by the general council of the department of Haute-Vienne. The city of Limoges had voted a plan for a Deaf school in 1828 but it took five years until the school opened with six girls and fourteen boys. In 1837, it moved to the Place Dauphine (now Place Denis Dussoubs). Bertrand died suddenly and a search for his replacement was begun but the council decided it would be too expensive to maintain the school.

1833. Poitiers–Pont Achard (Vienne)—Founded by Gabriel Deshayes for girls and transferred in 1847 to Larnay (Vienne) The prefect of the department of Vienne, in west-central France, had visited the Deaf school in the Chartreuse d’Auray in Brittany. A census in his own department found that there were 116 Deaf-mutes of school age, thus the need for a specialized school was clear. In Poitiers there was a hospice in the Pont Achard quarter that had been given to Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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the order Filles de la Sagesse, whose superior general, Gabriel Deshayes, had attended Sicard’s classes. At the prefect’s urging, Deshayes ordered Sister Marie-Victoire (Jeanne Taudon), who had been teaching at Auray, to go to Pont Achard and make preparations to open a school for Deaf girls. Marie-Victoire had been trained by her aunt, Charlotte Blouin, who had studied with Sicard and then founded a similar school in Angers.77 Also transferred from Auray were Sister Sainte-Sophie and Sister Sainte Léon. Thus, the Filles de la Sagesse had three schools for the Deaf in 1833: la Chartreuse d’Auray, Orléans, and Pont Achard (Poitiers). The inauguration of the Pont Achard school took place in the presence of the bishop and three hundred religious, military, and civic authorities. Sister Sainte Léon, Deaf herself, gave a lecture. The prefect had asked abbé de Larnay to go to Pont Achard to be spiritual director. Accordingly, he studied sign language with Marie-Victoire.78 By 1847 the school had outgrown its quarters and the construction of a nearby railroad line was disruptive so abbé de Larnay agreed to welcome the school of five nuns and thirty girls on his family estate. Larnay founded two religious orders for the Deaf—Notre Dame de Sept Douleurs and, within the Filles de la Sagesse, Sœurs Oblates de la Sagesse, for Deaf women. Larnay died in 1862. Starting in 1845, the school admitted blind and Deafblind pupils. By 1912, 714 Deaf girls and 184 blind girls had received their education at the school.

1835. Goux (Jura)—Founded by abbé Chaillet Goux is located in the Jura department, close to the Swiss border. The school was founded by abbé Chaillet in 1835. He believed that for the Deaf to have a complete education, they need intellectual, religious, and physical development in order to enter social life outside the school.79 After 1843, no further trace was found of the school.

1835. Lille (Nord)—Founded by Jean Massieu The famed Jean Massieu (1772–1846) who saved abbé Sicard’s life and won for him his post as director of the Paris school, and who was appointed head teacher of that school by Louis XVI, was forced into retirement after Sicard’s death in 1822. Massieu had taught many Deaf educators who went on to found, direct, and teach in schools for the Deaf. A few years later, Massieu was recalled from retirement at fifty-one years of age to second abbé Périer, director of the Deaf school in Rodez, the capital of Aveyron. When Périer was chosen to direct the Paris school, Massieu became director in Rodez. He married a young hearing woman and they had one son when they moved from Rodez to Lille, a large city just south of the Belgian border, where they established the first school for the Deaf in the north of France in 1835. There were about thirty pupils. Massieu was principal and his wife matron; they had lost their son but had a daughter. In the next few years Massieu saw his health and lucidity decline. In 1839, it was time to retire. The board wrote to Père Gabriel Deshayes who asked Père François Laveau (1806–1869) (director of the Orléans school) to draw up an agreement. Deshayes visited the Lille school and sealed the pact; two Filles de la Sagesse and two Frères de Saint-Gabriel arrived in the fall of 1839. The school was initially installed in two adjacent buildings, one on rue des Fives for girls, the other on rue de Poids for boys. 46 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Classes started with seventeen boys and fourteen girls. The boys were taught shoemaking, bookbinding, carpentry, and tailoring. The girls were taught knitting, embroidery, dressmaking, darning, and ironing. All students studied religion, reading and writing, arithmetic, grammar, history, and drawing. Père Deshayes was passionate about the separation of the sexes. Boys and girls had classes in separate buildings, and they could not see one another in recreation or chapel. But the proximity was still too close, so the school moved to a larger property on rue Royale. That same year, 1842, the first blind students were admitted. In 1853, we find the girls’ section directed by Sister Saint-Pierre from the Filles de la Sagesse; there were six professors and fifty-three students in six classes.80 The boys’ section had eight professors in eight classes with eighty pupils. The director was Brother Médéric of the Frères de Saint-Gabriel. For both sections, the method of instruction was “pure oral”; the term of instruction was seven years. In 1872, the school was moved to Ronchin, some four miles from Lille. During World Wars I and II, classes were suspended and the school was turned into a military hospital. After World War II, the school had three hundred pupils, aged six to twenty-one, including blind students and those who were physically handicapped. In 1975, the classes of Deaf students from rue Royale were moved to a new facility in Pont-à-Marcq, a half-hour away from Lille. Blind students were relocated, leaving two hundred Deaf students in the school. The following year, the school took on a new name: Institut departmental de la parole et de l’audition (IDRPA) (Departmental Institute of Speech and Hearing). The French law of 1991, article 33, offers parents with Deaf children a choice in educating their children; they may choose between a program focused on spoken French or one focused on French Sign Language.81 The IDRPA is an oralist facility but it does offer some courses in sign language. The institute also has a focus on academic integration.

1835/1839. Orléans (Loiret)—Founded by P`ere Gabriel Deshayes in 1835 for girls and in 1839 for boys In 1819, the order of nuns, Filles de la Sagesse, opened a school for hearing children in Orléans. In 1835, their superior, Gabriel Deshayes (1767–1841), a vigorous advocate for Deaf schools, asked that they take on Deaf girls. The nuns began in 1835 with seven little girls who were given training as linen maids or dressmakers and they learned various kinds of embroidery. Enrollments grew and in 1846 the school for girls moved to larger quarters in a southern suburb of Orléans, Saint Marceau. With the intention of founding a school for Deaf boys, Gabriel Deshayes purchased a house in the Saint Laurent quarter of Orléans in 1838. He appointed as director a hard of hearing man who had received some training in the Auray school—Père Laveau. Classes began in 1839. Two Frères de Saint-Gabriel did the teaching, a third was concerned with housekeeping. The curriculum included reading, writing, grammar, geography, history, drawing and, “above all,” religion.82 In 1846, the teaching brothers were withdrawn by order of their Superior General as the director and professors were at odds over teaching methods. Laveau published a sign language dictionary, a catechism for the Deaf, and several memoirs on pedagogy Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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The school for boys at Saint-Jeande-la-Ruelle, about 1.5 miles outside Orléans. (Courtesy of Ulf Hedberg)

for Deaf children. He insisted that his methods, based on the use of Signed French, were universally applicable and he saw to it that they were applied in most of the thirty-two schools conducted by the Frères de Saint-Gabriel and the Filles de la Sagesse.83 Père Laveau retired in 1864 and Italian priests took his place, only to leave in 1870 because of the war in Italy (Italy sought to eliminate the Papal States). During the Franco-Prussian War, the school became a military hospital and the Deaf students went without instruction. With the end of the war, the Frères de Saint-Gabriel took over. Enrollments continued to rise, and in 1891 the school was moved to Saint-Jeande-la-Ruelle, a mile from Orléans. At that time in the school for Deaf girls directed by Sister Saint-Andrée, there were four professors and forty-eight students. The method of instruction was reportedly “pure oral,”84 and the program of instruction lasted eight years. In the school for Deaf boys, directed by the Frères de Saint-Gabriel, there were four professors and forty boys; same method, same duration. The Deaf school at Saint-Jean-de-la-Rouelle now houses the Institut Régional pour Sourds et Déficients Auditifs. The school has a greatly expanded mission that includes educating the intellectually disabled and it focuses on academic integration, family support, and training teachers for special education.

1835. Rouen (Seine-Maritime)—Founded by abbé François Lefebvre In 1835, the vicar of the Church of Sainte-Madeleine in Rouen, François Lefebvre, met a Deaf man who had been educated at the Bordeaux national school. Together, they designed a curriculum for a new Deaf school using the oral method. Apparently, the school had a good reputation as enrollments grew, reaching a peak of sixty students (including some of abbé Huby’s former pupils). The school received an annual subsidy from the city council and another from the department. Toward the end of his life, abbé Lefebvre sought to assure the continuation of his school by making it departmental (i.e., 48 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

securing state funds), but he died in 1862 without accomplishing that goal. His sister, Stéphanie Lefebvre, then directed the school until her death in 1906. Pupils enrolled at that time were transferred to the Fargeix school in Le Havre.

1837. Paris (Paris)—Founded by Benjamin Louis Dubois Benjamin Louis Dubois was born in 1817 and became Deaf at age seven. He is remarkable for having become a teacher of articulation although he himself was Deaf. He attended Saint-Jacques, where he did well and received lessons in lipreading. In 1837, Dubois, his father Benjamin Louis Cerbonney (1784–1855), and two sisters opened a small private school on rue de Courcelles for Deaf boys who wanted to learn to speak. They taught spoken French to Deaf pupils who had an aptitude for that. In 1844 and again two years later, the Ministry of the Interior accorded six scholarships to the Dubois school, even though it was aware that few Deaf pupils profited from articulation training. Deaf founder of American Deaf education, Laurent Clerc, visited Dubois’ school in 1847. In an informal test of pupils’ speech and hearing, he wrote a word on a slate and asked each of several boys to speak it aloud while others wrote it down. Clerc was not impressed. Neither was George Day, a professor at Clerc’s Hartford school, who had been sent to Europe to evaluate speech teaching in the Deaf schools. In a backhanded compliment, he concluded that Dubois’ boys were no worse off for having a Deaf speech instructor. Bébian had published a withering critique of the poor speech of Dubois pupils.85 In any case, in 1855 Dubois’ school was incorporated into Saint-Jacques and Dubois’ sisters, Clara (1827–1864) and Elmire (1829–1895) were taken on to teach speech to Deaf girls. However, in 1859, all the female pupils were transferred to Bordeaux and the three Dubois left the professoral corps to work in families with very young children. Elmire was awarded the Palmes Académiques. She died in her sixty-sixth year. Benjamin Dubois went on teaching speech at Saint-Jacques until 1868, at which time he left to resume directing his private school. There were only four other small oral schools in France at this time and their directors were naturally intimates of the Pereire clique (oral educators of the Deaf who honored the “Great Demutiser,” Jacob Rodrigues Pereire). Dubois’ school, with some half-dozen pupils, was the oldest. Then came the family school founded by Pierre Auguste Houdin (1823–1884) with a score of pupils, followed by the school at Saint-Hippolyte-duFort, directed by Pastor Paul Bouvier. The private oral schools of Magnat, Houdin, and Hugentobler reestablished the class structure in Deaf education that it had once had in the time of Jacob Rodrigues Pereire, but had lost in the rapid expansion of national and parochial schools.

1837. Poitiers–Loudun (Vienne)—Founded by P`ere Gabriel Deshayes and the Frères de Saint-Gabriel for boys, transferred in 1838 from Rouillé to Loudun and then to Poitiers in 1856 Loudun is a small village in the department of Vienne about forty miles north of Poitiers. In 1825, Père Deshayes created a school there for hearing children and one in Poitiers for Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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Deaf girls. Why not one for Deaf boys? The precipitating event took place in 1837 in the village of Rouillé, where three families enrolled their Deaf sons in the hearing school. Deshayes sent an experienced teacher to Rouillé from his school in the Chartreuse d’Auray. Accompanying the teacher was a particularly learned pupil named Poidevin; together, they would give public demonstrations in front of the authorities and nobles. The school was opened a year later, then transferred to Loudun and placed under the direction of the Frères de Saint-Gabriel. In 1856, the school moved to larger quarters in Poitiers.

1838. Vizille (Isère)—Founded by Mlles. Joséphine and Marie Galien (also Gallien) There was a school for the Deaf in the department of Isère, a girls’ school located in Vizille, eight miles from Grenoble. Instruction was conducted in sign language. The school was founded in 1838 by two Deaf sisters—Joséphine Galien (1820–1888) (also Gallien), and Marie Galien (1824–1906)—who were graduates of Saint-Jacques. The hearing director of the Vizille school was Mlle. Marie Alexandre. In religion, there was Sœur Saint Dosithée. The teaching faculty was drawn in part from the Frères de Saint-Gabriel.

1838. Vernoux (Ardèche)—Founded by abbé Édouard Saint-Romain Abbé Édouard Saint-Romain (d. 1839) studied Deaf education, possibly at the Paris or Bordeaux school. Then he returned to his hometown of Vernoux (the full name is Vernoux-en-Vivarais) in the department of Ardèche, about fifty miles east of Le Puy, and there he founded a school for the Deaf in 1838. Saint-Romain used sign language in his class and he taught ten Deaf children, who were very poor. Upon his death a year later, the school likely closed. The Deaf children went to schools in Le Puy and Saint-Étienne.

1839. Saint-Brieuc (Côtes-d’Armor)—Founded by abbé Samson Garnier Abbé Samson Garnier was born in 1827 in Dinon, one of thirteen children. His family had been weavers for many generations. Garnier explained how he became concerned with the Deaf, “In 1828 I encountered a Deaf man in the parish where I was vicar and it was painful to behold. I had heard that the abbé de l’Épée had opened a school for the Deaf and I was envious—not of the recognition he had achieved but of his happiness to be able to do something for these unfortunates. I tried several times to converse with the old Deaf man from my parish, but each time it was a painful failure: he understood nothing of my words and I, nothing of his.”86 In 1837, Garnier was appointed vicar in the commune of Plestan. One of the nuns there had joined the community of Bon Sauveur of Caen, which was committed to the instruction of Deaf-mutes. Garnier visited the school in Caen and undertook the instruction of a Deaf-mute boy from Plestan. The nuns equally urged him to instruct a young Deaf girl from Broons. She, too, would receive his instruction and make rapid progress. On January 1, 1839, Garnier formally established a school for the Deaf in Plestan. The town is in Brittany, in the Côtes-d’Armor department. There were eleven children enrolled to start with, half of whom were paid for by the department. It rapidly became clear that more children were seeking admission than 50 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

could be accommodated. Garnier moved the school to Lamballe, just six miles away, where there was a large chateau erected on the ruins of the chateau of the Dukes of Penthièvre, with a spacious courtyard, beautiful gardens, and a central location near the church of Notre Dame.87 In 1844, with the new facility ready and a young priest recruited as administrator, the school resumed and Garnier worked on developing an instructional method. In just a few years, the Lamballe quarters were too small, so when a parishioner offered land in Saint-Brieuc (rue abbé-Garnier and boulevard Carnot), it was decided to move the school there. The town is situated on the English Channel, on the Bay of Saint-Brieuc. In 1852, construction began and three years later the school occupied the new quarters. Having underestimated the demand twice before, these quarters were spacious—too spacious. Six years later there were fifty pupils in a facility that could house and educate twice that number. But Deaf students whose family could afford the tuition and room and board were hard to find. The general council offered thirty scholarships. An inspection in 1863 concluded that the Saint Brieuc school was one of the finest institutions of its kind in France. It was attributed largely to abbé Garnier, and he was awarded the Légion d’Honneur.88 Garnier died in 1872 but the school flourished. It received scholarships from the General Councils of Côte du Nord and Morbihan. The order of nuns, Filles de Sainte-Marie de la Présentation de Broons, had long played an important role in instruction at the school. In 1911, the school was laicized and subsequently transferred to the Centre Jacques Cartier, rue du Vau Méno.89

1840. Grenoble (Isère)—Founded by Louis Rauh The founder and teacher of this school, Louis Rauh, was from Bavaria; he advocated the oral method. He started with a day school for Deaf children housed in a primary school for hearing children, but in time, residential pupils outnumbered day pupils. It started with nine girls and six boys. In 1858, there were twenty boys and in 1865, there were twenty-five. The school closed in 1866 and pupils were transferred to Chambéry. In 1842, the Minister of Public Instruction created a special commission to evaluate the progress of Rauh’s students. The commission gave a favorable report. But the prefect painted a different picture five years later. It seems that the results were poor, despite an exclusive focus on speech and lipreading. Their speech was unintelligible. Children were allowed to sign among themselves. However, the oralist tide was rising. Later reports glossed over these criticisms.90 A second school for the Deaf within easy reach of Grenoble and one that drew heavily on the Frères de Saint-Gabriel was the school at Saint-Laurent-du-Pont in 1870. When the school moved to Currière in 1876 it was twenty-three miles from Grenoble. Grenoble was the home of some important early newspapers by and for Deaf people. A distinguished Deaf journalist, Joseph Turcan, published La France des sourds-muets there (1902–1907). Previously, Turcan edited La Défense des sourds-muets (1884–1886) and Le Courrier français des sourds-muets (1887–1888). He was president of the Société Saint-Michel des Sourds-Muets de l’Isère. Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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A graduate of the Marseilles school, Turcan was a powerful advocate for sign language in Deaf education. He assailed the Milan resolutions and sought to change the policy of the Frères de Saint-Gabriel which had come to support oral education of the Deaf.

1840. Saint-Médard-lès-Soissons (Aisne)—Founded by abbé Frédéric Dupont Frédéric Dupont (1800–1843) was a parish priest in Villeneuve-Saint-Germain near Soissons in north-central France. In 1840, he instructed six Deaf boys and girls in his home. Dupont appealed to Gabriel Deshayes, the superior of three religious orders, to provide experienced instructors from the orders of Filles de la Sagesse and Frères de Saint-Gabriel, and he purchased buildings in the abandoned royal basilica of Saint-Médard to house the expanded school. Structural changes were made to the buildings so that the boys and girls could not see one another, neither in the refectory nor in chapel, nor elsewhere. The brothers sent by Deshayes were Ildefonse, who had taught six years at Auray, and Louis Cailleau, who had spent several months at the Deaf school at Orléans. There were four sisters to instruct the Deaf girls. After about a year, sixteen boys and eight girls were enrolled and their numbers would increase. However, there was great discord among the staff. The brothers complained that the nuns were too involved with the boys’ quarters, and the sisters protested Dupont’s favoritism of the brothers. Deshayes replaced one brother and brought in another but relations did not improve. So one year after their installation, the brothers and sisters were all recalled. Dupont died in 1843. A new director hired an assistant and secured nuns from the order of Sœurs de la Providence. In 1850, the Filles de la Sagesse opened an annex for Deaf girls in Laon, nineteen miles away. Two years later, the Filles and the Frères were restored to their roles at Saint-Médard, replacing lay instructors. In 1853, blind students were admitted and overall enrollment reached 100. A decade later, there were 133 students of both genders. In 1880, the brothers quit the school. They protested the lack of complete separation of boys and girls, and objected to continued management by a simple parish priest. They were replaced by brothers from the Congregation of Citeaux, but there was soon a scandal. Nine Cistercian brothers were accused either of exercising violence on their students or of pedophilia.91 Two years later, the sisters also quit Soissons but they continued the girls’ instruction in Laon that had begun in 1850. For much of the twentieth century, it was the Sœurs Saint-Erme who instructed the girls at Saint-Médard. In 1888, a new school for the Deaf and the blind, funded by the department of Aisne, replaced the municipal school in the Saint-Médard facility. For a boys’ section, two instructors were recruited from the Paris school. Soon there would be five professors and seven workshops. The girls’ section was installed in Laon with seventy-two girls and six sisters. It would close in 1943. The boys’ section closed three years later. René Victor Vavasseur-Desperriers (1860–1929) was an eminent graduate of the school at Saint-Médard-lès-Soissons and of the Paris national school, Saint-Jacques. He was the director of the magazine La France silencieuse, which was a literary supplement to the Gazette des sourds-muets. He was appointed Officier de l’Académie in an honorary association of instructors. Desperriers was an accomplished sculptor and showed his work in several salons. He was Secretary General of the Association amicale des sourdsmuets de France, and a founding member of the Deaf Cyclists’ Club. 52 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

1841. Chambéry (Savoie)—Founded by Madeleine Barthélémy for boys in Cognin and for girls in Pont-de-Beauvoisin Numerous schools for the Deaf were founded in France in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries at the level of departments, communities, and hospices. However, there were three national schools. Épée’s school of the 1760s was adopted by the National Assembly following his death in 1789. The Bordeaux school, founded in 1786, was declared a national school under abbé Sicard in 1793. During the reign of Napoléon III (1852–1870), these were Imperial schools. The national school at Chambéry was founded in 1841 by Madeleine Barthélémy (ca. 1793–1850), who had founded a school for Deaf boys in 1818 in Le Puy. Chambéry is the birthplace and historic capital of Savoie, located in the Rhône-Alpes region of France. Barthélémy was granted some property there, in Chemin de la Cassine, to found the first Deaf school in Savoie. In 1843, the girls moved into the convent of the Sacré-Cœur, where they received instruction from the nuns. Initially, Chambéry enrolled both sexes, but only the girls were residents. In the following year, separate residences were built for the boys in the Saint-Louis du Mont district of Chambéry, and the Baron Alexandre de Saint-Sulpice took charge of the boys’ education. Five years later the Chambéry school became a public institution, the third national institution for the Deaf. When Savoie became French territory in 1860, the Chambéry school became the third Imperial institution for the Deaf. Girls and boys were rigorously separated. The girls continued to be taught by the Sœurs du Sacré-Cœur. The boys’ instruction was reorganized: the Frères des écoles chrétiennes left and were replaced by the Frères de l’Institut de la doctrine chrétienne, who were conducting the Deaf school at Le Puy. In addition, six professors were chosen from the corps at the Paris school. In 1863, the boys’ school moved to the nearby village of Cognin, where it was housed on a large farm, Domaine de Corinthe, with its numerous buildings, twelve hectares of land (thirty acres), and a dilapidated chateau. In 1908, the girls’ school was transferred to the village of Pont-de-Beauvoisin, some eight miles from the boys’ school. The isolation of the Deaf girls gave rise to a distinct sign language. Ethnologist Yves Delaporte examined five hundred signs in use in the girls’ school and found that three-fourths of them were unintelligible to Parisian Deaf people.92 The Chambéry school counted 120 pupils in 1866—eighty boys and forty girls. The course of study was seven years and instruction was oral. The focus was on learning trades; there were workshops in shoemaking, woodworking, gardening and agriculture for the boys and sewing and ironing and for the girls. The age of admission was ten to fifteen years. There were ten instructors and an average of twenty-two pupils per class. The “intuitive method” of Jean-Jacques Valade-Gabel was employed such that pupils were given increasingly complex instructions by writing and gesture, and the grammatical framework of Sicard was shunned.93 A new word was explained using others learned previously. Speech was not taught prior to the Milan Congress of 1880, but was introduced shortly thereafter. A national curriculum required two hours of articulation training every day and the exclusive use of French in the classroom (the so-called pure oral method). In 1882, the government declared primary education obligatory, free, and secular. A 1905 law Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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sounded the death knell for education conducted by religious organizations. During World War I, pupils were placed in various private institutions. In 1923, pupils formed an athletic association. During the Second World War, the Germans converted the boys’ school buildings into a hospital. The seventy boys were housed in the old gymnasium. The graduates of the school formed an alumni association. In 1961, the school for girls at Pont-de-Beauvoisin was closed and the girls transferred to the boys’ school at Cognin. As adults, some of the girls married Cognin boys and the girls’ unique language died out. Nearly two hundred years later, the Institut National des Jeunes Sourds de Chambéry continues the mission of educating the nation’s Deaf pupils. A distinguished Deaf educator at the Chambéry school was Joseph-Nicolas Théobald (1839–1887). Théobald also taught in Deaf schools in Besançon and Paris; his specialty was history. He was a frequent contributor to the Revue internationale de l’enseignement des sourds-muets de France. Théobald was summarily fired from the Paris school along with all the other Deaf teachers, in the post-Milan reorganization. The hearing superintendent had these words of adieu: “It is you, M. Théobald who, despite the absence of a sense, rendered so much service not only to your class but to the general progress of our teaching. None among your hearing colleagues contributed more to the preparation of our curriculum, of which we may be proud since it is followed in almost all other French schools for the Deaf . . .”94

1842. Pont-l’abbé (Manche)—Founded by the Sœurs du Bon Sauveur A wealthy widow from Picauville, Pont-l’abbé, sought to sponsor an order of nuns engaged in charitable works. She heard about Bon Sauveur and was attracted to it. She wrote to abbé Jamet and the decision was made to create a branch of the Caen Deaf school. The first classes were held for boys and girls in 1842. In 1886, five sisters instructed twenty-one boys and fifteen girls. The school building managed by the Bon Saveur congregation. (Courtesy of Ulf Hedberg)

54 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

1843. Villedieu-les-Poêles (Manche)—Founded by the Sœurs du Sacré-Cœur (also called the Sœurs de la Providence) Since 1825, the Congregation of Sœurs de la Providence had conducted a school for the Deaf in Périers, a town in Normandy. They opened a second Deaf school in 1843, this one for girls, in Villedieu-les-Poêles, about thirty miles south of Périers. In 1845, there were fifteen girls studying at the school. The congregation in Villedieu-les-Poêles was dissolved by the bishop’s order in 1847 and the school closed as well.95

1845. Viricelles (Loire)—Founder unknown In 1845, a school for Deaf girls was founded with ten pupils in Viricelles, about twenty miles north of Saint-Étienne. It is not clear how long the school continued. Most Deaf children in this region attended the Saint-Étienne school.

1846. Aurillac (Cantal)—Founded by the Dames de la Sainte-Famille The capital of Cantal is Aurillac, located in south-central France. The Dames de la Sainte-Famille organized a school for Deaf children there in 1846. Nineteen Deaf students were enrolled at the school in 1863, and there were thirty students in 1886. There was a Deaf instructor, but his or her name is not recorded. A scholarly journal of the time praised the school for the vocational training it offered.96 Like most schools for the Deaf conducted by religious organizations, the school at Aurillac used sign language much of the time.97 However, the school enforced spoken French after the Milan Congress. At the turn of the century, the number of students declined to seventeen. The Aurillac school closed in 1903, a victim of the secularization of all French education.

1846. Rillé-Fougères (Ille-et-Vilaine)—Founded by abbé Le Taillandier The story of the school for the Deaf in the community of Rillé at Fougères (in Brittany) began in 1024 with the construction of a chateau and church there by Baron Auffroy de Fougères. Starting in 1846, the church would house a school for the Deaf and one for hearing children, both conducted by nuns. The director, Jean-Baptiste Le Taillandier (1788–1870) founded first an order of nuns, Sœurs du Christ Rédempteur. In 1810, he enrolled in a seminary in Rennes and was ordained four years later. In 1833, he purchased what remained of the abbey in Rillé at Fougères, as it was severely damaged during the Revolution. In 1846, he met a young Deaf boy who had been abandoned by his parents; he assigned the boy to an aspiring nun and thus began the school. In 1882, the Deaf school counted forty-nine pupils—twenty-six boys and twenty-three girls—and the genders were strictly separated. There were four instructors for each sex, so class size was only six per teacher, reflecting the common practice in oral schools. Age at admission ranged from nine to thirteen years and the duration of study was six years. Initially, the school followed the “intuitive method,” inspired by Pestalozzi. After the Milan Congress, an hour each day was devoted to articulation training. Within a few years, however, the school affirmed it followed the “pure oral” method. In 1887, Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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the director was Sister Marie-Angèle; there were nine professors, fifty-three students, and five classes. Thirty-six students were on scholarship. The duration of study had increased to seven years.98 The school at Fougères had a reputation of extremism in its oral methods. New students were segregated from those more senior to discourage signing. No contact was permitted between younger and older students—not only in separate classes but in excursions, dormitories, and meals. Nevertheless, the Deaf students signed on the sly, evading the surveillance.99 Nowadays, the Institut d’Education Sensorielle Paul Cézanne in Fougères carries forward the mission of educating Deaf students with a wider range of settings, among them placement in hearing classes and in special classes in hearing schools.100

1847. Bourg-en-Bresse (Ain)—Founded by abbé Subtil and the Mère Supérieure of the Sœurs de Saint-Joseph, for girls Bourg-en-Bresse is located about forty miles northeast of Lyon, and a like distance from Geneva. Originally, it was abbé Subtil, the chaplain of the local orphanage and boarding school in Bourg-en-Bresse, who proposed establishing a school for Deaf girls there. The Mother Superior of the Saint-Joseph congregation embraced the idea and in 1847 the first three pupils were admitted to the new school, located outside the center city. (Incidentally, it was not far from La Balme-les-Grottes, the birthplace of Laurent Clerc.) By the end of 1848, enrollments grew to thirteen. Two sisters were sent to the Caen institution to be trained in Deaf education and several sisters were sent to the Paris and Bordeaux institutions as well. One of the teaching assistants was Deaf. The Bourg-en-Bresse school had twenty-five girls enrolled in 1854; through the years to the turning of the century, school enrollments averaged in the thirties. Every effort was made to fund the school through charitable donations, but the department of Ain also allotted scholarships. The school attracted students from the neighboring departments and from Switzerland as well. In 1889, the Bourg-en-Bresse school moved to 3 rue du Collège (renamed rue du Lycée). In addition to the usual academic courses, the school offered extensive instruction in domestic skills—sewing, knitting, ironing, and silk weaving—so the girls would find it easier to secure employment after graduation. In the beginning, the school relied on the methods introduced by the abbé de l’Épée, but it soon used oral methods as well. After the Milan Congress, however, sign language was downplayed. A striking half of the students were hereditarily Deaf. A third had parents who were hearing but had Deaf relatives, and a third had a Deaf sibling.101 During World War II, hereditary deafness was a serious liability in Hitler’s Germany, where many young Deaf people were sterilized. The pupils at the Bourg-en-Bresse school had reason to be alarmed when German soldiers entered the school but the soldiers were after a different kind of racial hygiene: they were searching for a Jewish refugee.102 After the war ended, there were many changes. The school employed lay teachers starting in 1957, purchased new and better equipment, modernized the curriculum, and constructed a chapel, a gymnasium, and dormitories. In 1965, the school accepted boys and changed its name to Institut de Jeunes Sourds. 56 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

1848. Fontainebleau (Seine-et-Marne)—Founded by Mlle. Constance Esther Léonard dit Drouville (1820–1886) In 1848, a Mlle. Drouville founded a private school for Deaf girls in Fontainebleau, just over forty miles south of Paris. The Deaf students attended some classes with hearing students in a nearby hearing school “in order to achieve moral as well as intellectual development by interaction with the hearing students.”103 The department of Seine-etMarne provided scholarships for Deaf girls to attend Drouville’s school. There, they used a particular oral method called phonomimie, a kind of cued speech developed by Augustin Grosselin, in which lipreading is facilitated by hand configurations near the mouth. 104 During the thirty-seven years that the school received students, enrollments ranged mostly between four and ten; the maximum was twelve in 1880. In that year, Mlle. Drouville retired and her successor was Mlle. Fleury. Five years later the school closed and Deaf pupils from the department of Seine-et-Marne would attend either the Soissons school or the Paris school.

1848. Paris (Paris)—Founded by Pierre Auguste Houdin The Houdin School was founded in Paris in 1855 by Pierre Auguste Houdin (1823–1884), who had taught at the Bordeaux school from 1842 to 1847. Houdin’s school had some twenty pupils. It was a residential school for teaching speech to both sexes. There were four classes with four or five pupils per teacher per class. Pupils had to be at least five years old and the duration of the program was eight to twelve years. Early on, Houdin was favorable to a role for sign language in Deaf education. But starting in 1866, Houdin claimed to have discovered the method of the great demutiser, Jacob Rodrigues Pereire, and had put it into practice exclusively.105 Houdin presided over the 1879 French National Congress on the Deaf in Lyon, attended the Milan Congress of 1880 as a delegate of the Ministry of Public Instruction, and was the honorary president of the 1881 French National Congress on the Deaf meeting in Bordeaux. Houdin was the author of several books on how to use the oral method.106 He was secretary of the Société d’assistance et de prévoyance en faveur des sourds-muets, founded in 1850 by Dr. Alexandre-Louis-Paul Blanchet.

1849. Paris (Paris)—Founded by Alexandre Louis-Paul Blanchet The Blanchet School was founded in 1849 by Dr. Alexandre Louis-Paul Blanchet (1819– 1867) and closed in 1867 after his death. Blanchet was appointed to Saint-Jacques in 1848 as a surgeon charged with the treatment of Deaf-mutes. A year later, the Ministry of the Interior approved his request to open a small class in speech articulation (which had just seven or eight pupils) on rue Saint Hyacinthe in Paris. Because many of the faculty at Saint-Jacques were hostile to speech teaching and because Blanchet had no funds to establish an oral residential school, he had the idea of educating the Deaf in ordinary hearing schools. Over the next decade, a dozen schools tried it, especially those schools with students who had some speech and hearing. In the meantime, Blanchet published and promoted, and he finally convinced the Ministry of the Interior to issue a circular envisioning the universal inclusion of Deaf children in the public schools.107 Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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The outcry from oralists abroad, who believed no such thing possible, and the dismal failure of the experiment at home shortly led the ministry to withdraw its endorsement. A commission of the French Institute visiting two integrated schools found the schools had disintegrated rapidly: alongside the Deaf, and by the force of the same arguments, there were the semi-Deaf, the blind, children who stammer, and the mentally handicapped—but no ordinary children. By the time of Blanchet’s death in 1867, his project to educate mutes in the common schools was a total failure. In the failing years of the Blanchet plan for placing Deaf children in public day schools, its author also urged the government to make a major reform of the residential schools for the Deaf, with the same oralist goals in view. Given his claim that he had improved the speech and hearing of some pupils at the Paris school by exposing them to organ music five hours a week, Blanchet proposed that the semi-mute and semi-Deaf pupils be separated from the rest of the signing community in order to receive special oral instruction. The government asked the opinion of the Academy of Medicine and its physicians engaged in a prolonged and impassioned debate on an issue entirely outside their competence—the relative merits of speech and sign for the Deaf. They decided they needed more information.108 In 1850, Blanchet founded the Société générale d’assistance et de prevoyance en faveur des sourds-muets et des aveugles de France.109 From 1849 to 1852, Blanchet visited schools for the Deaf in Germany and Belgium.

1850. Bourges (Cher)—Founded by abbé Édouard Lebret A school for Deaf boys opened in Bourges, about 150 miles south of Paris, in 1850. This school was founded by abbé Lebret, who had formerly taught at the Caen school. In 1853, the government authorized the congregation of Frères de Saint-Gabriel to operate the school. All went well and the department of Cher funded some scholarships, but abbé Lebret reluctantly left for diocesan duties. A Deaf graduate of the Paris school, Édouard Huet (1822–1882), was hired in his place. There were seventeen boys enrolled in 1858. In the early 1860s, the school became secular. The school closed some time before 1864. An outstanding Deaf artist, Auguste Colas (1845–1915), attended the Bourges school and then continued his studies at the Paris school where he later taught art classes (see Founders in the Arts).

1850. Montpellier (Hérault)—Founded by the Sœurs de Saint-Vincent-de-Paul The Montpellier school was founded in 1850 by Sister Chagny of the Sœurs de SaintVincent-de-Paul on the grounds of a hospice belonging to the city. In 1887, there were ten instructors teaching fifty-four Deaf boys and thirty-three Deaf girls, using the method of “pure oralism.” Students were between eight and fourteen years of age and the course of instruction lasted seven years. The school now goes by the name of Centre d’Éducation Spécialisée pour Déficients Auditifs (CESDA).110 A graduate of the Montpellier school, Marie-Thérèse Rande-Labouré, has written an autobiographical sketch that gives some insight into what it was like in the five years she was there, from 1941 to 1946. The school admitted both boys and girls but they were 58 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Garden view facing the Montpellier school. (Courtesy of Ulf Hedberg)

separated by a wall and the two sexes were within view of one another only Sundays at Mass. The boys wore beige uniforms, the girls colorful blouses. The sisters signed and spoke at the same time. For women, the school offered instruction in sewing and cooking. There was a large garden where the school grew a considerable part of its fruits and vegetables.111 The girls slept in a dormitory with rows of beds. A monitor slept adjacent. On Sundays there were excursions such as picnics and boat trips. The last day of the school year, the boys put on a play and the girls a dance while parents and the public observed. Christmas was spent at school, with a grand tree and much festivity. During Easter vacation, however, many pupils went home. During World War II, Montpellier was bombed so the pupils took refuge on a military base but there were no classes. When Marie-Thérèse visited her school reunion in the early 2000s, she found that the chapel and the walls were gone and replaced by a modern building for medical students. The garden was also no longer there but she had the joy of seeing old friends.112 Françoise Chastel is a Deaf teacher of note who graduated from the Montpellier school. She teaches French Sign Language in the École Supérieure d’Interprètes et de Traducteurs at the Université Paris III (Sorbonne). She was one of the founders of 2LPE (Deux Langues Pour une Éducation), a nationwide organization promoting bilingualism for Deaf children. Chastel was General Secretary of the Fédération Nationale des Sourds de France. In 1986, she was honored by the government when they accorded her the rank of Chevalier des Palmes Académiques.113

1851. Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine)—Founded by Les religieuses de la Sainte-Enfance Rennes is located in the east of Brittany. The Congregation of Sainte-Enfance established a school for Deaf girls there in 1851. There were six enrollments in 1861. It was thought that the school closed toward the end of the 1850s, but an administrative report was dated 1861.114 Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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1853. Alençon (Orne)—Founded by abbé Alexandre Lebecq Alençon is a city located in Lower Normandy. Two sisters there from the religious order of La Providence were sent to Caen to learn how to teach Deaf children in order to return and open a school for the Deaf. Their instructor was abbé Jamet, who had founded Deaf schools in Caen and in Pont-l’abbé-Picauville. The two sisters returned to Alençon and, with abbé Alexandre Lebecq (d. 1880), founded a Deaf school within the monastery of La Providence. It opened in 1853. The following year, the school had twelve students. The Orne department agreed to provide some funding for several students whose parents could not afford the cost of their boarding. In 1859, the school moved into new quarters on rue de la Poterne. In his instructional philosophies, abbé Sicard preferred the use of signs that, as far as possible, resemble the objects to which they refer, whereas abbé Jamet believed that signs should represent words and not things. In 1861, there was a debate in the regional council meeting over which method would be used for teaching at La Providence. Abbé Lebecq decided to use both methods and stated he was pleased with the results.115 From the 1870s through the 1940s, the Alençon school had between forty and fifty students. During World War I, some schools housed within the La Providence monastery were forced to close and the sisters left for Belgium, but the Deaf school remained open during the war. The students and sisters knitted clothing for the French troops in the trenches. In 1967, the Deaf school of Alençon merged with that of Laval (see p. 38). Sister Marie-Thérèse was appointed director of the new institution (which had 140 beds). Four years later, the Association la Providence was created which directs the CESDA. About fifty-five miles from Alençon, in Laval (Mayenne), there was another Deaf school founded in 1825 by a certain Mlle. Legentil; it closed in 1967 and all the students from Laval were transferred to Alençon. This school continues today. In 1984, the school welcomed French Sign Language in instruction and accordingly hired two Deaf instructional aids.116

1853. Avignon (Vaucluse)—Founded by Sister Marie du Divin-Cœur of the Bon Pasteur Avignon, a town in Provence called the “City of Popes,” was the home of the Catholic popes in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. What better setting for a triumph of good over evil? In mid-eighteenth century Avignon, a Deaf girl was raped by a seasonal worker. Her family did not know how to help their daughter and turned to a convent there. The sisters from the Bon Pasteur convent accepted the Deaf girl in the sisterhood, but they did not know how to communicate with her. They contacted the Mother Superior in Angers, Marie Euphrasie, for advice. She was related to Charlotte Blouin whose family members founded, directed, or taught in Deaf schools in Angers, Poitiers, and Auray.117 Marie Euphraise sent two sisters to the Paris school to learn how to teach the Deaf. Upon their return, one of them, Mlle. Lyonnet (in religion, Marie du Divin Cœur), founded a school for Deaf girls in Avignon. She and other teachers believed in the need for sign language in Deaf education. The school had five female students when it opened; 60 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

over the next forty years, enrollments ranged from five to eight. Because of the competition with Meissonnier’s school in the same city, and because oral instruction was in vogue after the Milan Congress, the Bon Pasteur school struggled to keep up enrollments until it finally closed in 1894.

1853. Gap (Hautes-Alpes)—Founded by Mme. Marson, Mother Superior, Sœurs de la Providence, and M. Le Chanoine Lagier A Deaf school was founded in Gap by the Sœurs de la Providence. The general council of the department sent observers in 1887 to examine the school’s instruction and activities. They reported that students were instructed well so as to prepare them for a better future and a more integrated social life. They recommended that the school director travel to the Bordeaux institution to study its methods as a model for her school.118 In 1891, there were thirty pupils. The school followed the strict oral method. It closed in 1907.

1854. Gramat (Lot)—Founded by Père Pierre Bonhomme Outside Gramat city in the department of the Lot, there is a small town called MayrinhacLentour, where a school for Deaf girls opened in 1854. Père Bonhomme (1803–1861), founder of the school and of the Congregation Sœurs de Notre-Dame du Calvaire, enlisted his order in instructing the Deaf girls. He sent two sisters to the Deaf school in Larnay for training to become teachers. On their return, he launched the school in the convent with funding from the Lot department. When the school opened, there were ten Deaf girls enrolled during the first year. Meanwhile, the Deaf boys from the Lot department were attending the Toulouse school over one hundred miles away. In 1865, the Gramat school relocated to Cahors, the capital of the Lot department, and there it remained until its closing in 1894. Enrollments were never large; there were fifteen students in 1875. The school adopted the oral method five years after the Congress of Milan.

1855. Tours (Indre-et-Loire)—Founded by Les filles de la Charité de SaintVincent-de-Paul Les Filles de la Charité de Saint-Vincent-de-Paul founded a small school for ten Deaf girls in Tours in 1855. This school received only one scholarship from the general council, which occurred in 1862. Most of the Deaf children in this department attended Deaf schools in Bordeaux, Poitiers, and Paris. The Tours school closed around 1863.

1856. Embrun (Hautes-Alpes)—Founded by Mlle. Marie Guieu A small school for Deaf children was founded in 1856 by a Mlle. Guieu (also Guien) in Embrun, in southeastern France, not far from the Italian border. It started with three students and never had more than ten. Mlle. Guieu was the sole professor. Her school had to compete for limited funds with another in the same department of Hautes-Alpes (see the Gap school). The general council gave equal numbers of scholarships to the two schools. Mlle. Guieu taught girls sewing, knitting, washing, and ironing clothes while Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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boys were taught vocational work through apprenticeships. The council applauded Mlle. Guieu for her effort to place boys as apprentices with employers.119 In 1882, Mlle. Guieu had four students. Due to her poor health, the school was closed at the end of that year.

1856. Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort (Gard)—Founded by Pierre Auguste Sardinoux and Jean Samuel Conrad Kilian Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort is located about thirty miles north of Montpellier in southern France in the department of Gard. There, in 1856, the eminent educator of the Deaf, Conrad Kilian, founded a school for French Deaf Protestant children with the aim of recruiting all the Deaf children, and the blind, of Protestant France. The school was named Institution des Sourds-Muets Protestants de France. Kilian had founded a Deaf school in Lausanne, Switzerland, four years earlier, and would open a third in Schiltigheim, near Strasbourg, in 1860. Kilian was one of the leading exponents of the oral method in Deaf education. Thus, the stated aim of his school was to “educate the Deaf children so that they can speak and so that all can take their place in society as Christians and workers.”120 Pierre Auguste Sardinoux (1809–1890) also gets credit for founding the school for the Deaf at Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort. He first became interested in the Deaf when he met a Deaf child named Martin from the town of Faugères. Sardinoux had heard of Kilian’s school in Lausanne, Switzerland. He wrote to Kilian, asking him to admit the boy Martin, which he did. Sardinoux did not stop there. He wanted to see a Protestant school for the Deaf open in France; during the mid-nineteenth century there were some sixty schools of the Deaf in France and all were Catholic. Sardinoux then mounted a campaign to secure funding, seeking donations from the Protestant community and from the government. He then entreated Kilian to move to Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort to direct the school. He succeeded and the school was founded in 1856.121 The first class had five boys and six girls but enrollments grew rapidly to thirty. In 1858, there were forty-nine pupils and five professors. Students stayed for eight years. An 1881 report states that the school had fifty-five students and five teachers. The instructional method was strictly oral. Kilian’s school was the first in France to give oral education. When the Milan resolutions for “pure oral” education were voted, Kilian surely felt vindicated. Deaf girls at his school were prepared for domestic service; boys for farming, shoemaking, cabinetmaking, and bookbinding. Kilian, however, was restless. A school for the Deaf had opened recently in Montpellier. It was Catholic like all French schools for the Deaf except Kilian’s. He formally proposed to the governing committee that his Protestant school for the Deaf be transferred to Montpellier. He was turned down and he resigned in 1860, after just four years as director. A year earlier, Kilian had married the daughter of a distinguished family in Strasbourg and that may have contributed to his leaving Saint-Hippolyte. Shortly after resigning there he opened a school for Deaf Protestant children in Schiltigheim near Strasbourg. After the defeat of the French in the war of 1870, Kilian remained in occupied Alsace. In 1880, he retired to Paris and then to Grenoble where his son lived. Kilian died in 1904. The second director of the Deaf school at Saint-Hippolyte was Jean-Louis Martin (1817–1882), who was appointed in 1861. Six years later, Edward Miner Gallaudet, son 62 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and president of the Conference of Principals of Institutions for the Deaf, visited Saint Hippolyte where he found that sign language was not in use.122 Although articulation was taught to all the pupils, their speech was so poor that even the director could not communicate with them. In 1875, Martin and his wife resigned. She had been recruited at the same time as her husband, for she had some experience working with Deaf children. When Martin stepped down, Pastor Paul Bouvier (1829–1879) was appointed. Bouvier had long taken an interest in the Deaf. He attended the 1878 Paris conference on Deaf education, an oralist precursor to the Congress of Milan, and he was a member of the Pereire society (so named by the wealthy descendants of Jacob Rodrigues Pereire, an early European “demutiser”). Described as “a tireless propagandist for oralism,”123 Bouvier’s untimely death ended his service after only four years. Bouvier launched a three-year building program—one that was so demanding that his health was compromised. The school continues today and bears his name as the Centre de Rééducation de l’Ouïe et de la Parole (CROP), Paul Bouvier Institute. In 2014, the CROP provided services to 150 children who were Deaf or had problems of (spoken) language development. Its pupils come from the departments of Gard, l’Hérault, Vaucluse, and Bouches-du-Rhône. The CROP is also active in two Deaf schools in Burkina Faso, a center for teaching French Sign Language, and an evaluation unit.124 Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort counts among its graduates two gifted artists: Nachor Ginouvier (1865–1900), who attended the fine arts school in Montpellier, and Victor Lagier (1864–1942). In 1877, Director Bouvier presented to the Anthropological Society of Paris these two students as they were particularly adept in oral skills. Ginouvier had become Deaf at age five; Lagier had become Deaf at age six. Later on, Lagier was active in founding the alumni association at Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort.

