UCL Ear Institute and RNID Libraries

John Birkbeck Nevins (1818-1903) was one of those extraordinary Victorians “who combined the life of the scholar with that of the man of affairs” (Obituary 1903). Related on his mother’s side to George Birkbeck, Nevins had non-conformist and industrial roots. Like his contemporary Darwin with whom he shares some parallels, Nevins spent some time as an ‘apprentice’ doctor, and at the same time on long walks he developed his understanding of botany and zoology. After attending Guy’s as a medical student, then practising for a short while in Leeds, he got a position on a Hudson’s Bay Company vessel as a ship’s  surgeon, and wrote a book about his experiences.

On his return from his voyages, obtaining a place as a lecturer in Chemistry and Natural Philosophy at Liverpool (a post he held from 1844-68) Nevins settled in that area. He also lectured in botany and medicine at the Liverpool School of Medicine. Nevins was appointed assistant-surgeon and subsequently surgeon, to the Eye and Ear Infirmary in 1853, a post he retained until 1877, when he retired and was appointed consulting surgeon. It was perhaps in this capacity that he became involved with the  Liverpool Institution.  Unfortunately we do not have the Liverpool Institution reports for the years from 1886-1909. He clearly took a great interest in the Liverpool school as will be seen from the attached document which I have scanned in full, that he took a great interest in sign language as used in the school: The Sign Language of the Deaf and Dumb, J. Birkbeck Nevins. I know little about the history of BSL linguistic studies, but this essay, presented before the Literary and Philosophical Society of Liverpool, seems to me to be quite an early and sympathetic attempt to present the language as a valid means of communication, with brief history of the education of Deaf people, followed by a look at some signs. Nevins compares sign language education with oral education. He says

The “Education Department” now wisely requires both systems to be taught in State-aided schools, while showing an apparent favour for the oral in preference to the sign system, founded upon the Report of the Royal Commission on Blind, Deaf, and Dumb, issued in 1889. In estimating the true value of this report on this particular question it is necessary to bear in mind that the Commission was originally formed with reference to the blind only, and fourteen of the eighteen commissioners were appointed while that was its sole object. The deaf and dumb were added as an afterthought some months afterwards, and four additional names were added, who represented the deaf and dumb interest. From special and exceptional circumstances one or two of these were in some sense committed to the oral system before appointment, but it is my confirmed belief that both the teachers in deaf and dumb schools, and also those who have had the longest and most practical acquaintance with the deaf and dumb prefer the sign system for general use, while willingly encouraging the addition of the oral system for the benefit of the more limited number who possess the time, the means, and also the intellectual capacity for making use of its more exacting requirements.

The copy we have is from the author to Richard Elliott of the Margate School.

The Royal Commission Report is searchable and of interest to anyone researching deaf education in the 19th century.

Obituary

A. H. SYKES, Dr J Birkbeck Nevins – sage of Liverpool

Theatre has long been important for the Deaf community, as a form of social expression and participation. Here we see the York Deaf Social Club circa 1920 doing a Victorian farce, The Ghost in a Pawnshop.

In 1960 the NID MIME GROUP was set up by Pat Keysell and Ursula Eason. It developed into the British Theatre of the Deaf in 1969.

Deafinitely Theatre are the best known Deaf Theatre company in the U.K. Their latest offering in February is aimed at children – Tyrannosaurus Drip – “A visual adaptation of the book by Julia Donaldson and David Roberts. When an egg is stolen from the nest of a waterweed-munching Duckbill Dinosaur only to end up on the other side of the river in the nest of a meat-eating Tyrannosaurus Rex, the life ahead for the unborn dinosaur is likely to be a difficult one.”

The RNID Mime Group and the Theatre of the Deaf

The N.I.D. Mime Group. Silent World, 1961, 15(12), 372-374. (photos)

The Waxworks Mystery. Hearing, 1965, 20, 108-09.

Mime at Mayfair: the first West End production by the RNID Mime Group. Hearing, 1965, 20, 372-373.

The R.N.I.D. Mime Group. Hearing, 1968, 23, 16-18.

KEYSELL, P. British Theatre of the Deaf, 1960-1977. Deaf Arts UK, 1999, 8, 7-9; 1999, 9, 3-6, 15. (photos)

SCHLISSELMAN, I. A brief historical outline of the British Theatre of the Deaf. Deaf History Journal, 2000, Suppl. 6,  3-7.

Here is a long list of suggested reading on Deaf Theatre, all to be found in the library.

ABBOTSON, S.C.W., 2003. Thematic Guide to Modern Drama. Greenwood.

ANDREWS, R.H., Deaf Theatre Performance: An Aristotelean Approach.

BALDWIN, S.C., A History of the National Theatre of the Deaf from 1959 to 1989.

BRADFORD, S., 2005. The National Theatre of the Deaf: Artistic Freedom and Cultural Responsibility in the Use of American Sign Language. In: C. SANDAHL, P. AUSLANDER and P. PHELAN, eds, U of Michigan P, pp. 86-94.

BRADFORD, S.L., 2001. The Australian Theatre of the Deaf: Essence, Sensibility, Style, U of Texas, Austin.

BREWER, D., 2002. West Side Silence: Producing West Side Story with Deaf and Hearing Actors. Theatre Topics, 12(1), pp. 17-34.

COHEN, H.U., 1989. Theatre by and for the Deaf. TDR: The Drama Review: A Journal of Performance Studies, 33(1), pp. 68-78.

DAVIDSON, M., 2006. Hearing Things: The Scandal of Speech in Deaf Performance. In: H.L. BAUMAN, J.L. NELSON, H.M. ROSE, W.C. STOKOE, W.J.T. MITCHELL and C.A. PADDEN, eds, U of California P, pp. 216-234.

DAVIDSON, M., 2002. Hearing Things: The Scandal of Speech in Deaf Performance. In: S.L. SNYDER, B.J. BRUEGGEMANN, R. GARLAND-THOMSON and M. BÉRUBÉ, eds, Modern Language Association of America, pp. 76-87.

DENEULIN, A., 1973. The National Theatre of the Deaf. Kunst en Cultuur, 31 May, pp. 14-14.

FANT, L., 1980. Drama and Poetry in Sign Language: A Personal Reminiscence. In: C. BAKER, R. BATTISON, M.D. GARRETSON, W.C. STOKOE and R. STOKOE, eds, Nat. Assoc. of the Deaf, pp. 193-200.

FRERE, J., 2004. But All the World Is Deaf: Theatre Bazi’s Production of The Mute Who Was Dreamed. TheatreForum, 24, pp. 45-52.

HARRINGTON, B., 1991. Non-Traditional Casting Update: Interview with Linda Bove. TDR: The Drama Review: A Journal of Performance Studies, 35(2), pp. 13-17.

INGALLS, Z., 2000. On Prospero’s Island, Deaf and Hearing Students Learn to Act Together. Chronicle of Higher Education, 46(45), pp. B2-B2.

KELLETT BIDOLI, C.,J., 2008. Transfer and Construction of Identity and Culture in Audiovisual Feature Film Translation for the Italian Deaf Community. In: C.J.K. BIDOLI and E. OCHSE, eds, Peter Lang, pp. 403-432.

KISHI, M., 2003. Shuwa myūjikaru e no henshin: Shinsei Big River. Eigo Seinen/Rising Generation, 149(7), pp. 429-429.

KOCHHAR-LINDGREN, K., 2006. Hearing Difference across Theatres: Experimental, Disability, and Deaf Performance. Theatre Journal, 