1857. Bourg-en-Bresse (Ain)—Founded by Msgr. Georges Chalandon for boys Msgr. Georges Chalandon (1804–1873) founded a school for Deaf boys in 1857. Its first quarters were at boulevard de Brou, a district of Bourg-en-Bresse. The original plan was to found the school in 1856, but administrative disagreements delayed the laying of a foundation for a year. The Ain department allotted funding for scholarships and a supplement to cover essentials. Charitable contributions were solicited and secured. An Imperial decree of August 5, 1854, changed the school name to Institut Napoléon in honor of the emperor Napoléon I—a name the school kept until 1870.125 This boys’ school belonged to the sisterhood Saint-Joseph but its management was entrusted to abbé Subtil. A graduate of Saint-Jacques, M. Bouillet, was hired as a supervisor. Instruction was conducted by a certain abbé Bonnet with a teaching assistant from the Paris school. In the beginning, there were twelve boys enrolled, but the number grew to forty-four by 1858 and the locale was considered insufficient. The school relocated to the Bel-Air district in 1860. The new place on a hilltop was spacious and clean and offered a beautiful view of the city. Instruction was originally conducted in sign language, but director abbé Goyatton introduced articulation training in 1875 and characterized their methodology as “mixed.” After the decisions of the Milan Congress of 1880, the school became exclusively oral. Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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In 1889, the bishop of Belley appointed the Frères des écoles chrétiennes to manage instruction at the boys’ school, where students learned farming, arboriculture, horticulture, viticulture, and orchard management. The Agriculture Ministry awarded medallions to some of the students in recognition of their skills in gardening. The school closed its doors in 1914 due to the mobilization for World War I. Some of the boys were sent to the Deaf school in Cognin, outside Chambéry, seventy-seven miles southeast of Bourg-en-Bresse; other boys were sent to the Deaf school in Saint Étienne, about eighty-seven miles south of Bourg-en-Bresse.

1857. Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales)—Founded by M. Fourty M. Fourty founded and directed a small day school for the Deaf in Perpignan, near the Spanish border. The school opened in March 1857 and there were two boys and eleven girls. The school was funded by the department. The Journal des Pyrénées-Orientales stated that Fourty held a public examination of his Deaf students at the city hall in front of the mayor, his wife, and the bishop of Perpignan. There were several students, age six and over; during the examination, they wrote words, replied to questions, recited fables, and displayed a knowledge of French geography. They also did some arithmetic problems and answered questions about the catechism. Overall, the attendees were satisfied with the performances at the examination. This led to a ministerial proposal providing that one or two students from Perpignan would be sent to the Paris school every year to study Deaf education, then to return to the department and propagate the method.126 However, the proposal was tabled due to limited funds. For reasons that are unknown the school was closed in 1860.

1859. Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône)—Founded by abbé Louis-Toussaint Dassy Dassy was born in Marseille in 1808, ordained in the Oblats de Marie Immaculée in 1831, and died in 1888 while traveling in the Pyrénées. In 1858, Dassy and the wife of one of his brothers inaugurated a facility for the blind. Identical programs were also set up in Toulouse and Lyon. With the closing of the Guès school in 1866, Dassy welcomed Deaf students as well as blind. In 1879, a large school building was erected at 3 rue abbé Dassy, which still stands today. The street and the school within are named after its founder, abbé Louis-Toussaint Dassy. The following year, the Congress of Milan promulgated the “pure oral” method and Dassy revised the curriculum at the Marseille school accordingly. Dassy was awarded the Légion d’honneur, rank Chevalier, in 1885. Upon his death in 1888, the Mary Immaculate Congregation assured the continuation of his school. Funds were raised to commission the sculptor Alexandre Falguière to erect a statue of abbé Dassy on the school’s grounds. It was inaugurated in 1892. In 1919, two instructors from the religious order, Frères de Saint-Gabriel, arrived to instruct Deaf boys while the nuns focused on the girls. In 1932, a new building was erected for the boys. The Frères de Saint-Gabriel left in 1989. The sisterhood of Mary Immaculate remains to this day serving on its school board and volunteering in various ways. The current name of the school is Institut Régional des Sourds et Aveugles de 64 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Marseille (IRSAM), and it has been recognized as a charity since 1901. It provides shelter, education, and medical and social support, to over 1,200 disabled children and adults in a total of twenty-four sites.127 Two eminent Deaf leaders connected to the Marseille school were Joseph Turcan and J. Castille. Contesting the infamous Milan resolution of 1880, Turcan defended the right of Deaf people to use their sign language. He founded and directed the Deaf newspaper, La Défense des sourds-muets, and founded other newspapers such as Le Courrier français des sourds-muets. In the early 1850s, there was a J. Castille who graduated from the Toulouse school and went on to become a professor at his alma mater and then at the Marseille school.

1860. Schiltigheim (Bas-Rhin)—Founded by Jean Samuel Conrad Kilian Jean Samuel Conrad Kilian (1823–1904) was an apostle of the oral movement in Deaf education. He taught, published, and lectured in Germany, France, and Switzerland, advocating the complete suppression of signing and signs in the classroom. As a student, Kilian had become friends with the pastor of Gmünd, Austria, who won him to the cause of Deaf education. Kilian interrupted his studies and spent a year and a half in Gmünd teaching Deaf children at the Royal School for the Deaf and Blind there. Over the next few years, Kilian pursued his university studies in Germany, England, Scotland, France, and Switzerland. During that time he tutored some Deaf students in French and in 1852, he settled in Lausanne, where he opened a boarding school for the Deaf. Four years later, Kilian was asked by the Reformed Church in France to found a Protestant school for the Deaf, which he did in Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort, in southern France. Kilian married in 1860 and moved to Schiltigheim, two miles north of Strasbourg. There he founded a small boarding school for Protestant Deaf children. The FrancoPrussian War began in 1870. Kilian refused to abandon his students, so school continued throughout the war, but he could not receive new students in France. In 1879, Kilian closed his school and went to Paris to help prepare his son for college entrance exams.128

1861. Bourg-la-Reine (Hauts-de-Seine)—Founded by Père Pierre Bonhomme P`ere Pierre Bonhomme, founder of the Gramat school, met abbé Lambert, the chaplain at Saint-Jacques, who urged him to open another school in Bourg-la-Reine, south of the Paris department and about five miles from Saint-Jacques. (First, however, Father Bonhomme opened a housing shelter for young indigent Deaf people.) Increasingly, the congregation devoted its efforts to the Bourg-la-Reine school rather than the one in Cahors, which closed in 1894. The same congregation that instructed the girls in the Cahors school also instructed the girls in the former hunting lodge of Henri IV in Bourg-la-Reine, where classes are held to this day. This school’s enrollments quickly increased and remained high (over sixty students) for the next forty years, no doubt in part due to its location in the Paris area. Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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The new school focused more on preparing students for employment at the end of their studies. A law of French education passed in 1882 removed all religious teaching from the curriculum and removed crosses and religious symbols from the classroom.129 A few years later, nuns and brothers were prohibited from teaching. In 1903, because of this secularization of education, a lay person took over the management of the Bourgla-Reine school. The number of students continued to increase. The school launched secondary education in 1930 and new buildings were added to the facility. In 1970, the school became a coeducational institution. Its residential program ended in 1973. Presently, the Bourg-la-Reine school offers many programs, from kindergarten through high school, and sponsors an association for parents. Father Bonhomme was beatified for his social efforts in 2003 by Pope John Paul II.130

1862. Chateauroux (Indre)—Founded by abbé Damourette This girls’ school was directed by Sœur Marie-Léonice; two instructors were drawn from the Dames de la Charité de Bourges. In 1868, there were just eight Deaf girls enrolled and the same number a decade later. The oral method was used. Subsequently, the school was transferred to Déols, about half a mile north of Chateauroux and restructured as a special education class in a hearing school. The three buildings of the school were laid out in a U shape. In the courtyard thus formed, the Deaf and hearing children played together. In the 1920s, there were in the combined school, seven sisters, twenty-three Deaf children, and 150 hearing pupils of whom a dozen were blind. The oral method was used with the Deaf.

1863. Moingt (Loire)—Founded by abbé Benoît Dessaigne In 1863, abbé Dessaigne, founder of the school in Chaumont (Puy-de-Dôme), opened another school with only seven girls in Moingt, later a part of Montbrison (Loire), thirty miles from his first school in Chaumont. The Franciscan sisters were responsible for management and instruction. The department of Loire started to fund the school in 1876. In an average year, there were twenty girls enrolled. Initially, the school used the oral method, then taught using sign language, and then reverted to oralism after the Congress of Milan. The Moingt school chose to close in 1904 because of the secularization law.

1865. Paris (Paris)—Founded by Augustin Grosselin Augustin Grosselin (1800–1878) was born in Sedan in northern France and died in Paris. He was the author of a stenographic notation, which he applied to the proceedings of the Chamber of Deputies. He published works in geography, ethics, and linguistics and served on the advisory board of the Société centrale d’éducation pour les sourds et muets. In 1861, Grosselin invented phonomimie, which made it possible, he claimed, to instruct Deaf and hearing children at the same time. 131 The school closed in 1880. 66 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

1865. Saint-Laurent-en-Royans (Drôme)—Founded by abbé Joseph-VictorFortuné Champavier In the region of Rhône-Alpes, there is a village south of Lyon called Saint-Laurent-enRoyans. There, in 1865, abbé Joseph-Victor-Fortuné Champavier (1794–1874) founded a shelter and school for Deaf children and adults of both sexes and named it La Providence des Sourds-Muets. Hearing orphans and infirm elders were also to be admitted. Abbé Champavier called on the sisterhood of the Franciscaines des Charpennes in Lyon to direct the school. That proved temporary, but three years later the Congrégation des Sœurs Franciscaines Missionnaires de Notre Dame took up the task and, under the sisters’ direction, the school endured until 1976. The main building in Saint-Laurenten-Royans. (Courtesy of Ulf Hedberg)

By 1964 some thirty sisters had instructed annually an average of 50 to 110 Deaf children and adults in Saint-Laurent-en-Royans. The language of instruction was sign language. The school received no government funding. It fed itself with the harvest of an extensive farm and it solicited charity from the public. (There was also a shelter for hearing women who were taught sewing and embroidery.) Until the 1970s, this school was the only one in France to accept Deaf students who were intellectually disabled.

1866. Veyre-Monton (Puy-de-Dôme)—Founded by Père Flavien and the religious order of Dominicans Father Flavien together with the Dominicans founded a school for Deaf girls in 1866. It was located just ten miles south of Clermont-Ferrand, where there was a large school for Deaf students ever since 1788. At the Veyre-Monton school, the sisters of the order Saint Francis of Assisi were responsible for teaching and used both sign language and oral methods. In 1875, there were only six girls but by 1886 there were forty-two, and in 1901 there were fifty. At the time of the 1903 secularization law, enrollments were thirty-two. With the passage of the law, the school closed. Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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1869. Avignon (Vaucluse)—Founded by abbé Casimir Grimaud and Mme. Meissonnier Abbé Grimaud was a chaplain in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, in the department of Gard. He went to the Toulouse Institution and studied with M. Fourcade who, like so many before him, claimed to have invented a method to make the Deaf speak, to “demutise” them. In 1869, abbé Grimaud founded a school for boys drawn from three populations: Deaf, Deaf with learning disability, and stutterers. The language of instruction was French and sign language was prohibited. Enrollments grew rapidly and in 1879 the school moved to nearby Avignon; in 1886, there were fifty-three Deaf boys enrolled. In 1880, abbé Grimaud founded a school for Deaf girls (the second to be founded in Avignon). A Mme. Meissonnier directed the school which had six Deaf girls enrolled. Because the school for boys continued to grow, abbé Grimaud decided to combine the two schools and move to Château Saint-Ange in Montfavet, less than four miles from the heart of Avignon. In 1901, the school was renamed Institution Grimaud-Meissonnier and had over ninety-six students. In the years leading up to World War I, enrollments declined until the school closed in 1921.

1870. Bordeaux (Gironde)—Founded by abbé Étienne Gaussens One may recall that by 1860 Deaf girls attended the Bordeaux school and Deaf boys the Paris school. Consequently, Deaf boys from the Bordeaux region could not be educated locally. Abbé Étienne Gaussens (1843–1912) founded a school in Bordeaux in 1870 to allow young Deaf boys who could no longer attend the Bordeaux school to remain in the area. A director was hired, M. Soucage, who was Deaf and came with excellent oral skills and an in-depth knowledge of sign language. Initially, there were eleven boys enrolled, but by 1886 there were forty-eight pupils taught by four professors, two of whom were Deaf. The school moved twice to accommodate increasing enrollments. In 1881, the school was opened to the blind as well and the Frères de Saint-Gabriel took The school for boys at rue de Marseille. (Courtesy of Ulf Hedberg)

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charge of the instruction and management. They introduced a “pure oral” regime in which signing was no longer allowed, even during recreation and excursions. In 1976, a lay person was chosen as director and in 1985 the last Frère left. René-Louis Hirsch (1853–1932) was among the distinguished graduates of the Bordeaux school; he also studied at the Institut de Schiltigheim, near Strasbourg. Hirsch was a member of the governing board for the Comité des Fêtes de l’abbé de l’Épée (the organization that arranged banquets and other festivities to honor Épée). He was one of the founding members of the Salon International des Artistes Silencieux (International Salon of Deaf Artists), and he published the Journal des sourds-muets, a Deaf newspaper.

1870. Saint-Laurent-du-Pont (Isère)—Founded by the Frères de la Sainte Famille de Belley, transferred to Currière (Isère) in 1876 In 1860 or thereabouts, P`ere Maurice Borel began instructing some Deaf children with a view to establishing a school for the Deaf in Saint Laurent, a town in the Rhône-Alpes region. He died suddenly and his fellow clergyman, Marcel-Marie Grézier, head of the Grande Chartreuse monastery, undertook the work. He looked to the Frères de la Sainte Famille de Belley to staff the Deaf school since they had been conducting a communal school nearby. The school was officially founded in 1870. In 1876, the school was transferred to Currière. Abbé Rieffel, the first director, asked the order of the Frères du Sacré-Cœur to send some brothers as teachers but that arrangement lasted only a year. The Frères de Saint-Gabriel were asked to take over the school and they applied the “mixed method” (speech and sign) they used in all their schools for the Deaf. In 1879, after visits to several oral schools in Italy, the director adopted the oral method. A decade later, the school was still conducted by the Frères de Saint-Gabriel. There were six professors, fifty students, and five classes. The trades taught at the school included carpentry, locksmithing, baking, shoemaking, tanning, tailoring, and masonry. The school was situated in the mountains and regularly snowed in, which prompted the director to install a printing plant. The duration of instruction was seven years. The school closed in 1903. The monastery of Currière has an impressive history. The foundation of the Grande Chartreuse dates from 1084. The Chartreuse de Currière was demolished and replaced by a new construction around 1700. After the French Revolution the building was abandoned.

1871. Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme)—Founded by the Frères de SaintGabriel The Frères de Saint-Gabriel opened a third school in 1871 at Saint-Germain-l’Herm (Puy-de-Dôme), directed by Père Paul. Located in a little village that was difficult to access, it was transferred to Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme), some thirty-seven miles away, in 1873. Four years later, the school had thirty students, half of them on scholarships. The school was moved again in 1890, this time to Royat-les-Bains, a suburb of Clermont-Ferrand. The director was Brother Jovinien of the Frères de Saint-Gabriel; there Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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were four professors, four classes, and thirty students. The method in use was “pure oral.” In 1903, the law requiring teachers to be laypersons was applied and the director quit his religious order. The school moved to the Les Gravouses neighborhood where it remains today. In 1906, the school became the Institut Departemental de Jeunes Sourds les Gravouses and is located at 4 rue de Barante. Clermont-Ferrand had a distinguished pupil in Jules Imbert (1815–1885), one of the most brilliant students who had studied at Saint-Jacques. However, he was expelled in 1830 for participating in a student revolt. Imbert taught at the school in Lyon (directed by Claudius Forestier) but went on to work as a typographer. He founded the Société générale d’éducation, de patronage et d’assistance aux sourds-muets. This group was formed to compete with Berthier’s Société centrale. Instead of holding its banquets on Épée’s birthday, Imbert’s group held its banquets in July, celebrating the founding of Saint-Jacques during the 1789 French Revolution. Later, Imbert’s group was taken over by another mutual aid group, created by Dr. Alexandre Blanchet (1819–1867).

1871. Elbeuf (Seine-Maritime)—Founded by Louis-Augustin Capon The Elbeuf school was founded in 1871 by Louis-Augustin Capon (1846–1907), a graduate of Saint-Jacques. Elbeuf is about fifteen miles south of Rouen, in Normandy. Capon’s hearing wife, who had received training in Deaf education at the Bordeaux school, collaborated with him. A few years later, with public support, Louis Capon improved the school’s quarters and in 1887 he moved it to a new place where he and his wife created a school museum with more than seven thousand objects. The collection was based on agricultural life, science, arts, and floral and animal illustrations.132 Following the reforms urged by the Milan Congress in 1880, there was pressure on Capon, especially from local government, to abandon the use of sign language in classroom instruction and to adopt the oral method. This he did (and had already been doing to some extent). One year later, city councils in Elbeuf and Rouen praised Capon for the modernity of his methods and he was thus able to assure the continuation of his school. The city council of Rouen was less favorable to its own school, threatening it with loss of funding unless it adopted the oral method.133 Capon’s school (as well as the one in Rouen) never had more than twenty-four students at one time. In 1889, Capon’s school had three professors and sixteen pupils distributed in three classes. There were ten scholarship students and the course of instruction lasted eight years. It is not known when the school closed but one can presume it was near Capon’s death in 1907. Capon received the distinction of Officer of Public Instruction.

1872. Angoulême (Charente)—Founded by Elien Lagrange Angoulême is the capital of the Charente department, located about seventy-five miles northeast of Bordeaux. Traditionally, Deaf children from Charente were sent away to school—Deaf boys to Deaf schools in Paris and Poitiers, Deaf girls to Larnay and Bordeaux. In 1872, Elien Lagrange (1847–1906), a former teacher at Dr. Alexandre Blanchet’s communal school in Paris, returned to Angoulême to found a secular Deaf 70 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

school at 47 Place du Champ de Foire, with probably less than six students. In 1878, Elien Lagrange asked the Charente authorities to fund scholarships for his school. The general council debated the issue and found that Lagrange’s budget for each student was expensive compared to other Deaf schools, such as the one in Poitiers. The council decided to continue sending Deaf students to Poitiers and to Deaf schools in other cities since they had long relationships with those schools and were satisfied with the results.134 However, some members wished to support the local Deaf school in their own department’s capital so the council compromised. The council would fund one scholarship at the Lagrange school for a suitable student between eight and thirteen years of age who would stay on no longer than six years; one condition was that the director expand the school grounds. The following year, Lagrange made another scholarship proposal to the council with a greatly reduced budget. The council decided to stay with its agreements with the Poitiers and Larnay schools. Lagrange invited council representatives to visit his school. When they arrived, they were surprised to find ten students instead of thirty-five as Lagrange had claimed. On the other hand, they were impressed that Lagrange was both director and teacher, and taught Deaf students gardening, painting, and sculpturing. The committee stressed to the director the need for budgeting money to allow students to purchase clothes and linens for boarding. It found that he had not expanded the grounds as they had requested. Finally, in 1882, Lagrange moved the school to a new location at 1 Place Champ de Foire with twelve students. The committee visited and was impressed with the improvements; it thus agreed to redirect three scholarships intended for the Paris school to the Lagrange school.135 Before the 1880 Milan Congress, the school had followed the “old method,” i.e., both sign and French were used in the classroom and articulation was taught to those pupils who could profit. However, after the resolutions of the Milan Congress and their adoption by the French authorities, the Lagrange school adopted the “pure oral” method. Beginning in 1879, the school was known to many as the Institution Balzac et des SourdsMuets, in honor of Honoré de Balzac, a famed novelist and playwright from Angoulême. After Lagrange’s death in 1906, the school carried on but with diminishing enrollments. The general council continued sending Deaf students to Poitiers, Larnay, Bordeaux, and Paris for at least thirty years. The school closed around 1921.

1872. Lyon (Rhône)—Founded by Jacques Hugentobler Jacques Hugentobler (1844–1924), a native of German-speaking Switzerland, began his professional career teaching Swiss Deaf children from 1864 to 1867 in Saint Gall, and then in Zurich. He directed the Geneva school for the Deaf from 1869 to 1872. However, a wealthy family in Lyon with three Deaf children induced him to open an oral school there—one devoted to helping Deaf children to speak and lipread. Hugentobler’s school on rue Duhamel opened in 1872 with ten pupils and two teachers. It received private pay pupils as well as pupils paid for by departments and municipalities. Nine years later, in order to welcome more Deaf students, Hugentobler transferred his school to more spacious quarters in Villeurbane, about five miles from Lyon. He was also obliged to take on blind students from a nearby school Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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that was closing. In 1889, Hugentobler’s school counted thirty-four pupils and four professors. Students were taught shoemaking, gardening, lathwork, lithography, and printing. Deaf students found to be especially apt in these skills were sent to the National School of Fine Arts in Lyon to learn decorative painting and design— talents that were highly applicable in the local silk industry, as Lyon was the capital of the European silk trade. Hugentobler was a firebrand for pure oralism—that is, for teaching speech and lipreading to Deaf children using spoken language and no sign. In the professional journals and congresses, he announced the triumph of the oral method and the death of sign. Among his published articles and books, we note in particular “How to prevent sign language communication.”136 Hugentobler retired in 1906. Over the next forty years, enrollments were high— over one hundred—but there were insufficient funds in the city budget to continue the school’s operation. According to the Gazette des sourds-muets, the pupils were to be farmed out, boys to the Chambéry school, girls to Pont-de-Beauvoisin and both genders to the École de la Croix-Rousse (see p. 78, Lyon [Rhône]—Founded by Brother Gabriel Marie of the Frères des écoles chrétiennes).

1875. Metz (Moselle)—Founded by the Imperial Government of Germany The city of Metz is located in the Lorraine region of France. Lorraine was annexed by treaty in 1871 at the end of the Franco-Prussian War. The Imperial Government founded a boarding school for Deaf children in Metz in 1875. The official name was Kaiserliche Taubstummen-Anstalt (The Imperial Institution for the Deaf and Mute). It opened at 16–18 rue des Capucins. The school admitted primarily Catholic students, while Protestants were sent to the Strasbourg school. At the time of the school’s opening, there were fourteen students and two teachers. Speech and lipreading were the primary means of instruction. By 1890, the number of students grew to seventy-one and there were ten teachers. Eight years before the start of the World War I, there were forty-two students and seven teachers. After the war of 1914–1918, the school was placed first under the Strasbourg Ministry of Education and then under the ministry of Public Health. Robert Kohler (1860–1923) was an influential educator of the Deaf in France and Germany. He was assigned first to the Metz school in 1883, but the following year, he was transferred to the Strasbourg school founded by Charles Piepenbring. Later, he also taught at Jacoutôt’s school in the Robertsau neighborhood of Strasbourg and he directed the successor school founded by the Sœurs de la Croix in the Neudorf quarter of Strasbourg. When World War I ended, Robert Kohler became director of the Metz school just at the time that Metz was given back to France. He died four years later without completing the so-called transitional period from German to French rule. His successor, a M. Stouff, encountered many challenges at the Metz school. The teachers were disgruntled and the moral was low. Stouff developed systems for recruitment, fair pay, promotions, and retirement. In 1925, the Metz school was placed under the ministry of Labor, Health, and Social Welfare. In 1940, the school’s property came under the 72 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

guardianship of the German administration. It was not until 1947 that the property was restored and classes resumed. In 1960, the French Ministry of Health nationalized the Metz school, placing it on a par with the national schools for the Deaf in Paris, Bordeaux, and Chambéry. In 1979, the school moved into new buildings located at 49 rue Claude Bernard, in the Borny district in Metz, nearly three miles away from the old site.137 Since the start of the twenty-first century, the school has evolved into a range of social and individualized services. Currently, it provides educational, social, and therapeutic programs for Deaf children, from birth through twenty years of age—with about 180 students in all. The school offers educational support in both specialized and mainstreamed settings. It assists parents in choosing modes of communication with their children. It also serves as a center for rehabilitation, medico-social, technical, and special education resources.138

1875. Paris (Paris)—Founded by Jacob-Émile Pereire, Isaac Rodrigue Pereire, and Eugène Pereire The Pereire school was founded in 1875 by two brothers, Jacob-Émile Pereire (1800– 1875) and Isaac Rodrigue Pereire (1806–1880), along with Eugène Pereire (1831–1908), the son of Isaac Pereire. The brothers were wealthy railroad barons who sought to secure their birthright—namely, the recognition of their ancestor, Jacob Rodrigues Pereire, and the commercial exploitation of his miraculous but secret method of getting Deaf people to speak. Marius Magnat, who had been teaching at a small oral school in Geneva, was hired to direct the Pereire oral school. The Pereires were determined to provide an alternative to the national schools, which were dominated by the lower classes and manual language. They knew that upper-class parents, rarely Deaf themselves, wanted their Deaf children to speak the same language they did, and that money was no object. The school was successful in attracting pupils and the Seine department provided it with ever-increasing scholarship funds. At first the school was located in Paris (94 avenue de Villiers) but lacking sufficient space, it was moved to Rueil, now a Paris suburb (19 boulevard des Ormes). The Pereire school was closed in 1892 and the remaining students were transferred to the Asnières school.

1877. Ponsan-Soubiran (Gers)—Founded by Père Jean-Louis Peydessus A small school for Deaf girls was founded in 1877 in Ponsan-Soubiran, a village in southwestern France. Pére Jean-Louis Peydessus (1807–1882) directed the school, which was installed in a convent. Upon his death in 1882, the board hired abbé Joseph Forgues to both manage the school and provide instruction. In 1886, there were twenty-five students. In 1889, abbé Joseph Forgues established a new school for Deaf girls in Tarbes, in the neighboring department of Hautes-Pyrénées, about thirty miles away. Forgues traveled back and forth to direct both schools. Because the general population in PonsanSoubiran was so small—less than three hundred compared to two thousand five Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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hundred in Tarbes, and since the Ponsan-Soubiran school had only seven students, it was decided to close it and transfer the remaining students to the Deaf school in Tarbes.

1880. Oloron-Sainte-Marie (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)—Founded by Pauline Larrouy

Oloron-SainteMarie present day, the school that was founded and operated by Pauline Larrouy in Oloron-SainteMarie. A local urban planner discovered the school. (Courtesy of Ulf Hedberg)

A school for Deaf boys and girls was opened in 1880 in the town of Oloron-Sainte-Marie, in southwestern France, not far from Pau. The Deaf director was Pauline Larrouy (1834– 1919), a graduate of the Bordeaux school and then a tutor there for ten years. In 1886, she characterized her method in the Oloron school with six pupils as “old method”—by which she meant that sign language was the vehicle of instruction despite the oralist revolution. Three years later she amended that to state that the oral method was used with pupils who were able to profit by it. She herself had intelligible speech it seems. In 1901, we find her with a second teacher instructing twenty pupils, half on scholarship. The school garnered awards but poor health obliged Larrouy to close her school; the pupils were transferred to the Toulouse and Bordeaux schools.139

1880. Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin)—Founded by the City of Strasbourg When Conrad Kilian’s Protestant school closed in Schiltigheim, parents of Protestant Deaf children asked the city of Strasbourg to arrange for education of Deaf children at the city’s expense. The city administration agreed to Protestant management but admissions were to be irrespective of religious preference. The school was founded in 1880 and located at rue des Bonnes Gens, with fifteen to twenty students. M. H. V. Paul led the school, but a local official discovered that some students enrolled in the day school were listed as residential in order to increase reimbursements from the city. The school was closed in 1885.

1884. Annonay (Ardèche)—Founded by the Sœurs de la Providence In 1883, the sisterhood Sœurs de la Providence founded a school for Deaf girls in the small city of Annonay. Ever since 1814, the sisterhood had conducted an orphanage and school for young girls there. Now, at the request of the diocesan authorities, and with the help of lay benefactors, they welcomed orphaned Deaf girls. No doubt the school was among the first of its kind to offer free Deaf education (free save for a small fee for linens and clothes).140 Two nuns who taught at the school had been sent to the Bordeaux school for training in the oral method. In 1886, there were six students, and their numbers slowly grew to thirty in 1901. The girls were taught domestic skills, such as sewing, lingerie, ironing, and silk weaving. The school operated until 1937. 74 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

1884. Bourogne (Territoire de Belfort) and Vesoul (Haute-Saône)—Founded by Theophilus Mettenet A school for Deaf boys and girls was founded by Theophilus Mettenet in Bourogne in 1884, less than forty miles from Basel, Switzerland. Two years later, there were twenty enrollments and the following year the school moved to Vesoul, the capital of the department of Haute-Saône, where it had thirty students. Director Mettenet was sentenced to prison for one year for having sex with a student. As a result, the school was closed in 1888.141

1885. Guebwiller/Issenheim (Haut-Rhin)—Founded by the Sœurs de la Divine Providence de Ribeauvillé In 1885, the Sœurs de la Divine Providence de Ribeauvillé opened a school in Guebwiller, about sixty-five miles south of Strasbourg. In 1893, the convent purchased a property in Issenheim, just over two miles east of Guebwiller. Officially, the school was named Die Privat Anstalt in Issenheim and it served as a private boarding school for the Deaf. The school established a workshop to teach crafts to the Deaf students of whom there were forty-four in 1900. The instructional method was naturally oral, in accord with more than a century of German practice. During World War I, German schools for the Deaf, as for the hearing, underwent many changes. In 1920, perhaps as a measure of economy, the Guebwiller school was closed and its students were relocated to the Catholic school in Strasbourg (Neuhof School).

1885. Limoges (Haute-Vienne)—Founded by the City of Limoges After Antonio Bertrand’s death in Limoges in 1837, the city of Limoges opened its second Deaf school in 1885. It was nonresidential and received some funding from the department of Haute Vienne. When the director, Pierre Martineau, resigned in 1909, the school closed.

1885. Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin)—Founded by Charles Piepenbring A pastor in Strasbourg, Charles Piepenbring (1840–1928), helped some friends to found a school for Protestant Deaf children in 1885. The official title of the school was Evangelischen Taubstummenanstalt. A class of nineteen students was held at the old rectory in the Presbyterian church, Saint-Guillaume, at 1 rue Munch (formerly at 3 Hamengasse). Initially, ten students were boarding. Soon, school quarters were overcrowded, so in 1889 the institution bought a property called Bruckhof. In that year, the school was recognized as a charity by Imperial decree.142 The new school building was inaugurated in 1890 and could accommodate fifty children. In practice, annual enrollments varied between thirty-nine to forty-four students up to 1918. When Alsace became French, the school was renamed Institut Protestant des Sourds-Muets. Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France. When the Germans occupied Alsace in 1940, they decided to merge the Protestant school and the Catholic school (located in the Neuhof suburb) into one national institution, Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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Staatliche Schule Gehörlosen, under the aegis of the Ministry of Education. In 1947, after the Alsace region was liberated by the Allies, the merged schools split—one Catholic, one Protestant. Over the years, the Protestant school administration improved the curriculum and created a resource center to help parents and others to educate children with disabilities. Currently, the school bears the title Institut Protestant pour enfants déficient auditifs and is located at 7 rue de Soultz in Strasbourg.

1890. Dijon (Côte d’Or)—Founded by François Boyer In 1890, François Boyer (ca. 1864–1925) founded a school for Deaf and blind children in Dijon. The city of Dijon is located in Burgundy in the heart of wine country. The official name of the school was Institut d’aveugles et de sourds-muets de Dijon. It was a secular private boarding school. In 1901, it had four male and two female teachers, thirty-eight Deaf boys, and twenty-two Deaf girls. The oral method was used at this school. Prior to 1907, Boyer decided to dedicate his school to the education of intellectually disabled children, but he continued to receive funding for Deaf students from the Côte d’Or department. In 1926, however, the Dijon school became an institution for intellectually disabled children exclusively. Deaf students were sent instead to the Deaf schools in Chambéry and Paris. The Dijon school closed in 1945.

1890. Tarbes (Hautes-Pyrénées)—Founded by abbé Joseph Forgues Abbé Forgues (1840–1926) directed a Deaf school located in Ponsan-Soubiran, about twenty-eight miles north of Tarbes, which opened in 1877 and closed in 1890. Remaining students were transferred to a new school for Deaf girls in Tarbes that was recruiting Deaf pupils department-wide. The new school had twenty-one students; in 1901, it had fifteen. Instruction was based on the “pure oral” method. Teachers were recruited from the order of St. Joseph. The school added a wing designed as board and lodging for unmarried Deaf women. During the first half of the twentieth century, enrollments were consistently low so the school closed in 1958. The remaining students were transferred to the Bordeaux school.

1892. Auch (Gers)—Founded by abbé Bénac A church-sponsored school for Deaf boys and girls was established in 1892 in Auch, the capital of Gascony in southwestern France. The founder was a missionary named abbé Bénac. Two nuns of the order Dames de la Providence were teachers. Ten students enrolled in short order. Male students learned trades and female students received domestic training. In 1901, the school had eighteen students. However, that number was deemed insufficient and the school was urged to enroll mentally handicapped children. Renovations and announcements promoting the school in the 1950s did little to improve enrollments. The Auch school for the Deaf closed in 1953 and the remaining students were transferred to the Toulouse school. 76 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

1893. Asnières-sur-Seine (Hauts-de-Seine)—Founded by the Conseil Général de la Seine Asnières-sur-Seine is a commune in the northwestern suburbs of Paris along the Seine river. It is located approximately five miles from the center of Paris. In the second half of the nineteenth century, there were three French schools for the Deaf supported by the national government: Paris (Saint-Jacques), Bordeaux, and Chambéry. All other primary schools for the Deaf were private, except for Asnières, which was funded by the department of the Seine. Deaf and hard of hearing children of both sexes over the age of six were to be given a free education. Two acres were purchased in Asnières, which included a park, spacious yards, and substantial buildings. The school opened with a total of 150 children. While continuing their elementary school classes using the oral method, boys around the age of thirteen were instructed in working with steel and wood. The goal was for all graduates to be able to earn a living in workshops or families. Because of the decision to use the oral method, classes were quite small with no more than ten or twelve per class. Signing was prohibited in school and out.143 Four main forces in the late 1800s shaped the Asnières school, whose official name was l’Institution Departmentale des Sourds-Muets d’Asnières: First, of course, was the 1880 Congress of Milan that prohibited signing and as a result dispensed with Deaf teachers. Next, the education laws of the Third Republic (1870–1940) that made primary school education compulsory for all children, including the Deaf. Third, teachers of the Deaf had to be credentialed—that is, to take courses and pass examinations. Those exams concerned mastery of oral education but not mastery of sign language. Finally, schools run by the clergy were required to become independent of religious organizations. A public school teacher, Gustave Baguer (1858–1919), was chosen to direct the new school, which carries his name, Institut Départemental Gustave Baguer.

1896. Nice (Alpes-Maritimes)—Founded by abbé Castellan Abbé Louis-Toussaint Dassy (1808–1888) founded a school for blind children in 1858, and in 1866 he inherited a school for Deaf children in Marseille (in the Bouches-du-Rhône department). He appointed Sister Joseph Roux as director in 1879 and Sister Marie Bouffier took charge of the blind children. Eight years later, abbé Castellan opened a branch of that school in Nice, located in the Villa Apraxine, 49 avenue Estienne d’Orves. In 1908, there were forty Deaf boys and girls enrolled, but after 1924 the boys were directed to the Marseille school. In 1948, la Villa Apraxine was repurposed for Deaf and blind women. Nowadays it is a medico-social institution for disabled people operated by the IRSAM.144

1896. Toulon (Var)—Founded by Félicien Luciani Félicien Luciani (1866–1926) founded a private school for the Deaf in Toulon in the Var department. Instruction was mainly concerned with lipreading and articulation. In 1901, the school had ten students and in 1904, it had twenty-four. The city of Toulon agreed initially to acquire property, pay for new buildings, and subsidize enrollments Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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of students who lived in the department of Var. The new buildings, which were to open in 1905, would provide classrooms, dormitories for girls and boys, and housing for the school director. The general council reported that enrollments were growing, praised Luciani’s management, and declared itself pleased with the progress.145 The school had twenty-one fellowships to support students during the school year of 1907–1908. However, the planned project for new buildings was not implemented. Instead, existing buildings on the school grounds were used. After twenty years of struggle to initiate the planned project, the city council decided to abandon it in 1929 for reason of poor quality of instruction. The personnel were fired and the school closed.

1897. Lyon (Rhône)—Founded by Frère Gabriel Marie of the Frères des écoles chrétiennes A third school for the Deaf was founded in Lyon when the Frères des écoles chrétiennes closed their school in Besançon in 1897 and opened one in Lyon for Deaf boys headed by Frère Gabriel Marie. After about a decade, the school moved to the area of Lyon known as Croix-Rousse, a name by which the school came to be known. In 1900, there were eleven pupils and three professors. When the school closed in 1947, the remaining students were sent to the school that David Comberry had founded in Saint-Étienne in 1815.

1899. Le Havre (Seine-Maritime)—Founded by M. Fargeix Le Havre is a major port city located at the mouth of the Seine river in northwestern France. In Le Havre on June 18, 1816, Reverend Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc boarded the ship Mary Augusta bound for New York.146 They were setting out to establish the first schools for the Deaf in the United States. M. Fargeix opened a private boarding school, Institution des sourds-muets du Havre, for Deaf boys and girls in 1899 on rue Gustave-Flaubert. There were one male teacher and two female teachers (presumably this included M. Fargeix and his wife). In 1901, there were thirty students. The oral method was employed at the school. The department of Seine-Maritime provided 24,000 francs for three Deaf schools near one another— Fargeix’s school and Deaf schools in Elbeuf and Rouen. In 1907, enrollments at the Le Havre school grew to forty students. Those students studied history, writing, geography, and pronunciation. The school moved to rue des Pénitents (now rue Eugène-Gas). With M. Fargeix’s death, his wife continued to manage the school, which continued to receive scholarships—thirty-two of them in 1923. The date when the school closed is not recorded but was presumably around 1928.

1900. Ajaccio (Corsica)—Founded by Pierre Matrand The school for Deaf children in Ajaccio was founded by Pierre and his wife Marguerite Matrand in 1900. Pierre Matrand had taught previously at Deaf schools in Clermont-Ferrand and Angoulême. In his report submitted to the general council for Corsica he stated that there were 103 Deaf children below school age.147 The practice had been to send those with higher skill levels to Deaf schools on the continent, 78 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

mainly in Bordeaux and Chambéry. Now, the local government approved his request to establish a school for both Deaf and blind pupils in Corsica. He was allotted 1,050 francs for facilities maintenance and 350 francs per pupil for scholarships. Four Deaf and one blind student were admitted in 1901. The following year, Matrand requested additional funding for Deaf students, but the council rejected the request on the grounds that success so far was hard to judge as the school was only two years old and the facility was inadequate.148 Matrand decided to terminate the lease of his school building and move to a house in the countryside, which would provide better hygiene and more space. By 1906 he had twelve Deaf students. Over the years, the general council reduced its funding of the school because it found operating expenses to be too high. The Matrand couple eventually abandoned the school in October 1907. They left for Rouen in order to found a Deaf school there.

1901. Neuhof, Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin)—Founded by the Sœurs de la Croix A congregation of Sœurs de la Croix resumed the Jacoutôt school, which was installed in their convent at 20 rue de la Charité, in the Neuhof quarter of Strasbourg. Two teachers and thirty-eight students from the former Jacoutôt school joined two new teachers and six new students. A few years later, quarters became cramped and the congregation erected a spacious new school building at 4 rue de la Ganzau in 1911. The German official title was Katholische Taubstummen-Anstalt. Beginning in 1907, the congregation also founded and managed a boarding school for Deaf women in collaboration with the Société des amis du sourd-muet. During World War I, some of schoolchildren were sent back to their families. Those students who remained took refuge in the pension, known as the Marienthal House. When the war ended, Alsace was returned to France and the Neuhof school was renamed Institution Catholique des sourds-muets. In the 1920s, the school began to accept Deaf children from towns other than Strasbourg. In 1937, a program for kindergarten was added and one for vocational training. During World War II, the Neuhof school closed and children were sent to the southwest of France and also into the neighboring department of Vosges. French army officers were imprisoned at the school briefly, before it became a military hospital in 1942. When the war ended, the Deaf students returned. The administration upgraded the curriculum and bought better technology to help student learning. Vocational training was added and enrollments grew to 130 students in 1968. In 1973, the Louis Braille Centre was founded to teach young blind boys and girls both academic and vocational subjects. Today the school is known as Centre Auguste Jacoutôt pour Déficients Auditifs.149

1940s. Villefranche-sur-Mer (Alpes-Maritimes)—Founder unknown Villefranche-sur-Mer is a picturesque seaport located five miles east of Nice. Its deepwater harbor attracted many mercantile vessels in times past. From the Middle Ages until the eighteenth century, the town was operated as a “free port” with no taxes and port Ethnic Acculturation in the Deaf Schools

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fees that were levied. Famous artists came to the town to paint. One of them was Cadwallader L. Washburn, an 1890 Deaf graduate of Gallaudet University who frequented Villefranche-sur-Mer in the early twentieth century.150 The Villefranche School for the Deaf occupied a castle-like mansion sitting on a cliff with amazing views of the Mediterranean; it was built in 1875. Its Italian designer named it “Schifanoïa” (meaning far away from the world) and it is located at 713 boulevard Napoleon III. We have not discovered when the school was founded, but it was presumably in the 1940s. Guy Perdoncini (1914–1998), who had founded a Deaf school in Arpajon, was the director of the Villefranche Deaf school (and mayor of the town from 1965 to 1971). He transformed the school into a center for oral-aural rehabilitation. Sign language and lipreading were not allowed in the classrooms. The goal was to rehabilitate children’s hearing to enable them to develop a clear voice and socially useful communication. During rehabilitation sessions, young students wearing headphones and an amplifier would repeat phrases uttered by the teacher whose lips remained hidden to prevent lipreading. The school continued its efforts to isolate students from the signing world as recently as 1989 when the last students graduated. Presumably the Villefranche School closed in 1996. Today, the villa Schifanoïa is a summer vacation destination.

1950. Arpajon (Essonne)—Founded by Guy Perdoncini In 1950, Guy Perdoncini (1914–1998) founded a private school for the Deaf in Arpajon, twenty miles North of Paris. He bought a late-eighteenth-century castle for the school at 4 rue Victor Hugo. The curriculum followed the strict oral method. Reportedly, two of the teachers went to prison for abuse of Deaf students. Afterward, the founder, Guy Perdoncini, left for Villefranche-sur-Mer. In 2007, the Arpajon school was renamed Centre Médical de Phoniatrie et de Surdité Infantile Léopold Bellan. Today, the school offers a variety of programs (based on age and need) to a total of 135 Deaf students.

80 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Notes to chapter 1

1. Harlan Lane, Richard C. Pillard,

and Ulf Hedberg, The People of the Eye: Deaf Ethnicity and Ancestry (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011); Fredrik Barth, Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Difference (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1969); Anthony D. Smith, The Ethnic Origins of Nations (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986), 32. 2. Harlan Lane, When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf (New York: Random House, 1984), 118. 3. Lane, When the Mind Hears, 396.  4. Lane, 58. 5. Lane, 49. 6. Lane, 33. 7. Lane, 13. 8. Lane, 12–13. 9. Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, Tenth annual report for the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, for the year ending June 30, 1867 (Washington, DC: n.p.), 29. 10. Isaac Bouchet, “Allocution adressée à monseigneur Bécel, evèque de Vannes,” Revue française de l’éducation des sourdsmuets: bibliographie internationale de cet enseignement et des scences qui s’y rattachent 6, no. 6 (September 1890): 143. 11. “1795–1800: le Docteur Saux, de Saint-Gaudens, à Toulouse,” Patrimoine sourd 26 (premier trimestre 2009): 5. 12. “La 4ème école fondée en France: L’institution d’Angers,” based on research done by Pierre Montambeau, Cahiers de l’histoire des sourds 4.7 (1990); “Charlotte Blouin,” Patrimoine

sourd 8 (troisième trimestre 2004): 4–9. 13. Théodore Lebreton, Biographie normande, recueil de notices biographiques et bibliographiques sur les personnages célèbres nés en Normandie et sur ceux qui se sont seulement distingués par leurs actions ou par leurs écrits, vol. 1 (Rouen: A. Le Brument, 1857), 273. 14. Published manuscripts: R.A.C. Sicard, “Discours de clôture prononcé le 15 septembre,” in Recueil des ouvrages du Musée de Bordeaux (Bordeaux: Racle, 1787), 344–65; R.A.C. Sicard, “Essai sur l’art d’instruire les sourds-muets de naissance,” in Recueil des ouvrages du Musée de Bordeaux (Bordeaux: Racle, 1787), 27–61; R.A.C. Sicard, Exercices que soutiendront les sourds et muets de naissances les 12 et 15 septembre 1789 dans la salle du Musée de Bordeaux (Bordeaux: Racle, 1789); R.A.C. Sicard, Mémoire sur l’art d’instruire les sourds et muets de naissance (Bordeaux: Racle, 1789); R.A.C. Sicard, Second mémoire sur l’art d’instruire les sourds et muets de naissance (Paris: Knapen, 1790). 15. Lane, When the Mind Hears, 32–33. 16. The “intuitive method” is a mode of Deaf education in which the lack of pupils’ incidental learning is compensated by introducing real objects and actions in the classroom in order to teach names of things and actions. 17. Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, Tenth annual report, 18–20; 27–29; 38–39.

18. Jean Chéory, Gabriel Deshayes et

la Chartreuse d’Auray: 1808–2012 (Nantes: Airelle, DL, 2012); Jean Chéory, Gabriel Deshayes: prêtre de la providence: 1767–1841 (Nantes: Airelle, DL, 2012); and Jean Chéory, Père Gabriel Deshayes, 1767–1841 et l’enseignement des sourds (Paris: l’Harmattan, DL, 2010). 19. Chéory, Gabriel Deshayes et la Chartreuse d’Auray; Gabriel Deshayes: prêtre de la providence; Père Gabriel Deshayes. 20. Claude Hamelin and Gwénaëlle Hamelin, Institut André Beulé: deux siècles d’histoire (Mamers: Amis du Perche, 2011). 21. Hamelin and Hamelin, Institut André Beulé. 22. “L’abbé Beule et l’école de Nogent-­ le-Rotrou,” Patrimoine sourd 6 (premier trimestre 2004): 7. 23. “L’abbé Beule.” 24. Hamelin and Hamelin, Institut André Beulé. 25. Chéory, Gabriel Deshayes et la Chartreuse d’Auray; Gabriel Deshayes: prêtre de la providence; Père Gabriel Deshayes. 26. Institut royal des sourds-muets de Paris, Situation actuelle des institutions de sourdsmuets, Quatrième circulaire de l’Institut royal des sourds-muets de Paris: à toutes les institutions de sourds-muets de l’Europe, de l’Amérique et de l’Asie (Paris: Imprimerie royale, 1836), 296. 27. Lane, When the Mind Hears, 150. 28. “Offres d’emploi et de stages,” Centre Départemental pour Déficients Sensoriels, accessed May 16, 2019, https://www. cdds12.fr/offres-demploi/.

Notes to chapter 1

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29. “Bienvenue sur le site du

CDDS,” Centre Départemental pour Déficients Sensoriels, accessed May 16, 2019, https:// www.cdds12.fr/. 30. Bernard Truffaut, “L’histoire de Comberry,” Cahiers de l’histoire des sourds 2.9 (1989). 31. Joseph-Marie de Gérando, De l’éducation des sourds-muets de naissance, vol. 2 (Paris: Méguignon l’aîne, 1827), 322–23. 32. L’ami des sourds-muets, journal de leurs parents et de leurs instituteurs, utile à toutes les personnes qui s’occupent d’éducation, vol. 1 (August 1838–1839), 148. 33. Gérando, De l’éducation des sourds-muets de naissance, 250. 34. Isaac Bouchet, “Institution de la Chartreuse d’Auray (Morbihan),” Revue française de l’éducation des sourds-muets: bibliographie internationale de cet enseignement et des sciences qui s’y rattachent 3, no. 8 (November 1887): 178. 35. Their expanded mission is as follows: Opening outpatient facilities for children and adolescents with specific language disorders. Association Jules Catoire, accessed May 15, 2019, http://www.association-julesca toire.fr/historique.html. 36. Jean-Baptiste Jamet (abbé), Notice sur la vie de M. Pierre-François Jamet, fondateur de l’École des sourds-muets et supérieur de la communauté du Bon-Sauveur de Caen (Caen: Imprimerie de Pagny, 1846), 72. 37. Jamet, Notice sur la vie de M. Pierre-François Jamet, 75. 38. Jean-Jacques Valade-Gabel, “De la situation des écoles de sourdsmuets: non subventionnées par l’état (1868),” Académie nationale des sciences, belles-lettres et arts (Bordeaux), Actes de l’Académie Impériale des Sciences, BellesLettres et Arts de Bordeaux 3, no. 36 (Paris: E. Dentu, 1875), 16. 39. Jamet, Notice sur la vie de M. Pierre-François Jamet, 173. 40. Volta Bureau, International reports of schools for the deaf made to the Volta Bureau, circular of

information, no. 3 (Washington, DC: Gibson Bros., Printers and Bookbinders, December 1895), 11. 41. Institutions de Currière, Institutions de sourds-muets: Statistique (Currière: Imprimerie de l’École des sourds-muets, 1901), 26. 42. Institut royal des sourds-muets de Paris, “Situation actuelle des institutions de sourds-muets et création d’écoles normales,” Troisième circulaire de l’Institut Royal des sourds-muets de Paris: à toutes les institutions de sourdsmuets de l’Europe, de l’Amérique et de l’Asie (Paris: Imprimerie royale, 1832), 163. 43. Volta Bureau, International reports of schools for the deaf, 10; Société de statistique de Paris, “Variétés: L’enseignements des sourds-muets en France (3),” Journal de la société de statistique de Paris 27 (1886): 101; and Revue des journaux, Revue générale de l’enseignement des sourds-muets: publiée par le corps enseignant de l’Institution nationale des sourdsmuets de Paris 28, no. 2 (November 1926): 43–44. 44. Christophe de Villeneuve, Statistique du département des Bouchesdu-Rhône, vol. 3 (Marseille: Imprimerie de A. Ricard, 1826), 538. 45. The instructress declined Gallaudet to admit him to the classes in the absence of the director. Gallaudet did not feel like staying another day until the director returns. See Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, Tenth annual report, 38–39. 46. Institut nationale des sourdsmuets de Paris, Notice sur l’Institution nationale des sourdsmuets de Paris depuis son origine jusqu’à nos jours (1760–1896) accompagnée de documents concernant l’enseignement scolaire, l’enseignement professionnel, etc, et suivie du Catalogue du Musée universel des sourds-muets (Paris: Typographie de l’institution nationale, 1896), 140; Ferdinand

82 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Berthier, Le Code Napoléon, code civil de l’Empire français: mis à la portée des sourds-muets (Paris: Petit journal, 1868), 46; Sourdsmuets et aveugles: Institutions établies en France pour l’education des sourds-muets et des jeunes aveugles en 1858, Annuaire de l’économie politique et de la statistique, vol. 20 (Paris: Guillaumin et cie, 1863), 225; and Adolphe de Watteville du Grabe, Statistique des établissements de bienfaisance: Rapport à S. Exc. le ministre de l’Intérieur sur les sourds-muets, les aveugles et les établissements consacrés à leur éducation (Paris: Imprimerie Impériale, 1861), 36. 47. Institution des sourds-muets de Lyon, des deux sexes, L’ami des sourds-muets, journal de leurs parents et de leurs instituteurs, utile à toutes les personnes qui s’occupent d’éducation, vol. 3 (November 1839–1840), 14; Bernard Truffaut, “L’histoire de Comberry,” Cahiers de l’histoire des sourds 2, no. 9 (1989) and “L’histoire de Com­ berry,” Cahiers de l’histoire des sourds 4, no. 9 (1990); and Ch. de Beaumasset, Notice historique sur l’Institution des sourds-muets de Saint-Étienne: Le Sourd-muet dans la famille, dans la société et à l’Institution avant et après son éducation (Saint-Étienne and Paris: F. Girard, 1868), 2–3. 48. Cahiers de l’histoire des sourds 4, no. 7 (1990); Patrimoine sourd, no. 8 (troisième trimestre 2004): 4–9. 49. Truffaut, “L’histoire de Comberry (1990).” 50. Charles Louis Carton, Le sourdmuet et l’aveugle, journal mensuel, vol. 1 (Bruges: VandecasteeleWerbrouck, 1837): 130. 51. Claudius Forestier, Cours complet et méthodique d’enseignement pratique des sourds-muets (Paris: L. Hachette, 1854). 52. “Présentation,” IRSAM, accessed May 16, 2019, http://www.irsam­ .fr/nos-structures/metropole/ foyer-clairefontaine/.

53. Berthier, Le Code Napoléon, 17;

Ephémérides sourdes, Patrimoine sourd 13 (quatrième trimestre 2005): 13; Ephémérides sourdes, Patrimoine sourd 17 (quatrième trimestre 2006): 3. 54. Association Etienne de Fay, H comme histoire des sourds (Orléans: Association Etienne de Fay, n.d.), 9–11. 55. A. Goislot, Le R.P.I. Bouchet, Revue française de l’éducation des sourds-muets: bibliographie internationale de cet enseignement et des sciences qui s’y rattachent 7, no. 4 (July 1891): 88–90. 56. Association Etienne de Fay, H comme histoire des sourds, 12. 57. Adolphe Bélanger, “Le frère Louis, directeur de l’institution départementale des sourdsmuets de Nantes,” Revue française de l’éducation des sourdsmuets: bibliographie internationale de cet enseignement et des sciences qui s’y rattachent 6, no. 2 (May 1890): 42–44. 58. “Accueil,” La Persagotière, accessed May 16, 2019, https:// www.la-persagotiere.fr/ and “Accueil,” Dunantes, accessed May 16, 2019, http://www. dunantes.org/. 59. Institut royal des sourds-muets de Paris, Troisième circulaire, 164; “Les premières écoles de sourds en France,” Cahiers de l’histoire des sourds 2.1 (Orléans: Association Etienne de Fay, 1989). 60. Auguste Houdin, Rapport de statistique présenté en séance, le jeudi 11 aout 1881 (Bordeaux: Féret et fils, 1882), 14–15. 61. Adolphe de Watteville du Grabe, “État actuel des établissements consacrés aux sourds-muets de France,” Annale de l’éducation des sourds-muets et des aveugles: revue des institutions qui leur sont consacrées en France et à l’étranger, vol. 2 (Paris: au bureau des Annales, 1845), 107; Daras (abbé), Le bienfaiteur des sourdsmuets et des aveugles, revue mensuelle du progrès des institutions et de l’unité d’enseignement dans les deux-mondes, publiée

sous le patronage spécial de Mgr de Garsignies évêque de Soissons et de Laon, 1, no. 12 (June 1854): 201 and 1, no. 16 (October 1854): 324. 62. Daras, Le bienfaiteur des sourdsmuets et des aveugles (October 1854), 324. 63. Jamet, Notice sur la vie de M. Pierre-François Jamet, 147–148; E. Rigaud, “Institution d’Albi: dirigée par les Sœurs du Bon Saveur,” Revue française de l’éducation des sourds-muets: bibliographie internationale de cet enseignement et des sciences qui s’y rattachent 2, no. 3 (June 1886): 60–61. 64. “Accueil,” La Fondation Bon Sauveur d’Alby, accessed May 16, 2019, http://csda.bonsauveu ralby.fr/. 65. “Les établissements communautaires,” Jean Louis Eschbach, accessed May 16, 2019, https:// www.eschbachneuhof-familly.fr/ histoire-du-neuhof/les-%C3%A9t ablissements-communautaires/; “Civilisation des sourds en Alsace 1826–1994,” Michel Kehr, http://michel.kehr.pagesper so-orange.fr/. 66. Joseph Piroux, Théorie philosophique de l’enseignement des sourds-muets, exposée dans le discours de réception prononcé à la séance publique annuelle de la Société royale des sciences, lettres et arts de Nancy, le 10 juillet 1831 (Paris: Hachette, 1831); Joseph Piroux, Enseignement pratique des sourds-muets, des sourds-parlants et des entendants-muets de tous les degrés, portant sur la langue usuelle, écrite et parlée: Exercices: 1er cours (Nancy: Grimblot et Vve Raybois, 1854); Joseph Piroux, Mémoire sur les travaux de M. Piroux,... pour faire commencer l’éducation et l’instruction des enfants sourds-muets dans les familles et dans les écoles primaires; accompagné de pièces justificatives ou données nancéiennes pour la solution des questions soumises à MM. les recteurs d’Académie par le ministre de l’Instruction publique

dans sa circulaire du 28 octobre 1863 (Paris: L. Hachette, 1864).  67. Conseil-Général du Bas-Rhin, séance du 24 août: Sourdsmuets, rapport de M. le Préfet, L’ami des sourds-muets, journal de leurs parents et de leurs instituteurs, utile à toutes les personnes qui s’occupent d’éducation 4 (January and February 1841–1842): 47–48. 68. Kehr, “Civilisation des sourds en Alsace.” 69. Instituts de sourds-muets d’Alsace-Lorraine, Revue internationale de l’enseignement des sourds-muets 6, no. 5 (August 1890): 155. 70. L’ami des sourds-muets, journal de leurs parents et de leurs instituteurs, utile à toutes les personnes qui s’occupent d’éducation 2 (February 1839–1840): 61; and Patrimoine sourd 26 (premier trimestre 2009): 9–15. 71. “Les fleurons de d’école de l’abbé Chazotte, à Toulouse,” Patrimoine sourd, no. 26 (premier trimestre 2009): 20; Anne T. Quartararo, Deaf identity and social images in nineteenth-century France (Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 2008), 131. 72. Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, Tenth annual report, 18–19. 73. André Minguy, Le réveil sourd en France: pour une perspective bilingue (Paris: L’Harmattan, 2009). 74. “Gustave-Nicolas Hennequin (1834–1918),” Patrimoine sourd 7 (deuxième trimestre 2004): 12; Éphémérides sourdes, Patrimoine sourd 28 (troisième trimestre 2009): 3. 75. Institut royal des sourds-muets de Paris, Troisième circulaire, 162; Watteville du Grabe, “État actuel,” 105. 76. “L’enseignement des sourdsmuets en France: Étude sur l’état de l’enseignement & statistique des écoles françaises (juin 1907),” Revue générale de l’enseignement des sourds-muets: publiée par le corps enseignant de

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l’Institution nationale des sourdsmuets de Paris 10, no. 1 (May 1908): 6; “Laïcité: 1901—1903— 1905 … Qu’est-ce que c’est?,” Présence Mariste: La revue des Frères Maristes de France, accessed May 16, 2019, http:// www.presence-mariste.fr/ Laicite-1901-1903-1905-Qu-estce-que-c-est.html. 77. Jeanne Marie, Ce Bon Père, Monsieur de Larnay: Biographie de l’abbé de Larnay: 1802–1862; suivi du Livre des Sœurs sourdes oblates de la Sagesse: 1859–2009 (Paris: Éditions des Sœurs oblates de la Sagesse, DL, 2009). 78. Marie, Ce Bon Père. 79. Institut royal des sourds-muets de Paris, Quatrième circulaire, 463. 80. Chéory, Gabriel Deshayes: prêtre de la providence; Père Gabriel Deshayes. 81. “Loi n° 91-73 du 18 janvier 1991 portant dispositions relatives à la santé publique et aux assurances sociales—Article 33,” Legifrance, accessed May 16, 2019, https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichTexteArticle. do;jsessionid=0CF4895E4B82F0653894D3E77C9531CC. tplgfr31s_1?idArticle=LEGIARTI000006696487&cidTexte=LEGITEXT000006077122&dateTexte=20190218. 82. Chéory, Gabriel Deshayes: prêtre de la providence; Père Gabriel Deshayes. 83. Chéory. 84. Chéory. 85. George E. Day, “Prof. Day’s report of his recent visit to some schools for the deaf and dumb in Europe,” American Annals of the deaf and dumb 13, no. 2 (June 1861): 98–104. 86. Yves-Marie Erard, “Samson Garnier: Prêtre 1800–1827–1872, Fondateur et directeur de l’Institution des sourds-muets de Saint-Brieuc,” 2006, http:// saintbrieuc-treguier.catholique .fr/Samson-Garnier?lang=fr. 87. Erard, “Samson Garnier.” 88. The Legion of Honor (Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur)

is the highest French order of merit for military and civil merits; it was established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte and retained by all later French governments and regimes. 89. Le Télégramme, "Saint-Brieuc ville - L'abbé Garnier crée l'Institution des sourds-muets," accessed November 29, 2004, http://www.letelegramme. fr/...r/saint-brieuc/ville/ noms-de-rue-l-abbe-garniercree-l-institution-des-sourdsmuets-12-11-2012-1903342.php. 90. Adolphe Franck, Rapport à S.E.M. le ministre de l’Intérieur sur divers ouvrages relatifs à l’instruction des sourds-muets: par une commission de l’Institut composée de MM. Dumas, Jomard, Nisard, Franck, rapporteur (Paris: n.p., 1861), 8–9. 91. “L’École de Saint-Médardles-Soissons,” Revue internationale de l’enseignement des sourdsmuets 4, no. 8 (November 1888): 239–44. 92. Yves Delaporte and Yvette Pelletier, Signes de Pont-de-Beau voisin: le dialecte du quartier des filles de l’Institution nationale des sourds-muets de Chambéry (1910– 1960) (Limoges: Lambert-Lucas, DL, 2012). 93. Lane, When the Mind Hears, 150. 94. Lane, 398. 95. Yves Delaporte, email message to author, August 30, 2014. 96. Académie nationale des sciences, belles-lettres et arts (Bordeaux), Actes de l’Académie Impériale des Sciences, BellesLettres et Arts de Bordeaux (Paris: E. Dentu, 1875), 75. 97. Oscar Claveau, De la parole comme objet et comme moyen d’enseignement dans les Institutions de sourds-muets: Rapport à M. le Ministre de l’Intérieur (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1881). 98. Lane, When the Mind Hears, 300. 99. Florence Encrevé, “Sourds et société française au XIXe siècle: 1830–1905” (PhD diss., Université Paris VIII, 2008). 100. “Accueil,” Institut d’Education Sensorielle Paul Cézanne,

84 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

accessed May 16, 2019, http:// www.leparc.asso.fr/etablisse ment.php?id=9. 101. Houdin, Rapport de statistique présenté en séance, 10. 102. Jean-François Premillieu and Michelle Bonnot, 150 ans d’histoire: Institut de jeunes sourds de Bourg-en-Bresse, 1847–1997 (Bourg-en-Bresse: Institut de jeunes sourds, 1997). 103. Académie nationale des sci­ ences, Actes de l’Académie Impériale des Sciences, 32. 104. “A la Sorbonne: Distribution des prix a la société pour l’instruction des sourds-muets,” Revue internationale de l’enseignement des sourds-muets 7, no. 3 (June 1891): 87; Hector-Victor Marichelle et M. Leguay, "Le phonographie et l'etude de la parole," Revue internationale de l’enseignement des sourds-muets 12, no. 5 and 6 (August–September 1896): 173–74. 105. Lane, When the Mind Hears, 380. 106. Auguste Houdin, La Parole rendue aux sourds-muets et l’enseignement des sourds-muets par la parole (Paris: Asselin,1865), L’Enseignement des sourds-muets en 1874: l’enseignement mimique et celui de la parole articulée, la vérité sur ces deux enseignements et sur l’état des progrès accomplis (Paris: Douniol,1874), and Un concert vocal de sourds-muets! réponse d’un instituteur spécial à un écrivain fantaisiste (Paris: Librairie moderne,1875). 107. Lane, When the Mind Hears, 152. 108. Lane, 152. 109. Houdin, Rapport de statistique présenté en séance, 19. 110. “Acceuil,” Le CESDA, accessed May 16, 2019, http://www .cesda34.org/presentation /cesda34/. 111. Marie-Thérèse Rande-Labouré, “Élève à l’institution des sourdes-muettes de Montpellier (1941–1946),” Patrimoine sourd 21 (quatrième trimestre 2007): 4–15. 112. Rande-Labouré, “Élève à l’institution des sourdes-muettes,” 10–11. 113. “Qui suis-je?” Françoise Chastel, accessed May 16, 2019, https:// www.francoise-chastel.fr/.

114. Watteville du Grabe, Statistique des

126. “Examen des élevés de l’école

137. “Livret d’acceuil: Son histoire,”

établissements de bienfaisance, 17. 115. Orne, Conseil général, Rapports et délibérations—Orne, Conseil général (Alençon: Imprimerie de Poulet-Malassis, 1861), 145. 116. “Historique de la Providence,” La Providence, accessed May 16, 2019, http://www .laprovidence61.com/Centre_La_ Providence/Historique/ historique.php. 117. Odile Sœur Laugier, Vivre la mission du Bon-Pasteur ensemble, un defi pour aujourd’hui et demain (2007), 17. 118. Hautes-Alpes, Conseil général, Rapports et délibérations: Conseil général des Hautes-Alpes (Gap: Conseil général, 1887), 224–25. 119. Hautes-Alpes, Conseil général, Rapports et délibérations: Conseil général des Hautes-Alpes (Gap: Conseil général, 1876), lxi. 120. Roland Castanet, “Jean Samuel Conrad Kilian (1823–1904): professeur pour enfants sourds directeur-fondateur de l’institution de Saint-Hippolyte,” Bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire du Protestantisme Français 2 (April–June 2003): 279. 121. Castanet, “Jean Samuel Conrad Kilian,” 274–76. 122. Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, Tenth Annual Report, 19–20. 123. “1er Congrès national pour l’amélioration du sort des sourds-muets: réuni à Lyon: les 22, 23 et 24 septembre 1879,” Revue internationale de l’enseignement des sourds-muets 1, no. 8 (November 1885): 190. 124. Roland Castenet, “Qui était Paul Bouvier (1829–1879)?” Écouter et dire: la lettre de l’Association Paul Bouvier, no. 2 (February 2013) accessed November 28, 2014, http://www.crop.asso.fr/images/ stories/crop/1_Association_Paul_ Bouvier/bulletin%20apb%20-%20 2%20-%20ecouter %20et%20dire.pdf. 125. Revue française de l’éducation des sourds-muets: bibliographie internationale de cet enseignement et des sciences qui s’y rattachent, 2, no. 12 (March 1887): 275.

des sourds-muets de Perpignan,” Journal des Pyrénées-Orientales, no. 50 (April 19, 1859): 3. 127. “Notre histoire,” IRSAM, accessed March 14, 2015, http://www.irsam.fr/_files_ plaquette-IRSAM. 128. Castanet, “Jean Samuel Conrad Kilian,” 291–92. 129. “Les lois scolaires de Jules Ferry: Loi du 28 mars 1882 sur l’enseignement primaire obligatoire,” Sénat: un site au service des citoyens, accessed May 16, 2019, https://www.senat.fr/evenement/ archives/D42/1882.html. 130. “Historique de notre institut,” Institut Notre-Dame de Bourg-la-Reine, accessed August 15, 2014, http://www .indblr.asso.fr. 131. Valade-Gabel, “De la situation des écoles de sourdsmuets,” 65; “3e série, 36e année & Institution nationale de Paris,” Revue française de l’éducation des sourds-muets: bibliographie internationale de cet enseignement et des sciences qui s’y rattachent 4, no. 6 (September 1888): 151. 132. “Institution d’Elbeuf,” Revue française de l’éducation des sourdsmuets: bibliographie internationale de cet enseignement et des sciences qui s’y rattachent 4, no. 7 (October 1888): 175–76. 133. A. Pinchon, “Institution d’Elbeuf (Seine Inférieure): dirigée per M. et Mme Louis Capon,” Revue française de l’éducation des sourdsmuets: bibliographie internationale de cet enseignement et des sciences qui s’y rattachent 4, no. 1 (April 1888): 18–19. 134. Charente, Conseil general, Rapports du préfet et procès-verbaux des séances: Conseil général de la Charente (Angoulême: Conseil général de la Charente, 1878), 690–92. 135. Charente, Conseil general, Rapports du préfet et procès-verbaux des séances: Conseil général de la Charente (Angoulême: Conseil général de la Charente, August 1882), 904. 136. Lane, When the Mind Hears, 380.

Institut national de jeunes sourds de Metz, accessed August 29, 2013, http://www .injs-metz.fr/images/stories/ ressources_PDF/projetetablissement-2009-2014.pdf. 138. “Livret d’acceuil: Son histoire,” Institut national de jeunes sourds de Metz. 139. Pauline Larrouy, “Oloron: On écrit de cette ville à M. L. Goguillot,” Revue internationale de l’enseignement des sourds-muets 5, no. 6 (September 1889): 191–92. 140. “Institution d’Annonay (Ardèche): dirigée par les Sœurs de la Providence,” Revue française de l’éducation des sourds-muets : bibliographie internationale de cet enseignement et des sciences qui s’y rattachent 2, no. 7 (October 1886): 157. 141. Yves Delaporte, email message to the author, August 30, 2014. 142. Eschbach, “Les établissements communautaires”; Kehr, “Civilisation des sourds en Alsace.” 143. Monique Romagny-Vial, Joëlle Plaisance, and Henri-Jacques Stiker, Enfants sourds, enfants aveugles au début du XXe siècle: autour de Gustave Baguer (Paris: Imprimerie CTNERHI, 2000). 144. “Notre histoire,” IRSAM, accessed March 14, 2015, http://www.irsam.fr/_files_ plaquette-IRSAM. 145. Var, Conseil général, Rapports et délibérations: Département du Var, Conseil général, (Draguignan: Conseil général du Var, 1903), 418. 146. Lane, When the Mind Hears, 204. 147. Corse, Conseil général, Rapports et délibérations: Corse, Conseil général (Ajaccio: Imprimerie F. Siliciano, 1901), 21. 148. Corse, Conseil général, Rapports et délibérations: Corse, Conseil général (Ajaccio: Imprimerie F. Siliciano, 1902), 135. 149. Kehr, “Civilisation des sourds en Alsace.” 150. Cadwallader L. Washburn, Papers, 1966–1975 and 1897–1988.

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2

Founders of the Deaf-World

T 

his chapter provides biographical sketches of fifty-one prominent French Deaf persons who were instrumental in founding Deaf culture in France (includes three women, four hearing). For each founder, we have sought a way to capture two great influences on his or her contribution to the development of Deaf culture. First, those who have gone before them—the march of history, measured in years. Second, the influence of their contemporaries, at home and abroad, reflected in measures of group affiliations. In consulting their record of publications, a period of peak professional activity was estimated for each founder. The biographical sketches were sorted accordingly into eras, which are presented in chronological order. If there is merit in this schema, it is to prompt our reflection on the roles of predecessors and contemporaries.

The Epoch Before Épée (1600s–1759) De Fay, Etienne (1669–1740) and his pupil David d’Azy d’Etavigny (1730–?) Etienne de Fay was born Deaf around 1669 and died in 1740 in the abbé of Saint-Jean d’Amiens, where he spent most of his life. (Amiens was the capital of the former province of Picardy, eighty miles north of Paris.) De Fay was well-educated by the monks. A contemporary wrote that, besides reading and writing, de Fay knew arithmetic, geometry, mechanics, drawing, architecture, and holy and profane history, especially of France. He was also an educator. Starting between 1718 and 1728, he used sign language to instruct several Deaf students, including Jean-Baptiste des Lyons, François Meusnier, François Baudrant, and the most famous, David d’Azy d’Etavigny. Using sign language, Azy learned to ask for daily essentials but not to discuss abstract matters; he did not learn to speak. At the age of thirteen, he was sent to the abbey of Notre Dame where the prior agreed to teach Azy speech using European treatises on the Deaf. Azy’s father, displeased by the lack of improvement in his son’s speech, placed him in a school for three years in a Benedictine abbey in Normandy. Finally, he gave his son’s instruction over to the renowned speech teacher of the elite, Jacob Rodrigues Pereire (1715–1780). Pereire went to the abbey, where he found an intelligent eighteen-year-old who could read, write, and sign, but not speak. In eight days he had the boy saying “mama”

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and “papa” and in a month, fifty words. In four months Pereire’s pupil had made so much progress that Pereire presented him to the Royal Academy of Letters at Caen in the hope of gaining their endorsement. Pereire addressed the academy at length without revealing anything about the nature or origins of his ideas, which he called a secret. After ten months, or possibly eleven, Azy reputedly spoke 1,300 words that he understood, along with many sentences. Six months later, however, without Pereire’s continued attendance on the youth, Azy’s speech had greatly regressed. Azy’s education was interrupted for nine months, during which he forgot how to articulate much of the speech he had learned. Pereire set to work to restore that knowledge and in June of 1749, Azy was presented to the prestigious Royal Academy of Sciences.1 In the midst of the Enlightenment, the news that the Deaf were being taught to speak caused rather a stir. The academy confirmed Pereire’s claims for Azy. They added that the boy spoke loudly or softly as well, and that he intoned questions, answers, and prayers appropriately. However, his pronunciation was slow and guttural, as if issuing from the bottom of his chest, and he did not link his syllables sufficiently, much like people who have lost their hearing in adulthood. A few months later, Azy d’Etavigny was presented to the king. The youth had begun his education signing with an old Deaf monk (de Fay); now he was addressing in speech the richest and most powerful man in the world (Louis XV). Some years later Pereire would see his rival, the abbé de l’Épée, open the first public school for the Deaf and enjoy the king’s support. However, after the audience with the king, a member of the Royal Guard gave him what Pereire called “the most splendid gift of [his] life,” the charge of his Deaf godson, Saboureux de Fontenay.2

Pereire, Jacob Rodrigues (1715–1780) Three men are generally considered to have founded oral rehabilitation of the Deaf: Jacob Rodrigues Pereire in the Romance-speaking countries, John Wallis in the British Isles, and Jan Conrad Amman in the German-speaking nations. A wealthy family has a Deaf son (Deaf daughters were commonly sequestered at home or in convents). The family hires a tutor, often a man of letters, who works to maintain, perhaps restore, the boy’s speech and to expand his knowledge of arts and sciences. The boy makes progress; a philosopher notes it; the tutor publishes letters announcing his achievement but withholding his method. The tutor goes on to other things; the boy, generally, does not. Jacob Rodrigues Pereire (or Péreira) and his family were Marranos—descendants of Jews who converted to Christianity to escape persecution. Pereire was born in Berlanga, Spain. Around 1741, he and his mother and siblings moved to Bordeaux and returned to Judaism. There he taught speech to his first Deaf pupil—his own sister. His second pupil was a thirteen-year-old apprentice tailor born profoundly Deaf; in one hundred lessons extending over a year, Pereire taught him to articulate all the basic speech sounds plus several words and phrases, such as “hat,” “madame,” and “what do you want?”3 This achievement brought Pereire a new pupil, David d’Azy d’Etavigny, the eighteenyear-old son of a wealthy family, who had been born Deaf and treated by the leading physicians of Europe to no effect. In 1746, the boy’s father drew up a year’s contract: Pereire would closet himself with the son at the abbey where the boy was attending 88 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

school and would receive a handsome sum in three payments, each contingent on the boy’s progress. The prior of the abbey also contracted to discover Pereire’s method, which the teacher called “a secret I think I ought to keep entirely in my family.” At the abbey, Pereire found his pupil to be an intelligent youth who could read and write, having received instruction in French through sign language from a Deaf monk named Etienne de Fay.4 In a year he spoke over one thousand words and a few sentences—which reflected, however, the grammar of his sign language. The contract ended, the father withdrew his son, but the boy’s speech deteriorated rapidly and Pereire was called in again. This time he took the boy to live with him in Paris; after a month Pereire displayed the boy before the most prestigious scholarly body in the land, the Academy of Sciences, which found Pereire’s efforts to be worthy of the strongest encouragement, citing the boy’s good intonation, but lamenting his slow, guttural, and choppy pronunciation. The Duke of Chaulnes, head of the Academy, presented pupil and teacher to the king, who later appointed the polyglot Pereire as one of his official interpreters.5 More important, the duke gave Pereire charge of his Deaf godson, Saboureux de Fontenay. Saboureux, born hard of hearing, was thirteen when he joined d’Azy d’Etavigny in Pereire’s home. In but two and a half months Pereire went before the Academy again to display his latest pupil, and the Academy again acclaimed his achievement; Saboureux pronounced distinctly all the sounds of French, understood many common expressions in writing, and could read aloud with the intermediary of his teacher’s fingerspelling, which represented the words phonetically. Saboureux spent five years with his teacher, then continued his education on his own, becoming the most famous of Pereire’s half-dozen pupils and securing for him renown throughout Europe and an income for life. Pereire died in 1780, taking the secret of his method with him to the grave. The Pereire brothers, Émile Pereire (1800–1875) and Isaac Pereire (1806–1880), Jacob’s grandchildren, were well-known French financiers and bankers during the Second Empire. In an effort to secure at last their birthright, the recognition of their forebear as the savior of the Deaf and the commercial exploitation of his miraculous but secret method, the brothers gathered a few directors of private schools for the Deaf in France and some others who dubbed themselves the “World Congress for Improving the Welfare of Deaf-Mutes.”6

Saboureux de Fontenay, Michel François (1737–1788) In January of 1751, mid-way between his twelfth and thirteenth birthdays, Saboureux de Fontenay, born Deaf, was presented to the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris because of his astonishing command of spoken French. Their report states that he pronounced “clearly and distinctly” all the French vowels and consonants. He also recited the Lord’s Prayer in Latin, and demonstrated that he understood a few French expressions conveyed to him by fingerspelling. This impressive achievement by the second talking Deaf person to be observed at the academy was taken to confirm the talents of their teacher, Jacob Rodrigues Pereire. King Louis XV granted Pereire an income for life, securing his reputation as the greatest “demutiser” of the Deaf in Europe.7

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At the time of this first public appearance, Saboureux had only recently begun his instruction in speech. He studied with Pereire for some five years. Pereire put emphasis on the manual alphabet published in 1620 in his native Spain. But the teacher enlarged the alphabet so it included handshapes corresponding to French sounds as well as French letters. Saboureux already had a little knowledge of reading and writing before his instruction by Pereire: he had been sent at the age of six or seven to school in the south of France, where a certain M. Lucas befriended him and taught him the manual alphabet, reading, writing, and arithmetic over some three to four years before he was entrusted to Pereire. Saboureux was twelve years old when he joined d’Azy d’Etavigny in Pereire’s home. By the time Saboureux left off his education with Pereire five years later, he was pursuing studies on his own: To his knowledge of French and Latin, he added a command of Hebrew and Syriac, studied Arabic, and improved the elegance of his writing through “diligent reading of books written in sublime and lofty style.” In his midtwenties he wrote an autobiographical letter published in a journal, making him the first Deaf person whose writings appeared in print. Later, he published a treatise on meteorology. In addition, he himself undertook the education of another Deaf person. Although Saboureux first gained fame as a Deaf person who could speak, reports of his later life have it that, once his lessons with Pereire were over, Saboureux ceased speaking and communicated with pen and paper. A linguist who met him at age thirty found “not a trace of his speech lessons.” When Pierre Desloges later claimed to be the first Deaf person to publish a book, Saboureux sent him an angry letter stating that he was the first to publish, and also the first to declare war on the practice of conversing with signs.8

The Epoch of Épée Begins (1760–1789) De l’Épée, Charles-Michel (1712–1789) 1712 ? 1729 1733 1736 1738 1736–1739 1743 Up to 1760 1759–1771 1789

Born in Versailles, November 24. Studies at Collège des Quatre-Nations, Paris. Studies for the priesthood. Blocked from the priesthood for Jansenism, he studies law and serves in the Appellate Court of Paris. The Bishop of Troyes (Champagne Region) takes him under his wing which allows him to complete his studies for the priesthood. Ordained. Priest and then curate in the church of Feuges (Aube) near Troyes. The Bishop of Troyes dies. Épée moves back to Paris and lives with his brother. Devotes himself to charitable acts. Starts instructing Deaf students. December 23, he dies.

The man responsible for founding the education of the Deaf as a social class was born Charles-Michel de l’Épée in 1712. His father was an architect in the service of Louis XIV at Versailles. The young man’s career in the church was arrested at the deaconhood, for 90 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Charles-Michel de l’Épée, engraved by Gérard, based on the design by Fellmann. (Courtesy of Gallaudet University Archives)

he was a member of the Jansenist order, Congrégation de la doctrine Chrétienne, which was banned by the Pope. (The order was devoted to educating the poor.) Épée then began—and later abandoned—a legal career. When he was in his late forties, as he tells it, living a quiet life of leisure in Paris, the mother of two Deaf daughters appealed to him to undertake their religious instruction and so gave Épée the inspiration for his ultimate vocation as teacher of the Deaf. Another member of his order, Père Simon Vanin, had begun their instruction with portraits of the saints but he died in 1759. Épée reasoned that the Deaf could be taught written French by using their sign language, just as he himself had been taught Latin using his own native French.

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The pupils would write out texts dictated in a version of their sign language that Épée had altered to make it more similar to French. Épée describes this “methodical sign” language and how it was taught in his book La Véritable manière d’instruire les sourds et muets, confirmée par une longue experience (The True Method of Educating the Deaf, Confirmed by Long Experience). This 1784 book was the touchstone for the worldwide dissemination of Épée’s method of using sign to educate the Deaf.9 Épée’s pupils came to his home for instruction on Tuesdays and Fridays from seven in the morning to noon. Much of the remaining time was devoted to homework and to preparing the public exercises. In order to gain public recognition of his pupils’ achievements, and thus to promote the education of the Deaf throughout Europe, Épée began to hold public demonstrations in a chapel installed in his home on rue des Moulins in 1771. In the next two decades the number of Deaf pupils coming to Épée’s home for instruction grew from the initial two to sixty-eight pupils in 1783, to over one hundred in 1789. The gathering of these young Deaf boys and girls, communicating in sign, and thus forging an identity, contributed to the development of the Parisian Deaf community. Such large classes were unthinkable in oralist schools. Moreover, Épée put little weight on acquiring oral skills whose instruction crowded out substantive learning. Uneducated and believed uneducable, those who were Deaf at birth, or deafened before learning French, were often hidden away out of shame. That the Deaf should discourse in French and other languages appeared truly miraculous. Leading figures of the Enlightenment came to see the miracle. Étienne Bonnot de Condillac came; he was the philosopher’s philosopher, as he had profoundly influenced all the French intellectuals of his time with his empiricist theories. The philosopher Condillac wrote about what he saw at Épée’s school in two of his books and was much impressed with sign language, which he thought far less prone to ambiguity than oral language.10 The English philosopher James Burnett also attended, as did the Archbishop of Tours, and John Quincy Adams. Catherine II, Empress of Russia, sent her ambassador with an offer of money to open a school in Russia. Épée responded that he did not want money but preferred a Deaf-mute pupil from Russia instead. The Holy Roman Emperor, Joseph II, brother to Queen Marie Antoinette, visited her at the palace of Versailles in April of 1777 and traveled with her incognito as the Count of Falkenstein to see Épée’s miracle, attending the classes on rue des Moulins and Épée’s Sign Language Mass for his Deaf pupils at the Church of Saint-Roch. As he had done with the czarina, Épée refused gifts from the emperor; he asked instead for a disciple to aid in the perpetuation of his work. From his vast empire, which included most of Western Europe (except France and Spain), the emperor chose the abbé Storck and sent him to Épée bearing a diamond-encrusted snuffbox. Storck eventually returned to Vienna to found the first Austrian school for the Deaf. During Épée’s lifetime his disciples founded a dozen schools for the Deaf throughout Europe, which in turn gave rise to scores more. Despite his burgeoning celebrity, Épée never accepted any personal remuneration, and he in fact exhausted his modest inheritance in the upkeep of his pupils and assistants, who spread the tale of his doing without comforts like heat so as to spare more wood for keeping them warm. On his deathbed in 1789 Épée learned that the revolutionary National Assembly was to take his school 92 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Pupils Confided to the Care of Mme. Chevrau in 1777, and Their Ages Name Arbomont Augustin Rousset Bruer Charles-Louis Chaumont Delisle Didier Faucher

Age 20 16 14 13 14 10 15 14

Name Le Blond Le Pot M. de la Pujade M. de Solar Masson Mercier Montgolfier Charles-Louis (dit de l’Hôtel-Dieu)

Table 4. Age 10 ½ 6 16 15 7½ 13 ½ 12 ½ 13

Épée Iconography Church of Saint-Roch. Chapel Sainte-Suzanne (or Chapel Saint-Nicolas). Sculpted by Auguste Préault (1809–1879). Architect Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Lassus (1807–1857). The monument was erected in 1841 at the instigation of Ferdinand Berthier. Courtyard of Saint-Jacques. A bronze statue of the abbé de l’Épée, sculpted by Félix Martin (1844– 1917), who presented two prototypes at the Salon des Artistes in 1876 and 1877. The monument was erected in 1878 at the instigation of Ferdinand Berthier. Portrait of Épée, engraved by Antoine Aubert, (1783–1832/36?), after Langlois. Portrait de l’abbé de l’Épée, engraved by Paul Pierre Grégoire in 1776. De l’abbé de l’Épée, Anonymous. Portrait de l’abbé de l’Épée by Claude-Augustin Wallon (1790–1857), sourd-muet. L’abbé de l’Épée by E. Signol. L’abbé de l’Épée instruisant ces élèves en présence de Louis XVI, painted by Gonzague Privat, 1875. Une leçon de l’abbé de l’Épée. Nachor Ginouvier sourd-muet. After Frédéric Peyson, 1891. Statue de l’abbé de l’Épée à Versailles, sculpted by Auguste-François Michaut. Inaugurated in 1843. Les dernier moments de l’abbé de l’Épée. By Frédéric Peyson, 1839. A bust of the abbé de l’Épée by Louis-Parfait Merlieux in 1836.

under its protection and thus to ensure the continuation of his work. The Assembly declared him Bienfaiteur de l’humanité et de la patrie (Benefactor of humanity and of the nation). Épée was buried in the family chapel in the Church of Saint-Roch, where he used to say Mass in sign although ordered not to do so. In 1782 there were sixty-eight pupils. The pensions were directed by M. Chevrot (also spelled Chevrau by some authors) for the boys and Mmes. Cornu, Trumeau, and Lefebure for the girls. Perrolle (1782) gives the names of sixteen of Épée’s pupils at the boys’ pension, including Solar, Didier (also spelled Deydier), and Clement de la Pujade (see table 4). About half the male pupils apparently could respond to sound by bone conduction. Solar put his fingers in his ears when a very loud noise was made behind him. Pujade could hear bells.11

Deseine, Claude-André (1740–1823) Claude-André Deseine was born Deaf in 1740 into a family with several artists. He became an accomplished sculptor and an ardent advocate of the French Revolution. In the 1760s, he studied under the abbé de l’Épée and some years later at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture. In 1782, he had his first show, and in 1786 he

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secretly attended several of Épée’s masses for the Deaf so he could take a likeness for his bust of the eminent teacher of the Deaf. Deseine had shown a number of works prior to the Revolution, mainly busts and sculptures of aristocrats, but it was the French Revolution (1789–1799) that made him famous. He presented a bust of the great orator Honoré Mirabeau to the National Assembly. He did busts of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the Revolutionary philosopher, of Jean-Paul Marat, political theorist and radical journalist, and of Maximillien Robes­ pierre, lawyer and politician, among others, including one of Pope Pius VII in 1805. Toward the end of his life, Deseine received few commissions. Moreover, it seems his brother was an unsympathetic curator, leaving him in need; on several occasions the government granted Deseine a stipend. He died in 1823.

Desloges, Pierre (1742–?) Pierre Desloges was born in 1742 in the Touraine region. When he was seven he contracted smallpox, which left him Deaf and, after a time, mute. When he was nineteen, he moved to Paris where he was reduced at times to living in the poorhouse. Finally, he found employment as a bookbinder. There he was befriended by the servant of an actor in the Commedia dell’arte and the servant taught him sign language. (Commedia dell’arte is a form of unwritten theater characterized by masked “types” that began in Italy in the sixteenth century. There is no reason to claim, as some authors do, that Desloges was taught sign by an Italian.) “There are people born Deaf, Parisian laborers, who are illiterate and who have never attended the lessons of the abbé de l’Épée, who are so well-instructed about their religion, simply by means of signs, that they have been judged worthy of admission to the holy sacraments. No event in Paris, in France, or in the four corners of the world, lies outside the scope of (their) discussions.”12 Thus did Pierre Desloges affirm what is supported by other evidence, that the Parisian Deaf community had a shared manual language before Épée began instructing the two Deaf sisters of legend. Indeed, it appears that they were taught some elements of religion in that sign language by a certain Father Simon Vanin who died shortly before their mother’s appeal to Épée. Many other precious insights into the Paris Deaf community are afforded by Desloges’ book, which was written, he tells us, in order to defend his beloved sign language from the false criticisms of it published by abbé Deschamps (1745–1791). Deschamps was a disciple of Jacob Rodrigues Pereire (1715–1780), the great “demutiser.” Pereire was a mainstay of the oralist movement in eighteenth-century France. Desloges met with Pereire and published articles concerning the Deaf and political life in revolutionary France. Desloges’ book is titled Observations d’un sourd et muèt sur un cours élémentaire d’éducation des sourds et muèts (Observations of a Deaf person of a basic course in Deaf education). It is thought to be the first book published by a Deaf man and the first in a long series of spirited defenses of sign language by Deaf people. Desloges provides evidence that a sign language of wider communication was in use by the Parisian Deaf before the abbé de l’Épée took it up.13 94 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Count of Solar (ca. 1761–?) About the time Jean Massieu was born and Louis XVI took the throne in September 1773, a tradesman from Picardy came to the chateau of Bicêtre, an asylum for lost children on the outskirts of Paris, accompanied by a twelve-year-old boy who was Deaf and mute. The boy had been found abandoned on a country road. He was issued the gray cap and gown of the institution and left to wander its corridors, not understanding and not understood, for nearly two years. When he fell ill, he was taken to a hospital in the center of Paris where a nun presented him to the abbé de l’Épée during one of the priest’s pastoral visits. Épée wrote: “He gave me to understand that he was from an honest and wealthy family; . . . that his father had died some years earlier, that he had an older sister, that one day he was told to mount a horse with a horseman; that the rider obliged him to wear a mask over his face and that, after leading him far away, very far away, the horseman abandoned him.”14 Épée chose a name for the boy, Joseph, and placed him in a pension with twenty-six of his Deaf pupils. In response to police notices, a Mme. de Hauteserre came forward; she described Joseph accurately and explained: In 1773, she had rented an apartment in Toulouse belonging to the widowed countess of Solar. The countess had a daughter of fourteen and a Deaf son of twelve; the boy had blond hair, blue-gray eyes, a thin face, a large mouth, crooked teeth and an anomaly, an extra tooth. The boy had been led away by a retainer of the countess, supposedly to take the waters at Bareges to treat his deafness. He had never been seen again. His mother had died two years later and his sister was in a convent in Toulouse. The Solar maid was summoned, and she and the boy tearfully embraced. Of course she recognized her poor little Joseph! Furthermore, the boy had had cousins and grandparents in Clermont-en-Beauvoisis. There, Joseph was recognized by twenty-eight people, including his maternal grandfather, whose emotion at seeing his grandson, whom he thought dead of smallpox at Bareges, can well be imagined. If any doubt of Joseph’s identity remained, two scars would remove them. Did Joseph recall a mark on his father’s face? Indeed the boy did and he traced it accurately on his own face. Finally, Joseph’s relatives stated that he had a birthmark on his derrière, which a brief inspection confirmed.15 Who had led the young count off, supposedly to take the waters at Bareges but in fact took him to Picardy? It proved to be a young law student, Cazeaux, who served as secretary to the countess and was utterly devoted to her. He had been seen leaving Toulouse in the summer of 1773 with the young count mounted in front of him. He had returned seven months later, alone, and had taken up residence with the countess, reporting that her son had died from smallpox in nearby Charlas, Cazeaux’s native city, and was buried in the Cazeaux family tomb. The countess had left the matter there; it was widely known that she viewed her Deaf son as an embarrassment and a burden. Cazeaux’s report should have been easy to verify. If the young count of Solar had really died and therefore Joseph were an impostor, there must be a death certificate in Charlas, and, indeed, when the registers of that parish for early 1774 were searched, the death certificate was found. But it was highly irregular: neither the family name nor the Christian name of the deceased was given. There were interpolations, blank spaces, and no signatures from witnesses. The words “Comte de Solar” appeared to

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have been added at a later date. Cazeaux was arrested; irons attached to his hands and feet, chains around his body, he was placed in a wagon for the seventeen-day trip to the capital. On arriving, he was cast into an oubliette, a cell constructed six centuries earlier below the level of the Seine, where only the waters of the river and not a ray of light infiltrated.16 The prima facie case against Cazeaux was compelling. There was the agreement between the date on which the young count left his family on a supposedly innocent trip and the discovery of the Deaf boy in Picardy. There were the similar ages and afflictions of the purportedly dead count and living orphan. There was the resemblance of the orphan to the noble family and his recognition by the family servant. Moreover, his sister Caroline recognized him. She was brought to Paris from her convent in Toulouse. Curiously, she was uncertain about the boy’s identity at first but when she conversed with him at length in some form of manual communication, and when he reminded her of various details of family life, she acknowledged him as her brother. Why did Caroline’s ability to communicate with Joseph in an idiosyncratic home sign not convince her from the start that he was her brother? In any event, it certainly convinced Épée. Despite the evidence, Cazeaux maintained his claim that he buried the count of Solar and thus the abbé’s pupil was an impostor. Cazeaux had set out from Toulouse with the count before many witnesses on September 4, 1773, whereas Épée’s pupil had been brought two days before then to the Bicêtre asylum and had been found abandoned in Picardy before that! A leading solicitor of the time agreed to take the glamorous case: intrigue in a noble family, accusations based on the declarations of a Deaf-mute, the gravity of the crime imputed to Cazeaux, the name of the abbé de l’Épée. The law allowed a priest to appear before the bar in defense of an accused unable to afford a lawyer. Épée undertook to represent Joseph himself. If my pupil was already in Bicêtre when Cazeaux left the Solar residence with his charge, he argued, this does not mean that my pupil is not the count of Solar but rather it means that the boy with Cazeaux was not the count of Solar. In fact, after Joseph was abandoned in Picardy the countess of Solar and Cazeaux must have hired a stand-in. It was, then, the substitute whom Cazeaux buried in Charlas. The opposing lawyer had a field day. How was the stand-in obtained? Who took the real Joseph off to Picardy? Why wasn’t his carriage seen? How was he paid? Where is the impostor now? How was the false Joseph induced to contract smallpox and hold his tongue? The most accomplished storytellers cannot make us suspend our disbelief of such baby-switches merely to have us enjoy their story. Would the abbé de l’Épée succeed and have the court take a man’s life? Would the court indeed tolerate his leading a witness with a secret language, unintelligible to the judges, the accused, and his defenders, when a man’s life was at stake? The court ordered Cazeaux released while the inquiry proceeded. Joseph was sent taken to Toulouse to confront various witnesses in the presence of the judges. A veritable cortege accompanied him there. Not the abbé de l’Épée, who had gout and could not travel so far, but the director of the pension where Joseph stayed in Paris, Joseph’s classmate Deydier, also Caroline de Solar, sister of the count and her guardian, Cazeaux, and judges and officers of the court. On the one hand, Joseph failed to recognize various places and people including, initially, Cazeaux himself; with some 96 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

prompting he signed that he thought he had seen him at his mother’s place. On the other hand, the Solar’s maid, gardener, and neighbor all recognized Joseph confidently as the young count, as did his schoolteacher and the lady who rented the apartment from the countess. The company adjourned to Charlas, where farmers, shop owners, and town gossips affirmed in one voice that the boy before them was not the one Cazeaux had brought to Charlas six years earlier. Nor did Joseph recognize any of them. Then there must have been two Deaf boys and, given the dozens of times Joseph was identified as the count in Paris, Clermont, and Toulouse, it must have been the impostor who was buried in Charlas. All preceded to the cemetery and gathered round the grave: judges, lawyers, witnesses, doctors, principals to the drama. If the tomb was empty, it would prove Cazeaux had kidnapped the young count, given him to an unidentified accomplice to release in Picardy, simulated Joseph’s death and burial, and somehow disposed of the stand-in. If, however, the tomb contained the remains of a small boy, then the borrowed child died chez Cazeaux, who remained no less guilty of kidnapping and abandoning Joseph. The gravediggers uncovered the tomb little by little and removed the skeleton of a child some eight to ten years old. Boy or girl? The doctors could not say, for the pubic bones were missing. They studied the skull and announced to the hushed spectators that an indentation in the left half of the upper jaw testified to the existence of an extra tooth. The earth was sifted, a tooth was found, and it fit perfectly in the indentation. The extra tooth of the count of Solar! The proper conclusion seemed, if anything, more elusive than before. It was agreed that everyone would go back to Paris and reflect. The high court reflected for two years and then issued its verdict: Cazeaux was exonerated from having abandoned the count of Solar; and the abbé de l’Épée’s pupil was indeed the count and should be restored to his rights! The verdict, like the case it decided, was full of contradictions. If Épée’s protégé was the count of Solar, then there had been a baby switch after all, and Cazeaux was guilty of fraud if not murder. If, on the other hand, Cazeaux was innocent of any crime, then the child he had cared for was the count, and Épée’s pupil in Paris at the time could not be he. Why release Cazeaux? Because there was no direct evidence he had committed a crime. But then why reinstate Joseph as count of Solar? Because of the many identifications, yes, but also because the abbé de l’Épée’s affiliation with the boy placed a halo around him, such was Épée’s prestige, born of his piety and his charity but especially born of wonderment at his restoration of the Deaf to society. There is an epilogue to the Solar affair. Neither Cazeaux nor Caroline de Solar was pleased with the ruling of the tribunal. If Joseph was in fact the count of Solar, he must have been kidnapped and replaced with a stand-in; the guilty could be none other than Cazeaux. As for Caroline, she was to lose half her inheritance to a Deaf-mute whom, on mature reflection, she doubted was her brother after all! In 1791, Caroline and Cazeaux joined together to appeal the judgment. Conditions had changed in the decade since it was first handed down. Épée was dead. The archbishop who had denied him the priesthood now denied Sicard permission to present evidence in behalf of the count of Solar. The second district court gave a definitive judgment in 1792, one that went largely unnoticed at the height of the Revolution: Épée’s pupil Joseph was not the count of Solar and was forever proscribed from using that name or laying claim to

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any rights or goods of the family. Joseph inclined to fate: without protectors, without funds, at a time when noble titles were an onus more than a blessing, he abandoned the society that abandoned him and disappeared into the army. According to one legend, he died on the battlefield when he could not hear the bugle of retreat. Cazeaux and Caroline de Solar were married. A lawyer for the prosecution in the original trial, full of remorse, left them a small fortune and a house in the countryside, where they lived happily ever after. About a decade after the death of the abbé de l’Épée, as the nineteenth century dawned, the eminent dramatist, Jean-Nicholas Bouilly, wrote a play based on the story of the Count of Solar and entitled it The Abbé de l’Épée. It burst upon the Paris stage to wild applause; it ran for more than one hundred performances, making it the second greatest dramatic success of the time. (The first was The Marriage of Figaro.)17

The Epoch: Sicard and His Disciples (1790–1829) Sicard, Roch-Ambroise (1742–1822)

The bust of Sicard located in his birth town of Fousseret. On the right side of the pedestal, there is a plaque inscribed in English “1922 The American Deaf Gratefully,” recognize the 100th anniversary of his death." (Courtesy of Ulf Hedberg)

Abbé Roch-Ambroise Sicard was born in 1742 in Fousseret, a village of the Languedoc region near Toulouse in the south of France. He studied for the priesthood in the Congregation of the Christian Doctrine. At the age of twenty-eight he was ordained and assigned to the cathedral at Bordeaux. His archbishop had visited the school for the Deaf founded by the abbé de l’Épée and decided to found a similar school in his own diocese, calling on Sicard to direct it. Sicard, forty-three years of age, spent a year in Paris studying Épée’s methods. He became the leading disciple of the abbé de l’Épée, and the man who would carry forward the education of teaching methods alongside numerous disciples who had come from throughout Europe. Then he returned to Bordeaux in 1786 to open his school, where he was seconded by a hearing teacher who, by all accounts, did the actual teaching of the Deaf pupils, while abbé Sicard presided at public demonstrations of their achievements, which were acquired using the abbé de l’Épée’s “methodical signs.” On the death of the abbé de l’Épée in 1789, Sicard published a memoir critical of Épée’s methods which, he claimed, made the Deaf pupils into automatic copyists of signed French into written French without any understanding of what they were writing. Indeed, the abbé de l’Épée had at one time sent a note urging him to give up the hope that the Deaf can ever express their ideas in writing: “Our language is not theirs,” he wrote, “theirs is sign language. Let it suffice that they know how to translate ours with theirs.”18

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Sicard reasoned that for the Deaf to comprehend and formulate sentences in manual French, in which familiar signs are scattered among invented ones in an unexpected order, the Deaf would have to learn the grammar of French and study the rules of order that determine the composite meaning of the separate words. This he had undertaken to teach with the aid of a gifted assistant, and he now had one pupil, a congenitally Deaf shepherd boy named Jean Massieu, whom he believed superior to any of Épée’s students. Therefore, Sicard proposed that Épée’s successor be chosen in a public contest before the French Academy, a competition in which each candidate would display his best student and explain his methods of instruction. Sicard was staking everything on Massieu and on his own phenomenal abilities as an orator. It came to pass as Sicard had hoped, but on taking over his mentor’s school he found it in desperate straits, housed by the government in decrepit quarters and short of staff, fuel, and even food. Sicard again used Massieu, appearing with his pupil before various committees of the Legislative Assembly. Legislators were mightily impressed and funds were soon provided; Massieu was appointed head teaching assistant and the school was relocated to a refurbished seminary. It was to serve as a beacon that would illuminate the lives of countless Deaf people in Europe and America for over half a century.   For his part, the abbé Sicard, wishing to provide his disciples with an account of his methods and to call attention to his achievements and the cause of the Deaf, published a detailed description of how he taught Massieu. It was the first and, for decades, the only textbook on educating the Deaf; despite its metaphysical posturing and selfserving slander of the uneducated Deaf, it became a guide for the scores of schools for the Deaf that opened in Europe and America in Sicard’s lifetime.19  Sicard proved to be a zealous and highly visible spokesman for the Deaf cause, both as a member of the French Academy, where he helped initiate their dictionary, and as a faculty member of the National Teacher Training College, where he gave courses in Deaf education and philosophy of language. Sicard guided the national school for the Deaf through great adversity in the tumultuous years of the French Revolution; on more than one occasion it nearly cost him his life. As a cleric he was unsympathetic to the popular overthrow of the established order, maintaining a secret correspondence with the deposed royal family, as well as publishing a politico-religious newspaper. As a result of these activities, the government ordered him deported to Guiana in 1800, so he went into hiding for a year in the outskirts of Paris. Sicard published several more works concerning Deaf education and collected several more titles, among them the Legion of Honor, before his long career ended in 1822 at age eighty. The great teacher of the Deaf who made their education as a class a practical reality was laid in state in the cathedral of Notre Dame and all the bells of the city rang for hours.

Massieu, Jean (1772–1846) Jean Massieu was the first Deaf person to teach in a school for the Deaf and the first Deaf person to found his own school. He also symbolized what a Deaf man could achieve through education. Princes traveled to see and philosophers to interrogate the Deaf scholar who had begun as a shepherd. Here is an excerpt of his

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Portrait of Jean Massieu, drawn from nature and engraved by Jean-Baptiste Roy in 1803. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)

autobiography as he related it in 1800 to the Society of Observers of Man, the first anthropological society. I was born at Semens, Massieu told the Society, in the . . . department of Gironde. . . . There were six Deaf-mutes in our family, three boys and three girls. Until the age of thirteen years and nine months, I remained at home without ever receiving any education. I was totally unlettered. I expressed my ideas by manual signs or gestures. When I was a child my parents sometimes had me watch over their flock of sheep, and sometimes people happening by took pity and gave me a little money. One day a passerby took a liking to me and invited me to his house to eat and drink. Later when he went to Bordeaux, he spoke about me to abbé Sicard, who agreed to take charge of my education. This man wrote to my father, who showed me the letter, but I couldn’t read it . . . He told me I would be going to Bordeaux . . . to learn to read and write. We went to visit abbé Sicard. . . . I began my education tracing the letters of the alphabet with my fingers. Within several days I could write a few words. In a space of three months I knew how to write many words; in six months, I knew how to write some sentences. In one year’s time I wrote fairly well. In a year and some months I wrote even better and gave good answers to questions. I had been with abbé Sicard three and a half years when I left with him for Paris. In four years I became like people who hear.20 Jean-Marc Itard, a leading physician who, in 1800, brought the Wild Boy of Aveyron to Saint-Jacques, wrote that Massieu was “a deep thinker and a keen observer with a prodigious memory, full of insights with flashes of brilliance.”21 Massieu was the star attraction at Sicard’s thrice-weekly demonstration classes and monthly public exercises, which helped to protect the school through the tumultuous period of the Revolution and inspired other European nations to found similar schools. Abbé Sicard was appointed director in 1790 largely on the strength of Massieu’s performance and when the Committee on Poor Relief received Sicard’s plea for government funding, its favorable recommendation to the Legislative Assembly the following year cited Massieu’s accomplishments: “He understands all our ideas and can express all his own. He knows all the intricacies of grammar and even of metaphysics perfectly. He is thoroughly familiar with the rules of mathematics, celestial mechanics, and geography. He has a knowledge of religion from the beginning of the world to the era of the death of the founder of that religion. He knows the principles of the Constitution . . .”22 Shortly after Sicard’s death in 1822, Massieu was called from retirement to second abbé Périer, director of a small school for the Deaf in Rodez, the capital of Aveyron. He was

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then fifty-one years old. Soon after his arrival, he married a young hearing employee and, when abbé Périer went to Paris to direct Saint-Jacques, Massieu became director in Rodez. In 1835, they moved from Rodez to Lille, where they established the first school for the Deaf in the north of France. There were about thirty pupils. Four years later, with failing health, Massieu ceded place to the Frères de Saint-Gabriel; he died in 1846.

Clerc, Louis Laurent Marie (1785–1869) Laurent Clerc was known by generations of American Deaf people as “The Apostle of the Deaf in America.”23 He was born in La Balme-les-Grottes, a village close to Lyon. According to Clerc, when he was a year old, he fell from a chair into the hearth; it left him without hearing and with a facial scar; the basis of his name sign. When Clerc was twelve, his father placed him in Saint-Jacques, where he studied under Jean Massieu in an era when abbé Sicard was director. After completing his studies, Clerc remained as teaching assistant and then professor. His most distinguished pupil was Ferdinand Berthier who would become the leader of the French Deaf. When Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and returned to Paris to lead the French government, abbé Sicard fled to London with Massieu, Clerc, and another student, Armand Godard-Desmarest (1799–1873). This was because the abbé was both a royalist and a clergyman in antiroyalist anticlerical France. Sicard scheduled a dozen exhibitions of what he could achieve with the Deaf, including one presentation to Parliament. He took probing questions from the audience. This exchange with Clerc is representative: Question: “Are Deaf-mutes miserable?” Answer: “No, he who does not have something cannot lose it, and he who has lost nothing has no regrets.”24 By a truly extraordinary coincidence, Reverend Thomas Gallaudet of Hartford, Connecticut, was in London at that time, seeking to learn the best method of educating the Deaf, so he attended the public lecture and was mightily impressed. Thus, when Sicard invited him to Paris to study with Massieu and Clerc, he eagerly agreed. However, Gallaudet made slow progress in learning the sign language of the Parisian Deaf community and decided instead to invite Clerc to accompany him to Hartford, where they would open the first enduring school for the Deaf in America. Clerc accepted a contract of three years over Sicard’s objections, and on June 18, 1816, he and Gallaudet set sail for New York. The voyage took fifty-two days. During the trip, Clerc studied English with Gallaudet, and Gallaudet studied sign language with Clerc. Shortly after arriving in Hartford (they took a steamboat from New York), Clerc and Gallaudet began a successful five-month fundraising tour in the northeast United States, where they met many Deaf people. Clerc apparently had no difficulty in communicating with them, but it is unclear what this indicates about his sign language and theirs. In April 1817, the Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons opened its doors to seven Deaf pupils from various New England cities, several from families with other Deaf members. The language of the classroom was Clerc’s manual French adapted to English.25 Clerc taught the system to the early hearing teachers, who were also in constant contact with the pupils. Soon Clerc was giving private lessons in “his language” (manual English?) to nearly a dozen hearing teachers from as many Eastern cities. The teachers went back to several states to create

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Portrait of Laurent Clerc, drawing by Antoine Aubert, Deaf artist. (Courtesy of Gallaudet University Archives)

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their own schools in turn. By the end of the first year at the Hartford school, there were thirty-one pupils from ten different states. In 1819, Clerc married one of his students, Elizabeth Boardman, and he made his first of three return visits to France to see family and friends. In 1821, he moved to Philadelphia for eight months to organize the curriculum of the Pennsylvania Institution. During this period, the portraitist Charles Wilson Peale painted a portrait of Clerc and one of his wife holding their baby daughter. The highlight of Clerc’s 1835 trip was the time he spent with Massieu who had been recalled from retirement to replace the director of the Rodez school who had taken the reins at Saint-Jacques. In August of 1847, Clerc made a return visit to family and friends in France. After spending the winter months with his sisters in Lyon, he stopped at Saint-Jacques on his return route. Most of the students were away on summer vacation, so he could only see those in the workshops. Clerc made a second visit the following year. On the first of two days in May, he spent considerable time catching up on news with Berthier. On the second day he observed an oral class and was quite unimpressed. He asked to visit the girls’ classes and found something troubling. As was true when he was a pupil at Saint-Jacques, the girls were shut up as in a cloister and few men ever had access to them—not even the teachers of the boys. Clerc challenged this practice which was said to be for the girls’ own protection.26 A few years before Clerc’s death, to honor him and Gallaudet, one of his former pupils organized the largest gathering of Deaf people ever assembled. Two hundred Deaf people, some from as far away as Virginia, and two hundred pupils of the American Asylum, gathered in Hartford in 1850. Engraved silver pitchers were presented to Gallaudet and Clerc. The engraving was rich in symbolism from Deaf history. One side of the pitcher shows Gallaudet and Clerc leaving France; the ship is at hand and their future school is visible beyond the waves: The Old World brings enlightenment to the New. On the other side of the pitcher there is a schoolroom. On the front is a bust of abbé Sicard and around the neck the arms of the New England states. There were speeches and banquets and resolutions and many participants stayed on through the weekend in order to enjoy a church service interpreted into sign language. The desire of Deaf people to gather and to honor their history by presenting it in engravings indicates a sense of peoplehood that rises above the individual and the family. A few years later, Clerc went into retirement. Nevertheless, he attended the 1864 inauguration of Gallaudet College (now University), a crowning achievement of his career. In 1869, as Clerc lay dying in Hartford, Deaf people from throughout the nation came to honor the man who, more than any other, was responsible for the progress of the Deaf in America.

The Epoch: The Deaf Revolt of 1830 and Its Consequences (1830–1849) Comberry, David (1792–1834) David Comberry was born in Bordeaux in 1792 and attended the Bordeaux school. On graduation, he moved to Paris where he learned tailoring under Sicard’s supervision. In 1814, he joined a workers’ association, the Compagnons du Devoir, and visited various

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Portrait of David Comberry, drawing by AugustineArmand-DésréBoclet, Deaf artist. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)

cities to improve his tailoring skills— what they called the Tour de France. His practice was to stop at the town hall to have his travel diary stamped and to ask if there was work available. In Saint-Étienne an employee, seeing that he was Deaf, referred him to the mayor who wished to start a school for Deaf children in his town. It took some persuading but in 1815 Comberry and his hearing wife, Jeanne Monnier, opened a school; he taught the boys, she the girls. Thus Comberry was the first of several graduates of the national schools to start his own school. They had a hearing daughter, Agathe, born in 1820 in Saint-Étienne, who married Claudius Forestier (1810–1891), a former pupil at Saint-Jacques. After nine years, Comberry accepted an invitation to move his school to Lyon, where it grew rapidly to sixty-five students in eight classes. In 1828, he also opened a trade school for Deaf adults. In 1834, Comberry died and his school was willed to his collaborator, abbé Plasson who recruited Claudius Forestier to head the school, which he did until he died in 1891. The Saint-Étienne school exists to this day as the Institut Plein Vert. A bust of Forestier can be seen in the Musée Ferdinand Berthier in Louhans.

Bébian, Roch-Ambroise Auguste (1789–1839) The man whom Laurent Clerc called “the greatest hearing friend the Deaf ever had,” who was the first to urge educating the Deaf in their own language, and who eventually changed the character of Deaf education in Europe and America, Roch-Ambroise Auguste Bébian, was born in Guadeloupe the year Épée died, 1789. When he was only eleven, he was sent to Paris to attend high school in the care of his godfather, abbé Sicard. He became close friends with the Deaf pupils at Saint-Jacques, learned French Sign Language from them (which Sicard never did), and after finishing high school, attended Laurent Clerc’s classes at Saint-Jacques. Soon Bébian was appointed monitor, then teaching assistant, and finally, head of studies. In 1817, Bébian published an essay on the Deaf and their language and a few years later a prize-winning eulogy of the abbé de l’Épée, in which he roundly criticized Épée’s and Sicard’s system of manual French, urging instead that instruction of the Deaf be conducted in their sign language. During Sicard’s declining years, Bébian’s candid protests about the disorganized instruction and mismanaged finances of Saint-Jacques so displeased the board of directors that they forced him to resign. Nonetheless, the board recognized that the school’s educational program was deficient; so to obtain a manual for teachers, they applied to Bébian. The book he then wrote advocated the use of sign language for instruction rather than spoken or written French. He also created a system of written characters 104 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

for signs, naming it mimography. Bébian also founded a journal devoted to the education of the Deaf and the blind, Journal de l’Instruction des sourds-muets et des aveugles (1826–1827). After leaving Saint-Jacques, Bébian opened a small school of his own in Paris, still hoping to remedy the ills of the national institute. His hopes were constantly frustrated; in 1825, he returned to Guadeloupe with his wife and son and set up yet another school for the Deaf. In view of Bébian’s commitment to sign language in Deaf education, and the necessity of including French in the curriculum, his may have been the first bilingual school for the Deaf in France.

Bertrand, Antoine (ca. 1796–1837) Antoine Bertrand, was a student under abbé Sicard. In 1833, he founded a school for the Deaf in Limoges, some two hundred and fifty miles south of Paris, where he was involved in teaching twenty students. Bertrand was one of the few Deaf people who founded a Deaf school in the first half of nineteenth century. He was an ardent advocate for sign language and contributed funding at least twice for the monument to the abbé de l’Épée in the Saint-Roch Church in Paris. He never saw the completed monument due to his premature death in 1837.

Chomel, Isaac-Etienne (1796–1871) Isaac-Etienne Chomel, a Deaf Frenchman, was born in 1796 in Geneva, Switzerland. There were no schools for the Deaf in Geneva at that time. Deaf children there were sent to Saint-Jacques. Chomel enrolled and was taught by abbé Sicard. When Chomel was twenty, he returned to Geneva and worked as an engraver. Several families in Geneva asked him to look after their Deaf children, which led him to found the first Deaf school in Geneva in 1822. It started with ten children gathered at his apartment home. Seconded by his hearing wife, he taught them French grammar, arithmetic, geography, history, and principles of religion. The students could learn a profession by making jewelry, engraving, baking, and tailoring. Chomel employed methods and language from Saint-Jacques.27 The school operated successfully for more than three decades but closed in 1854 due to a reorganization of Deaf education. The government recognized Chomel for his devoted service with a state pension. He died in 1871 and is buried in Geneva.

Henrion, Joseph (1793–1868) Henrion was born in Belgium. Two years later, the French Revolutionary Wars led Belgium to become part of France. Henrion was admitted to Saint-Jacques in 1804. He was taught by abbé Sicard, Massieu, and Clerc. Henrion often appeared at public examinations where Sicard demonstrated his method of educating the Deaf. Henrion completed his studies after six years and eventually became Sicard’s secretary and assistant. In 1813, Henrion returned to Belgium to work with his father who was a tailor in Liège. Six years later, Henrion met Jean-Baptiste Pouplin, who was a teacher of the Deaf and wished to found a school for the Deaf in Liège. But Pouplin had scarcely any

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knowledge of sign language or of Deaf education. In 1822, he recruited Henrion and they opened a school. Henrion, considered the first Deaf teacher of the Deaf in Belgium, taught the students following Sicard’s method. He worked until 1863. Leopold II, the Belgian king, recognized his lifetime of service. Henrion died in 1868. A street in Liège is named after him.

Bonnefous, J.-L. (1770s–?) In 1824, the eminent Deaf teacher of the Deaf and founder of the Rodez and Lille schools, Jean Massieu, wrote a letter to Ferdinand Berthier, dean of faculty at SaintJacques, in the hope of helping a Deaf colleague find a job. The colleague was J.-L. Bonnefous, a former student at the Bordeaux school. Bonnefous had taught a few Deaf students in Fumel, about one hundred miles southeast of Bordeaux, but returned to Bordeaux to seek regular employment.28 His search was unsuccessful. He wished he could migrate to America to be a teacher of the Deaf, like Laurent Clerc. A teacher at the Bordeaux school helped him by sending him to Besançon (about 260 miles southeast of Paris), where the abbé Breuillot, founder of the new school there, appointed him director. Already several students were gathered in a rented location. Bonnefous’ method combined the principles of education of abbé Sicard with the one practiced in the classroom in Bordeaux.

Dunan, René (1793–1885) René Dunan was born Deaf in 1793 in Nantes, a city on the Loire River in the Upper Brittany region of western France. He enrolled at Saint-Jacques which was directed at that time by abbé Sicard. In the early 1820s, he instructed a few Deaf pupils at his home. Then Gabriel Deshayes, curé d’Arcy in Brittany, offered him the post of head tutor at the Deaf school in Auray that Deshayes had founded in 1810. Dunan accepted but shortly moved to his native city and opened a Deaf school there. In 1824, the city of Nantes provided for the school in its budget. A decade later, the department of Loire-Atlantique took charge of the school. Dunan remained director and the sole instructor. In 1842, an expansion was planned. Deaf boys were to continue to enroll in the Nantes school and Deaf girls were to go to Auray. The Frères de Saint-Gabriel took charge of the boys’ school and Dunan was fired, presumably due to differences in opinion on how to run the school. He retired to his family home and spent time painting. When the Nantes school moved to large quarters, Dunan asked that he be allowed to finish out his days there at the school. His request was granted.

Pélissier, Pierre (1814–1863) Pierre Pélissier (1814–1863) was born in Gourdon, a hilltop village, in the department of Lot. He was the oldest of twelve brothers and sisters born to Henri Pélissier, boilermaker, and Antoinette Mauriès, housewife. He became Deaf when he was three years old.29 He enrolled at the Rodez School for the Deaf, directed by abbé Jean-Louis 106 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Périer (1756–1833), a Rodez abbot with long experience teaching the Deaf, beginning in Bordeaux in 1786 and Rodez in 1800. A year after Sicard died in 1822, Périer became director of Saint-Jacques and offered his former post to the abbé Chazottes, who was professor in training there. Chazottes accepted on condition that the school move from Rodez to Toulouse, which was more centrally located and easier of access. In 1826, the city of Toulouse voted funds to pay for space rental, furniture, and a teacher in training. Enrollments grew rapidly, from four to forty in ten years. Among them was Pierre Pélissier who entered about 1827. On completion of his studies, he remained as teaching assistant for six years. In 1838, Pélissier was appointed substitute teacher at Saint-Jacques and eleven years later he became full professor, a post he held until his death in 1863. In moving from Toulouse to Paris, Pélissier provides an early example of Deaf professors relocating and presumably bringing with them sign language practices. As historian Yann Cantin observes, this would tend to favor diffusion of the sign language and increase its uniformity. Pélissier was a gifted French poet who published a book of poems, an educator who published a book for primary school teachers of the Deaf, and an activist. He was a member of Berthier’s Société centrale and of the clique of early activists that included Lenoir and Allibert. He participated in the annual banquets; he fought for the acceptance of sign and of Deaf civil rights. He published a sign language dictionary in 1856. He was deeply committed to the central role of sign language in Deaf education and decried the loss of real education with the ascendance of oralism.

Portrait of Pierre Pélissier. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)

Imbert, Jules (1815–1885) Jules Imbert was born in Clermont-Ferrand, the seat of the Auvergne region in south-central France. He became Deaf at age six and enrolled at Saint-Jacques some years later. He was said to be one of the most brilliant students there. He won first prize in a literary competition and received a silver medal from King Charles X. All agreed he was destined to be a professor at the Paris school. However, he was a leader of the 1830 Deaf uprising, in which Berthier and Lenoir and some students had a meeting with King Louis-Philippe and presented him with a petition decrying poor conditions at Saint-Jacques and calling for Bébian’s reinstatement. Berthier claimed that Sicard had fired Bébian for having a better method than his own. Imbert was the first of more than fifty signatories to the petition and he was expelled. At first Imbert found work as a copyist at a bank but it didn’t much suit him, so when an invitation to

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teach at the Lyon school arrived, he gladly accepted. Imbert helped found Berthier’s Société centrale but then left in 1838 to cofound the Société générale d’éducation, de patronage et d’assistance (1850). His cofounder was an eminent physician, Alexander Blanchet (1819–1867), the doctor at Saint-Jacques. Imbert received a gold medal from the Empress Eugénie. However, Imbert and Claudius Forestier, the Deaf director of the Lyon school, couldn’t get along. Imbert quit and apprenticed himself to a typographer. After some time, he set out on foot to Paris, where he found a good job as a copyist, a post he held until he died in 1885.

Portrait of Jules Imbert, drawing by Victor Colas. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)

Lenoir, Alphonse (1804–1887) Alphonse Lenoir, like Ferdinand Berthier, was a notable pupil of Auguste Bébian. On graduation from Saint-Jacques, both students continued through the ranks to full professor— evidence of the success of Bébian’s methods. In 1830, Berthier and Lenoir and some students had a meeting with King Louis-Philippe where they presented him with a letter decrying poor conditions at Saint-Jacques and calling for Bébian’s reinstatement. Abbé Sicard had fired him, so Berthier said, for having a better method than his own. Some months later, there was also a student demonstration but to no avail. Just two years later, the administrative board at Saint-Jacques and its new director delivered a one-two punch to the jaw of the Deaf faculty. First, students would no longer move from teacher to teacher as they went from year to year; instead, an entering class would stay with one professor for its entire six-year term. Thus, students assigned to a Deaf professor could get no oral training at all. Then, in step two, the director ordered that all students must get some oral education. Logically, then, the Deaf teachers must be supplanted by hearing teachers. Berthier, Lenoir, and four other professors, supported by Bébian, protested unsuccessfully. They were reduced in rank and salary. The reform was abandoned in 1836 but it may have left behind a lesson for the six professors—to organize. In May of 1838, the first welfare association of the Deaf was founded, the Société centrale des sourds-muets de Paris, with Berthier as president and Lenoir, vice president, Allibert, secretary, and Pélissier, assistant secretary. (Forestier was a cofounder but left for Lyon to direct the school there.) If Berthier was considered Clerc’s successor, then Alphonse Lenoir was Massieu’s. According to his contemporaries, Lenoir was careful, calm, full of good sense, and a beautiful soul. He had a taste for art and was often to be found in the Parisian galleries. He published an interesting collection of brief tales by and about the Deaf.30 108 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

The Epoch: Elaboration of Deaf Culture (1850–1870) Berthier, Ferdinand (1803–1886) Ferdinand Berthier was born in 1803 in Louhans, in the Burgundy region, and died in Paris in 1886. He was born Deaf or became so early on; his parents were hearing; his father was a doctor. When Berthier was eight, he enrolled at Saint-Jacques, where he was a pupil of Laurent Clerc, who considered him the brightest student at the school. On graduation, Berthier rose rapidly through the teaching ranks: monitor at sixteen, teaching assistant at twenty-one, professor at twenty-six; head professor at twenty-nine. During his long career he published numerous articles and books recording the struggle and advancing the welfare of the Deaf. His works include voluminous biographies of Épée (1852) and Sicard (1873), a book explaining the Napoleonic code to the Deaf (1870), and numerous encyclopedia entries and newspaper articles in both the silent press and in national newspapers. Clearly, Berthier loved languages—he knew French, Latin, and Greek, but preferred his own sign language. He was also a talented engraver. It was Berthier who built a bridge from the citadel of sign on rue Saint-Jacques to the larger and more diffuse signing society in Paris, one that counted among its more successful members, writers, publishers, painters—some with works on display at the Louvre—artisans, and businessmen. In 1834, Berthier organized the first of the famous banquets of the Deaf to honor the abbé de l’Épée but also to promote the interests of what Berthier called his “Deaf nation.”31 The term “ethnic group” had not yet come into use but many of the elements were there—a distinct language, a sense of oneself as belonging to a group larger than the family, a target of oppressive measures, performance of ceremonies, and more. Hearing people were rarely invited to the banquets and had to be proven allies of the Deaf. Recognizing that the abbé de l’Épée was a symbol as well as a founder, Berthier promoted memorials to Épée in Versailles, in the Church of Saint-Roch in Paris, and at Saint-Jacques. In 1834, Berthier assembled a group of Deaf activists, the “Committee of Deaf-Mutes.” Four years later, Berthier incorporated his committee as the Société centrale des sourdsmuets de Paris (Central Society of the Deaf-Mutes of Paris). As was the case for the committee, sign was the official language of the society and its meetings; its by-laws required that the president be Deaf. The first known social organization of the Deaf, the Société centrale des sourdsmuets sought to enhance the lives of Deaf adults through legal reform, education, and fundraising. (The organization changed names in 1867, becoming the Société universelle des sourds-muets, but Berthier remained the director.) In 1850, Berthier was chosen as vice president of a welfare organization, the Société centrale d’éducation et d’assistance pour les sourds-muets en France. He was a member

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Portrait of Ferdinand Berthier. (Courtesy of Gallaudet University Archives)

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of literary and historical societies and for several decades he addressed a stream of letters to the legislature protesting laws unfair to the Deaf. He addressed the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, and the Academy of Medicine in defense of sign language. With the 1848 revolution and the declaration of the Second Republic, the (male) French Deaf were finally enfranchised. The Deaf of Paris nominated Ferdinand Berthier for the National Assembly, and pursued a vigorous but unsuccessful campaign on his behalf. He was awarded the Legion of Honor in 1849—never before conferred on any Deaf person. In 1865, Berthier retired and traveled to Rome, where he was received by the Pope. In 1886, Berthier died in his Paris apartment. He had become nearly blind. He may not have been aware of the Milan resolutions, the opposite of all he had worked for.

Allibert, Joseph-Eugène (1815–1861) Joseph-Eugène Allibert was born in Digne, in the department of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. He entered Saint-Jacques when he was ten years old. The physician at the school, Jean-Marc Itard, subjected Allibert and a few other students to fruitless medical experiments from 1805 to 1808. When medical efforts failed, Itard turned to oral methods. In the beginning, he believed that sign language undermined teaching speech. Accordingly, he used strictly oral methods with Allibert who had some residual hearing: the boy perceived noises and vowels. However, he never could understand speech addressed to him except by relatives. From his inauspicious beginning under Itard, Allibert went on to a brilliant and rapid scholarly success and became a professor at Saint-Jacques. That success began only after Itard allowed him to go daily to school with instruction in sign language. Allibert’s progress persuaded Itard of the merits of a mixed strategy, articulation training combined with instruction using sign language. Itard was grateful for Allibert’s friendship and guidance to his dying day, and remembered him in his will. As the community of the Deaf at Saint-Jacques matured, the Deaf faculty grew from Jean Massieu (1772–1846), Laurent Clerc (1785–1869), Ferdinand Berthier (1803–1886), and Allibert to include Pierre Pélissier (1814–1863), Alphonse Lenoir (1807–1886), and Claudius Forestier (1810–1891). And their graduates were to be found in the arts, literature, sciences, and commerce. In 1830, the July Revolution brought a new monarch to the throne, Louis-Philippe. This young band of Deaf professors in their twenties, presented a formal request to the king to name Auguste Bébian director of Saint-Jacques; it was denied. Allibert was secretary of the 1838 Société centrale des sourds-muets de Paris. Berthier was president and Lenoir vice president.

Chomat, Sébastien (1818–1893) Sébastien Chomat (1818–1893) was born in Valence in southeast France. In 1833, he enrolled at Saint-Jacques. He stayed on after graduation, employed as a teaching assistant and surveyant general. He was also a member of the governing board of the Société centrale d’éducation et d’assistance pour les sourds-muets en France. Ferdinand Berthier was president. Other Deaf members of the board included Victor-Gomer Chambellan, Alphonse Lenoir, Benjamin Dubois, and Léopold Loustau. When Chomat was seventy-five he retired to Bourg-la-Reine in the Paris suburbs. 110 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Dubois, Benjamin Louis (1817–aft. 1900) Benjamin Louis Dubois was born in 1817 and attended the Saint-Jacques school. Despite his hostility to sign language in the classroom, Dubois collaborated with the Deaf leaders of the reform movement. He was treasurer from 1838 to 1843 and then secretary general of Berthier’s Société centrale (which became the Société universelle in 1867); he edited its house organ which began in 1870; he was secretary of the sequel to the Société universelle, the 1887 Association amicale des sourds-muets de France; he presided over two of the annual banquets in honor of the abbé de l’Épée; and he published and edited another periodical for the Deaf, L’abbé de l’Épée, journal des sourds et des sourds-muets (1888–1889). In 1843, he served on a committee to raise funding for a monument of the abbé de l’Épée in Versailles. At the 1889 International Congress of the Deaf in Paris, several issues were debated concerning school, work, and society. Benjamin pointed out that is not necessary to deal with questions of method. He was concerned, rather, that Deaf people were usually neglected and felt sorry for themselves. He urged the Congress to focus on the morality of the Deaf community. He also authored a book entitled Cause du mutisme chez les sourds communément désignés sous le nom de sourds-muets, which was published in 1844. In the 1894 Revue international de l’enseignement des sourds-muets de France, it was announced that Benjamin had a magnificent library of Deaf-related books that he would sell to the Americans in case no Frenchman desired them. It is not known when he died, but presumably it was some time after 1900. His last 1900 residence was 150 rue de Vaugirard, Paris.

Chambellan, Victor-Gomer (1816–1906) Victor-Gomer Chambellan became Deaf when he was six years old. He was a pupil at Saint-Jacques in the 1830s, and a protégé of Jean-Jacques Valade-Gabel. When his mentor went to the Bordeaux school, Chambellan joined him as instructor. Twenty years later, he returned to Saint-Jacques. In 1889, he founded the Association amicale des sourds-muets de la Seine. He also served as vice president of the Société centrale d’assistance et d’éducation des sourds-muets en France and succeeded Berthier as president. Further, he held the rank of Officer in the French government, specifically in the Academy of Public Instruction. After the Congress of Milan, Chambellan published a vigorous defense of sign language in Deaf education. He urged the authorities to “stop tying the hands of the Deaf, proscribing the colorful language which alone can restore

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Portrait of Victor-Gomer Chambellan. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)

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them to moral life and the bosom of society.”32 He published two grammar books for Deaf students learning French. In 1884, Chambellan, dean of the professors at Saint-Jacques, was forced into retirement, along with all the other Deaf professors, on the grounds that they could not assist in attaining the primary goal of Deaf education, which was articulation. Chambellan gave Berthier’s funeral oration in sign language.

Forestier, Claudius (1810–1891) Seven years younger than Berthier, Forestier was born Deaf in Aix-les-Bain (Savoie) in 1810. He had five Deaf brothers, one of whom he raised himself. He was the angel of Saint-Jacques; the school doctor said of him that his behavior was marked by sweetness and sound judgment. His professors were Bébian, Berthier, and Guillemont. When Forestier was a lad of thirteen, the school doctor, Jean-Marc Itard, sought to treat the boy’s deafness with daily purgatives. Also, his outer ear was covered with a bandage soaked in a blistering agent. Within a few days, his ear lost its skin, oozed pus, and was excruciatingly painful. When it scabbed, Itard reapplied the bandage and the wound reopened. Then Itard repeated the cycle and applied caustic soda to the skin behind his ear. All of this was to no avail, no more for Forestier than for thirty other pupils on whom it was tried.33 After graduation, Forestier studied to become a professor while he held the title of aspirant but he was passed over several times in favor of hearing professors who were less able in sign. With his hopes repeatedly dashed on the rocks of prejudice and finally shattered, in 1833 Forestier left the school that had been his intellectual cradle and went to Lyon to assist Comberry. He found there in the Saint-Just quartier of Lyon, a school nine years old with forty-five boys and twenty girls and an allDeaf staff. The boys learned the trades of shoemaker, tailor, and carpenter; the girls spinning, sewing, and embroidery. The school reported that its educational method was that of Bébian. In a few years, Forestier married Comberry’s hearing daughter and, when Comberry retired in 1839, he succeeded him. At mid-century, Forestier purchased some land in the Balmont section of Lyon, and transferred his school there. Thus Forestier joined the ranks of distinguished early Deaf educators who founded schools for the Deaf in France, or directed them, or both: Bertrand in Limoges, Bonnefous in Besançon, Capon in Caudebec-les-Elbeuf, Comberry in Saint-Étienne and then Lyon, Dunan in Nantes, Gallien in Vizille, Larrouy in Oloron-Sainte-Marie, Massieu in Rodez and then Lille, and Plantin in Le Puy. Forestier was the only Deaf educator from France who attended the Congress of Milan. Upon his return to Lyon, he published a vigorous defense of sign language in Deaf education and a stinging critique, both practical and pedagogical, of oralism. However, only private schools could resist the tide, and even they were subjected to diminished allocations from department budgets. Forestier also wrote an extensive course of instruction for the Deaf and three other books, including a sacred history. Forestier was, moreover, vice president of the 1838 Société centrale des sourds-muets de Paris, directed 112 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

by Berthier, the first formally established social organization of the Deaf. Forestier was awarded the distinction Officer of the Academy.

Guillemont, François-Lucien, dit Benjamin (1817–1897) There are few Deaf autobiographies in French Deaf heritage: Massieu’s was one, Des­ loges’ another. Third, there is the autobiography of François-Lucien Guillemont (dit Benjamin). Here follow an excerpt translated and abridged and a summary of the main events of his life.34 I was born in 1817 in the village of Caisne, department of Oise [in Picardy]. My father was a miller. One day—I must have been quite young—he left me, his sole son, and my mother on the side of the road and went to the town of Dives, where he had bought a new mill. I don’t know why he had abandoned me and my mother. He took a servant with him. So my mother and I stayed in Caisne poor and miserable. By day my mother was a field hand. She also tended a little vegetable garden. At this time I was hearing and spoke as every child does at my age. I played various solitary games, picked wild berries, searched for birds’ nests. When I was seven, my mother sent me to school to learn to read and write. In class, we traced letters in a sand box using a stick. One day, foolishly, I took a handful of the sand and stuffed it in my nose and ears. I didn’t know it was dangerous and that this act would raise a barrier between me and my peers. I fell ill and found I could no longer hear or speak. I was taken to the doctor to be cured. He made me vomit; he removed the sand from my ears, I bled in various parts of my body, I suffered terribly, I couldn’t walk. But God took pity on me and my health returned. More miseries overwhelmed my poor mother. Her modest savings were used up. She sold the house and the garden to buy bread and when those funds were gone, we begged my mother’s family to take us in, which they refused to do. We became homeless and slept in the woods. It became too much for my mother and she grew weak and finally succumbed. I, a poor child without intelligence, without a moral faculty, what was I to do? Thus abbreviated and translated begins Guillemont’s autobiography. In the early 1800s, it was not uncommon to find Deaf children thus abandoned. Guillemont was imprisoned as a vagabond and then taken in by the orphanage for found children in Cambrai, where he acquired the nickname Benjamin, which he never abandoned. He proved to be an outstanding student and one of the hospice administrators took a personal interest in his education by means of sign, speech, and writing. In 1831, he placed Benjamin at Saint-Jacques, where he excelled and where, age nineteen, he published his personal history, Histoire d’un sourd-muet écrite par lui-même. After graduating from Saint-Jacques, Benjamin took a post as assistant professor at the Lille school, under the direction of Jean Massieu. It seems that didn’t work out because in 1839 he accepted a professorship at Forestier’s school in Lyon, where he

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remained some fifty years until Forestier died and the school closed in 1891. In that same year, Benjamin married a Deaf woman, Yve Delay. Four years later, Benjamin died at age eighty.

Richardin, Claude-Joseph (1810–1900)

Portrait of Claude-Joseph Richardin, drawing by Jules Thouvenin. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)

Claude-Joseph Richardin was born in the department of Aube in northeastern France, the son of a draper and dyer. He became Deaf when he was four by falling into a large kettle of boiling water. Eight years later, he entered Saint-Jacques. At the completion of his studies, he accepted a post as teaching assistant in the new Deaf school opened in Nancy by Joseph Piroux. He remained there fifty-seven years, instructing an estimated one thousand two hundred pupils. In his 1834 book on Deaf education, Richardin expressed a Utopian vision for the Deaf World held by many Deaf leaders, such as Laurent Clerc. “Suppose the government established a new city,” Richardin wrote, “and all the Deaf in the realm were invited to migrate there. No doubt they would be very happy there for no one would communicate orally and everyone would understand every other person’s language all the time. The citizens could engage in almost all the professions and arts; they could be, for example, mayors, teachers, judges, lawyers, businessmen, entertainers: in brief, they could do just about what hearing people do. I am persuaded that in this town civilization would make great progress,” he wrote, “[and] that each Deaf person would be pleased with his existence.”35

Genis, Henri (1835–1928) Henri Genis, an important Deaf activist, was born Deaf in Brussels in 1835. At first he was placed alongside hearing children in a charity school for six years. Then he was sent to Paris to attend the oral school conducted by Benjamin Dubois, a Deaf man. After three years, Genis returned to Brussels to work as an engraver. Genis’ wife, Eugénie Moreau, had studied for four years at Saint-Jacques and for three years at the Bordeaux school; she was an outstanding student. Genis wished to establish a Deaf movement in Brussels. He created the Société sourdemuette de bienfaisance (Deaf Society of Charitable Help) and served as president for five years before moving to Paris in 1850. There, he sought ways to show his solidarity with the Deaf movement by joining Deaf organizations, participating in the annual banquets and in congresses of the Deaf, and publishing. 114 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Genis joined Berthier’s Société universelle des sourds-muets (Universal Society of Deaf-Mutes) and had the position of assistant secretary. In 1898, the name changed to Association amicale des sourds-muets de la Seine (Friendship Association of the DeafMutes of the Seine) and Genis was elected treasurer. Genis was three times named president of the annual banquets in honor of Épée, a mark of his growing importance to the movement. The Association amicale sponsored the 1889 International Congress of Deafmutes in Paris, which Genis helped to organize. In 1892, the association celebrated his twenty-five years of service and gave him a bronze bust of Épée by Gustave Hennequin. The following year, Genis was elected president of the association and he headed the organizing committee for the 1893 World Congress of the Deaf and fourth meeting of the National Association of the Deaf, held in Chicago. On the way home, he visited Deaf figures in Philadelphia and New York. Genis was vice president of the Fédération des sociétés françaises de sourds-muets (Federation of French Deaf-Mutes Societies), established in 1897. Genis published a Deaf community newspaper, the Journal des sourds-muets (Deaf-Mute’s Journal), which appeared twice each month, 1894–1900. Genis was awarded the honorary title, Officier d’académie. He acquired a nickname in the Deaf community: “the Socrates of the Deaf.”36

Ligot, Joachim (1841–1899)

Portrait of Joachim Ligot, drawing by RenéLouis Hirsch, Deaf artist. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)

Joachim Ligot was born in Piré-sur-Seiche, Ille-et-Vilaine, about fifteen miles southwest of Rennes. He was enrolled in the Paris school but he was considered an idiot and could not attend classes with his classmates. The school wanted to send him home but Ferdinand Berthier saw something in Ligot and insisted the school keep him under his care. The result was surprising: Ligot demonstrated great intelligence and unsuspected abilities. Ligot was skilled in written French and became a tutor at Saint-Jacques. Ligot was hired as a teacher at the Rouen school from 1870 to 1880. He was forced to leave the school

Portrait of Henri Genis, drawing by Émil Nachor Ginouvier, Deaf artist. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)

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and his profession due to the Milan Congress. He became a journalist for the Journal des sourds-muets, led by Henri Gaillard. Ligot was an ardent activist defending the sign language and critical of oralism. His written French, which he learned from Berthier, was exceptionally good. He died in 1899. He received the distinction Officer of Public Instruction.

The Belle Époque (1871–1914) Capon, Louis-Augustin (1846–1907) Louis-Augustin Capon was a student at the Institution Impériale des Sourds-Muets de Paris for seven years; he had lost his hearing at age six and stood out among his fellow students for having a command of spoken French and some noteworthy ability to read lips. At Saint-Jacques he had contact with Deaf notables such as Berthier, Dubois, and Lenoir. After graduating, he founded a Deaf school in Elbeuf, about fifteen miles south of Rouen, in Normandy. His hearing wife, who had received training in Deaf education at the Bordeaux Institution, collaborated with him.37 Following the reforms urged by the Milan Congress of 1880, there was pressure on Capon, especially from local government, to abandon the use of sign language in classroom instruction and to adopt the oral method. This he did (and had been doing to some extent). A year later, city councils both in Elbeuf and Rouen praised Capon for the modernity of his methods and he was accordingly able to assure the continuation of his school. In 1893, Capon founded the Association fraternelle des sourds-muets de Normandy. He received three honorary medals: Officier de l’instruction publique; the Prix Montyon awarded by the Académie Française; and a silver medal from the Exposition Universelle of 1900. Louis Capon died in 1907.

Larrouy, Pauline (1834–1919) Pauline Larrouy was born in Pau, in southwestern France, and attended the Bordeaux school for the Deaf, about 135 miles north of Pau. After graduation, she continued working as a tutor there for ten years. This led her to establish her own school in 1880, located in Oloron-Sainte-Marie, not far from Pau. Larrouy was determined to teach the students with the so-called “old method” (i.e., using sign language)— thus to resist the wave of oralism that washed over Europe after the Milan Congress. In the course of three years she amended her curriculum to include articulation training for those students who were able to profit from it. Larrouy welcomed all those who came for instruction but her resources were soon exhausted. She struggled to find money for such essentials as food and supplies. Instead of sending students home, she raised funds by canvassing the town and asking for help. She took all that was offered—clothes, food, cash. In time the town took the school under its protection, which provided an annual budget. Because of her humanity and deep care of the students, she was recognized by the French Academy, which awarded her the prestigious Prix Montyon in 1887, and in 1890 she was given the 116 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Portrait of Pauline Larrouy, drawing by RenéLouis Hirsch, Deaf artist. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)

title Officier d’Académie. Her health deteriorated; she resigned in 1901 and died in 1919 in Oloron-Sainte-Marie.

Cochefer, Antoine-Joseph (1849–1923) Antoine-Joseph Cochefer, director of the journal l’Écho de la société d’appui fraternel des sourds-muets de France; also collaborated in the publication Défense des sourds-muets. He became Deaf when he was six, and attended Saint-Jacques. On graduation, he took up the trade of furniture design and sculptor. In 1879, Cochefer founded the Société d’appui fraternel des sourds-muets de France and also served as president of the Conseil Supérieur pour les sociétés françaises des sourds-muets (1893). He chaired a committee on the dissemination of the manual alphabet.

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Portrait of Antoine-Joseph Cochefer, drawing by Victor Colas, Deaf artist. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)

Graff, Eugène (1862–1935) Eugène Graff was born in 1862 in Audincourt, department of Doubs, forty-eight miles from Besançon, near the Swiss border. Graff ’s father was a blacksmith and, since his parents had twelve children, three of them Deaf, we may infer that his mother worked full time at home. When he was eleven, Graff enrolled at the Nancy school, directed at the time by Joseph Piroux (1800–1884) but his main teacher was the associate of Berthier and Forestier, Claude-Joseph Richardin (1810–1900). On graduation in 1879, Graff apprenticed to a stone sculptor for three years in Nancy and then moved to Paris and worked as a sculptor with wood. In 1885, Graff married Hélène-Armandine Lefebvre. They had one daughter, Lucie, who became a teacher of the Deaf. 118 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

In Paris, Graff soon established contact with the Deaf community and in particular with the Deaf leader, Antoine-Joseph Cochefer (1849–1923), who was president of the Société d’appui fraternel des sourds-muets, founded 1880. Its primary purpose was to manage pension funds and it was quite successful, opening three branches in the provinces. The organization was also socially engaged. However, there were factions and, in an effort to ensure solidarity in the annual banquets, Graff founded his Ligue pour l’union amicale des sourds-muets to run them. However, when Graff, after ten years of activism, stepped down in favor of a handpicked successor (Henri Laufer), the Ligue itself fractured into pro- and anti-Graff groups. To sideline the contentious members, Graff renamed the organization Alliance silencieuse and took the Old Guard with him. Portrait of Eugène Graff. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)



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Graff and Gaillard collaborated on publishing the Écho de la société d’appui fraternel des sourds-muets (1901), which became the Revue des sourds-muets (1906–1931). Graff labored for decades to bring about a Deaf center for Deaf people from the provinces who would come to Paris for the 1898 Exposition Universelle. It was to be known as the Sou de Cercle des sourds-muets de Paris. The exposition came and went but fund gathering continued as the project became more ambitious—offices, lodgings, an auditorium, sports facilities. In 1917, at the twelfth convention of the National Association of the Deaf meeting in Hartford, Graff spoke enthusiastically about the plans for the center. Ground breaking took place in 1938 before a large Deaf audience, but the war intervened and the renovations were never resumed. Eugène Graff died September 26, 1935, after forty-four years of service. More than one thousand Deaf people attended his funeral. He was an alumnus of the Besançon school, founder and president of the Ligue pour l’union amicale des sourds-muets (1887); treasurer of the Fédération des sociétés françaises de sourds-muets (1897); founder and president of the Sou de Cercle des sourds-muets de Paris (1896); founder and president of the Alliance républicaine des sourds-muets (1914). His honors include the Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur (1923), la médaille d’officier de l’instruction publique (1925), and la médaille d’or de la prévoyance sociale (1927).

Rémond, Louis Edmé (1828–1907) Louis Edmé Rémond entered Saint-Jacques as a pupil but he soon advanced to teaching assistant. He directed the publication La Sincérité (1887), an outspoken journal of opinion. His description of the first marriage of two Deaf Parisians was published posthumously in the Gazette des sourds-muets (August 1917) et reproduced in Y. Delaporte’s Les sourds, c’est comme ça (2002, p. 158).

Turcan, Joseph (1857–?) Joseph Turcan attended the Marseille school. Convinced of the merit of sign language in Deaf education, he published La Défense des sourds-muets (1884–1886) in an effort to stem the tide of oralism. The Courrier français des sourds-muets was the sequel (1887–1888). Republican and anticlerical, he saw a connection between oralism and religious congregations, notably due to the Frères de Saint-Gabriel, which had come to promote speech in Deaf education. Turcan was president of the Société Saint-Michel des sourdsmuets de l’Isère.

Vavasseur-Desperriers, René-Victor (1860–1929) In addition to his work as a sculptor, Vavasseur-Desperriers was a publisher and a Deaf activist. He was enrolled in the school for the Deaf at Soissons, in Picardy. Subsequently, he transferred to Saint-Jacques. The officers of the Association amicale des sourds-muets de France reads like an honor role of late 1800s Deaf activism—Chambellan, Dusuzeau, Théobald, Choppin, Gaillard, Genis, Colas, and Vavasseur-Desperriers. In 1892, Vavasseur-Desperriers was 120 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

vice president of the association. He published La France silencieuse, a literary supplement to the Gazette des sourds-muets in 1894. Vavasseur-Desperriers was on the program committee of the first International Congress of the Deaf in Paris (1889) and of the International Congress of the Deaf meeting in Chicago (1893). He attended the third International Congress of the Deaf in Geneva (1896), where he gave a moving defense of Deaf teachers—as he did again in an address to the Deaf section of the Paris International Congress (1900). Vavasseur-Desperriers was founder and president of the Deaf sports club, Cyclistes silencieux.

Portrait of RenéVictor VavasseurDesperriers, drawing by RenéLouis Hirsch. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)

Tessières, Philippe Auguste de (1826–1901) Philippe Auguste de Tessières was born Deaf in Bertric-Bure, a town in the Poitiers region of southwest France. De Tessières attended the Bordeaux school, then SaintJacques, and then became a teacher at his alma mater. After thirty years of service, he was expelled from his position, as were the other Deaf teachers at the school, due to the impact of the Milan Congress. The French government stated that the reason for the firings was to improve the education students received with the oral method. However the authorities soon realized that switching from instruction with sign language to instruction with spoken language was not a simple matter. Moreover, the necessarily small classes created shortages of personnel and funds. So the ministry delayed implementation and allocated more funding. Fired were Joseph-Nicholas Théobald, Ernest Dusuzeau, Joseph Tronc, Ernest Simon, and de Tessières. The five were awarded the distinction Officer of Public Instruction. After the expulsion, de Tessières got involved with the Association amicale des sourdsmuets de France as secretary, starting in 1888. He collaborated with Chambellan, Forestier, Théobald, Dubois, and Dusuzeau to provide many services to the Deaf. He was also involved with the Société universelle des sourds-muets and was partly responsible for the annual celebration of the birth of the abbé de l’Épée. Later he returned to his native region, Poitiers, not far from his birth town, but he continued to attend the anniversary banquets in honor of Épée. He passed away in his hometown of Bertric-Burée in 1901.

Gaillard, Henri (1866–1939) Henri Gaillard, an eminent Deaf journalist and activist, was born in 1866 in Bagneux, a Paris suburb today. He became Deaf after surviving a bombardment when he was twelve. As to be expected, Gaillard had excellent speech—he signed some of his

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Portrait of Henri Gaillard. (Courtesy of Gallaudet University Archives)

documents sourd-parlant (a Deaf person who can speak)—which may account for his enrollment first in a hearing school conducted by the Frères des écoles chrétiennes before he was enrolled at SaintJacques. At the Paris school he learned, in addition to the academic program, the trades of gardening, photography, and typesetting. On graduation, he married a hearing woman who died quite young. His second marriage was to a Deaf woman, Louise Walser (1879–1920). Gaillard founded or directed numerous periodicals. He was director of the Journal des sourds-muets, the Gazette des sourdsmuets, and the Revue pedagogique de l’enseignement des sourds-muets. He also directed La Silencieuse, which became La République de demain, a political and literary journal with a broad audience. The content of these periodicals was Deaf organizations, Deaf and national politics, illustrations and photographs, literature and more. Gaillard was secretary general of the Société d’appui fraternel des sourds-muets de France, which managed pension plans for the Deaf. Gaillard founded a house organ that was also a journal of opinion and polemics. And he directed the publication Revue pedagogique de l’enseignement des sourds-muets. He was the founder of the Deaf printshop on rue d’Alesia in Paris. In the era post-Milan, Gaillard engaged in a public and bitter dispute with fellow activist Joseph Chazal, editor of Le sourd-muet illustré. Gaillard sought a return to sign language in Deaf education. Chazal thought that position reactionary and hopeless; he favored instead an accommodation with oralism.38 Moreover, Gaillard was the author of several brochures about oralism, and a book about careers and professions for the Deaf in France, which took the government to task for not hiring Deaf people. On the subject of congresses of the Deaf, Gaillard was no less involved. He was a participant in the 1889 International Congress of the Deaf in Paris. He was one of the representatives sent to the 1893 congress in Chicago by the Association amicale des sourds-muets. He edited the proceedings of the 1896 congress and organized the Deaf section of the 1900 Paris congress (chapter 3). He chaired the 1912 Paris congress, co-chaired the 1924 congress in Liège, and led the French delegation to the 1917 centennial celebration of the American School for the Deaf in Hartford. Henri Gaillard was a member of the Société des gens des lettres, Officier de l’académie, and Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur. He died in 1939 after a prolonged illness.

Dusuzeau, Ernest (1846–1917) Ernest Dusuzeau, an intellectual leader of the French Deaf community, became Deaf at about age four for reasons unknown. He had some residual hearing—one contemporary wrote that he could hear a coin dropped on the ground.39 Dusuzeau was educated at home using Épée’s methods until he was thirteen, when he enrolled at Saint-Jacques. 122 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

There he was subjected to Itard’s painful experiments to cure deafness. However, he studied under Ferdinand Berthier to great success. He won the best student award, which came with a stipend. He graduated high school at age nineteen and received the bachelor of science degree. Dusuzeau remained at Saint-Jacques and moved rapidly through the ranks: monitor, 1863; teaching assistant, 1871; professor of mathematics, 1874. After the Milan congress and the adoption of oralism, Dusuzeau was forced into retirement at the young age of forty. He found a post in the chemical industry and at the same time became an activist in French Deaf affairs. One of the best-known French Deaf leaders, he was admired for his academic achievement and professional success. Dusuzeau was founder and president of the Association amicale des sourds-muets de la Seine (Amical association of the Deaf of the Seine) and of several other organizations including Union Nationale (National Union of the Deaf), Foyer de sourds-muets (Deaf-Mute Club), Avenir Silencieux (Silent Future), and Alliance Républicaine (Republican Alliance). He presided at the International Congresses of the Deaf in 1889 and 1900 and at the bicentennial of the birth of Épée in Paris in 1912. He was involved in the earliest attempts to unify Deaf groups through an umbrella organization, Fédération des sociétés françaises des sourds-muets (Federation of Deaf-Mutes French Societies). In 1875, Dusuzeau married in Paris Mathilda Freeman (1846–n.d.), a Deaf American who had attended the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut in 1858. Matilda’s father was a lawyer assigned to the US Consulate in Paris, while Ernest’s father was principal of a high school in Compiègne. Ernest and Matilda made their home in the Paris suburbs and raised a hearing son. Dusuzeau was awarded the Mongrolle Prize, the Palmes Académiques, and the French Legion of Honor. He died at the age of seventy-one.

Portrait of Ernest Dusuzeau. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)

Mercier, Émile Joseph (1868–1922) Émile Joseph Mercier was born into a family of great wealth in Epernay, department of the Marne, northeast of Paris. When Mercier was nine, he was placed in the private oralist school of Auguste Houdin. Apparently that was not satisfactory since a few months later, he entered Saint-Jacques. He was considered a sourd-parlant (a Deaf person who can speak), as was his primary teacher, Joseph-Nicolas Théobald. It seems that Mercier had some residual hearing, as we are told he heard the cries of a parrot not far off. Perhaps his ability to communicate orally contributed to his view that the education of Deaf children could proceed early on without needing sign language. When Mercier was eighteen, he entered the family business, the manufacture of champagne, and he also took time out to travel and observe how Deaf people lived

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Portrait of Émile Joseph Mercier. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)

in other lands. In 1899, Mercier married a daughter of the eminent Deaf sculptor, Gustave-Nicolas Hennequin. She was a cousin of Deaf sculptor Félix Martin and her name was Félice. When Mercier died in 1922, Félice continued to be active in the Deaf community in Reims, the principal city of the Champagne region. In 1893, Mercier went with a French delegation to the Fourth Convention of the National Association of the Deaf and International Congress meeting in Chicago. He returned to France fired up by what Deaf people could gain in organizing. He created the Association amicale des sourds-muets de Champagne, a mutualist society. (Members deposited monthly to a shared account and then drew on that account when needed.) Mercier was elected president and his brother Henri, also Deaf, was treasurer. Thus Mercier committed himself to activism in behalf of a Deaf reform movement in late-nineteenth-century France, one that included, among others, Capon (1846–1907), 124 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Cochefer (1849–1923), Desperriers (1860–1929), Dusuzeau (1846–1917), Gaillard (1866– 1939), Genis (1835–1928), Graff (1862–1935), Ligot (1841–1899), and Rémy (1867–1895). Mercier (1868–1922) was the youngest of the group. Mercier also conceived of, and raised funds for the construction of a Deaf club named Cercle abbé de l’Épée. It was inaugurated in 1896 under his presidency, located at 144 rue des Capucins, in Reims.

Rémy, Henri (1867–1895) Henri Rémy was an important member of the band of activists in the late 1800s defending sign language, organizing French Deaf people, and seeking fair treatment for their “brothers in misfortune.”40 As a journalist, Rémy was in a good position to advocate for reform. Rémy was born in the town of Annoux in Burgundy in 1867. When he was three he became Deaf after an illness.41 He enrolled in the Nancy school for the Deaf, directed by Joseph Piroux. After completing his studies, he stayed on as assistant professor until he was fired summarily in the wake of the Congress of Milan. Then Rémy worked for a while as a typographer. Portrait of Henri Rémy. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)



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In 1890, Rémy founded a Deaf society in the Champagne region and a Deaf journal. The society was named Association fraternel des sourds-muets de l’Est. The journal, Gazette des sourds-muets, may have been the first publication in France by and for Deaf people. It was a successor to L’abbé de l’Épée, journal des sourds et des sourds-muets, which had just ended publication. Rémy invited his friend Henri Gaillard to edit the Gazette while he, Rémy, managed the business end. Gaillard, president of the Association amicale des sourds-muets de France, successor to Berthier’s Société centrale, reasoned that the goals of the journal and of his association—to block oralism and promote an awareness of the Deaf way—were the same and therefore he provided some funding for the journal. Nevertheless, the Gazette ran out of funds in 1894 and a year later Rémy died.

Jeanvoine, Elisée Henri (1863–1948) Elisée Henri Jeanvoine (1863–1948) was a pupil and then a professor at the Besançon school. He was editor-in-chief of the Journal des sourds-muets, which appeared twice a month from 1894 to 1906. The director was Henri Gaillard, then Henri Genis. The Portrait of Elisée Henri Jeanvoine, drawing by Henri Fortin in 1891. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)

126 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

journal was biased, favoring the combined method—both articulation and sign in Deaf education—but other views were published, such as Jeanvoine’s own 1903 article, “Why we don’t want sign language.”42 Then, too, the journal presented portraits of important Deaf figures, both engravings and narratives. Jeanvoine was president of the Association des sourds-muets de Franche-Comté (Franche-Comté is a region of France adjoining Switzerland). He was also secretary general of the Association amicale des sourds-muets de Champagne (Champagne is a region in northeast France). Finally, Jeanvoine was secretary general of the organizing committee and of the Deaf section of the fourth International Congress of the Deaf (1900) and with Henri Gaillard he published a summary of the proceedings. He was awarded the distinction Officer of the Academy.

Berthet, Marie Joseph Joachim (1868–1904) Joseph Berthet was born in Chaffois, Doubs. He was a former student at the Besançon school and became director of the Sourd-muet illustré. He was also the president of the Union française des sourds-muets, founded in 1898. Portrait of Marie Joseph Joachim Berthet. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)



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Portrait of Paul Noël Villanova. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)

Villanova, Paul Noël (1858–1928) Paul Villanova was born in Corsica and attended Saint-Jacques. After graduation, he was employed in the Deaf publishing house founded by Henri Gaillard. He was vice president of the Union française des sourds-muets and publisher of Avenir des sourds-muets. He was president of the Republican alliance.

Walser-Gaillard, Louise (1879–1920) Louise Walser-Gaillard was a graduate of the Bordeaux school. In 1906, she married the eminent Deaf journalist, Henri Gaillard (1866–1939). At the third International Congress of the Deaf, Walser gave such a ringing defense of sign language that she acquired the nickname “‘the Deaf ’ Joan of Arc.” Like her husband, Louise was a poet who published in several Deaf magazines. She also was the first woman to speak out about her point of view at the Deaf banquet in Paris.

Pitrois, Yvonne (1880–1937) Yvonne Pitrois was born into a wealthy Parisian family whose ancestral home was in Tours, where she spent most of her childhood. When she was seven, she suffered some sickness, perhaps sunstroke, that took her hearing and reduced her vision episodically. For nine years, Yvonne was educated at home by her mother, a widow who opened a school to teach French to Anglophones and English to Francophones. Yvonne became fluent in both languages. She developed a range of communication skills. She worked on lipreading and on words spelled out in her hand. She worked on clear articulation. She knew the manual alphabet and basic sign language, but it was written English that came most readily. Yvonne Pitrois was a writer. She was only eighteen when she published her first book. She wrote over seventy articles for the Silent Worker (later, the Deaf American). She wrote over two hundred literary or historical pieces for international periodicals. She founded an international correspondence club of some one hundred Deaf women and by appeals to them she established a relief fund for Deaf people displaced by World War I. The club, most of whose members wrote in French, published a newspaper for Deaf women, La Petite Silencieuse (1912–1937). She published a magazine in French Braille, named the Rayon du soleil des sourds-aveugles. Pitrois was the author of twenty-five books and brochures, including her autobiography, a biography of Helen Keller, an historical essay for young readers, a biography of Abraham Lincoln, and Les Femmes et la Grande Guerre (Women in the Great War). In 1912, she published her 128 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Portrait of Yvonne Pitrois. (Courtesy of Gallaudet University Archives)

best known work, La Vie de l’abbé de l’Épée racontée aux Sourds-Muets (The life of the abbé de l’Épée told to Deaf-Mutes). It was written on the occasion of the bicentennial of Épée’s birth. Yvonne Pitrois received many awards. In Belgium the king decorated her with the order of Queen Elizabeth and in France the Société d’encouragement au bien (Society to encourage good acts) awarded her their gold medal. In 1929, the French academy awarded her the Prix Montyon for her efforts in behalf of the Deaf and Deafblind. For her literary work, she was awarded the Palmes académiques.

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Abroad Huet, Adolphe Edouard (1822–1882) Huet became Deaf at age twelve and enrolled at the Paris school. Upon graduation, he left for Bourges, where he taught Deaf students in the 1840s. After a decade he emigrated to Brazil and married a German lady in Rio de Janiero. At the request of the Brazilian emperor, Pedro II, Huet founded the first national school for the Deaf in 1857, called Instituto Nacional de Surdos Mudos. Huet presented the program for Deaf education and two years later, he presented seven students to the emperor and in public examinations; the audiences were enthusiastic. Huet and his wife separated in 1861. He left the school the following year. Mexican president Benito Juárez sent an emissary to Brazil to invite Huet to establish a Deaf school in Mexico City, which he did in 1867. It was called Escuela Municipal de Sordomudos and was located within the Colegio de San Gregorio. When the school took on national standing it was renamed Escuela Nacional de Sordomudos. At that time, Huet was director and teacher with twenty-four students. He taught botany, drawing, higher arithmetic, and physical education. He died in 1882 and is buried in Mexico City.

Young, Joseph-Marie (1820–1897) Joseph-Marie Young (originally Jacques-Victor-Joseph-Marie Yung) was born in 1820 in Metz, capital of the Lorraine region in northeastern France, and he died in 1897 in Montréal, Canada. Young lost his hearing when he was five years old. He attended the Nancy school and on graduating he taught at the Soissons school (the two are about one hundred seventy miles apart in northern France). Young went on to teach at the Lyons school. There, in 1854, he met the Bishop of Montréal, who was looking for teachers to revive the Montréal School for the Deaf. Young accepted his invitation to direct the school, which was under the auspices of the Community of Clerics of St. Viator and sustained by private benevolence. First, however, Young entered the Community near Lyons, and took his vows in 1855. Young arrived in Montréal in December and immediately took charge of the institution for the Deaf. His biographer states that he accomplished this with a “team of young members of his community”;43 presumably he rallied some local Deaf people to his cause. The school was located at Côteau-Saint-Louis (also called Saint-Louis-duMile-End); it was officially Catholic and bilingual and served Deaf boys. Early in January 1856, the school’s prospectus and curriculum, prepared by Young and published in the newspapers, announced that the school would provide instruction in dactylology, or sign language using the fingers instead of gesticulation. Further, all subjects in the course of study, which differed little from that of contemporary model schools, would be taught in writing and sign language. From 1856 to 1897, Young devoted himself primarily to the education of his pupils; he also served as head of the bookbinding shop and, in later years, as head of the library and infirmary. As director and bursar of the school until 1863, he was responsible for 130 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

its pedagogical and material administration. To make the catechism easier for the children to memorize, he composed a shorter version with “sign language written above the French words.”44 From ten pupils in 1855–1856 (a time when there were about nine hundred deaf people in Lower Canada), the Montréal school had grown, by 1897, to more than one hundred boarders, taught by a staff of some thirty teachers and shop instructors. Speech articulation was taught starting in 1870, and the young students learned various trades, including farming. In 1893, the institution participated in the International Congress of the Deaf meeting in Chicago during the Columbian exposition.

Rubens-Alcais, Eugène (1884–1963) Rubens-Alcais was born in Saint-Jean de Garde in 1884. He was admitted to SaintHippolyte-du-Fort School for the Deaf in 1892. When his family moved to Paris, he founded, with Parisian friends, the first bicycle club for the Deaf. When the International Committee of Silent Sports was founded, he was chosen as president. He was active in organizing a Deaf counterpart to the Olympic Games. Concurrently, he published Sportsman Silencieux (journal of the Fédération internationale des sports silencieux). He was also director of the newspaper, the Gazette des sourds-muets.



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Notes to chapter 2

1. Jean-René Presneau, Signes et

institution des sourds - XVIIIe-XIXe siècle (Seyssel: Champ Vallon, 1998), 85. 2. Harlan Lane, When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf (New York: Random House, 1984), 80. 3. Presneau, Signes et institution des sourds; Renate Fischer and Harlan Lane, Looking Back: A Reader on the History of Deaf Communities and Their Sign Languages (Hamburg, Germany: Signum, 1993); Florence Encrevé, “Sourds et société française au XIXe siècle: 1830–1905” (PhD diss., Université Paris VIII, 2008). 4. Presneau, Signes et institution des sourds, 65, 83–85. 5. Presneau, 88. 6. Lane, When the Mind Hears, 377 7. Presneau, Signes et institution des sourds, 88–94. 8. Lane, When the Mind Hears, 94. 9. Lane, 111; Charles-Michel de l’Épée, Exercice de sourds et muets qui se fera le jeudi 2 juillet 1772 chez M. l’abbé de l’Épée, rue des Moulins, butte S. Roch, depuis trois heures jusqu’à sept (Paris: Imprimerie de L. Cellot, 1772); Charles-Michel de l’Épée, Exercice de sourds et muets, qui se fera le 6 août 1773 (Paris: Imprimerie de Grangé, 1773); Charles-Michel de l’Épée, Institution des sourds et muets: ou recueil des exercices soutenus par les sourds et muets pendant les années 1771, 1772, 1773, & 1774 (Paris: Imprimerie de Butard, 1774); Charles-Michel de l’Épée, Institution des sourds-muets par la voie des signes méthodiques (1776; repr. Paris:

Pée, 1784); Charles-Michel de l’Épée, “Extracts from the institution des sourds et muets of the abbé de l’Épée,” trans. Francis Green, American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb 13, no. 1 (March 1861): 8–29; Charles-Michel de l’Épée, La véritable manière d’instruire les sourdsmuets, confirmée par une longue expérience (Paris: Nyon l’aîne, 1784); Charles-Michel de l’Épée, “The true method of educating the deaf and dumb: Confirmed by long experience (Parts I and II),” trans. Francis Green, American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb 12, no. 1 and no. 2 (January & April 1860): 1–132; Charles-Michel de l’Épée, “Lettre de l’instituteur des sourds et muets de Paris à MM. de l’Académie de Berlin, et lettre du même à M. Nicolay savant critique de Berlin,” Journal de Paris, May 27, 1785; Charles-Michel de l’Épée, “Muets et sourds, et les aveugles (art d’instruire les),” Encyclopédie méthodique, Arts et métiers mécaniques (Paris: Panckoucke, 1788), 275–313. 10. Lane, When the Mind Hears, 47. 11. Étienne Perrolle, Dissertation anatomico-acoustique contenant des expériences qui tendent à prouver (Montpellier: Académie Royale des Sciences de Montpellier, 1782), 23–29. 12. Lane, 96. 13. Lane, 84. 14. Lane, 127. 15. Lane, 49. 16. Lane, 51.

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17. Jean-Nicholas Bouilly, L’Abbé de

l’Épée comédie historique, en cinq actes et en prose (Paris: André, 1800). 18. Lane, When the Mind Hears, 62; “Our language is not theirs,” Épée wrote, “Theirs is sign language. Let it suffice that they know how to translate ours with theirs.” See Épée, La véritable manière d’instruire les sourds-muets; Roch Ambroise Cucurron Sicard, Cours d’instruction d’un sourd-muet de naissance, pour servir à l’éducation des sourds-muets et qui peut être utile à celle de ceux qui entendent et qui parlent (Paris: Le Clère, an VIII), xli; Roch Ambroise Auguste Bébian, Éloge de Charles-Michel de l’Épée, fondateur de l’Institution des sourds-muets, discours qui a obtenu le prix proposé par la Société royale académique des sciences (Paris: Imprimerie de J.-G. Dentu, 1819), 54–56. 19. Lane, 27. 20. Lane, 135. 21. Lane, 136. 22. Lane, 136. 23. Lane, 203. 24. Lane, 138. 25. Lane, 474. 26. Laurent Clerc, “Visit to some of the schools for the deaf and dumb in France and England,” American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb 1, no. 1 (October 1847): 62–66; Laurent Clerc, “Visit to some of the schools for the deaf and dumb in France and England,” American Annals of the deaf and dumb 1, no. 2 (January 1848): 113–20; Laurent Clerc,

“Visit to some of the schools for the deaf and dumb in France and England,” American Annals of the deaf and dumb 1, no. 3 (April 1848): 170–76. 27. Emmanuel de Laubespin, Mémorial portatif de chronologie, d’histoire industrielle, d’économie politique, de biographie, etc. (Paris: Imprimerie de A. Firmin Didot, 1829), 366. 28. Ferdinand Berthier, L’abbé Sicard, célèbre instituteur des sourdsmuets, successeur immédiat de l’abbé de l’Épée: précis historique sur sa vie, ses travaux et ses succès, suivi de détails biographiques sur ses élèves sourds-muets les plus remarquables, Jean Massieu et Laurent Clerc, et d’un appendice contenant des lettres de l’abbé Sicard au Baron de Gérando, son ami et son confrère à l’institut (Paris: C. Douniol, 1873). 29. “Les fleurons de d’école de l’abbé Chazotte, à Toulouse,” Patrimoine sourd 26 (premier trimestre 2009), 20. 30. Lane, When the Mind Hears, 432.

31. Andrea Benvenuto and Didier

38. Anne T. Quartararo, Deaf

Séguillon, “Des premiers banquets des sourds-muets à l’avènement du sport silencieux 1834–1924: Pour une histoire politique des mobilisations collectives des sourd,” in La nouvelle revue de l’adaptation et de la scolarisation 64 (4e trimestre, 2013): 137. 32. Lane, When the Mind Hears, 404. 33. Lane, 133. 34. Association Etienne de Fay, H comme histoire des sourds (Orléans: Association Etienne de Fay, n.d.), 1–20. 35. Lane, When the Mind Hears, 275. 36. “Quelques grands noms de la presse silencieuse du XIXe siècle,” Patrimoine sourd, no. 24 (troisième trimestre 2008): 19. 37. A. Pinchon, “Institution d’Elbeuf (Seine Inférieure): dirigée per M. et Mme Louis Capon,” Revue française de l’éducation des sourdsmuets: bibliographie internationale de cet enseignement et des sciences qui s’y rattachent 4, no. 1 (April 1888): 15–20.

Identity and Social Images in Nineteenth-Century France (Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 2008), 174–75. 39. Éphémérides sourdes, Patrimoine sourd 22 (premier trimestre 2008): 3. 40. “Henri Rémy,” Revue internationale de l’enseignement des sourdsmuets vol. 3–4 (June–July 1895): 102. 41. “Quelques grands noms de la presse silencieuse du XIXe siècle,” Patrimoine sourd 24 (troisième trimestre 2008): 19. 42. “Avant les journaux sourds, des journaux pour les sourds,” Patrimoine sourd 24 (troisième trimestre 2008): 8. 43. Léo-Paul Hébert, “Joseph-Marie Young,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography 12 (Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 1900), http:// www.biographi.ca/en/bio/young_ joseph_marie_12E.html. 44. Hébert, “Joseph-Marie Young.”

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3

Ethnic Affiliation in the Deaf-World

Members of ethnic groups commonly take credit for group achievements as if they were, in a measure, their own. Many sign-language speakers in particular report a deep feeling of belonging to the group and this need not surprise us. After all, many of its members find in the Deaf-World surrogate parents, easy communication, access to information, and a positive identity. The solidarity of Deaf-World members is expressed in many ways; among the most striking is the emphasis it places on collective action and on marriage partners chosen from the Deaf-World. These sentiments and practices foster a continuing separation between the Deaf and hearing worlds. Ethnic groups have social institutions. The nineteenth-century Deaf-World had a network of schools, Deaf organizations, churches, athletic organizations, publishing houses, and theater groups, as well as associations focused on profession, leisure, politics, and socializing (tables 5 and 6). Language is a big factor in boundary maintenance and will often be decisive since participation in social activities depends on language fluency. The arts enrich the lives of ethnic groups, bind their members, and express ethnic values and knowledge. The Deaf-World has a rich literary tradition including such forms as legends and humor. There are also theater arts, and painting and sculpture that recount and interpret the Deaf experience.

Deaf Societies

Associations of the Deaf in Paris Founded through 1900. Year Founded 1834

1838 1850

Table 5.

Name Comité des sourds-muets (Committee of Deaf-Mutes)

Description Sponsors a series of annual banquets in honor of Épée, at the initiative of Berthier and eleven other Deaf people including Lenoir, Forestier, and Peyson. Fifty Deaf and three hearing people attended the first banquet. Société centrale des sourds-muets de Paris Pres. Berthier; V. Pres. Forestier; Sec. (Central Society of Paris Deaf-Mutes) Lenoir (then Berthier, Lenoir, Allibert). Société centrale d’éducation et d’assistance Pres. Berthier. Independent of 1838 pour les sourds et muets de France (Central group (supra). Society for the Education and Relief of French Deaf-Mutes)

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1850

1867 1880 1886 1887 1894 1895

Société générale d’assistance et de prévoy- Pres. Blanchet ance en faveur des sourds-muets et des aveugles de France (Charitable Society for Assistance and Providence in Favor of Deaf-Mutes and the Blind in France) Société universelle des sourds-muets (Uni- Pres. Berthier. Sequel to 1838. Became versal Society of Deaf-Mutes) Association amicale des sourds-muets de France in 1887. Société d’appui fraternel des sourds-muets Pres. Cochefer. Pensions for elderly Deaf de France. (Society for the Fraternal Sup- people. port of Deaf-Mutes) Ligue pour l’union amicale des sourds-muets Pres. Graff. Became Alliance silencieuse in de France (Deaf-Mute Friendship League) 1894. Association amicale des sourds-muets de Pres. Chambellan. Sequel to 1867. France (Friendship Association of the Deaf-Mutes of France) Alliance silencieuse (Silent Alliance) Pres. Graff. Sequel to 1887. Union française des sourds-muets (French Pres. Berthet Union of the Deaf)

1896

Cercle des sourds-muets de Paris (Circle of Deaf-Mutes)

1897

Fédération des sociétés françaises des Pres. Cochefer. Dissolved 1953. sourds-muets (Federation of French DeafMutes Societies) Association amicale des sourds-muets de la Pres. Dusuzeau Seine (Friendship association of the DeafMutes of the Seine)

1898

Pres. Graff

Table 6. Associations of the Deaf in the Provinces Founded through 1900 Name Société des sourds-muets de Bourgogne

Founded President 1880 Alfred Boquin (1880–1897), Jules Ramager (1898?) Association fraternelle des sourds-muets de l’Est 1890 Henri Rémy (1890–18?) Association fraternelle des sourds-muets de 1891 Louis Capon (1891–1904), Edmond Pilet Normandie (1905-?) Association amicale des sourds-muets de 1894 Émile Mercier (1893–1922) Champagne Association humanitaire des sourds-muets de 1895 Henri Richard (1895–1898), Albert VendreProvence vert (1898–?) L’Amitié des sourds-muets de Lyon et départe- 1896 Edouard Simonetti (1896–?) ments limitrophes Association fraternelle et d’Epargne des sourds- 1899 Martin Segondat (1899–?) muets de l’Auvergne Note. This table is from Yann Cantin, Les Sourds-Muets de la Belle Epoque, une communauté en mutation

(Paris: École des hautes études en sciences sociales, 2014).

The first Deaf organization in France, the Société centrale des sourds-muets de Paris, was founded in 1838 by Ferdinand Berthier, an eminent Deaf professor at the Saint-Jacques school in Paris. Four years earlier, the director of Saint-Jacques, Désiré Ordinaire (1773–1847), launched a campaign to favor French and displace LSF (Langue des Signes Française) as the language of instruction. Accordingly, the Deaf faculty and their sign language had less of a role to play in the classroom. Berthier, along with other Deaf 136 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

founders, Alphonse Lenoir and Claudius Forestier, organized the Comité des sourdsmuets, which was responsible for arranging the first annual banquet to commemorate the abbé de l’Épée’s birthday. Fifty-four men attended on November 30, 1834. Their goal was to raise the standard of fair treatment by enhancing awareness of the achievements of Deaf leaders and their powerful language. Moreover, like the members of virtually all ethnic groups, they sought the pleasures of comradery and language performances. In 1838, Berthier decided that the time had come to found a more formal society, one recognized by the French government, the Société centrale des sourds-muets de Paris. It opened its doors at 9 rue Saint-Guillaume, on Paris’ Right Bank, on May 27. Berthier was elected as its first president. The society conducted a banquet annually and provided aid to Deaf people who were needy. Over the following decades, political conflicts within the society mirrored those on the grand stage of the nation. Some Deaf leaders believed that the main guarantee of stability was restoration of the monarchy; others, that Republicanism would save the nation. Berthier’s group changed its name to Société centrale d’éducation et d’assistance pour les sourds-muets de France. The name change and a decision to welcome hearing members increased donations. The Société générale continued to hold its annual banquets over the years. A second thread of self-help organizations began in 1850 when Alexandre Blanchet, the doctor at Saint-Jacques and an avid supporter of speech in the classroom, founded a social-aid organization of the Deaf, the Société générale d’assistance et de prévoyance en faveur des sourds-muets et des aveugles de France. In 1867, Berthier left the Société centrale and founded a new Société universelle des sourds-muets. All of its officers were Deaf. Hearing members were welcome but only as honorary members. A year after Berthier’s death in 1886, there were two Deaf associations: Ligue pour l’union amicale des sourds-muets de France, founded in 1886 by Eugène Graff, and Société d’appui fraternel des sourds-muets de France, founded in 1880 The 1886 banquet honoring the abbé de l’Épée on his birthday. (Courtesy of Le monde illustré, Gallica collection, BnF)

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by Antoine-Joseph Cochefer. The Société universelle was renamed Association amicale des sourds-muets de France in 1887. In 1898, the name changed to Association amicale des sourds-muets de la Seine, and Henri Genis was elected treasurer. The Association amicale sponsored the 1889 First International Congress of DeafMutes, which Genis helped to organize. The Paris meeting lasted eight days, beginning on July 10. The first event of its kind, it was deeply moving according to participants. For most of the Americans, this was a first opportunity to interact professionally as well as socially, both at the congress itself and in visits to colleagues elsewhere. The desire to be together with one’s kind is a natural expression of ethnicity. At first, the Deaf schools provided the setting in which that essential belongingness could develop, as there were Deaf students, Deaf staff, and Deaf faculty. Furthermore, the schools provided a way to enter the ethnic group—all the more important as parents usually could not fulfill that educative role. The pupil had the physical properties characteristic of Deaf ethnicity, but was yet to acquire movement-assured continuity after graduation. As the schools turned increasingly to spoken French in the classroom, rupturing the bonds between school and adult life, the burden of the associative movement was all the greater. In addition to nourishing deeply felt affiliative bonds, these organizations had explicit political goals, which were essentially twofold: To see Deaf people treated like everyone else and to promote the use of sign language. Both principles were violated at Saint-Jacques under the direction of Désiré Ordinaire. Backed by the administrative board in 1834, Ordinaire demoted Deaf faculty as part of creating a spoken language regime. It was clear to Berthier and other Deaf leaders that they would have to actively pursue their own interests. Cleverly organized to admit a few influential public figures, the banquets that began in 1834 were one such initiative; formally establishing the Centrale Society (1850) was another. In 1889, as the French celebrated the centennial of the French Revolution, and the Deaf celebrated the centennial of the death of abbé de l’Épée, both societies were divided in their political life, broadly speaking, between liberals and conservatives. The Ligue pour l’union amicale, founded by Eugène Graff, was lay, liberal, and reformist. On the other hand, the Association amicale, a descendant of Berthier’s Société centrale, was a bastion of conservatism and rallied to its cause former professors such as Victor Chambellan (1816–1906), Ernest Dusuzeau (1846–1917), and Benjamin Dubois (1817–aft. 1900). It was this latter group that would organize the first International Congress of the Deaf.

Congresses on the Deaf 1878 First International Congress on the Deaf, Paris 1880 International Congress on the Deaf, Milan 1883 International Congress on the Deaf, Brussels 1900 International Congress on the Deaf, Paris (Hearing section) In the late nineteenth century, French congresses on the Deaf were generally organized by hearing experts. Deaf participants were not welcome and interpreters were not provided. Their primary theme was measures to increase the normalization of the Deaf. Ironically, such measures reinforce the boundaries separating Deaf ethnicity from 138 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

the mainstream. In contrast, congresses of the Deaf were organized by Deaf leaders and associations. Their issues centered on the acceptance of the sign language. Thus, what was a dispute over minority language rights was misrepresented as dispute over educational method. The Deaf congresses also provided an opportunity to form and consolidate friendships. Quite a few Deaf delegates stopped en route to visit with Deaf leaders from other cities and nations.

1878. First International Congress on the Deaf, Paris, September 23–30 (in conjunction with the Universal Exposition) Marius Magnat, director of the Pereire school in Paris, saw an opportunity to promote oralism: he sent notice to school directors of a Paris congress on the Deaf with the following organizing committee: Augustin Grosselin, stenographer in the Chamber of Deputies; Félix Hément, Paris primary school inspector; Auguste Houdin, directorfounder of a school for the Deaf in Paris; Eugène Pereire, founder of the Pereire school in Paris; and Ludwig Christian Matthias, director of the school for the Deaf in Friedberg (Hesse). Magnat invited Léon Vaïsse, former director of Saint-Jacques, to chair the congress. Vaïsse had tried to steer Saint-Jacques on a middle course between oralism and manualism. He was fluent in French Sign Language but he was also the first professor in the Paris school to teach the articulation course and the only one who had tried to implement Ordinaire’s oralist designs forty years earlier. Vaïsse also published several monographs on articulation, but after he had become director of Saint-Jacques, his efforts to expand oral teaching beyond an hour a day for select students had been thwarted in several ways. There were not enough teachers to generalize the practice. Moreover, four of the six professors and all the assistants were Deaf; they were joined by the hearing professors and the pupils in opposing more oralism. Fifty-four people attended the “International” Congress, forty-seven of them French. Several participants were directors or teachers in small oral schools, such as Magnat, Pereire, and Paul Bouvier, director at Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort. The Italian director, Serafino Balestra, merits special mention for the major role he would play in the 1880 Milan Congress. He was director of the girls’ school for the Deaf in Como and had spent a month at Saint-Jacques studying the oral methods of Léon Vaïsse. This congress on improving the lot of Deaf people voted, in the absence of Deaf people, to give priority to spoken language in Deaf schools, while the sign language was to play a secondary role: “[The Congress], while preserving natural signs as an auxiliary aid for teaching, using it as the first means of communication between professor and student, considers that the articulation method, which includes lipreading, has as its goal to restore the Deaf pupil more fully to society and thus should be resolutely preferred.”1

1880. Second International Congress on the Deaf, Milan, September 6–11 The 1878 Paris Congress and a national congress in Lyon the following year were stepping stones to the verdicts of the Milan Congress. Setting aside the speeches of welcome and adieu, and the excursions and visits, the Milan Congress amounted to two dozen hours in which three or four oralists reassured the rest of the rightness of their actions Ethnic Affiliation in the Deaf-World

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in the face of troubling difficulties. Nevertheless, the meeting at Milan was the single most critical event in driving the languages of the Deaf in Europe and America beneath the surface. The battle to teach Deaf children to speak and lipread the national oral language displaced substantive education. The damage was compounded by using the national oral language, which the children could not hear and did not know, as the only language allowed in the classroom. These policies, promulgated at Milan, had disastrous consequences. A delegate from England reported that the congress “was mainly a partisan gathering. The machinery to register its decrees on the lines desired by its promoters had evidently been prepared beforehand and to me it seemed that the main feature was enthusiasm and fervidly eloquent advocacy of the ‘pure oral’ method rather than calm deliberation on the advantages and disadvantages of methods.” The location was chosen, along with the organizing committee, the congress schedule, the demonstrations, the make-up of the voting membership, the officers of the meeting—all elements were artfully orchestrated to produce the desired effect of the conquest of the national sign language by the national oral language. Don Seraphino Balestra played a major role in the series of congresses establishing these oralist policies. The Italian promoters who, as abbé Balestra explained, had been travelling the “pure oral” route for some years, had been dismayed by the eclectic resolutions of the 1878 Paris Congress and were frankly alarmed by the further backsliding at the National Congress in Lyon the following year. Moreover, the French Minister of the Interior had ordained pure oralism as the language policy of all government-sponsored Deaf education; his representatives sought vindication by an international congress. Then, too, the Pereire Society sought endorsement for their policies. Marius Magnat distributed a report to the congress-goers in which he denied that oral instruction is expensive, that it succeeds only with the semi-mute, that its product is unnatural sounding speech, and that it slows mental culture.2 He ridicules the view that speech is merely an ancillary skill and not an appropriate vehicle for instruction with Deaf children. He rejects the claim that the Deaf lipread only familiar people well. The advantages of articulation training, he argues, are that it restores the Deaf to society, allows moral and intellectual development, and proves useful in employment. Moreover, it permits communication with the illiterate, facilitates the acquisition and use of ideas, is better for the lungs, has more precision than sign, makes the pupil the equal of his hearing counterpart, allows spontaneous, rapid, sure and complete expression of thought, and humanizes the user. Manually taught children are defiant and corruptible, he argued, and this arises from the disadvantages of sign language. It is doubtful that sign can lead to thought. It is concrete. It is not truly connected with feeling and thought. It is a dialect you must learn, not universal, “and this alone condemns it.” It sets the Deaf person apart, it lacks precision. Its syntax is in conflict with the occidental languages and it cannot help in the study of written language. Sign cannot convey number, gender, person, time, nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, he claims. The teacher cannot genuinely communicate with his class in sign; it does not allow him to raise the Deaf-mute above his sensations. In sign the Deaf cannot link secondary ideas to the principal idea. Since signs strike the senses materially they cannot elicit reasoning, reflection, generalization, and above all abstraction as 140 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

powerfully as speech. The sign image takes up more space in the eye than the image of the lips in the spoken word and the sign is not always clearly discernible. The Deafmute does not perceive his own signs. Signs interfere with manual labor. If the arriving congress-goer had any time remaining after digesting all this, he was urged to attend exhibitions of the achievements of the oral method. It is clear from several personal accounts of the congress that the speech and lipreading of the Italian pupils made a great impression on those observers previously uncommitted to oralism. The Italian promoters affirmed this themselves: the conclusions of the meeting were not based on this or that paper or person, they said, but on the facts to be seen in the Italian schools. An American observer of the exhibitions, James Denison of Gallaudet, reported: “There was evidence of long previous preparation, of severe drilling, and personal management to produce the most striking effect. There was an apparently studied absence of definite and all-important special information as each case came up for exhibition. My neighbors, themselves Italian and articulation teachers informed me that [the best pupils] were not congenitally Deaf and had probably mastered speech before entering the institution. The pupils answered too correctly, for there were apparently no mistakes made nor was there any deliberation before the answers were given. Indeed, pupils even began answering questions before they were completed. No information was given as to the history of any pupil—whether deafness was congenital or acquired, whether speech had developed before hearing was lost or not.”3 The composition of the membership of the congress was another element ensuring the oralist outcome in advance. Of the 164 delegates, the Italians exceeded a majority by ten and there were fifty-six from France; the committed delegates from these two countries were seven-eighths of the membership. Auguste Houdin represented the French Minister of Public Instruction. And there were the Pereire Society group and Houdin’s family. There were also eighteen Frères de Saint-Gabriel, several of whom maintained that signs “could not be dispensed with in the instruction of Deaf-mutes” and that “not all Deaf-mutes could succeed under the oral method.”4 There were only three Deaf men attending: Joseph Thèobald, Claudius Forestier, and an American, James Denison. The congress selected Giulio Tarra as the president by acclamation. He was director of the Provincial School for the Poor in Milan and deeply committed to oralism. Tarra addressed the assembly. “To teach speech successfully we must have courage and with a resolute blow cut cleanly between speech and sign. . . . Who would dare say that these disconnected and crude signs that mechanically reproduce objects and actions are the elements of a language? I know that my pupil has only a few imperfect signs, the rudiments of an edifice that should not exist, a few crumbs of a bread that has no consistency and can never suffice for nourishing his soul, a soul that cries out for a moral and social existence.”5 All but the Americans voted for a resolution exalting the dominant oral language and disbarring the sign language whatever the nation: (1) The congress, considering the incontestable superiority of speech over signs, for restoring Deaf-mutes to social life and for giving them greater facility in language, declares that the method of articulation should have preference over that of signs in the instruction and education of the Deaf and dumb, and (2) Considering that the simultaneous use of signs and Ethnic Affiliation in the Deaf-World

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speech has the disadvantage of injuring speech, lipreading and precision of ideas, the congress declares that the pure oral method ought to be preferred. In the second half of the nineteenth century, Italy was in the thrall of a national movement, the Risorgimento, which sought political and linguistic unification of the peninsula. This may have contributed to the fervor of the Italian leaders who were so hostile toward a sign language in their midst and so committed to fostering a single language, Italian.

1883. Third International Congress on the Deaf, Brussels, August 13–21 The Third International Congress on the Deaf, held in Brussels three years after the Milan Congress, had to be aborted because of the strife that it—and nationalist sentiment—engendered. Belgium was forged as a nation from singularly diverse provinces, and contains a language boundary between Latin-derived French and Germanic Flemish Dutch. This may have contributed to the fractious proceedings. Two hundred and fifty people attended the Brussels Congress on the Deaf, the largest yet. The majority wanted to avoid reopening the question of methods; the more so as the local Belgian president of the meeting openly favored the combined system and many local schools followed that method. But the minority wanted the same silence, for fear of a reaffirmation of Milan. Many delegates desired a resolution that affirmed the right of all Deaf children to an education, and some wanted model schools, teacher-training programs, and evaluation. But the clerical majority saw that these were steps along the way to urge Deaf schools to move from the Ministry of the Interior (welfare) to the Ministry of Public Instruction—indeed that was the logical outcome of the hearing-oriented pedagogy since Milan—and they fought bitterly to prevent these questions from reaching the floor. The meeting degenerated into a brawl: speakers were ignored or shouted down, groups met impromptu in the audience, and all this even in the presence of the King of Belgium. Little was achieved in the first few days of the meeting and when the German delegation proposed Frankfurt as the site of the next congress, the French sent up such an uproar that the chairman was powerless to bring the meeting to order. He finally ended the congress two days early, ordering that his farewell speech be printed in the minutes. There seem to have been no Deaf voting members and no interpreters provided.

1900. Fourth International Congress on the Deaf (hearing section), Paris, August 6–8 The dates of the congress were chosen to coincide with the Paris Universal Exposition, a display of international achievements in the nineteenth century that drew forty-three million visitors. The congress proper had a hearing section and a Deaf section. There were 186 hearing delegates from fourteen countries. The chairman of the overall congress was Dr. Jules-François Ladreit de Lacharrière, chief physician at Saint-Jacques and founder of a French journal of otology. In the preface to a textbook on speech teaching, Ladreit de Lacharrière later wrote: “The Deaf-mute is by nature fickle and improvident, subject to idleness, drunkenness, and debauchery, 142 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

easily duped and readily corrupted.”6 The faculty of Saint-Jacques were so aggrieved by his appointment to head the organizing committee for the 1900 Paris Congress that teachers from all three national institutions walked out on the planning meetings and boycotted the congress. An even graver irregularity was the decision, a year before the congress, to separate the Deaf meeting from the hearing meeting. The ministerial delegate for all congresses at the exposition stated that he regretted the planning committee’s decision; rather than a Deaf section and a hearing section, he would have preferred one on teaching and another on welfare. The Deaf spokesman, Henri Gaillard, editor of a newspaper for the Deaf, warmly agreed—but Ladreit de Lacharrière refused integrated sessions, arguing that they would be too long and confusion would arise from the near-simultaneous translation of sign to speech and vice versa. Gaillard then proposed a common meeting merely at the end of the congress to debate and vote on the resolutions. The doctor rejected that as well. Then the Deaf planners met and decided that their choice was to give in or attempt to disrupt plans for the congress; they chose to give in. In fact, the president had little choice. Because there were many more Deaf delegates than hearing, in a joint meeting the Deaf could obtain the endorsement of the congress for any resolution on which they were united, and they were united—almost to a man—on the evils of pure oralism, the merits of sign, the wisdom of Deaf marriages, and the need for Deaf teachers. The entire oral revolution could be undone! Then, too, even if the hearing delegates had been in the majority, most of their leaders were vehemently opposed to an airing of the wishes of the Deaf concerning their own welfare. As one hearing delegate put it: “Since when do we consult the patient on the nature of his treatment?” The opening ceremonies of the congress were held jointly. “Although there are no more adversaries of the oral method,” Dr. Ladreit de Lacharrière told his hearing and Deaf audience of some four hundred, “we cannot ignore the fact that many are asking why the method hasn’t produced everything expected of it. But in public schools,” he argued, “we do not indict the method if some pupils do not learn to read. We blame the inadequacy of the pupils.”7 Whence he concluded that educators need to make a better selection of their Deaf pupils. Ladreit de Lacharrière held forth as the goal of the congress to establish a triage of the Deaf pupils based on intelligence. First, the inferior students would be turned toward agriculture. Then, those with mediocre aptitude would be trained for artisanal jobs as at present (shoemaking, woodworking, and the like). Finally, the gifted students should be prepared for higher instruction. “Let us be realistic,” he said, “in the last twenty years I have found this rare, third type of pupil only in the private schools, which are inaccessible to the social class with modest means. If the program of the deaf section differs from our own,” the president continued, “we will have no difficulty showing who has the truth on his side.” “Many Deaf people here were educated,” he explained, “before the advent of oralism. Their tendency is to isolate themselves from the world of speaking people, and everyone recognizes that they are slowing down the progress we desire for their class. We cannot criticize the use of sign among them any more than we can criticize those who speak Provençal, Basque, or Breton dialects [sic], but that does not prevent us from Ethnic Affiliation in the Deaf-World

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reserving for our schools the language of Bossuet, Corneille, and Victor Hugo. But I want to stress,” he added, “that we walk hand in hand with the deaf section.” Four oralists were elected as vice presidents, including the omnipresent Eugène Pereire, and also Auguste Houdin. Edward Miner Gallaudet, president of Gallaudet College for the Deaf in Washington, DC, rose to call the Milan declarations a great error. He showed how unrepresentative that congress had been, yet “its decisions have been cited for twenty years as if they had the weight of a judgment of the Supreme Court.” Now this congress, he said, is no more representative: anyone with ten francs can vote. Milan decided nothing, for the controversy rages. Nor can this congress decide such issues. There should be an open exchange of ideas and the use of friendly persuasion without voting. He read a resolution to that effect and asked the endorsement of the congress. Whereupon Dr. Ladreit de Lacharrière declared—while giving no one else an opportunity to express an opinion or submit the proposal to a vote—that the proposition was rejected by the congress, which was forthwith adjourned until the afternoon. At the start of the second of six sessions, Oscar Claveau (1826–1904), inspector of welfare establishments for the French Ministry of the Interior, asked as a point of order for the congress to reaffirm explicitly that the right to vote was reserved to hearing delegates and any speaking Deaf person: “This principle is no doubt already in the minds of everyone as it is inadmissible to grant the right to vote to people who cannot follow the discussions.” Claveau requested that the first question on the agenda be deleted. The question asked whether institutions for the Deaf were to be considered as schools or as welfare programs. This was the ticklish issue of ministries that Claveau had been beating down successfully for some thirty years. There arose a furious debate but Claveau was the spokesman for the religious establishment whose delegates were in the majority—and in the end he had his way and the topic was struck. Gallaudet rose to affirm that oralism had not fulfilled its promises and he raised the question of whose testimony should carry the most weight in determining whether it had kept its promises—or not. The teachers? But they are partisan and too familiar with their own pupils’ speech to make an accurate judgment. Friends and acquaintances of the Deaf? But they, too, adjust to the poor speech and gestures of the orally taught pupil. Strangers? Their testimony is more important. But the greatest weight should be given to the views of the Deaf themselves.8 Those remarks were bitterly denounced by the oralist teachers who had repeatedly excluded the views of the Deaf. Gallaudet raised the question of whether oralist educators were defective morally. He stated that they were engaged in a cover-up. It was hardly possible that these teachers were deceiving themselves about the poor fruits of oralism, so it must be that they intended to deceive everyone else. Swiss and German delegates followed him in affirming that oralism has no application to the truly Deaf and that it had not kept its promises. In the afternoon, oralists and their opponents exchanged blows. Claveau appealed for “the same cry that rang out twenty years earlier. Long live speech!” Finally Edward 144 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Fay, vice president of Gallaudet College, presented a resolution in behalf of the combined system: choose the method to suit the pupil but teach speech to all who can profit. The director of the oral school at Asnières began by reading the conclusions of the Milan Congress and then presented a resolution of his own reaffirming pure oralism. When the question was called, the combined system received only seven votes while nearly everyone else voted for the second resolution: “The congress, considering the incontestable superiority of speech over signs for restoring the Deaf-mute and for giving him a more perfect knowledge of language, declares that it maintains the conclusions of the Milan Congress.” The president then read a letter from the Deaf section proposing that they present their resolutions for review by the hearing and vice versa in a joint session. Ladreit de Lacharrière refused, stating that it would be a waste of time since there was no easy and useful way for the two sections to meet together. Gallaudet rose trembling with rage: “If I am in the minority of the hearing section, I am in the majority in the section of the Deaf, and proud of it. It is inadmissible that you refuse to speak with the Deaf. They have as much awareness of their rights, as much discernment, and as much determination as you do! They are the first to be affected by these proceedings, they have the right to be heard. I protest your attitude!”9 The last day of the congress opened with a motion by Gallaudet to alter the resolutions to read correctly: it is not the congress that considers speech incontestably superior to sign but the hearing section that does. The motion was defeated. Gallaudet then proposed a joint final session with the Deaf. Refused. He asked permission to read the resolutions of the Deaf section. Refused. Most of the Deaf at the congress had been taught that sign was contemptible and should be shunned. Thirteen of the fifteen leaders of the Deaf section could speak and had been educated in oral schools. Yet the Deaf all communicated in sign language. Likewise, the hearing members had to rely on the language of the Deaf and find an interpreter when they wanted to converse with a Deaf person. “Nevertheless, these hearing men were too obtuse, too self-satisfied, too blind,” wrote an American Deaf leader, “to see what consummate fools they were making of themselves.”10 The Deaf section debated and resolved on a score of issues, among them the exclusion of the Deaf from joint meetings with the hearing section regarding methods of instruction, art and industrial teaching in the schools, higher education, the Deaf as teachers, homes for the aged, results of pure oral teaching, careers and professions for the Deaf, and much more. But the first resolution and the one clearly dearest to all hearts in the Deaf section was a call for the combined system of education in which both speech and sign play a role. It had been rejected almost unanimously by the hearing section, although it was adopted unanimously by the Deaf.

Congresses of the Deaf 1889 International Congress of the Deaf, Paris 1893 International Congress of the Deaf, Chicago 1896 International Congress of the Deaf, Geneva 1900 International Congress of the Deaf, Paris (Deaf section) Ethnic Affiliation in the Deaf-World

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1889. International Congress of Deaf, Paris, July 11–17 The international congresses of the Deaf were launched in reaction to the banishment of sign decreed by hearing authorities in Milan. The first International Congress of the Deaf took place in Paris in July of 1889. It was sponsored by the Association Amicale des sourds-muets de la Seine. There were 170 participants, most of them Deaf, arriving from throughout Europe, as well as from the US. There were, however, few Germans and no Italians. There were teachers of the Deaf, journalists, clergy, and artists, among others. The organizing committee was made up of Deaf luminaries and activists: Chambellan, Dusuzeau, Théobald, Dubois (all from Saint-Jacques), as well as Genis, Martin, and Desperriers. Dusuzeau was elected president. In the congress and the banquets, Deaf leaders insisted that sign language was the most suitable means of developing the intelligence of Deaf school children and they denounced the oralist agenda. Suppressing sign language, an American delegate named Thomas Fox observed, leads to the social isolation of the Deaf person. He also acknowledged the key role of Laurent Clerc in founding American Deaf education. Other themes of the meeting included family life and Deaf marriage, preparing for a trade, and law and the Deaf. The final resolutions concerned the role of sign language, the right to marry, and professional education for the Deaf. Two days were set aside for cultural activities. First came a visit to Versailles, birthplace of the abbé de l’Épée. Next, a visit to the Church of Saint-Roch in Paris, where Épée is buried. Then, a visit to a nearby location where the Association Amicale had posted two plaques, marking the place where Épée’s home had been located. In the evening there was a splendid Deaf banquet. Dusuzeau rose to proclaim, in honor of Épée: “Oh, father, look at your Deaf children from all parts of the world, joined in the same feeling of respect, gratitude and love, they bless your name and glorify your memory. Honor to abbé de l’Épée! Long live abbé de l’Épée!” Honoring founders, narrating legends, visiting cultural sites—these are among the hallmarks of ethnic groups.11 The International Congress of DeafMutes, gathered at the Gardens of Versailles Palace, 1889. (Courtesy of Gallaudet University Archives)

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1893. International Congress of Deaf, Chicago, July 17, 19, 21, and 24 The second International Congress of the Deaf was held in Chicago in July 1893 on the occasion of the Universal Exposition and concurrent with the fourth convention of the US National Association of the Deaf. There were fifteen hundred participants from six countries, about half of them Deaf. For the French delegation, Henri Gaillard, editor-in-chief of the Gazette des sourds-muets, assembled an organizing committee comprised of Henri Genis (1835–1928), president of the Association amicale des sourdsmuets, René Vavasseur-Desperriers (1860–1929), vice president of that Association, and Joseph Chazal (ca. 1865–aft. 1935), a young Deaf activist. To raise funds to send six Deaf delegates to the US, the French organizing committee sponsored a party. The city of Paris also contributed. More than three hundred French Deaf registered to participate in an election of delegates. Four of the members of the organizing committee were elected, as were Émile Mercier, businessman, and Félix Plessis, sculptor. At the opening banquet, Edward Miner Gallaudet (son of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet) addressed the gathering with a signed discourse on the Deaf and the power of their organizations. (The talk was also read aloud for hearing participants.) Gallaudet called the propagation of oralism disastrous for Deaf education, and said it had gained the upper hand in Italy and France by “accidental means”—a remark greeted with wild applause. “The majority of parents,” Gallaudet said, “seem to prefer that their children speak imperfectly than that they acquire intellectual knowledge.” All intelligent and fair-minded people who have worked for our cause agree that the language of signs is the most essential element in the complete education of the Deaf, even on the oral plan. He gave long and detailed praise of Deaf teachers and attacked their exclusion from schools for the Deaf. The president of the congress, a Deaf chemist, George Dougherty, called attention “to the greatest menace confronting the American Deaf, pure oralism.”12 Alexander Graham Bell spoke next; surprisingly, he did not defend his views on oralism and Deaf marriage, perhaps he knew how poorly they would be received. Instead, he offered observations on school administration. In the congress proper, Chazal spoke on Deaf societies, which had been proliferating in France. He argued for a federation of French Deaf societies, which came about in 1896, followed by the Union of Deaf People, founded in 1895. Genis spelled out the case for the importance of sign language and Capon decried the exclusion of the Deaf from the teaching corps at Saint-Jacques. Gaillard criticized religious orders that were too quick to change to oralism in the Deaf schools. The French Deaf delegates were taken aback by how much their American counterparts had accomplished socially and educationally—and that despite the wealth and prestige of Alexander Graham Bell arrayed against them. French delegates were particularly struck and “humiliated” (their term) by the participation of many intelligent and charming Deaf women; Deaf women were still interned in France and were allowed no part in social or political gatherings. The Chicago International Congress of the Deaf, like its successor in Geneva three years later, resolved in favor of the combined system of instruction. The Geneva meeting also called for the rehiring of Deaf professors and for an end to the teaching of manual labor in Deaf schools. An Italian delegate at Geneva described Italy as “weeping at the sight of so many poor Deaf-mutes who leave school speaking like parrots with no understanding of what they are saying.”13 Ethnic Affiliation in the Deaf-World

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1896. International Congress of the Deaf, Geneva, August 19–23 Although it styled itself as an international congress of the Deaf, attendance at the meeting held in Geneva in 1896 was largely French and Swiss. It lasted two and a half days. A central issue was the impact of oralism on Deaf children and community. The Italian Ministry of Public Instruction—the same ministry that had organized the Milan Congress—sent Francisco Micheloni, who favored using both sign language and the written language in the classroom. Ernest Dusuzeau, an ardent advocate of sign language, rejected the assumption that the Deaf could only work with their hands. If the Deaf received the same quality of education as the hearing, they would achieve similarly. He also called for adult education of the Deaf. Henri Genis reported that teachers in oral schools found they had to use sign language to teach various subjects, so they did so secretively as it was prohibited. Desperriers lamented the loss of Deaf teachers in schools for the Deaf. He cited the success of some of the Deaf intelligentsia—Berthier, Chambellan, Martin, Capon, Cochefer—who had been educated with sign language. Mercier observed that the schools, in insisting on oralism, had foreclosed most careers to Deaf people. He asked that they continue to hire Deaf dormitory staff and domestic workers.14 In its resolutions, the congress favored a “mixed method”—sign language, lipreading, and spoken language. It called on all countries to establish colleges for the Deaf, as the United States had done in 1864. The congress called for retirement homes for the elderly Deaf and for the Deaf infirm. The French delegation called for transferring Deaf schools under the aegis of the Ministry of the Interior (welfare) to the Ministry of Public Instruction (schools).

1900. International Congress of the Deaf, Paris (Deaf section), August 6–8 The Deaf section had 219 participants from eleven countries. The president and vice-president of the Deaf organizing committee were, Ernest Dusuzeau and Émile Mercier, respectively. Many of the Deaf militants were on the organizing committee as well. A year before the Paris conference, the decision was taken to have a hearing section and a Deaf one. When the president of the congress, an otologist, refused to allow Deaf participation in the hearing section, the Deaf planners met and decided to comply rather than attempt to disrupt plans for the congress (see 1900 Paris Congress on the Deaf). Then came the turn of Ernest Dusuzeau, head of the Deaf section, who spoke in French Sign Language and was interpreted into French. “There have been many congresses aimed at improving our lot,” he said, “but none of them has been satisfactory.” He asked the audience to join him in homage to Dr. Ladreit de Lacharrière. “We have no objection,” he explained, “to the search for improvements in the oral method. Why would we? Speech is obviously the greatest gift of all gifts for we who do not hear. We ask only one thing: that our natural language, the language of signs, be not sacrificed for spoken language.”15 The Deaf section presented twenty resolutions; all were approved save one that called for training parents to teach speech at home as in school. Dusuzeau called for the use of the combined method in school (sign as well as speech). Vavasseur-Desperriers wanted the teaching profession reopened to Deaf people. Victor Lagier (1864–1942) 148 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

advocated for high schools for Deaf youth. Eugène Graff wanted the government to set aside some posts for Deaf people in its ranks. Next came whether institutions for the Deaf were to be considered as schools or as welfare programs. This was the ticklish issue of ministries that Claveau had been beating down successfully for some thirty years. There arose a furious debate in which Claveau was opposed by the president and others, but he was the spokesman for the religious establishment whose delegates were in the majority and in the end he had his way. Most of the Deaf at the congress had been taught that sign was contemptible and should be shunned. Thirteen of the fifteen leaders of the Deaf section could speak and had been educated in oral schools. Yet the Deaf all communicated in sign language. The Deaf section debated and resolved on a score of issues, among them the exclusion of the Deaf from joint meetings with the hearing section, methods of instruction, art and industrial teaching in the schools, higher education, the Deaf as teachers, homes for the aged, results of pure oral teaching, and careers and professions for the Deaf. A Deaf delegate from the United States captured the sentiment of the Deaf section when he cited the Declaration of Independence, affirming, “Government derives its power from consent of the governed—but not when it comes to the affairs of the Deaf.” Here there are two congresses, he said, and two conclusions; the governed demand one thing, the governing authority, another. “We protest in vain. Our petitions addressed to governments receive no response,” a Deaf leader protested, “our resolutions at national and international congresses are ignored. . . . If you ask hearing educators how they can act in utter disregard of the wishes of the Deaf, they answer that we do not know our own best interest. If that were true, then they have failed in the first objective of education, which is to enable the student to think and judge for himself. . . . In fact, the Deaf are in a better position to judge these issues than the hearing. They know what it is to be Deaf, they know what it is to have only a single method available for education, and they know what it is to be forever blocked in their legitimate demands.”16 But the Deaf did not have—do not have—the final word. The final word, as always, came from their hearing benefactors. As the new century dawned on Deaf education after the Paris meeting, this representative report came from an American delegate: “The oral method has been weighed in the balance—and it may be believed weighed conscientiously and with all fairness—and it is not found wanting.” Whereas Milan was a hope, he said, Paris was a conclusion—a verdict after trial. “The action of Paris will have the chief effect . . . to confirm the faith of those who practice oral education of the Deaf. The question of methods,” he concluded, “is practically retired from the field of discussion.”17

Deaf Press “Here’s to the press,” Berthier proclaimed, raising his glass at a Deaf banquet. “She works miracles, giving voice to those who have so long been mute. The press protects us and we turn to her when the ignorant deny that our equal intelligence gives us equal rights in the great human family.”18 The press fulfills several roles in ethnic groups. In its pages, the reader finds ethnic affirmation, as well as news, products, and services, both ethnic and mainstream. The Deaf press is all the more important to the sign language minority as its members Ethnic Affiliation in the Deaf-World

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frequently work in mainstream settings and cannot engage in incidental learning at work. Then, too, graduates of the residential schools, where Deaf ethnicity was hatched, found in the Deaf press news of their schoolmates and teachers. The early French Deaf newspapers reported on Deaf meetings and congresses, national and international, on Deaf leaders and the achievements of Deaf artists, and on marriages (Deaf-Deaf marriages were especially warmly received). Readers also found in these publications disputes over the role of speech and religion in Deaf education, as well as scathing attacks on other Deaf newspapers and character assassinations of their publishers. Numerous articles in the early press testify to the frustration of the Deaf elite faced with the disasters of Milan and Paris. At a time when solidarity was most needed, extensive in-fighting might seem surprising but it is a truth often observed that when an ethnic group cannot safely express its anger to its overlords, it will express that anger instead to its peers in “horizontal” violence. We describe here a selection of early Deaf newspapers, with their publishers and start and end dates (table 7). Most publishers cited here also appear in the biographical sketches of Deaf persons (chapter 2).

Table 7. Selected Early Deaf Newspapers, Their Publishers, and Start and End Dates

Title L’abbé de l’Épée, journal des sourds et des sourds-muets L’Ami des sourds-muets Les Annales françaises des sourds-muets L’Avenir des sourds-muets Bienfaiteur des sourds-muets et des aveugles Bulletin de la société centrale d’éducation et d’assistance pour les sourds-muets en France Bulletin de la société universelle des sourds-muets

Years Active 1888–1889 1838–1843 1898 1894–1896 1853–1856 1874–1876

Editor-in-Chief B. Dubois J. Piroux G. Bertoux P. Villanova Abbé Daras B. Dubois

1870

Le Courrier français des sourds-muets

1887–1888

Défense des sourds-muets (seq Le Courrier français des sourds-muets) Écho de la société d’appui fraternel des sourds-muets de France Écho de famille (seq. to Écho Magazine) L’Écho des sourds-muets: Journal sous le patronage de la Société d’appui fraternel des sourds-muets France Silencieuse: Supplément littéraire illustré de la Gazette des sourds-muets La Gazette des sourds-muets (successor to l’abbé de l’Épée, journal des sourds et sourds-muets) Journal de l’instruction des sourds-muets et des aveugles Le Journal des sourds-muets

1884–1886 1889–1890 1908–1996 1901–1906

B. Dubois, F. Berthier, C. Forestier J. Turcan, J. Cochefer J. Turcan J. Cochefer A. Lemesle H. Gaillard

1894

R. Desperriers

1890–1895

H. Rémy

1826–1827 1894–1906

République de demain Revue pédagogique de l’enseignement des sourds-muets Revue des sourds-muets Sincérité Sourd-muet illustré La Silencieuse (seq. to République de demain) France des sourds-muets

1899–1900 1899–1900 1906–1931 1887 1897–1899 1898 1902–1907

R. A. Bébian H. Gaillard, H. Genis, H. Desmarest H. Gaillard H. Gaillard H. Gaillard L. Rémond J. Berthet H. Gaillard J. Turcan

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Bulletin de la société universelle des sourds-muets (published 1870) The Bulletin was the first Deaf periodical in France; it was the house organ of the Société universelle—a sequel to Berthier’s 1838 Société centrale. (A house organ is a periodical published by an organization primarily for its employees.) The publisher, Benjamin Dubois (1817–aft. 1900), was a professor at Saint-Jacques; he was termed by his peers “oral Deaf.” Front page of Bulletin de la société universelle des sourdsmuets, the first Deaf periodical published by Deaf people in 1867. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)

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Naturally, the Bulletin gave particular coverage to the activities of the society that funded it. Further, it brought together in one place varied information about the Deaf-World. Its principal contributors were: Ferdinand Berthier (retired dean of the Saint-Jacques Deaf faculty); Claudius Forestier, director of the Lyon school; Alphonse Lenoir, former professor at Saint-Jacques: Bruno Braquehais, photographer at Saint-Jacques; and Edouard Guillot de Saint-Prix, artist, among many other Deaf elite. The two great monthlies in the formative years of French Deaf culture, the late nineteenth century, were the Gazette des sourds-muets and the Écho de famille.

La Gazette des sourds-muets (1890–1895) Henri Rémy (1867–1895) founded a Deaf society in Nancy and a Deaf journal. The society was named Association fraternelle des sourds-muets de l’Est. The journal, Gazette des sourds-muets, was a successor to the journal Abbé de l’Épée, which had just ended publication. The Gazette was the official organ of the Fédération des sociétés françaises de sourds-muets, which was made up of local associations. Rémy had invited his friend Henri Gaillard to edit the Gazette while he, Rémy, managed the business end. Gaillard, president of the Association amicale des sourds-muets de France, successor to Berthier’s Société centrale, reasoned that the goals of the Gazette and those of his association—to block oralism and promote an awareness of the Deaf way—were the same and therefore he provided some funding for the journal (in addition to the funding from Deaf Parisians). Nevertheless, the Gazette ran out of funds in 1894 and a year later Rémy died.

Écho de famille (1908–1996) The publisher, Alexandre Lemesle (1856–1939), was director of the Poitier Deaf school and a Frère de Saint-Gabriel. The Écho was founded to help maintain ties between the school and its alumni but it evolved into a national publication. The Écho de famille represented the Fédération des associations d’anciens élèves des écoles chrétiennes des sourds-muets (Federation of alumni associations of Christian schools for the Deaf). In 1948, it became the Union des amicales des anciens élèves des écoles libres de sourds-muets, and in 1996, the name of the magazine changed to Écho magazine. The Fédération des sociétés françaises de sourds-muets was highly critical of its Catholic counterpart which sought to maintain its influence even after pupils passed out of school and into the adult world.

Écho de la société d’appui fraternel des sourds-muets de France (1889–1900) This Écho magazine (no relation to Écho de famille) was the house organ of a mutualist society (a retirement fund) and a forum for opinion, pitting the innovators against conservatives such as Benjamin Dubois and the leadership of the Association amicale des sourds-muets de France. (In 1906, Écho des sourds-muets (1901–1906) became Revue des sourds-muets, 1906–1931.) 152 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Front page of La Gazette des sourds-muets. (Courtesy of Gallaudet University Archives)

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Défense des sourds-muets (1884–1886) The publisher, Joseph Turcan (1857–?) graduated from the Marseille school for the Deaf and founded the journal La Défense des sourds-muets in 1884, a reaction to the Milan edicts. Turcan’s journal was republican (in support of the values of the French Revolution), anticlerical (opposed to the influence of the clergy), and anti-oralist. For example, we read in that journal: “Oralism makes idiots of our poor Deaf children . . .” and Oscar Claveau, representative of the Ministry of the Interior, is accused there of destroying the intelligence and the soul of Deaf children. Sequel: Le Courrier français des sourds-muets (1887–1888), a periodical supporting the movement favoring sign languages. This is the first true journal of the Deaf with widespread subscribers, and not merely a house organ.19

Le Journal des sourds-muets (1894–1906) The publisher, Henri Gaillard (1894–1906), saw that the development of a silent press was key to the cohesion required by the development of the Deaf-World. He founded and directed the Gazette des sourds-muets, the Journal des sourds-muets, the Revue des sourds-muets, and the Écho des sourds-muets. Moreover, he published several brochures critical of oralism. Most of the printing was done in a shop on rue d’Alesia in Paris, a print shop with Deaf workers, founded by Gaillard, with financial help from wealthy Deaf persons. The Écho des sourds-muets (1901) became Revue des sourds-muets (1906– 1931). Gaillard founded La silencieuse (1898); in 1899, it became La République de demain. In his journals, Gaillard relates the life of the associations, politics, and critiques of other Deaf organizations.

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Front page of Le Journal des sourdsmuets. (Courtesy of Gallaudet University Archives)



155

Front page of La France silencieuse. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)

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Notes to chapter 3

1. Ludovic Goguillot, Comment on

fait parler les sourds-muets (Paris: G. Masson, 1889), 50–51. 2. Harlan Lane, When the Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf (New York: Random House, 1984), 387. 3. Lane, When the Mind Hears, 388–89. 4. Lane, 391. 5. Lane, 393. 6. Lane, 407. 7. Lane, 409.

8. 9. 10. 11.

Lane, 411. Lane, 412. Lane, 412. Anne T. Quartararo, Deaf Identity and Social Images in Nineteenth-Century France (Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press, 2008), 170. 12. Lane, When the Mind Hears, 406. 13. Lane, 406. 14. Quartararo, Deaf Identity, 177. 15. Lane, When the Mind Hears, 410.

16. Lane, 413. 17. Lane, 413–14. 18. Andrea Benvenuto and Didier

Séguillon, “Des premiers banquets des sourds-muets à l’avènement du sport silencieux 1834–1924: Pour une histoire politique des mobilisations collectives des sourd,” in La nouvelle revue de l’adaptation et de la scolarisation 64 (4e trimestre 2013), 142. 19. Lane, When the Mind Hears, 404.

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4

Founders in the Arts

A 

t the outset of modern Deaf history in the mid-eighteenth century, Deaf artists played an important role in creating awareness in the larger society of the abbé de l’Épée’s pioneering efforts and those of his successor, abbé Sicard. At the same time, works by Deaf artists bore testimony to the affiliative bonds among Deaf people and to their normalcy. Thus, for example, one of Épée’s Deaf pupils was a painter, another a sculptor; each presented a Deaf person’s vision of “the father of the Deaf ” (chapter 2). Deaf artists have been expressing the Deaf experience since the beginning of recorded Deaf history in eighteenth-century France. Deaf artists, like other artists, have been strongly influenced by events in history, and their work reflects not only the individual perspective but also the universal experiences of an oppressed minority group. In the ensuing decades, promising young artists were often identified and nursed in the residential schools. After the Milan Congress, when most Deaf people could no longer work in education, many found employment in printing, and there were numerous outstanding Deaf artists and sculptors whose works were displayed at the prestigious annual Salon exhibits of French art, presented by the French Academy. In proportion to their numbers, Deaf people chose the arts for a career much more often than hearing people. Some Deaf artists wished to proselytize or celebrate Deaf culture, which was also why they signed their art works sourds-muets. Moreover, the Deaf found most other careers closed to them. But above all were the talents of the artists themselves. Research in recent decades has shown that people who grow up Deaf and use sign language have enhanced visual perception. A struggle faced by most ethnic minorities is to gain control of their representation in the minds of the public. Think of this as two courtiers competing for ownership of the Deaf “problem.” On the one hand, there is the professional establishment. In the formative years of French Deaf society, it pathologized social issues, thereby establishing a clientele and, in the minds of the public, justifying the need for intervention by hearing experts. One nineteenth-century otologist, Prosper Ménière, put it baldly: “The Deaf believe that they are our equals in all respects. We should be generous and not destroy that illusion. But whatever they believe, deafness is an infirmity and we should repair it whether the person who has it is disturbed by it or not.”1 On the other hand, there is the Deaf-World courtier, who contends that the issue is a social and not a medical one. He is Deaf and that adds credibility to his case. Berthier tactfully

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describes the standoff in his address to the French Academy of Medicine: “The topic that concerns you, gentlemen, rather than an ordinary medical issue is, above all, a lofty question of humanity and civilization which requires deep reflection, not only by doctors but by teachers, philosophers, and scholars.”2 Deaf founders saw that they were losing the battle. Dr. Itard’s barbaric experiments on Deaf students at Saint-Jacques, for example, could only be tolerated by a public with a pathological representation of Deaf people. Likewise, forcing Deaf children to speak French and never French Sign Language was undermining their education. The very existence of the Deaf-World was threatened, but what tools were available? A surprising choice was at hand: the arts.

Deaf Artists There were seventeen Deaf artists celebrated at the first Deaf banquet. Fréderic Peyson (1807–1877) was copresident. Consider, illustratively, his case for normalcy. He entered Saint-Jacques in 1817 and entered the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in 1826. He went on to study under the great masters such as Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. He was awarded the coveted Prix de Rome (the prize is a French scholarship for arts students). In 1846, there were 1.2 million visitors to the Salon. Ten Deaf artists submitted to the Salon of 1875; thirteen Deaf artists exhibited their work at the 1886 Salon. The Société centrale asked the Academy of Painting to show in the official catalog of the Salon when the artist was Deaf, just as it listed there the prizes and honors awarded. The Academy refused, so many Deaf artists resorted to signing sourd-muet or sourd directly onto the work.3 In the following catalogue, we list all of the French Deaf artists who were admitted to the Salon. The Salon originated in 1667 when the Royal Academy held a showing at the Louvre of works by its member artists. The practice continued across the centuries under the aegis of the Salon de l’Académie des Beaux-Arts. In 1881, the state charged the Société des artistes français with organizing annual salons, held since 1901 in the Grand Salon of the Palais du Louvre. The paintings and sculptures were juried and Medals of Honor—first, second, and third-class—were awarded to encourage artists. This tradition is referred to as the Salon. Several other Parisian salons spun off from this one. • •

•

•

Salon des Refusés. Starting in 1863, this salon presented a selection of the works that had been rejected that year by the official Paris salon. Salon des Indépendants, 1884. An annual independent art exhibition in Paris, established in response to the rigid traditionalism of the official governmentsponsored Salon. Salon du Champ-de-Mars. In 1890, a breakaway group of artists created the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and its own exhibition was referred to as the Salon du Champ-de-Mars. Salon d’Automne. In 1903, in response to what many artists at the time felt was a bureaucratic and conservative organization, a group of painters and sculptors

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•

organized this salon with the aim of encouraging young artists and promoting an awareness of Impressionism. Salon International des Artistes silencieux. This salon was founded in 1926 by V ­ alentin de Zubiaurre, a Spanish Deaf painter, and his friend, a French sculptor, François Crolard. On honorary titles: In 1808, Emperor Napoleon created the Officier d’académie title to honor eminent faculty of the university. L’ordre des palmes académiques is its sequel. There are three ranks: Chevalier, Officier, and Commandeur.4

Alavoine, Adèle (ca. 1803–aft. 1887) Alavoine was an engraver who designed a manual alphabet for the Deaf in 1827.

Arbaudie, Marie (ca. 1844–?) A former student at the Bordeaux school, her medium was paint on porcelain. She created a portrait of the abbé de l’Épée.

Aubert, Antoine (ca. 1783–1832/1836?) Aubert was born in Rouen but moved to Paris and worked there from 1808 to 1812. He studied under Alexandre Tardieu, an engraver. He also collaborated with the famous French engraver Auguste Desnoyers. Aubert is known for his engravings, mostly of portraits of prominent people, such as Napoleon I. He also engraved members of the Deaf-World, such as the abbé de l’Épée, abbé Sicard, Jean Massieu, and Laurent Clerc. Gallaudet University owns four of his engraved portraits, entitled “Four famous teachers of the deaf,” in a booklet published about 1800. His engravings were exhibited at the 1810 Salon. In addition, Aubert taught engraving at the Paris school.

Baudeuf, René-Hippolyte-François (1869–?) Baudeuf was born in Blida, Algeria (a former French colony). He made a drawing of the tomb of the abbé de l’Épée at the Church of Saint-Roch for the centennial celebration of Épée’s death. Baudeuf was educated under Jules Lefebvre, Gustave Boulanger, and Gaston-Casimir Saint-Pierre at the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris. Several of his drawings were exhibited at the Salon in 1887 and 1888.

Berton, Armand (1854–1927) Berton was born in Paris and studied at the École de dessin et de mathématiques in 1870. His first teacher was Alexandre Laemlein. When he entered the École des Beaux-Arts in 1872, his teacher was Aimé Millet. However, Berton fell ill and became Deaf. He went to many great museums in Paris. Later, he was invited to join in the studio of Alexandre Cabanel who became his teacher for several years. His first debut at the Salon was in 1875; it was a watercolor of Le Hameau de la folie, près Houdan (Seine-et-Oise). His work was not restricted to watercolor; he developed his skills in oil painting and

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drawing. From 1877 through 1890, his works were exhibited repeatedly and applauded. They were mainly focused on portraits of women and studies of nude women, especially a series called La toilette. At the Salon of 1882, he was awarded a third-class medal; with the funds he traveled to Belgium, the Netherlands, and Italy. In 1887, he was recognized with a second-class medal and in 1899 with a bronze medal. Berton’s work appears in many world-class museums. Berton’s last display at the Salon was in 1890. In 1891, he showed at the Salon du Champ-de-Mars; among 229 famous artists, Berton was the only Deaf participant. Berton created four paintings titled Water, Air, Fire, and Earth, which were much admired. The Paris City Hall Paris purchased Water, which is hanging in its Salle des Sciences. He continued displaying his work at the Salon du Champ-de-Mars until 1910. His works have been exhibited at the Salon des artistes silencieux as well. In 1892, Berton earned a gold medal and in 1910 the distinction of Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur.

Bézu, Octave (1811–1881) Bézu was born in Bourbonne-les-Bains and attended Saint-Jacques; however, he was expelled in 1830, as was Jules Imbert. Bézu studied under Paul Delaroche and Michel Martin Drolling. Around 1842, he did a pastel of Ferdinand Berthier, president of the Société centrale des sourds-muets. In addition, he exhibited his work at the Salon in 1842 with his portrait titled Portrait de M.T.B. (M.T.B. was president of the Société centrale) and in five other salons in the next eight years.

Boclet, Augustine-Armand-Désiré (1800–1874) Boclet studied to become an engraver and was employed at the War Ministry. He engraved portraits of David Comberry, abbé de l’Épée, abbé Sicard, and abbé Jean SaintSernin and produced a manual alphabet both in English and French. Also, he was treasurer for the Société centrale des sourds-muets from 1838 to 1842.

Bouffière, Jeanne (1849–1919) Born in Autun, she studied under Dessart and Thoret to become a porcelain painter. She debuted her porcelain Bacchus et Ariadne at the Salon of 1878.

Boutelou, Louis-Alexandre (1761–?) Boutelou was a student of the abbé de l’Épée and studied engraving. He did a portrait of Cardinal Richelieu, and one of Joseph Chénier, a French poet. These engravings were part of the exhibition at the Musée universel des sourds-muets.

Brès, Félix Pierre Henri (1867–1942) Born in Marseille, Félix attended the Marseille school like his younger sister MarieThérèse. Later, he went to the École des Beaux-Arts and studied under Jean-Paul Laurens 162 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

and Benjamin Constant to learn painting, drawing, and lithography. In 1892, his work was displayed at the Salon de Paris. He continued receiving praise for his work in the fine arts, especially in drawing and lithography—works which were displayed again in 1895, 1896, 1899, and 1900, along with those of many other Deaf artists such as Armand Berton, Paul Choppin, Olivier Chéron, Fernard Hamar, René Hirsch, Felix Martin, and two Americans, Humphrey Moore and Granville Redmond. But in 1901, he abandoned lithography and started pastel painting of portraits and flowers. His last Salon de Paris display was in 1903, though he continued painting.

Brès, Marie-Thérèse Félicie (1875–?) Born in Marseille. Brès attended the Marseille school for some time. Her father enrolled her in a private boarding school for the Deaf children of rich families in Paris. The school’s director was Auguste Houdin, a deeply committed oralist. She learned science and arts. Her teacher was Jules Adler. Her paintings mainly focused on flowers in various colors, such as roses, daisies, chrysanthemums, dahlias, violets, sweet peas, carnations, tulips, anemones, pansies, and wallflowers. Some of her paintings have been displayed at the Salon in 1910 and 1914. She earned the distinction Officier d’Académie in 1912.

Cauchois, Henri-Victor (1868–1950) Cauchois studied with another engraver, Léon Lambert, under the famous Deaf engraver, Auguste Colas. At the 1890 Salon, Cauchois presented his lithograph of Un volontaire de 1792, based on a sculpture by Deaf sculptor Paul Choppin. It was expected that he would earn a prize but it did not happen. He started to sketch for the Deaf publication, La France Silencieuse, providing portraits of some famous Deaf people such as Émile Ginouvier and Henri Rémy.

Chéron, Olivier (1854–1935) Born in Soulangy, about thirty miles from Normandy, Chéron attended the oral school directed by Auguste Houdin in Passy (now a Parisian suburb). Chéron’s first two teachers were François Baranton (a former student of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres) and Jules Noël, a well-known maritime painter. Chéron’s first two marine and landscape paintings, Vue de Villiers (Calvados) and Vue de Cromas (Haute-Vienne) were exhibited at the Salon in 1880, and again in 1881. Due to Noël’s death, Chéron switched to new teachers, Jean-Alfred Desbrosses and Antoine Guillemet, both specialized in landscape painting. For the next two years, Chéron did not present any of his paintings: he focused on improving his artistic skills and traveled to Normandy and Brittany to paint more maritime paintings. For the next thirteen years straight (except 1889), he presented his marine paintings at the Salon. He was praised for his intelligence and persistent study of every detail, demonstrating a highly developed sense of nature. He traveled to Savoie and visited the Alps for his paintings as well. Works by American Deaf artists Douglas Tilden, Jacques Alexander, Granville Redmond, and Humphrey

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Moore were on display at the Salon in 1894 and 1895. Chéron returned to the Salon in 1899 and continued exhibiting his newly added works. In the early 1900s, he developed his skills in drawing and charcoal, under professors Auguste Allongé and Maxime Lalanne. The drawings were exhibited at the Salon as well. In 1908, Chéron received an honorable mention, and received the distinction Officier de l’instruction publique in 1912. He decided to show his works at two major events, the centennial anniversary of the abbé Sicard’s birth in 1922 and the founding of the Salon des artistes silencieux in 1926, both held in Paris. Apparently, his last exhibition at the Salon occurred in 1925.

Choppin, Paul-François (1856–1937) Born in Auteuil, now a Paris suburb, Choppin lost his hearing when he was two years old. He enrolled at Saint-Jacques in 1865 and proved to be a serious student of uncommon intelligence. Upon his graduation in 1873, he took courses at the École des Arts Décoratifs and the École des Beaux-Arts. His main teachers were François Jouffroy and Alexandre Falguière. While at the École des Arts Décoratifs, he had won two medals and two mentions. He also won three medals in the competition at the École des Beaux-Arts. Age nineteen, Choppin made his debut at the Paris Salon in 1877 with a plaster bust of Portrait de M. G. A. Though Choppin missed the 1878 Salon, he regularly attended from 1879 through 1914. There were many acclaimed sculpted works he made during these years. In 1886, he was awarded honorable mention for his statue Le génie des arts (The genius of the arts). This statue was bought by the French government and placed in a museum in Poitiers, but was soon destroyed. In the following year, Choppin became a member of the Société des artistes français. The city of Paris held an open competition for a statue honoring the famous physician and anthropologist, Paul Broca. Choppin won with a bronze statue, Dr. Paul Broca, which was seen at the Salon in 1887. Choppin feared that the jury would find out that he was Deaf. “If they do,” he confided to a friend, “they will not believe that I can be as talented as people who can hear and speak. Or my rivals will claim that the jury took pity on me.”5 In 1888, Choppin was again awarded a third-class medal, this time for his statue of Un vainqueur de la Bastille (one of those who took part in the famous conquest of the Bastille prison on July 14, 1789). This statue was bought by the city of Paris. Choppin participated in the 1889 Exposition Universelle as did Félix Martin. Choppin was recognized with a bronze medal for his bronze statue of Un volontaire de 92 (a soldier in a novel about the French Revolution). It was the highest prize received by the Deaf artists. This statue can be seen at the intersection of rue de la Xavée and rue de Charles-de-Gaulle in Remiremont, western France. There are two copies of this statue, one in the Fine Arts Museum in Reims and the other in the French Revolution Museum in Vizille. In 1884, Choppin made two bronze busts of directors at Saint-Jacques, Jules François René Ladreit de Lacharrière and Ernest Javal. In 1895, Choppin became Hamar’s teacher in sculpture for many years. Choppin also taught Douglas Tilden, an American Deaf sculptor. At the Salon of 1897, Choppin exhibited a bronze statue of the Laveuse (Washerwoman). The city of Paris bought it and placed it in Montsouris Park. In 1903, Choppin received the decoration Officier de l’instruction publique. During the 1909 inauguration of placing his Un 164 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Portrait of PaulFrançois Choppin, seated with his sculpture of Dr. Paul Broca, in 1887. (Courtesy of Gallaudet University Archives)

vainqueur de la Bastille at Square Parmentier (now known as Square Maurice-Gardette) in Paris, the city officials promoted Choppin to Officier d’Académie. Choppin was vice president of the Association amicale des sourds-muets en France in 1892. He was active in the bicentennial anniversary of the death of the abbé de l’Épée and in the Musée

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universel des sourds-muets. Located at Saint-Jacques, the museum presented paintings and sculptures by and of important figures in Deaf history. In 1914, Choppin presented a plaster bust of Jacob Rodrigues Pereire to the museum. Also, he made a bust of Gustave Baguer, the founder of the Institut Departmental des Sourds-Muets, located in Asnières-sur-Seine. Choppin made two medallions of the abbé de l’Épée, one in plaster and the other in bronze. Choppin’s Jeune garçon tirant de l’arc (Young boy drawing bow) is conserved at the museum in Roanne. Mort de Britannicus (Death of Britannicus, a Roman emperor) is located at Château-musée in Dieppe. A bust of Dr. Chaussier is at the museum in Côte-d’Or. His funerary monument of Adolphe Deslandres can be found at the Montmartre cemetery in Paris. Some of his sculptures were melted down during the Occupation in 1942. This includes La Marseillaise, Un vainqueur de la Bastille, La Laveuse, M. Lartigue, and Dr. Paul Broca. In 1904, Choppin married Marie Céine Reuché, a Deaf artist miniaturist painter. Choppin is interred at Passy cemetery in Paris.

Cochefer, Joseph Antoine (1849–1923) Cochefer was admitted to Saint-Jacques in 1859, when he was ten years of age. Cochefer joined the atelier of sculptor Auguste Dumont. Next, he worked at the architectural firm Mazarov-Ribalier from 1869 to 1889. Initially, he was one of the designers, but later he was promoted to deputy draftsman, then to librarian. He was responsible for decorative architecture at work. When his supervisor Mazarov left, Cochefer assumed new duties as a chief draftsman. He was also a member of the organizing committee for the centennial of the abbé de l’Épée’s death in 1789. Cochefer is known for his drawing of the building and bedroom of abbé de l’Épée, executed before the demolition of the house in 1876. Also, he did two drawings of the funerary monument related to the memory of the abbé de l’Épée. Cochefer was awarded the distinction Officier d’Académie.

Colas, Jean-Louis Auguste (1845–1915) Colas was Deaf from earliest childhood. He attended the Bourges school, but moved to Paris when he was admitted to Saint-Jacques. His Deaf teachers included Lenoir, Berthier, Pélissier, and Bonnefous. After he graduated, Colas was employed as art teacher at Saint-Jacques—he taught many Deaf students who became successful like Félix Brès, René Hirsch, and Henri-Victor Cauchois. René Hirsch became his friend and colleague while Colas was working as an illustrator for Henri Gaillard’s newspaper over the years. Colas was considered to be one of the finest lithographers practicing that art. He frequently attended meetings of several organizations and did social work with the Société centrale pour l’éducation et l’assistance des sourds-muets en France and the Association amicale des sourds-muets. Colas organized banquets celebrating the abbé de l’Épée’s birth. Additionally, he led the organization of two major events, the centennial of abbé de l’Épée’s death and the bicentennial of abbé de l’Épée’s birth (1889 and 1912, respectively). Colas’ first exhibition of his lithography, Un coin de village Nivernais at the 1887 Salon was the first of many to follow over the years. Perhaps the most famous was 166 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Combat de coqs en Flandre, based on Rémy Cogghe’s oil painting at the 1890 Salon. He made several engravings related to Saint-Jacques, such as the institution from a bird’seye view, the abbé de l’Épée’s statue, and Paul Grégoire’s portrait of the abbé de l’Épée, reproduced for mass distribution. Colas worked with Théophile Denis, the founder of the Museum of Deaf-Mutes, to organize its collection, cataloging artworks and exhibitions of Deaf artists. He donated a collection of his work to the museum. Colas was the manager of the periodical L’abbé de l’Épée–journal des sourds et des sourds-muets, founded by Benjamin Dubois.

Colas, Victor (1840–1918) Victor Colas was born in Clamecy, Nièvre. We have not discovered where he received his formal education or training. He probably started out at the Bourges school like his younger brother, Jean-Louis Auguste. Colas presented his drawing Portrait de M. V. Colas at the 1879 Salon. Colas chaired the organizing committee for the banquet celebrating the 178th anniversary of the abbé de l’Épée’s birth. He was also treasurer of the Société d’appui fraternel des sourds-muets de France in 1890. For the 200th anniversary of Épée’s birth, Colas’ watercolors were among the works of many artists displayed at the Museum of Deaf-Mutes at Saint-Jacques.

Crolard, Francois (1900–1977) Crolard was born in the province of Haute Savoie, near the Italian border and became deaf at an early age. He entered the Saint-Jacques school. He was intelligent but he also had private teachers at home. In 1918, he passed the required tests in drawing which resulted in his admission to the École des arts décoratifs. He studied mainly drawing and modeling and became very skilled in decorative sculpture. His teachers were Camille Lefèvre and M. le Maire. At the decorative arts school, Crolard won first prize in 1922. He continued studying at the École des Beaux-Arts. His teacher in sculpture for a year and a half was Jean Antoine Injalbert. He studied both painting and sculpture, with the emphasis on sculpture. Crolard also studied under Deaf sculptors such as Fernard Hamar and Léon Morice. Crolard entered his work at the Salon in 1921 for the first time, which he continued for the next two years. His works have been displayed in several important exhibitions such as the Salon des Tuilleries in 1926. In the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Saint-Jacques—in conjunction with anniversaries of abbé de l’Épée’s birth and other important Deaf events—arranged exhibitions to show off their former students’ artworks. There was an idea to create a Salon only for Deaf artists outside the school.6 The organizers included, in addition to Crolard, Marguerite Colas (the daughter of Jean-Louis Auguste Colas), Jean Hanau, Léon Morice, and two Spanish Deaf brothers, Ramon and Valentin Zubiaurre. The official exhibition lasted a fortnight in 1925 at the Galerie Reitlinger in Paris. Benefiting from the so-called Deaf Salon, they sought to formalize an organization to serve Deaf artists from around the world. The new name was, Salon international des artistes silencieux. The cofounders were Valentin Zubiaurre, Charles Boisselot, Fernard Hamar, Alfred Perdre, Bernard Pfeiffer, Jean Hanau, Marguerite Colas, and François Crolard; Crolard was president

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until 1951. He was also active in the Société centrale d’éducation et d’assistance pour les sourds-muets. He was also secretary general to arrange the 250th anniversary of the abbé de l’Épée’s birth. In 1954, Crolard received the distinctions Officier d’Académie and Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur.

D’Arragon, Adolphe Albert Henri (1862–1942) Born in Paris, Albert d’Arragon went to the Renard School there, which was using the Grosselin method to educate Deaf children in hearing classrooms. Trained by Aimé Millet and Georges Gardet in sculpture, d’Arragon exhibited a portrait medallion in plaster at the Salon in 1883, and on three other occasions. The last mention of him or his work was in 1890.

De la Croix, Pierre Frédéric (1709–1782) De la Croix was born Deaf in France. He moved to Hague in the Dutch Republic, known now as the Netherlands. He joined an academic club of artists, which was called Confrerie Pictura in 1753. He had no master, and so he was a self-taught portrait painter. His works are considered Dutch school. He painted many portraits, often of royalty and nobility, among them William V, the reigning prince of Orange and his sister Princess Carolina. He had a Deaf daughter Susanna (1755–1789), also a portrait painter. She married a Dutch painter, Jan van Os.

Dessales-Quentin, Robert (1885–1958) Dessales-Quentin was born in Périgueux and graduated from Saint-Jacques in 1904. Later, he went to the École des Beaux-Arts and studied under Jean-Paul Laurens. He frequently painted in oil and watercolors, mainly scenes from the Périgord region. In 1909, Dessales-Quentin exhibited at the Salon de Paris for the first time. He became a member of the Société des artistes français in 1920. His paintings have been exhibited at the Salon through the years up to 1939. He received an honorable mention in 1928 and Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in 1939. He attended the International Exhibition of Fine and Applied Arts by Deaf Artists, which was held at the Roerich Museum in New York City in 1934.

Duval, Marc (ca. 1530–1581) Son of a painter and sculptor, Marc and his brother were trained in their father’s workshop where they learned printmaking and engraving. He was employed by Charles IX, King of France and Henry III, King of Navarre as a portrait painter. Charles IX called Duval “Le Sourd,” saying he had deaf ears. Around 1550, Duval went to Florence, Italy, and worked under Giulio Clovior, who did the sculptural work at a palace. Later, Duval was appointed to do portraits of Catherine de Medici. Only a few of his paintings and some of his engravings have survived.

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Ebstein, Joseph Salomon (1881–1961) Ebstein was born in Batna, Algeria (a former French colony). He was admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts. His sculptor teachers were Louis-Ernest Barrias, Émile Peynot, and Jules Coutan. His debut at the Salon occurred in 1905 with his plaster bust Portrait de M. M. The next two years later, he presented a bust of L’Élu (The Elected), which received an honorable mention. In 1909, he became the member of the Société des artistes français. Ebstein participated in a competition for the Prix de Rome in 1910, in which he won the second prize. His works were mainly focused on military genres. In 1912, he received the honor Officier de l’instruction publique. At the Salon of 1923, he presented the statue of Illusion and received a silver medal. In the 1920s, he created several monuments based on soldiers of French North Africa who died for France. In 1922, he made a memorial installed originally in Marengo, and in 1924 another memorial installed in Tlemcen, both in Algeria. Upon Algerian independence, in 1962, the French government moved the memorials to Fréjus and Les Avirons on the island of Réunion. Additionally, Ebstein sculpted an equestrian statue of Jeanne d’Arc d’Oran, which was installed in 1931 in the cathedral square to commemorate the centenary of the French occupation. Upon the exodus from Algeria in 1962, the statue was moved to Caen, where it can be seen on the Place de la Résistance. An impressive statue of La Victoire, a memorial for World War I, created by Ebstein in 1934, was installed in a triumphal arch in Constantine, Algeria. The original statue was moved to the museum in Cirta. Many of his sculpture works in Algeria have been removed subsequently when Algeria became independent. Ebstein was awarded Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in 1930. There is an award bearing his name “Prix de sculpture Joseph Ebstein” at the École nationale supérieure des beauxarts. He died in 1961.

Ferry, Jean-Georges (1851–1926) Born in Paris, Ferry attended Saint-Jacques. The arts teacher, M. Huguenin, discovered that Ferry had talent in drawing and painting; he frequently painted in genre scenes. He was trained under two well-known art professors, Eugène Ernest Hillemacher and Alexandre Cabanel at the École des Beaux-Arts. His first art work displayed at the prestigious Salon de Paris (Société des artistes français) occurred in 1875; the two first paintings were no. 800 Portrait de M.E.B. and no. 801 Une jeune fille de Capri (Italie). Ferry displayed his artwork almost every year until 1914. In the beginning, he made mainly oil paintings but later he became a master pastel artist. In 1887, he was elected board member of the Société centrale d’éducation et d’assistance pour les sourds-muets en France. (Incidentally, the 1890 Salon de Paris included two famous American sculptures, Baseball Player and The Tired Boxer by Douglas Tilden.) A piece by Ferry was also shown at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1892 to 1894. Ferry received an honorable mention in 1900. In the event of the bicentennial anniversary of the abbé de l’Épée’s birth in 1912, the Paris school organized a major art exhibition, the Salon des Artistes sourds, in order to show the work of their alumni including Ferry and many others. His last display was probably at the 1922 centennial anniversary of the abbé Sicard’s death.

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Fortin, Henry (1861–?) Fortin enrolled at Saint-Jacques the Paris school in 1873 to study drawing. On his graduation in 1881, he attended a school of decorative arts at the Académie Colorassi to improve his painting. He made several engravings and lithographs, including a portrait of a Deaf publicist. His 1887 painting, En reconnaissance (a military scene), is well preserved at the Paris school. In his native town of Guise, he opened a studio for portrait painting and one for photography. He mainly made drawings for magazines, often related to military scenes. His works have been exhibited in several towns such as Reims, Amiens, Nevers, and Paris. Fortin was athletic and with a deaf friend, they pedaled across the countryside in northern France. Fortin was treasurer for many years at the Association amicale des sourds-muets de la Champagne, led by Émile Mercier. Unfortunately, most of his drawings were destroyed in Reims by a fire before the close of World War I.

Gamble, A. (18??–?) Gamble was born into a family of engravers. He engraved a picture of Saint Mary (the Blessed Virgin) with the Christ Child, based on the work of Annibale Carraci. He engraved his name on the work and identified himself as sourd-muet. Gamble contributed funding for a monument to the abbé de l’Épée in the Church of Saint-Roch in Paris in 1839.

Gauthier, Louise (?–?) Born in Paris, Gauthier studied for watercolor painting under Madame LerouxVilleneuve. She presented her watercolors of flowers in vases at the Salon in 1894 and 1895.

Ginouvier, Émile Nachor (1865–1900) Ginouvier was born in Gorniès, Hérault, and attended the Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort school for the Deaf. Later, he went to the École des Beaux-Arts in Montpellier and studied under professors Ernest Michel and Frédéric Peyson. He did several portraits of Deaf leaders and artists, for example: Frédéric Peyson; Henri Gaillard, founder of the Journal des sourds-muets; Gustave Hennequin; Paul Grégoire; abbé Grimaud of Avignon; abbé Rieffel of Chambéry; and Paul Bouvier. The latter was the director of Ginouvier’s school in Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort. Those portraits of Deaf leaders made him famous but two others made him even more so: Une leçon de l’abbé de l’Épée (A lesson of the abbé de l’Épée) and Les derniers moments de l’abbé de l’Épée (The last moments of the l’abbé de l’Épée). Frédéric Peyson originally made the sketches for Les derniers moments de l’abbé de l’Épée in 1839 and Une leçon de l’abbé in 1891. These works were unveiled at the celebration of the 179th anniversary of the abbé de l’Épée’s birth, held in Montpellier. Afterwards, those two images were frequently used for publication, magazines and other media as well. In 1894, Ginouvier formed a committee to raise funding for a monument to Paul Bouvier at his alma mater. 170 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Portrait of Nachor Ginouvier, drawing by Henri-Victor Cauchois, Deaf artist. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)

Godard-Desmarest, Armand (1799–1873) When abbé Sicard fled to London in 1815 with three pupils, Godard accompanied him along with Jean Massieu and Laurent Clerc. Godard’s family owned a Baccarat crystal manufactory in Baccarat, Meurthe-et-Moselle. Armand was educated at Saint-Jacques where he was a classmate of Laurent Clerc. On return with Sicard from London, Go­ dard studied oil painting and watercolor. He entered the Salon of 1831 for the first time with his painting Vue prise à Baccarat (Meurthe). Almost every year, he attended the annual exhibition with his paintings, mostly landscapes from the Meurthe region. His last exhibition occurred in 1845.

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Grégoire, Paul Pierre (1755–1842) Deaf at birth, Grégoire was a student of the abbé de l’Épée. It is not known where he obtained his apprenticeship in art. However, he was one of two artists to first portray the abbé de l’Épée while he was living. The other is Claude-André Deseine, a sculptor. In the 1793 Salon, Grégoire’s first two paintings and a drawing were shown at the Salon du Louvre. He continued exhibiting at the Salon in the years 1804, 1808, 1810, 1814, 1817, and 1819, presenting a variety of French landscapes and portraits. He painted a portrait of Voltaire. Better known among his numerous works is a life portrait of the abbé de l’Épée, made in 1776. It had been forgotten until it was displayed again at the exhibition of Old Masters arranged by the École des Beaux-Arts in 1879. In 1896, Auguste Colas, an engraver, made a reproduction of Grégoire’s drawing, which became widely available at print dealers and frequently used for journals. The French postal service issued a stamp of the abbé de l’Épée as part of their fundraising for the French Red Cross. In 1959, it printed a 20F+10F stamp of Épée’s likeness, based on Grégoire’s portrait. Grégoire’s numerous works can be found at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Marseille and Musée Condé in Chantilly.

Hamar, Fernard (1869–1943)

Portrait of Fernard Hamar. (Courtesy of Gallaudet University Archives)

Born in Vendôme, about one hundred miles southwest of Paris, Hamar was a student at Saint-Jacques from 1877 to 1886. In due course, he graduated, rejoined his family and then returned to Paris, enrolling first at the École nationale des arts décoratifs in 1886, then the École des Beaux-Arts in 1890, where he studied under well-known sculptors Louis-Ernest Barrias and Jules Cavelier. He was also taught by Paul Choppin, a Deaf sculptor. In his debut at the Salon in 1892, he presented a plaster bust of Mlle. J. D. In 1893, he presented a plaster bust of M. Gustave Chauteaud, which won an honorable mention. He created a unique statue of La chasse au faucon (Falconry), which was recognized with a third-class medal. This bronze statue is presently located at Plaza 25 de Mayo, Resistencia, in Argentina. He created a bust, Portrait de Mme. J.M., for which he was recognized at the Exposition universelle. He joined the Société des artistes français in 1900 and received the distinctions of Officier d’Académie and a medal from the Exposition Universelle of Paris. In 1901, he created what was probably his most acclaimed work, a plaster statue of Le maréchal Rochambeau, which was placed in Washington, DC. Hamar presented his work to the Salon every year until 1914 and the outbreak of World War I. He returned to the Salon in 1920 and continued his exhibitions until 1936. Hamar created a plaster bust of Henri Gaillard, the director

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of the Gazette des sourds-muets, which was presented at the Salon in 1926. Hamar was also part of the organization of the closing banquet at the bicentennial anniversary of the abbé de l’Épée’s birth held in 1912 and was recognized with the title, Officier de l’Instruction publique. Additionally, he received a grand prize of honor at L’Exposition de France in Athens, Greece, in 1928. In 1929, the French government awarded Hamar the prestigious Chevalier de la Legion d’honneur. Hamar was President of the Société universelle des sourds-muets for one year in 1916. He was one of the cofounders of the Salon International des artistes silencieux de France, which was founded in 1926. Hamar died in 1943 and is buried in his hometown of Vendôme.

Hanau, Jean Theodore (1899–1966) Hanau was born in Paris of a prosperous family in 1899. His family arranged him to be educated by private tutors. He was taught orally from his earliest childhood. It is said that, although Deaf, he possessed fluent speech in French and English. A great French art illustrator, Pierre Brissaud, encouraged Hanau, who began to study at the École des Beaux Arts under Fernard Cormon. Later, he went to various private classes to study modern painting. He made frequents trip to Germany and spent a long summer in Italy to continue studying art techniques during the early 1920s. In 1925, he opened a studio in Paris and painted independently in Art Deco style. His paintings depicted mainly street scenes, lives of the ports, and decorative studies. He regularly exhibited at the Salon des Tuileries, the Salon d’Automne, and the Salon des Indépendants during the 1920s and the 1930s. Hanau went to New Mexico in 1928 and spent several months painting Puebloan people—work that was acclaimed when displayed at the Bernheim Gallery in Paris in 1929. Hanau was a cofounder of the Salon International des artistes silencieux, which began in 1926. His next exhibition was in 1934, when his paintings were exhibited at the International Exhibition of Fine and Applied Arts by Deaf Artists in New York, held at the Roerich Museum. Later, he began experimenting with gold leaf on mirrors and lacquered panels. Those decorative designs have been installed at the Plaza Hotel, the Countess Mara boutique, and several lobbies of Manhattan apartment buildings in New York. In 1942, Hanau immigrated to the United States, where he was naturalized in 1947. He continued to live in New York City until his death in 1966. His artworks can also be found at Centre national des arts plastiques in Angoulême.

Hennequin, Gustave-Nicolas (1834–1918) Hennequin was born in Metz, about twenty-five miles from Germany’s border. He was enrolled at the Nancy institution. On graduation, he remained in Metz to study sculpture with a M. Petitmangin, with whom he had worked on the decoration of various mansions and infantry barracks in Metz. Eventually, he enrolled at the École des BeauxArts in Paris, where he studied under three well-known sculptors: Georges Jacquot, Pierre Louis Rouillard, and Jean-Marie Bonnassieux. Hennequin made his debut to the Salon in 1869 with four penciled drawings of Christ on the cross, based on a design by Pierre-Paul Prud’hon, and two portraits medallions. He only ever presented drawings at

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Portrait of Gustave-Nicolas Hennequin, drawing by RenéLouis Hirsch. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)

the Salon. From 1869 through 1894 (except 1887), he exhibited annually busts, medallions, and statues. The subjects were often prominent French people such as statesmen, bishops, philosophers, diplomats, politicians, painters, physicians, and so on. Though he made only a few busts and medallions related to the Deaf community, they are the following: one bronze bust of Joseph Piroux, the founder of his alma mater in Nancy in 1877, bronze busts of the abbé de l’Épée and abbé Sicard, both in 1893, and a medallion with a portrait, possibly of Émile Rigaut, the Deaf painter, in 1875. In 1888, he joined the Société des artistes français. At the 1889 Exposition universelle, Hennequin exhibited his medallion of Joseph Piroux. He also executed many façades of Parisian apartment houses. Additionally, he worked on the Neptune fountain of the Trianon at Versailles and a monument tribute to Rector Octave Gréard. The latter is located at Square Paul Painlevé next to the Sorbonne. Furthermore, Hennequin created a façade depicting the coat of arms of Monaco at the Maison des océans (formerly Institut océanographique), located at 195 rue Saint-Jacques in Paris. After the 1894 Salon, he worked less with the Salon while he was in business decorating façades. In 1904, he returned to the Salon with a medallion portrait, which would be his last Salon exhibition. He was involved with other events such as bicentennial anniversary of the abbé de l’Épée’s birth and the Universal Museum of Deaf-mutes at the Saint-Jacques school. Hennequin died in 1918.

Hirsch, René-Louis (1853–1932) Hirsch was born in Paris, but educated at the Bordeaux school in his early childhood. Later, he went to the Schiltigheim school, in northeastern France. Hirsch was involved in both artistic and advocacy movements. He was involved with several committees and participated in many events such as the centennial anniversary of the abbé de l’Épée’s birth, and the 1889 International Congress of Deaf-Mutes where he was both a participant and an interpreter for English and Scandinavian languages. His artistic field was engraving and lithography. He was trained by Léon Bonnat and Louis-Auguste Colas. Hirsch’s first Salon was in 1894 with a lithograph. At the 1897 Salon he presented two lithographs, one of them a portrait of M. Valade-Gabel, a professor at the SaintJacques school. During the 1890s, Hirsch was involved actively with the Association amicale des sourds-muets de France and as an illustrator (and financier) for Le Journal des sourds-muets, founded by Henri Gaillard. Both Hirsch and Colas often sketched Deaf leaders in Gaillard’s journal and in the journal of the association La France Silencieuse as well. He continued working with the Association amicale des sourds-muets de France and his local Association amicale des sourds-muets de la Seine where he was president. He 174 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Portrait of RenéLouis Hirsch, drawing by Gustave-Nicolas Hennequin, Deaf artist in 1896. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)

also continued illustrating for the newspapers. In 1925, at the association, he earned a bronze medal in recognition of his association work. It reduced his activity in arts, as his last Salon was 1902. In 1912, the Musée universel des sourds-muets arranged a big event to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the abbé de l’Épée’s birthday. During the event, Hirsch was awarded the title Officier de l’Instruction publique. Hirsch participated in the second Salon International des artistes silencieux in 1928.

Lambert, Léon (1868–1939) Born in Le Mans, Lambert was struck with typhoid during the 1870 Franco-Prussian War. Later he was sickened by meningitis, which caused him to become Deaf. He was sent to the Deaf school in Le Puy-en-Veyre and remained there until he was eighteen years old. His family moved to Paris, where Lambert learned copperplate engraving. His teachers, Adolphe Lalauze Aristide-Lionel Lecouteux and François Schommer, were specialized in etching. Lambert exhibited five etchings at 1890 Salon de Paris. One

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that earned particular attention was Toro Colante, which led him to earn an honorable mention. In 1891, he earned a medal at the Salon. Occasionally, his works were exhibited at Salon, though not each year. Around 1905, his vision was affected as a result of painstaking work in etching. Jean-Paul Laurens became his new teacher. Lambert switched to watercolor painting, mainly cityscapes. He continued painting for some years; his last Salon exhibit occurred in 1937. His works were on display during the 200th anniversary of the abbé de l’Épée’s birth, held at Saint-Jacques and at the city hall in the 13th arrondisement. He was recognized with the title Officier de l’Instruction Publique in 1912. Lambert was invited to witness the inauguration of the statue of the abbé Pierre Ponce de Léon in Madrid in 1926. One of his paintings can be seen at Musée de Tessé in Le Mans. He returned to his native school and died there.

LeCesne, Maurice (1865–1915) Little information available on LeCesne. In 1885, he painted L’Atelier du sculpteur Jean Houdon en 1804, after the 1804 sketch by Louis Léopold Boilly. The painting is presently on display at the Musée des Châteaux de Versailles.

Léothaud, Jeanne Emilie (1871–?) Born in Livron-sur-Drôme, Léothaud studied under two teachers, Mlle. Bourgeon and Mme. Debillemon-Chardon, specializing in miniature painting. Her debut at the Salon was in 1898 with three miniatures. She continued painting miniatures for the Salon in 1899, 1901, 1902, 1914, and 1936. Her miniatures were exhibited at the Salon International des artistes silencieux, which was held in 1937.

Loustau, Léopold (1815–1894) A few months after Loustau’s birth in Sarrelouis, the town became part of Germany, accordingly to the terms of the Treaty of Paris of 1815. Loustau lost his hearing in early childhood after a serious illness. He was admitted to the Deaf school in Nancy in 1829. In 1831, he graduated and left for Paris to study painting under Louis Hersent. In 1833, Loustau switched to the studio of Léon Cogniet where he spent two or three hours daily until 1839. At the age of twenty-four, Loustau presented his religious scene, Saint Pierre guérissant un boiteux. He continued presenting paintings annually. At the 1842 Salon, he unveiled Jésus-Christ enfant parmi les docteurs de la loi, bought by the French state for the museum in Strasbourg. In recognition of Loustau’s skill, he received the third medal in 1842. Loustau was commissioned to paint Jésus-Christ et les petits enfants. He was acclaimed for instilling realism and beauty in his portrait painting. In 1846, he was commissioned by the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, not far from Saint-Jacques, to execute the portraits of the laureate students. Over the years, he created many portraits, religious compositions, and historical subjects such as Bonaparte leaving Egypt in 1799. In 1856, he married a Deaf young woman, Angéla Duthy. The next year Loustau displayed a new genre, paintings of women, which was presented at the Salon with his Curiosité de femme. Léon Cogniet, his former teacher, introduced Loustau and Frédéric 176 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Peyson. Loustau was a member of the Société centrale d’éducation et d’assistance pour les sourds-muets and he was also responsible for founding the Société d’appui fraternel des sourds-muets de France in 1880. In 1882, he created two moving scenes: The first was L’abbé Sicard, fondateur de l’Institution nationale des Sourds-Muets de Paris, arraché aux égorgeurs de l’Abbaye par le courageux dévouement de l’horloger Monnot, le 2 septembre 1792. This painting depicts how abbé Sicard was arrested and brought to the Revolutionary Tribunal at the Abbey of Saint Germain, where he was sentenced to the guillotine, but a watchmaker named Monnot, brought by Jean Massieu to the tribunal, saved Sicard from being guillotined. The second painting is Dévouement de Mlle. Cazotte, 2 septembre 1792, à l’abbaye Saint-Germain (Dedication of Miss Cazotte at the Abbey). In 1883, he created a portrait of Félix Martin, the Deaf sculptor who designed the statue of the abbé de l’Épée. Loustau was on the organizing committee of the 175th anniversary of the abbé de l’Épée’s birth in 1887 and he was also active in preparing for the 100th anniversary of abbé de l’Épée’s death in 1889. He was probably the Deaf artist who exhibited the most often to the Salon—at least thirty-eight times. His last submission to the Salon was Portrait de l’auteur (autoportrait) in 1894. Loustau continued painting on return to his home in Chevreuse, where he died of a stroke with his palette in front of him. Portrait of Léopold Loustau, drawing by JeanLouise Auguste Colas. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)



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Lussy, Gustave Guillaume (ca. 1851–1892) Lussy was born in Paris to immigrant parents and trained to be a sculptor by Léon Fourquet. Lussy presented six medallions made by plaster and terracotta at the Salon of 1886. He appeared two more times at the Salon in 1887 and 1890. After the last Salon, he apparently disappeared from the Deaf community. He was forty-one years old when he died in 1892 in Paris.

Martin, André and François (early twentieth century) The two are brothers, specialized in miniature painting. André displayed his several miniature paintings at the Salon in 1810. François attended Saint-Jacques and exhibited his miniature works at the Salon twice, in 1810 and 1814. He continued his artistic work until the 1820s.

Martin, Ernest (1838–1915) Born in Paris, the oldest of three Deaf brothers (the other two are Georges and Félix). He was probably educated at Saint-Jacques (no documents found) since his brothers were. His teachers were Félix Fossey and Isidore Pils of the École des Beaux-Arts. Ernest’s specializations in paintings are soldiers and military scenes. His earliest painting Un carabinier de la garde (A soldier standing guard) was entered at the Salon of 1870. However, Ernest made rare appearances at the annual exhibition. He returned to the Salon of 1875 with another military painting, as he did at the following exhibitions in 1882 and 1886. The last exhibition of his painting was in 1887 with Chasseur à cheval (a military horseman).

Martin, Félix (1844–1917) Martin was born into a bourgeois family in Neuilly-sur-Seine, bordering the city of Paris. He had two elder Deaf brothers who were artists too. He enrolled at Saint-Jacques in 1855 and studied sculpture at the school. Later, he was accepted at the École des Beaux-Arts. He had numerous teachers there such as Pierre Loison, Eugène Guillaume, Jules Cavelier, Francisque Duret, and Eugène-Louis Lequesne, all famous sculptors. When there was a competition in sculpture at the École des Beaux-Arts, Martin won the prize for his work, a so-called tête d’expression, which opened the door for his debut at the Salon in 1864. His first Salon exhibit were two busts: Portrait de M. le docteur G. and Portrait de M.F.M., both made of plaster. The following year, Martin decided to work on themes more related to Deaf history. He presented his plaster group Saint François de Sales instruisant un jeune sourd-muet (St. Francis de Sales educating a young deaf-mute). However, Martin continued working on a variety of sculpture types, such as statue, bust, group, equestrian, and bas-relief; beyond plaster, he also worked with marble, terracotta, and bronze. Martin completed a bas-relief study, Alexandre le Grand et son médecin Philippe (Alexander the Great with his doctor Philippe), for which he won second place in the prestigious Prix de Rome competition in 1869. Martin carefully chose what to create for his sculpture, often related to national interests, Greek mythology, and religious themes—for example: Louis XI à Péronne, Duc de Padoue, Le Grand Ferré, Louis-Benoît 178 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Picard, Hercules, Nessus, Ecce homo, Orphée, Jésus devant les docteurs, Jésus et les petits enfants, and so forth. Martin created a plaster bust of Ferdinand Berthier, whom Martin called Honorary Dean of Deaf teachers of Paris, which was presented at the Salon in 1870. In 1888, he created a bronze bust of Ferdinand Berthier and donated it to Saint-Jacques. In 1875, Félix Martin was approached by Martin Etcheverry (1814– 1893), the director of Saint-Jacques, with the proposal that he create a statue of the abbé de l’Épée. Naturally, Martin accepted. His plaster statue was presented at the Salon in 1876 and the bronze statue at the Salon the following year. It depicts the abbé looking at a male pupil. Épée’s left hand holds a scroll with the word Dieu (God) on it and his right hand forms the handshape “D,” while the boy reads the scroll and imitates “D” on his right hand. Some writers consider that the work captures Épée’s “emancipation” of the Deaf. To create a large bronze statue of Épée, Martin would need to get official state support, which he received. The statue was displayed at the 1878 Exposition Universelle in Paris. The statue was installed in the inner courtyard of Saint-Jacques in 1879. The Minister of the Interior publicly awarded Martin the distinction Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur. There are three plinth panels made by bronze attached to the pedestal. The first depicts l’abbé de l’Épée meeting the twin Deaf sisters. The next panel depicts Austrian emperor Joseph II visiting the abbé’s school on rue des Moulins in 1777; and finally, the third shows a winter scene in 1788 where the abbé’s pupils beg him to stay warm. In 1909, he created twelve bronze bas-reliefs depicting various scenes from the life of the abbé de l’Épée. Martin and his colleagues, René Princeteau and Georges Ferry, and his brother, Ernest Martin, shipped their works to America for the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. Martin was one of the organizers preparing the centennial anniversary of the abbé de l’Épée’s death, which was held from July 10 to 18 in conjunction with the International Congress of Deaf-Mutes. The atmosphere was festive. Martin took the opportunity to exhibit his work at the Exposition Universelle in Paris during the same year. The Exposition awarded him a bronze medal. Martin had created busts of other Deaf notables such as Léopold Loustau and Joseph-Nicolas Théobald. He painted the exceptional La Place de la Concorde; effet de neige (Place de la Concorde; effect of snow), which was presented at the Salon in 1882. He exhibited regularly at the Salon from 1864 to 1906. His last exhibition was a bas-relief, Homage au sculpteur Deseine. Félix Martin passed away on January 4, 1917, and is buried at Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris. Martin’s works have been placed for the public: The statues of Louis-Benoît Picard and Daniel-Charles Trudaine can be seen at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris; the statue, Le Grand Ferré, in Longueil Sainte-Marie; the bust of Louis-Benoît Picard at the Palais Garnier (the Paris opera); and a bust of Louis-Benoît Picard at the Odéon theatre in Paris. Martin’s sculpture works can also be seen at the museums in Roubaix, Evreux, Grenoble, Senlis, and Rouen.

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Portrait of Félix Martin. (Courtesy of Gallaudet University Archives)

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Martin, Georges (1839–1886) Georges Martin was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine (a French commune just west of Paris). Georges Martin was one of three Deaf brothers in the well-known Martin family. (The other two were Félix and Earnest.) We find no information on Georges’ educational background, but he was likely educated at Saint-Jacques. Georges was taught by the French painters Felix Fossey and Jean-Léon Gerôme; later he was also taught by Louis Merley, who specialized in cameo carving. Georges’ debut at the Salon of 1866 displayed his cameo work on hard stone. In the years following, he continued working on a variety of cameo materials including onyx and stone. He produced carved cameos of Leopold I, the King of Belgium, at the Salon of 1867; Marie-Antoinette à la Conciergerie (Marie-Antoinette in prison) at the Salon of 1868; and Bacchante at the Salon of 1873. Georges Martin also made some busts with plaster and terracotta. His last Salon display was in 1879. His works have been displayed in London among other cities. He was about forty-seven years old when he died in Paris.

Massé, Augustin (early nineteenth century) Deaf artist, limited information available. We know he based one of his paintings on a painting from 1814 by Léon Mathieu Cochereau. It depicts abbé Sicard conducting a public examination, probably held at Saint-Jacques. Massieu is visible standing by the blackboard. On either side of the blackboard there are two busts, each standing on its pedestal—one of the abbé de l’Épée, the other of Sicard (the latter bust was created by Louis Auvray). Currently, it is hanging in the Musée des Beaux Arts in Chartres.

Mille, Albert (1872–1946) Mille was born in Constantinople, Turkey, of French origin. He studied painting under Jérôme Doucet, Marcel Baschet, and François Schommer. Mille’s debut at the Salon was in 1897 for his portrait painting, which he continued to submit. His last Salon occurred in 1907. After that, it seems he was no longer active in the Deaf community.

Montillie, Gilbert Hippolyte (1866–?) Born in Saint-Menoux in the department of Allier, Montillie went to the Pereire School for the Deaf in Paris. On graduation, he was admitted to the École des Arts décoratifs in Paris. His teachers were Aimé Millet, Gabriel-Jules Thomas, and Paul MoreauVauthier. At the school, he earned several prizes. In 1892, he created a portrait in plaster of a Deaf American painter, Jacques Alexander. He made a debut at the Salon in 1894 with a bust, Le maréchal de Villars (The Marshal of Villars), and a statue La cruche cassée (The broken jug). In the Salon of 1899, he presented a bas-relief of Henri Gaillard, publisher of the Journal des sourds-muets. Montillie’s former teacher Georges Récipon asked him to be one of his leading team members to create decorative figures on the Pont Alexandre III bridge as well as decorative figures titled L’Harmonie triomphant de la Discorde at the Grand Palais. He received a decoration, Officier de l’Instruction publique. He emigrated to the United States in 1900. Montillie created a bas-relief of 180 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

Reverend Thomas Gallaudet. In New York, he was recruited by Karl Bitter, a sculptor and Decorator General, to create a group of decorative figures of Adam and Eve on the facade of the Manufacturers building at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, 1901. He was commissioned to work for the South Carolina Inter-state and West Indian Exposition in Charleston, 1902. He created decorative figures for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri in 1904. He returned to France in 1912.

Morice, Léon (1868–?) Morice’s father was a skillful woodcarver and made furniture in his workshop. Morice became deaf due to typhoid fever when he was three. He was sent to the Sainte-Mariela-Fôret school for the Deaf in Angers. There, he worked at a workshop near the school for three to four years and learned drawing and modeling. In 1882, he returned home. Later, he enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts in Angers to study sculpting. His teachers were Eugène Brunclair and Félix Carpentier. He apprenticed under a few different sculptors in Angers. For his debut at the Salon in 1894, he presented a plaster medallion depicting Charpentier, statuaire. His next exhibition at Salon was in 1905, when he presented his Un cadre de medallions sur bois, portraits (Medallions on a framework of wood, portraits). In 1910, he earned an honorable mention for his statue L’Enfant au lézard (The child with lizard). He produced three works at the 1914 Salon including a statue titled Supplication (an old naked beggar, carved in oak). It was considered a masterpiece, which led him to earn him a second-class medal. He also made a bust of Oliver Chéron, a Deaf painter. Morice returned for other exhibitions. In 1921, he sculpted a statue of Bishop Freppel, which was placed at the Place Saint Croix in Angers. In addition, he did numerous works on religious subjects, as well as medallions, portraits, and busts with a variety of media including wood (mostly oak), plaster, marble, terracotta, and bronze. His works have been displayed at the centennial of abbé Sicard’s death in 1922. Apparently, his last exhibition at the Salon was 1939. After 1947, he and his family left for Spain and it was said that he ended his life there. His numerous works can be seen at the Musée des Beaux-Arts and La Collégiale Saint-Martin, both in Angers, and at the Saint-Barthélemy Church in Boutigny-sur-Essonne.

Pétraud, Pierre Mathurin (1807–1880) A former student at the Bordeaux school, Pétraud left the school in 1827, after successfully following the lessons of Pierre Lacour. He studied portrait painting and miniatures. Among his works are portraits of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Just a few of his paintings have survived at the Paris school. Pétraud died in Royan, Charente-Maritime in 1880.

Peyson, Fréderic (1807–1877) Peyson belonged to a family of merchants. He was born and raised in Montpellier in southern France and became Deaf from illness at age two. At his home, Peyson had penciled drawings that covered the doors and walls with the most varied images; evidently,

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Portrait of Frédéric Peyson. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)

he had talents in sketching. There was no Deaf school in Montpellier so his parents sent him to Saint-Jacques in 1817. His teachers included Bébian and Berthier. Peyson entered the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in 1826. He was apprenticed under the great masters Antoine-Jean Gros (who taught Deaf artist Edouard Robert), Léon Cogniet, and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Peyson introduced Deaf artist Leopold Loustau to his former teachers. Peyson was awarded the Prix de Rome (the prize is a French scholarship for arts students) in 1838. His first debut at the Salon occurred in 182 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

1837 with his Portrait en pied de M.F., capitaine de la légion belge. He continued presenting paintings in the following year. At the Salon of 1840, he presented a moving canvas of Derniers moments de l’abbé de l’Épée; in it, Épée has passed away (on December 23, 1789) after having received the last sacraments from the pastor of the Saint-Roch Church, the bed is surrounded by his students in tears, and a girl kneels before the bed. Peyson donated this painting to Saint-Jacques in 1845. The Salon of 1850 was his last display, which was a self-portrait. During his leisure, he continued making sketches of the abbé de l’Épée, Sicard, and other Deaf notables. His 1870 self-portrait depicts him seated at a table drawing on an album laying on his lap and holding it with the left hand. It was donated to the Fine Arts Museum in Montpellier, now Musée Fabre. Peyson bequeathed to the city of Montpellier a sum of six thousand francs and three thousand francs to the Fine Arts of Museum in Montpellier. He donated several paintings as well to the Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon and Musée Fabre. Peyson admired the abbé de l’Épée; hence he contributed like many others to the 1839 fundraising for a monument honoring Épée to be erected in the Saint-Roch Church in Paris.

Picaud, Georges Pierre (1880–?) Born in Angers, Picaud studied sculpture under Antonin Mercié. He debuted his first plaster bust of Monsieur Malka at the Salon of 1908. He participated annually in the Salon until 1914. When the Deaf engraver Auguste Colas died, Picaud made a bust of Colas to honor his memory.

Plessis, Félix-Auguste (1869–1948) Born in Paris, Plessis studied sculpture. His teachers were Denys Puech, Louis-Ernest Barrias, and Deaf sculptor Paul Choppin. He entered the Salon of 1893 for the first time to display his plaster bust, Portrait du peintre J.M. With five other French Deaf artists, Plessis sailed to the Unites States to be part of the World Congress of the Deaf, held in Chicago. During the congress, he donated his plaster bust of the abbé de l’Épée to Edward Miner Gallaudet. (It is lost.) Plessis earned two silver medals. The following year, he presented a bust entitled Mon ami (My friend) at the Salon. In 1900, he created a statue of a young boy holding a winged helmet who fought against the Romans. Plessis named it Gloria Gallis, and it received honorable mention in 1900. His last exhibition at the Salon occurred in 1911 with Portrait de M.F.P., a gilt bronze bust. For the bicentennial anniversary of the abbé de l’Épée’s birth, Plessis’ works were displayed for the public. During the same year, he was recognized with the distinction Officier de l’instruction publique. Plessis was a member of the Société des artistes français starting in 1899. He died in 1948.

Princeteau, René (1843–1914) Born Deaf to a wealthy family about twenty miles east of Bordeaux, Princeteau showed an aptitude for drawing from early childhood. He was educated by his mother at home and later by Valade-Gabel, a teacher at Saint-Jacques. Princeteau dreamed of becoming a sculptor. His family assigned him to an Italian sculptor, Dominique

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Portrait of René Princeteau. (Courtesy of Gallaudet University Archives)

Magges, to learn sculpturing. In 1865, Princeteau left for Paris and entered the École des Beaux-Arts. His sculpture teachers were Gustave Déloye and Auguste Dumont. His debut at the Salon was held in 1868 with two displays, Pilote, an equestrian statuette in wax, and Portrait de M. P., medallion in plaster. Princeteau painted military scenes with horse riding and portraits of generals. Around 1875, Princeteau opened a studio at Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris and taught some students for about five years. At the Salon of 1875, he presented both paintings and sculpture; however, in the mid-1870s, he gave up sculpture and switched to painting. Princeteau was passionately fond of horses and dogs and his paintings often depict animals, especially equestrian scenes and hunting. In 1876, he participated in the Centennial International Exhibition in Philadelphia. He painted an equestrian portrait of President George Washington, which earned him a gold medal and is currently hanging at the United States of America Embassy in Paris. Princeteau often went to the Bois de Boulogne in Paris where horse races were held. Princeteau socialized with Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, twenty years his junior, who took lessons from Princeteau in painting of horses. At the 1880 Salon, he displayed the paintings Un vieux solitaire and Les deux voisins, which earned him an honorable mention. Almost annually, Princeteau presented a variety of his paintings and sculptures at the Salon. In 1883, however, he returned to his home in the Bordeaux region and painted scenes with oxen. That year he was awarded a third medal and in 1885, the second-class medal. In 1889, his submission was judged Hors Concours (unrivaled). His last exhibit at the Salon was in 1904 with a landscape. Princeteau was a member of the Société des artistes français. His artworks are in museums of fine Arts in Bordeaux, Libourne, Versailles, Montauban, and the Museum of Henri Toulouse-Lautrec in Albi. He died in 1914.

Py, Dennis Fernand (1887–1949) In his youth, Py did his apprenticeship with a sculptor in Paris and a furniture manufacturer, but he switched to metal artwork. He was recognized as a medalist specialist. Py often created medals with religious symbols of a variety of saints, crosses, etc. He also specialized in silver smith, bronze, and other metalwork.

Rigaut, Émile (1822–?) Rigaut was born Deaf. There is no available information on his educational or artistic background except that he produced two paintings that are conserved at Saint-Jacques. 184 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

In addition, he contributed like others to funding the monument of the abbé de l’Épée in the Saint-Roch Church in Paris in 1840.

Robert, Edouard (1802–1856) Robert studied under French romantic painters Anne-Louis Girodet and Antoine-Jean Gros. In 1805, his Deaf sister Fanny was subjected to a public examination in sign language for Pope Pius VII. Robert created a lithograph of Pius VII, as a souvenir. However, Robert specialized in drawings and making lithographs. His signed name can be found on the choir stalls of the Cathedral of Amiens. He was praised for his drawings and paintings at the 1812, 1819, and 1827 Salons de Paris.

Robert, Fanny (1795–1872) Like her Deaf brother, Fanny was a student at Saint-Jacques. She studied under French romantic painter Anne-Louis Girodet. Girodet’s male students studied together, while Fanny was separated from the regular study. She made several paintings of the nobility but she specialized in drawings. Her works were praised at the Salon de Paris in 1831, 1833, and 1835. Some of her works can be seen at the Musée national des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon.

Rottembourg, Valérie (1873–?) Born in Paris, Rottembourg studied under Benjamin Constant, Jean-Paul Laurens, and A. Gilbert for painting. She entered the Salon at least three times: in 1897, with her portrait of Mademoiselle S. and in the exhibitions of 1901 and 1914.

Smets, Jean-Baptiste (1712–1783) Smets was born Deaf in Auch, about fifty miles west of Toulouse, or an hour’s drive from Le Fousseret, the place of abbé Sicard’s birth. Jean-Baptiste was the second son of the Flemish painter. Smets and his father worked side by side to produce religious paintings set in their home region of Gascony. The paintings are related to religious saints, crucifixions, clergies, and so forth, for the church in Gascony. He usually signed his name Le Muet or Smets, sourd-muet. Some of his paintings can be seen in the churches of Saint-Geniez in Castin, Saint-Laurent in Fleurance, Saint Jean-Baptiste in Moumour, Saint-Michel in Pessan, Cathedral Sainte-Marie in Auch, and Notre-Dame in Lavardac. Also, his works can be found at the Museum of Fine Arts in Carcassonne and the Museum of the Jacobins in Auch.

Tronc, Joseph (1830–1920) Tronc attended the Bordeaux institution. Formerly, he was professor at the SaintJacques school. There was a competition among some four hundred young students who desired to study at the École Imperiale des Beaux-Arts. Tronc was one of the

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selected applicants to be admitted to the art school. He studied under Léon Cogniet and Jean Paul Alaux. The French government asked Tronc to make a reproduction of a portrait of the Russian Emperor Peter the Great for the Russian Embassy in Paris. Tronc also painted a portrait of Léon Vaïsse, the director at Saint-Jacques. It was painted in 1890 and donated to the school shortly thereafter.

Vavasseur-Desperriers, René-Victor (1860–1929) Born in Paris, Vavasseur-Desperriers attended Saint-Jacques. He was trained to be a sculptor by his teachers, notably Charles Gauthier and Deaf sculptor Fernard Hamar. Vavasseur-Desperriers made his debut at the Salon in 1886 with two busts, Portrait de Mme. Vue Desperriers and Portrait de Mme. J. Boyer. Though not a regular contributor as some other sculptors were, he made entries to the Salon at least eight times. The last was another bust of his father-in-law, Portrait de mon beau-père, M. Desmarest, in 1907. He became a member of the Société des artistes français in 1902. For some reason, he added a surname to his family name, hence Vavasseur-Desperriers. In 1888, he married Irma Alphonsine Desmarest. He directed the Deaf journal La France Silencieuse in 1894 for one year. He was honored with the distinction Officier de l’Instruction publique in 1912.

Voulquin, Marthe (?–?) Born in Paris, Voulquin studied painting under Jules Lefebvre and Tony Robert-Fleury. She made exhibitions twice with two portraits: at the Salon in 1894 with a charcoal drawing and at the Salon in 1895 with a pastel.

Wallon, Claude-Augustin (1790–1857) Wallon worked with the Deaf mosaicists Antoine Blondeau, François Gire, Frédéric Grévé, Claude Manière, and Edme Page. Not much is known about their backgrounds except all of them were Deaf. Wallon attended the Paris school in 1799, and trained as a tailor, but learned to sketch as well. The French Emperor, Napoleon I, invited an Italian, Francesco Belloni (1772–1847), to found a school for mosaics in Paris. Belloni set up a mosaic workshop in a room devoted to the education of the Deaf at Saint-Jacques. He taught Blondeau, Gire, Page, and Wallon. Eventually, Belloni hired first Wallon, Gire, Manière, and Grévé to work in his workshop in 1807 to create mosaic designs. Shortly thereafter, he hired two additional workers, Blondeau and Page. Those companions became very skilled and their works were commissioned to create ornamental panels, flooring, tables, fireplaces, furniture, and various decorative motifs for the imperial and royal palaces. Wallon was named an official of the Mosaic School. He traveled to Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and England to study the masterpieces of his art. Wallon contributed some of his works to the Louvre, specifically Neptune et Amphitrite, La Salle de la Melpomène, and Galerie d’Apollo. Because of the French Revolution of 1830, and the ascendance of King Louis-Philippe I 186 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

of Orléans, Belloni’s funds were cut off, leaving four Deaf employees without work. Wallon made several drawings, pastels, crayons, and lithograph. Gire made a bust of the abbé de l’Épée.

Portrait of Claude-Augustin Wallon, drawing by Gilbert Hippolyte Montillie. (Courtesy of Institut national des jeunes sourds, Paris)

Widerkehr, Joseph de (1806–1864) Widerkehr was born in Venice, Italy. He was educated to be a painter. He presented his landscape paintings at the Salon for about a decade from 1833 to 1844. He created a lithograph called Vue de bâtiments, côté de la cour depicting the inner court at Saint-Jacques school in 1848.



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Notes to chapter 4

1. Lane, When the Mind Hears, 134. 2. Lane, 152. 3. Nicholas Mirzoeff, Silent Poetry:

Deafness, Sign and Visual Culture in Modern France (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999).

4. These honorary titles come

from a national order bestowed by Emperor Napoleon in 1808 to distinguished academics and figures in the world of culture and education.

188 Elements of French Deaf Heritage

5. Auguste Boyer, “Paul Choppin,”

Revue générale de l’enseignement des sourds-muets (April 1909), 205. 6. Kelly H. Stevens, “François Crolard and His Works,” The Silent Worker 39, no. 6 (1927) 167–68.

Epilogue

In this book, we have examined the gathering of Deaf children in the schools for the Deaf where their acculturation into the Deaf-World takes place; eminent founders and graduates of those schools; the gathering of the Deaf in clubs, societies, and congresses; presses, and the expression of that culture in the arts. What appears to underlie all these issues is affiliation with one’s kind, hence ethnicity. The properties of ethnic groups, according to political scientist Anthony D. Smith,1 are shown below in bold face. Intercalated is evidence from the account of French Deaf heritage in the present work.

1. Anthony D. Smith, The Ethnic Origins of Nations (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986).

By involving a collective name: Groupe sourd in LSF—counterpart to Deaf-World in ASL.

By the generation of stereotypes of the community and its foes: Sign language optimal for communication with Deaf vs. oralism; Épée vs. Pereire.

By the ritual performance and rehearsal of ceremonies: Épée encounters the two Deaf girls—reenactments; Épée holds mass in sign language, Church of Saint-Roch; Épée’s demonstrations, rue Thérèse; storytelling, painting, sculpting.

By the communal recitation of past deeds and ancient heros’ exploits: Jean Massieu saves the life of abbé Sicard; books by Ferdinand Berthier, Claudius Forestier; annual Deaf banquets. Men and women partake of a collectivity and its historic fate, which transcend their individual existences.

Epilogue

189

Appendix: Ethnicity and the Deaf-World

1. Anthony D. Smith, The Ethnic Origins of Nations (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986), 46.

In this appendix, we make the case briefly that the Deaf ASL minority in the United States is an ethnic group. What is an ethnic group? Political Scientist Anthony D. Smith gives a definition: By involving a collective name, by the use of symbolic images of community, by the generation of stereotypes of the community and its foes, by the ritual performance and rehearsal of ceremonies, by the communal recitation of past deeds and an ancient hero’s exploits, men and women partake of a collectivity and its historic fate that transcend their individual existences.1 • •

•

•

•

•

Collective name—The Deaf-World has one. Feeling of community—Self-recognition, and recognition by others, is a central feature of ethnicity. Americans in the Deaf-World do indeed feel a strong identification with that world and show great loyalty to it. The Deaf-World has the highest rate of intermarriage of any ethnic group–at some ninety percent. Norms for behavior—In American Deaf culture, there are norms for relating to the Deaf-World and for decision-making: Consensus is the rule—not individual initiative—in managing information, constructing discourse, gaining status, managing indebtedness, and many more such norms. Distinct values—Deaf people actively value their Deaf identity, which the hearing world stigmatizes; they value their sign language and act to protect and enrich it; they value cultural loyalty, physical contact, and much more. Knowledge—Deaf people have culture-specific knowledge such as who their leaders are (and their characteristics); they keep up with rank-and-file members of the Deaf-World and important events in Deaf history; they know how to manage in trying situations with hearing people. They know Deaf-World values, customs, and social structure. Customs—The Deaf-World in the United States has its own ways of doing introductions and departures, taking turns in a conversation, and speaking frankly and politely; it has its own taboos.

190 Appendix: Ethnicity and the Deaf-World

• •

•

Social structure—There are numerous organizations in the American DeafWorld: athletic, social, political, literary, religious, and more. Language—Language lies at the very heart of ethnicity. Ethnic minorities find in their languages not only a means of communication but the genius of their peoplehood. Competence in American Sign Language is a hallmark of Deaf ethnicity. A language not based on sound sharply demarcates the Deaf-World from the hearing world. The signed language of the Deaf-World is the core of Deaf-World authenticity. The arts—First the language arts in signed language: narratives, storytelling, oratory, humor, tall-tales, wordplay, pantomime, and poetry. Further, theatre arts and the visual arts address Deaf culture and experience. American Sign Language has a rich literary tradition. The storyteller and the story have an important role to play in the bonding of the Deaf-World and the transmission of its heritage and accumulated wisdom. Storytelling develops early in residential schools for Deaf children, where youngsters recount in signed language the idiosyncratic mannerisms of hearing teachers and the plots of cartoons, Westerns, and war movies. Because these films and television programs were frequently uncaptioned, they gave free rein to the young storyteller’s craft and imagination. These internal properties are accompanied by an “external” property—a boundary separating the minority from other ethnicities, in particular, the majority ethnicity. Does the Deaf-World look to itself for the satisfaction of certain needs, while looking to the larger society for the satisfaction of other needs? Figure 1 shows activities that are primarily conducted by Deaf people for Deaf people in the United States on the left side, while activities in the hearing world that impact Deaf people are shown on the right side; in the middle are areas of overlap.

Start with language—always a powerful creator of boundaries between ethnic groups, but especially so in the case of Deaf people, since hearing people are rarely fluent in visual language and Deaf people are rarely fluent in spoken language. Deaf ethnicity is protected by a language shield and in this sense, the Deaf-World is marked by boundaries more than any other ethnic group. Unlike some other ethnic groups, American

Criteria that have been advanced by social scientists for characterizing a social group as an ethnic group

Figure 1.

deaf-world—Hearing-world boundaries deaf-world • Sign language • Social activities • Sign language teaching • Political activities • Athletics • Arts & leisure • Finding employment • Publishing

overlap • Interpreter service • Religious service • Consumer goods & services • Deaf history • Deaf education • Deaf service agencies

hearing-world • Spoken language • Law enforcement • Employment (not Deaf-related) • Military • Garbage collection • Medical care • Banking • Transportation

Appendix: Ethnicity and the Deaf-World

191

Deaf people have not and will not abandon their Deaf language and ethnicity in favor of English and assimilation into mainstream American culture. Next, Deaf-World social activities are organized and conducted by Deaf people with little or no hearing involvement. On the other hand, law enforcement is a hearing world activity. Religious services overlap the Deaf and hearing worlds—there are missions to the Deaf, Deaf pastors, and signed services, but the operation of the house of worship is generally in hearing hands. The Deaf-World keeps to itself for many of its activities; it collaborates in a few activities with the hearing world and it leaves the really broad responsibilities such as law enforcement to the larger society. In this, it is like other ethnic minorities. Some scholars contend that kinship among group members is required for ASL speakers to truly be an ethnic group. Kinship concerns a link to the past, that is, intergenerational continuity—a claimed bond of blood. The Deaf-World favors marrying within the community, which enhances the bond. However, beliefs about shared ancestry almost never accord with the facts. The kinship myth is an expression of solidarity.

192 Appendix: Ethnicity and the Deaf-World

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Acknowledgments

T

he book you hold in your hand (or read on your screen), Elements of French Deaf Heritage, has been a long time coming. It began with our updating reading materials by going to the Gallaudet University Archives, the René Bernard Library of the Institut national des jeunes sourds de Paris, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and public and private libraries including departmental archives in France. We made three major tours mainly in the Rhône valley, the Occitan, and the Pyrenées, visiting some Deaf schools that are ongoing; others closed. We invariably received a warm reception. We met wonderful former employees of the disbanded schools who gave us personal tours to get a glimpse inside the former schools and chapels. The following incident illustrates that generosity of spirit. We were driving on rolling hills in the Occitan, and realized that we were in the same region where abbé Sicard was born. We decided to make a short trip to his natal home. While we entered the village and looked for any sign that might direct us, we met an elderly lady with a grocery bag. Did she know who abbé Sicard was? Naturally, she knew; there was a bust of Sicard in the village park. She led us there. It was the same bust standing in Chapel Hall at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. Would we like to see Sicard’s birthplace? Indeed, we would. It is on the Boulevard Sicard. It has two stories, a typical shop house, with the store on the first floor and a residence on the second. On the façade, there is a plaque with a faded inscription that reads Ici est né l’abbé Sicard, 1742–1822. As our tour wrapped up, the lady invited us for coffee and sweets. We gratefully acknowledge those people who contributed to our book project. Particularly, Yves Delaporte who patiently answered our numerous questions about names, dates, and places. Also, we want to thank deeply Michael Olson at the Gallaudet University Archives for his expert searching. Michelle Balle-Stinckwich at the Institut national des jeunes sourds was also helpful retrieveing information for our book. We are indebted to Angélique Cantin, an expert genealogist, and Yann Cantin, faculty member of UFR Sciences du Langage, Université 8, Paris, who were willing to dig up and verify the genealogical data. Finally, we appreciate our good friend, Guy Capelle, who read the manuscript and gave us invaluable advice.

Index

Figures and tables are indicated by f and t following the page number. Illustrations are indicated by italicized page numbers. The Abbé de l’Épée (Bouilly), 98 L’Abbe de l’Épée, journal des sourds et des sourds-muets, 111, 126, 150t, 152 Academy of Medicine, 58, 110, 160 affiliation in Deaf-World, 13, 134–57 congress of the Deaf, 145–49 congresses on the Deaf, 138–49 Deaf press, 149–56 Deaf societies, 135–38, 135–36t, 137 Ajaccio (Corsica), 78–79 Alavoine, Adèle, 161 Albi (Tarn), 33, 38–39, 39 Alençon (Orne), 60 Alexander, Jacques, 163, 180 Alliance républicaine des sourds-muets, 120, 123 Alliance silencieuse, 119 Allibert, Joseph-Eugène, 108, 110 American School for the Deaf (Hartford), 24, 78, 101 American Sign Language (ASL), 10, 190–92 L’Ami des sourds-muets, 42, 150t Amman, Jan Conrad, 88 Angers (Maine-et-Loire), 25 Angoulême (Charente), 70–71 Annales françaises des sourds-muets, 150t Annonay (Ardèche), 74 Arbaudie, Marie, 161 Arpajon (Essonne), 80

Arras (Pas-de-Calais), 32 articulation method. See oralism and oral education artists, 13, 158–88, 191. See also specific artists by name Deaf artists admitted to the Salon, 160–61 ASL (American Sign Language), 10, 190–92 Asnières-sur-Seine (Hauts-de-Seine), 77 Association amicale des sourds-muets de Champagne, 124, 127 Association amicale des sourds-muets de France, 138 Association amicale des sourds-muets de la Seine, 111, 115, 123, 138, 146 Association fraternelle des sourds-muets de l’Est, 126, 152 Association fraternelle des sourds-muets de Normandy, 116 Association Gabriel Deshayes, 29 Association Jules Catoire: Audition, Parole et Communication (Arras), 32 associations. See Deaf societies; specific associations Aubert, Antoine, 102, 161 Auch (Gers), 76 Auray (Morbihan), 28–29 Aurillac (Cantal), 55 L’Avenir des sourds-muets, 127, 150t

Index

211

Avenir Silencieux, 123 Avignon (Vaucluse), 60–61, 68 Azy d’Etavigny, David d’, 87–89, 90 Baguer, Gustave, 77 Balestra, Serafino, 139, 140 Barthélémy, Madeleine, 32, 33–34, 53–54 Baudrant, François, 87 Baudeuf, René-Hippolyte-François, 161 Bébian, Roch-Ambroise Auguste, 26, 32, 45, 104–5, 107–8, 150t behavioral norms, 190 Bell, Alexander Graham, 147 Belloni, Francesco, 186 belonging. See ethnicity and belonging Bénac, abbé, 76 Bernhard, Joseph, 34–35 Berthet, Marie Joseph Joachim, 38, 127, 136t, 150t Berthier, Ferdinand, 106, 115 associations founded by, 135–36t, 136–38 banquets for de l’Épée, 109, 137 biography, 109–10, 109 Central Society of the Deaf and, 36 Clerc and, 101 as Deaf instructor, 24 on Deaf press, 149 on Deaf “problem,” 159–60 Deaf revolt and, 107–8 Berton, Armand, 161–62 Bertoux, G., 150t Bertrand, Antoine, 45, 75, 105 Besançon (Doubs), 34, 37–38 Beulé, André-François, 29–30 Bézu, Octave, 162 Bienfaiteur des sourds-muets et des aveugles, 150t bilingual education, 43, 59, 104–5, 130. See also combined system of education Blanchet, Alexandre Louis-Paul, 57–58, 108, 136t, 137 Blanchet School (Paris), 57–58, 70 Blondeau, Antoine, 186-87 Blouin, Charlotte, 25 212 Index

Blouin, Nicolas, 25 Blouin, Victoire, 25 Boclet, Augustine-Armand-Désiré, 104, 162 Bonhomme, Pierre, 61, 65–66 Bonnefous, J.-L., 37, 106 Boquin, Alfred, 136t Bordeaux (Gironde), 26–27, 27, 68, 68–69 Bouffière, Jeanne, 162 Bouilly, Jean-Nicholas, 98 Bourg, Jean-Marie du, 25–26 Bourg-en-Bresse (Ain), 56, 63–64 Bourges (Cher), 58 Bourg-la-Reine (Hauts-de-Seine), 65–66 Bourogne (Territoire de Belfort), 75 Boutelou, Louis-Alexandre, 162 Bouvier, Paul, 63, 139, 170 Boyer, François, 76 Brazil, 129 Brès, Félix Pierre Henri, 162–63 Brès, Marie-Thérèse Félicie, 163 Breuillot, Jean Maurice, 34, 37–38 Broca, Paul, 165 Bulletin de la société centrale d’éducation et d’assistance pour les sourds-muets de France, 150t Bulletin de la société universelle des sourdsmuets, 150t, 151–52, 151 Caen (Calvados), 32–33 Canada, 130–31 Cantin, Yann, 107 Capon, Louis-Augustin, 70, 116, 136t Castellan, abbé, 77 Castille, J., 65 Cauchois, Henri-Victor, 163, 171 Cause du mutisme chez les sourds communément désignés sous le nom de sourds-muets (Dubois), 111 Centre Auguste Jacoutôt pour Déficients Auditifs (Strasbourg), 79 Centre Charlotte Blouin (Sainte-Marie-laForêt), 25 Centre d’Éducation Spécialisée pour Déficients Auditifs (CESDA) Montpellier, 58–59

Toulouse, 41 Centre Départemental pour Déficients Sensoriels (Rodez), 31 Centre de Rééducation de l’Ouïe et de la Parole (CROP), Paul Bouvier Institute (Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort), 63 Centre Médical de Phoniatrie et de Surdité Infantile Léopold Bellan (Arpajon), 80 Centre spécialisé déficients auditifs, 39 Cercle abbé de l’Épée (Deaf club), 125 Chaillet, abbé, 46 Chalandon, Georges, 63–64 Chambellan, Victor-Gomer, 111–12, 111, 136t, 138 Chambéry (Savoie), 53, 53–54 Champavier, Joseph-Victor-Fortuné, 67 Chastel, Françoise, 59 Chateauroux (Indre), 66 Chaumont (Puy-de-Dôme), 45 Chazal, Joseph, 122, 147 Chazottes, Louis-Guillaume, 41–42, 107 Chéron, Olivier, 163–64 Cheylat, M., 35 Chomat, Sébastien, 110 Chomel, Isaac-Etienne, 24, 105 Choppin, Paul-François, 164–66, 165 Cicé, Jérôme Champion de, 26–27 Claveau, Oscar, 144, 149, 154 Clerc, Louis Laurent Marie, 24, 78, 101–3, 102 Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme), 22, 27, 69–70 Cochefer, Antoine-Joseph, 117–18, 118, 136t, 138, 166 Cochereau, Henriette, 30 Colas, Jean-Louis Auguste, 22, 58, 166–67, 177 Colas, Victor, 108, 118, 167 collective name, 189, 190 Colmar (Haut-Rhin), 39–40 Comberry, David, 31, 35–36, 103–4, 104 Comberry, Jeanne-Marie Agathe, 36, 104, 112 combined system of education, 69, 110, 142, 145, 147, 148

Comité des sourds-muets, 137 Condé-sur-Noireau (Calvados), 31–32 congresses on the Deaf, 138–49 Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons, 101–3 Conseil Général de la Seine, 77 Count of Solar, 95–98 Le Courrier français des sourds-muets (periodical), 120, 154 Crolard, François, 161, 167–68 culture. See also ethnicity knowledge specific to, 190 shared, 13, 103, 146 Currière (Isère), 69 customs, 190 Cyclistes silencieux, 121 Dames de la Sainte-Famille, 55 Damourette, abbé, 66 Danielli, Joseph, 36 Daras, abbé, 150t D’Arragon, Adolphe Albert Henri, 168 Dassy, abbé Louis-Toussaint, 64–65, 77 Day, George, 49 Deafblind students, 29, 46 Deaf children of Deaf parents, 15–16 Deaf enfranchisement, 110 Deaf identity, 15. See also ethnicity Deaf instructors fired as result of Milan Congress, 30, 43, 54, 115–16, 121, 123, 125 professional credentials required for, 77 Deaf nation, 109, 114. See also ethnicity Deaf reform movement, 124–25 Deaf revolt (1830–1849), 103–8 Deaf schools. See residential schools; secular schools Deaf socialization, 15 Deaf societies, 135–38, 135–36t, 137 Deaf-World acculturation to, 189 affiliation in, 13, 134–57. See also affiliation in Deaf-World artists of, 13, 158–88

Index

213

ethnicity and. See ethnicity founders of, 13, 86–133. See also founders of the Deaf-World hearing-world boundaries and collaboration with, 191–92, 191t residential schools, 15–85. See also residential schools De Fay, Etienne, 87–88 Défense des sourds-muets (journal), 117, 120, 150t, 154 De la Croix, Pierre Frédéric, 168 De la manière de suppléer aux oreilles par les yeux (Deschamps), 25 Delaporte, Yves, 53, 120 Delfariel, François, 24 Denison, James, 141 Deschamps, abbé, 25, 28, 94 Deseine, Claude-André, 93–94 Deshayes, Gabriel Auray school founded by, 28–29 as founder of schools for Deaf children, 21, 21t Orléans school founded by, 47–48 Poitiers—Loudun school founded by, 49–50 Poitiers—Pont Achard school founded by, 45–46 Desloges, Pierre, 25, 90, 94 Desmarest, Henri, 150t Desperriers, René-Victor. See VavasseurDesperriers, René-Victor Dessaigne, Benoît, 45, 66 Dessales-Quentin, Robert, 168 Deux Langues Pour une Éducation (Two Languages for an Education), 43, 59 Dijon (Côte d’Or), 76 Divin-Cœur, Marie du, 60–61 Dominicans (religious order), 67 Dougherty, George, 147 Drouville, Mlle. See Leonard dit Drouville, Constance Esther Dubois, Benjamin Louis, 49, 111, 138, 151 Dudesert, Paul-Denis, 31–32 Duler, Laurine, 28, 32 Dunan, René, 29, 36–37, 106 214 Index

Dupont, Frédéric, 52 Dusuzeau, Ernest, 122–23, 123, 136t, 138, 146, 148 Duval, Marc, 168 Ebstein, Joseph Salomon, 169 Écho de Famille (magazine), 150t, 152 Écho de la société d’appui fraternel des sourds-muets (magazine), 117, 120, 150t, 152 L’Écho des sourds-muets, 150t Education. See also oralism and oral education; residential schools; secular schools combined system of, 69, 110, 142, 145, 147, 148 public schools, educating Deaf students in, 57–58 suppression of sign language in, 24, 33, 65, 72, 80, 138, 146. See also Milan Congress education law, 47, 54, 66, 77 Elbeuf (Seine-Maritime), 70 Embrun (Hautes-Alpes), 61–62 employment in arts, 159. See also artists Milan Congress, effect of, 159 oralism and, 140, 148 as school teachers. See Deaf instructors training for, 26, 34, 56, 61–62, 67 L’Épée, Charles-Michel de banquets to honor, 109, 136, 137 biography, 90–93, 90t, 91, 93t centennial of death, 138 Count of Solar and, 95–98 cultural activities on, 146, 189 epoch of (1760–1789), 90–98 iconography of, 93t methodical signing method of, 22, 24, 27, 92, 98 Paris School for the Deaf, founding of, 22–24 students of, 93t timeline of life, 90t

Escuela Nacional de Sordomudos (Mexico), 129 ethnicity and belonging associations. See Deaf societies; specific associations criteria for, 12–13, 109, 191f defined, 190 family ties compared, 12–13 group achievements and, 135 group representation, control of, 159–60 kinship and, 192 language and, 15, 191–92 press, role of, 13, 149–56, 150t press and, 149–50 properties applied to Deaf-World, 189, 190–91 schools and, 138 shared culture and, 13, 103, 146 social activities and, 192 solidarity of Deaf-World, 135 ethnicization, 15 Falguière, Alexander, 64 Fargeix, M., 78 Fay, Edward, 144–45 Fédération des sociétés françaises de sourds-muets, 152 Fellman, 91 Les Femmes et la Grande Guerre (Pitrois), 128 Ferry, Jean-Georges, 169 Les filles de la Charité de Saint-Vincentde-Paul, 61 Filles de la Sagesse, 28–29, 34, 36, 45–48, 52 fingerspelling, 24, 89 Flavien, Père, 67 Fleury, Catherine, 29–30 Fontainebleau (Seine-et-Marne), 57 Forestier, Claudius, 36, 104, 108, 112–13, 135t, 137, 141, 150t Forestier, Hyacinthe, 36 Forgues, Joseph, 73, 76 Fortin, Henry, 126, 170 founders of the Deaf-World, 13, 86–133



abroad, 130–31 in the arts, 13, 158–88 belle epoque (1871–1914), 116–29 Deaf revolt and consequences of (1830–1849), 103–8 before de l’Épée (1600–1759), 87–90 elaboration of Deaf culture (1850– 1870), 109–16 epoch of de l’Épée (1760–1789), 90–98 epoch of Sicard and disciples (1790– 1829), 98–103 Fourty, M., 64 Fox, Thomas, 146 Foyer Clairefontaine (Lyon), 36 Foyer de sourds-muets, 123 La France silencieuse (Vavasseur-Desperriers), 52, 121, 150t, 156, 164, 174, 186 Freeman, Mathilda, 123 Fremond, abbé, 25 French Revolution (1779–1789) centennial of, 138 church property seized during, 23, 28 oath of allegiance to government of, 25, 26 Sicard and, 98–99 French Revolution (1830), 110, 187 French Sign Language (FSL). See sign language Frères de la Sainte Famille de Belley, 69 Frères de Saint-Gabriel Auray school, instruction in, 29 Bordeaux school, operation of, 68–69 Bourges school, operation of, 58 Clermont-Ferrand school, operation of, 69–70 combined system, use of, 69 Marseille school, instruction in, 64 Milan Congress, attendance at, 141 Nantes school instruction, 37 oralism, use of, 52, 120 Orléans school, operation of, 48 Poitiers–Loudun school, operation of, 49–50 Sainte-Marie-la-Forêt school, operation of, 25

Index

215

Saint-Laurent-du-Pont school, operation of, 69 schools founded by, 21, 21t sign language, use of, 29, 48 Frères des écoles chrétiennes, 64, 78 Frères du Sacré-Cœur, 33–34 Gaillard, Henri biography, 121–22, 122 as editor of Gazette des sourds-muets, 126, 152 journals founded by, 154, 155–56 marriage of, 127 organization of International Congress of Deaf (1893), 147 as spokesman at International Congress on the Deaf (1900), 143 Galien, Joséphine, 50 Galien, Marie, 50 Gallaudet, Edward Miner advocacy for Deaf peoples’ rights, 145 on Milan declarations, 144, 147 visits to French schools for Deaf, 24, 27, 42, 62–63 Gallaudet, Thomas Hopkins, 24, 78, 101 Gamble, A., 170 Gap (Hautes-Alpes), 61 Garnier, Samson, 50–51 Gaussens, Étienne, 68–69 Gauthier, Louise, 170 Gazette des sourds-muets, 43, 122, 126, 150t, 152, 153, 154 Genestet, Elisabeth, 33–34 Genis, Henri, 114–15, 115, 147, 148, 150t Gérard, 91 Germany hereditary Deaf people during WWII, 56 residential schools in, 72–73 Ginouvier, Émile Nachor, 63, 115, 170, 171 Gire, François, 186–87 Godard-Desmarest, Armand, 101, 171 Goux (Jura), 46 Graff, Eugène, 37–38, 118–20, 119, 136t, 138, 149 216 Index

Gramat (Lot), 61 Grand Salon of the Palais du Louvre, 160 Grégoire, Paul Pierre, 172 Grenoble (Isère), 51–52 Gréve, Frédéric, 186–87 Grimaud, Casimir, 68 Grosselin, Augustin, 57, 66, 139 Guebwiller/Issenheim (Haut-Rhin), 75 Guès, Pierre, 34–35 Guieu, Marie, 61–62 Guillemont, François-Lucien, 113–14 Hamar, Fernard, 172–73, 172 Hanau, Jean Theodore, 173 hearing schools, educating Deaf students in, 57–58 hearing world, attitudes of Deaf people toward, 9, 15, 109, 137, 143–45, 149, 190–92 Hément, Félix, 139 Hennequin, Gustave-Nicolas, 43, 173–74, 174–75 Henrion, Joseph, 24, 105–6 hereditary Deaf people, 56 Hirsch, René-Louis, 69, 115, 117, 121, 174–75, 174–75 Histoire d’un sourd-muet écrite par luimême (Guillemont), 113 honorary titles, 161, 188n4 Hospice Saint-Louis, 38 Houdin, Pierre Auguste, 57, 139, 141, 144 Huby, Jacques-Louis, 26 Huet, Adolphe Edouard, 24, 58, 130 Hugentobler, Jacques, 71–72 humor, 135, 191 Imbert, Jules, 70, 107–8, 108 Institut André Beulé (Nogent-le-Rotrou), 30 Institut d’aveugles et de sourds-muets de Dijon, 76 Institut d’Education Sensorielle Paul Cézanne (Fougères), 56 Institut de Jeunes Sourds (Bourg-enBresse), 56

Institut Departemental de Jeunes Sourds les Gravouses (Clermont-Ferrand), 70 Institut Départemental Gustave Baguer (Asnières-sur-Seine), 77 Institut departmental de la parole et de l’audition (IDRPA, Lille), 47 Institut de Plein Vent (Saint-Étienne), 45 Institut des Sourds de la Malgrange (Nancy), 43 Institution Balzac et des Sourds-Muets (Angoulême), 71 Institution des sourds-muets du Havre (Le Havre), 78 Institution des Sourds-Muets Protestants de France (Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort), 62 Institution Grimaud-Meissonnier (Avignon), 68 Institut Napoléon, 63 Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Bordeaux (Gradignan), 27 Institut Protestant pour enfants déficient auditifs (Strasbourg), 75 Institut Régional des Sourds et Aveugles de Marseille (IRSAM, Marseille), 64–65, 77 Institut Régional pour Sourds et Déficients Auditifs (Saint-Jean-de-la-Rouelle), 48 Instituto Nacional de Surdos Mudos (Brazil), 129 Integrated schools, 57–58 intergenerational continuity, 192 International Committee of Silent Sports, 130 International Congresses of the Deaf, 145–49 International Congresses on the Deaf, 24, 139–45 International Congress of the Deaf 1889 (Paris), 111, 115, 123, 138, 146, 146 1893 (Chicago), 147 1896 (Geneva), 148 1900 (Paris), 148–49 International Congress on the Deaf 1878 (Paris), 139, 140 1880 (Milan), 139–42. See also Milan Congress

1883 (Brussels), 142 1900 (Paris), 142–45 intuitive method of signing, 15–16, 27, 31, 54, 81n16 Itard, Jean-Marc, 100, 110, 112, 123, 160 Jacoutôt, Auguste, 39–40 Jacoutôt, Charles, 40 Jamet, Pierre-François, 32–33, 38–39, 60 Jeanvoine, Elisée Henri, 38, 126, 126–27 Journal de l’Instruction des sourds-muets et des aveugles, 105, 150t Journal des sourds-muets, 69, 115, 116, 122, 150t, 154, 155 Kaiserliche Taubstummen-Anstalt (Metz), 72–73 Kilian, Jean Samuel Conrad, 62–63, 65 kinship myth, 192 Kohler, Robert, 72 Kuttolsheim (Bas-Rhin), 40 Ladreit de Lacharrière, Jules-François, 142–45, 148 Lafayette, Marquise de, 28 Lagier, M. Le Chanoine, 61 Lagier, Victor, 63, 148–49 Lagrange, Elien, 70–71 Lambert, Léon, 175–76 Langres (Haute-Marne), 43 language. See also oralism and oral education; sign language acquisition of, 15–16 ethnicity and, 191–92 native signers, 15–16 Lanneau, Adolphe de, 24 Larrouy, Pauline, 74, 116–17, 117 Laval (Mayenne), 38 Lebecq, Alexandre, 60 Lebret, abbé, 58 LeCesne, Maurice, 176 Lefebvre, François, 48–49 Legentil, Mlle., 60 Le Havre (Seine-Maritime), 78

Index

217

Lejeune, Jacques, 43. See also Young, Joseph-Marie Lemesle, Alexandre, 152 Lenoir, Alphonse, 36, 107, 108, 135t, 136 Lenoir, Auguste, 24 Léonard dit Drouville, Constance Esther, 57 Léothaud, Jeanne Emilie, 176 Le Puy-en-Velay (Haute-Loire), 33, 33–34 Le Taillandier, Jean-Baptiste, 55–56 Ligot, Joachim, 115, 115–16 Ligue pour l’union amicale des sourdsmuets, 119–20, 137–38 Lille (Nord), 46–47 Limoges (Haute-Vienne), 45, 75 lipreading, 31, 32, 41, 51, 57, 80, 127, 140, 148. See also oralism and oral education literary traditions, 135, 191 Louis XV (king), 88, 89 Louis XVI (king), 26, 46 Louis, Frère, 37 Louis-Philippe (king), 107, 110 Loustau, Léopold, 176–77, 177 Louvre (Paris), 160 Luciani, Félicien, 77–78 Lussy, Gustave Guillaume, 178 Lyon (Rhône), 35–36, 71–72, 78 Lyons, Jean-Baptiste des, 87 Magnat, Marius, 139, 140 Manière, Claude, 186–87 manualism, 21, 101. See also sign language Marie-Euphrasie, 60 Marie, Gabriel, 78 Marie-Victoire. See Taudon, Jeanne marriage, 135, 150, 190, 192 Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône), 34–35, 64–65 Marson, Mme., 61 Martin, André, 178 Martin, Ernest, 178 Martin, Félix, 178–79, 179 Martin, François, 178 218 Index

Martin, Georges, 180 Martin, Jean-Louis, 62–63 Martres, Angélique, 25 Masse, abbé, 28 Massé, Augustin, 180 Massieu, Jean biography, 99–101, 100, 106 Clerc and, 101, 103 Lille school founded by, 46–47 Sicard and, 26 as teacher at school in Rodez, 30–31 Matrand, Marguerite, 78–79 Matrand, Pierre, 78–79 Matthias, Ludwig Christian, 139 media. See press medical experiments on Deaf students, 110, 112, 123, 160 Meissonnier, Mme., 68 Meillier, M., 31 Ménière, Prosper, 159 Mercier, Émile Joseph, 123–25, 124, 136t, 147, 148 Meusnier, François, 87 methodical signing, 22, 24, 27, 31, 32, 40, 43, 92, 98 Mettenet, Theophilus, 75 Metz (Moselle), 72–73 Mexico, 129 Micheloni, Francisco, 148 Milan Congress (1880) backlash against, 111–12, 116, 144, 147, 154 Deaf instructors fired as result of, 30, 43, 54, 115–16, 121, 123, 125 educational shift to oralism because of, 25, 29, 30, 31, 33, 37, 38, 39, 41, 45, 55, 56, 61, 63, 64, 66, 70, 71, 77 overview, 139–42 Paris Congress on declarations of, 145 precursors to, 139 Mille, Albert, 180 mimography, 104, 105 Mirandon, Marguerite, 44–45 Moingt (Loire), 66 Monnier, Jeanne, 35, 104

Montillie, Gilbert Hippolyte, 180–81, 187 Montpellier (Hérault), 58–59, 59 Moore, Humphrey, 163–64 Moreau, Eugénie, 114 Morice, Léon, 181 Mosaic School (Paris), 187–88

universal inclusion in public schools and, 58 upper class students and, 73 oral rehabilitation, 80, 87–89 Ordinaire, Désiré, 24, 138 Orléans (Loiret), 25, 47–48, 48

Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle), 42, 42–43 Nantes (Loire-Atlantique), 36–37 Napoleon (emperor), 161, 188n4 National Assembly Deaf enfranchisement and, 110 Paris School for the Deaf, 22–24, 92–93 National Association of the Deaf meeting (Hartford 1917), 120 National Congress on the Deaf (Lyon 1879), 139, 140 native signers, 15–16, 24 Nice (Alpes-Maritimes), 77 Nîmes (Gard), 35 Nogent-le-Rotrou (Eure-et-Loir), 29–30

Page, Edme, 186–87 Paris (Paris), 49, 57, 66, 73 Paris School for the Deaf “SaintJacques,” 22–24, 22, 57, 70, 107, 138–39 Parot, Ulysse-Edmond, 35 Paul Bouvier Institute, Centre de Rééducation de l’Ouïe et de la Parole (CROP, Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort), 63 Pélissier, Pierre, 42, 106–7, 107, 108 pension funds, 119 Perdoncini, Guy, 80 Pereire, Eugène, 73, 139, 144 Pereire, Isaac Rodrigue, 73, 89 Pereire, Jacob-Émile, 73, 89 Pereire, Jacob Rodrigues, 57, 63, 73, 87–90 Pereire Society, 63, 140, 141 Périer, Pierre-Jean-Louis, 30–31, 41, 106–7 Périers (Manche), 38 Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales), 64 Persagotière, Nantes, 37 La Petite Silencieuse (newspaper), 128 Pétraud, Pierre Mathurin, 181 Peydessus, Jean-Louis, 73–74 Peyson, Fréderic, 160, 181–83, 182 phonomimie (oral method), 57, 66 Picaud, Georges Pierre, 183 Piepenbring, Charles, 75–76 Pilet, Edmond, 136t Piroux, Joseph, 40, 42–43 Pitrois, Yvonne, 127–29, 129, 150t Plantin, Martin, 33–34 Plasson, abbé, 36, 104 Plessis, Félix-Auguste, 147, 183 Poitiers—Loudun (Vienne), 49–50 Poitiers—Pont Achard (Vienne), 45–46 Ponsan-Soubiran (Gers), 73–74

Observations d’un sourd et muèt sur un cours élémentaire d’éducation des sourds et muèts (Desloges), 94 Old French Sign Language, 24 Oloron-Sainte-Marie (PyrénéesAtlantiques), 74, 74 oralism and oral education advocates urging adoption of. See Milan Congress challenges in, 121 combined system of education and, 69, 110, 142, 145, 147, 148 criticism of, 36, 120, 144, 147, 148, 154, 160 curriculum for, 54 government support for, 140 international congresses on Deaf and, 139 manualism vs., 21 phonomimie (oral method), 57, 66 professional credentials in, 77 promotion at international congresses, 24

Index

219

Pont-l’abbé (Manche), 33, 54 Pothier, G.-V., 43 Press, 13, 149–56, 150t. See also specific publications Princeteau, René, 183–84, 184 La Providence des Sourds-Muets (SaintLaurent-en-Royans), 67 proxy socialization, 15 public schools, educating Deaf students in, 57–58 Py, Dennis Fernand, 184

Ramager, Jules, 136t

Rande-Labouré, Marie-Thérèse, 58–59 Rauh, Louis, 51–52 Rayon du soleil des sourds-aveugles (magazine), 128 Redmond, Granville, 163–64 Les religieuses de la Sainte-Enfance, 59 religious schools for Deaf children, 20, 21–22, 21t. See also specific schools religious services, 192 Rémond, Louis Edmé, 120, 150t Rémy, Henri, 43, 125, 125–26, 136t, 150t, 152 Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine), 59 La République de demain (journal), 122, 150t, 154 residential schools, 13, 15–85. See also specific schools by location or school name catalogue of, 22–80 chronological list of, 16–17t, 20, 20t Deaf founders of, 20, 20t ethnicity and, 138 language acquisition and, 15 map of, 18, 19 overview, 15–21 religious orders as founders of, 20, 21–22, 21t

Reussner, M., 39

Revue des sourds-muets (magazine), 120, 150t, 152, 154 Revue pédagogique de l’enseignement des sourds-muets (journal), 150t Richard, Henri, 136t

220 Index

Richardin, Claude-Joseph, 42, 43, 114, 114 Rigaut, Émile, 184–85 Rillé-Fougères (Ille-et-Vilaine), 55–56 Rioms (Drôme), 28 Robert, Edouard, 185 Robert, Fanny, 185 Rodez (Aveyron), 30–31 role models, 15 Rottembourg, Valérie, 185 Rouen (Seine-Maritime), 26, 28, 45, 48–49 Rouzot, (sister), 34 Rubens-Alcais, Eugène, 130 Saboureux de Fontenay, Michel François, 88, 89–90 Saint-Brieuc (Côtes-d’Armor), 50–51 Saint-Étienne (Loire), 31, 44, 44–45 Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort (Gard), 62–63 Saint-Jacques. See Paris School for the Deaf Saint-Laurent-du-Pont (Isère), 69 Saint-Laurent-en-Royans (Drôme), 67, 67 Saint-Médard-lès-Soissons (Aisne), 52 Saint-Romain, Édouard, 50 Saint-Sernin, Jean, 26 Salon art exhibits, 159–61 Salon d’Automne, 160–61 Salon de l’Académie des Beaux-Arts, 160 Salon des Indépendants, 160 Salon des Refusés, 160 Salon du Champ-de-Mars, 160 Salon international des artistes silencieux, 161, 167–68, 173 Salvan, Antoine, 28 Sardinoux, Pierre Auguste, 62–63 Saux, Dr., 25–26 Schiltigheim (Bas-Rhin), 65 schools. See residential schools; secular schools secular schools, 21–22, 45, 55, 66, 67, 70 Segondat, Martin, 136t Sicard, Roch-Ambroise

biography, 98–99, 98 Clerc and, 101 Deaf revolt and, 108 as de l’Épée’s disciple, 23, 26 as director of school at Bordeaux, 26, 98–99 epoch of (1790–1829), 98–103 Massieu and, 100 on sign language methods, 60 sign language (American). See American Sign Language (ASL) sign language (French) acquisition of, 15–16 advocacy for, 94, 107, 111–12, 122, 125, 127, 138, 148 affiliative bonds and, 138 combined system of education and, 69, 110, 142, 145, 147, 148 criticism of, 32, 140–41 diffusion among deaf schools, 107 early use of, 24, 94, 98–99, 104 ethnicity and, 191 French law on education and, 47 gender segregation and, 54 International Congresses of Deaf on, 139, 146 intuitive method of, 15–16, 27, 31, 54, 81n16 manualism vs. oralism and, 21, 25, 29 methodical signing method for, 22, 24, 27, 32, 92, 98 mimography, 104, 105 native signers, 15–16 Old French Sign Language, 24 to represent things vs. words, 60 secret use of, 148 suppression of, 24, 33, 65, 72, 80, 138, 146. See also Milan Congress La silencieuse (journal), 122, 150t, 154 Simonetti, Edouard, 136t La Sincérité (journal), 120 Smets, Jean-Baptiste, 185 Smith, Anthony D., 189 social isolation, 146 socialization, 15

social structure, 191. See also affiliation in Deaf-World Société centrale d’éducation et d’assistance pour les sourds-muets de France, 137 Société centrale des sourds-muets de Paris, 108, 109, 110, 136–37, 160 Société d’appui fraternel des sourds-muets de France, 117, 119, 138 Société générale d’assistance et de prévoyance en faveur des sourds-muets et des aveugles de France, 137 Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, 160 Société Saint-Michel des sourds-muets de l’Isère, 51, 120 Société sourde-muette de bienfaisance, 114 Société universelle des sourds-muets, 109, 137, 151 Sœurs de la Croix, 79 Sœurs de la Divine Providence de Ribeauvillé, 75 Sœurs de la Présentation de Sainte-Marie, 33–34 Sœurs de la Providence, 61, 74 Sœurs de la Sagesse, 21, 21t Soeurs de Nevers, 27 Soeurs Oblates de la Sagesse, 29, 46 Sœurs de Saint-Joseph, 56 Sœurs de Saint-Thomas de Villeneuve, 35 Sœurs de Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, 58–59 Sœurs du Bon Sauveur, 54 Sœurs du Sacré-Cœur, 38, 55 Sœurs Saint-Charles, 44 Sœurs Saint-Joseph du Bon Pasteur, 27 solidarity of Deaf-World, 135, 192 Soucage, M. 68 Sou de Cercle des sourds-muets de Paris, 120 Sourd-muet illustré, 38, 127, 150t speech training, 24. See also oralism and oral education spoken language. See oralism and oral education Sportsman Silencieux, 130 stereotypes, 12–13, 189, 190 sterilization, 56

Index

221

storytelling, 135, 191 Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin), 39–40, 74, 75–76 Strasbourg—Neuhof (Bas-Rhin), 79 Subtil, abbé, 56 Tarbes (Hautes-Pyrénées), 76 Tarra, Giulio, 141 Taudon, Ursule Jeanne, 25 Tessières, Philippe Auguste de, 121 Théobald, Joseph-Nicolas, 54, 141 Thouvenin, Jules, 114 Tilden Douglas, 163–64, 169 Toulon (Var), 77–78 Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), 25–26, 41–42 Toulouse, Henri, 40, 184 Tours (Indre-et-Loire), 61 Treilhou, abbé, 38–39 Tronc, Joseph, 185–86 Turcan, Joseph, 51–52, 65, 120, 150t, 154 Two Languages for an Education (Deux Langues Pour une Éducation), 43, 59 Union des amicales des anciens élèves des écoles libres de sourds-muets, 152 Union française des sourds-muets, 38, 127 Union Nationale, 123 United States American School for the Deaf, 24, 78, 101 Deaf-World and hearing-world boundaries and collaborations in, 190–92, 191f National Association of the Deaf meeting (Hartford 1917), 120 universal inclusion in public schools, 57–58 Vaïsse, Léon, 24, 139

222 Index

Valade-Gabel, Jean-Jacques, 26–27, 31, 54, 111 values, 190 Vanin, Simon, 91, 94 Vaterloss, Mlle., 39 Vavasseur-Desperriers, René-Victor, 52, 120–21, 121, 147, 148, 150t, 186 Vendrevert, Albert, 136t La Véritable manière d’instruire les sourds et muets, confirmée par une longue experience (Épée), 92 Vernoux (Ardèche), 50 Vesoul (Haute-Saône), 75 Veyre-Monton (Puy-de-Dôme), 67 La Vie de l’abbé de l’Épée racontée aux Sourds-Muets (Pitrois), 129 Villanova, Paul Noël, 128, 128 Villedieu-les-Poêles (Manche), 55 Villefranche-sur-Mer (AlpesMaritimes), 79–80 Viricelles (Loire), 55 visual language. See sign language visual perception, 159 Vizille (Isère), 50 La Voix du Sourd [The Voice of the Deaf] (newspaper), 43 Voulquin, Marthe, 186 Wallis, John, 88 Wallon, Claude-Augustin, 186–87, 187 Walser-Gaillard, Louise, 122, 128 Washburn, Cadwallader L., 80 Widerkehr, Joseph de, 186 World Congress for Improving the Welfare of Deaf-Mutes, 89 World War I, 47, 60, 64 World War II, 47, 56, 79 written signs, 42

Young, Joseph-Marie, 129–30 Zubiaurre, Valentin de, 161

Index

223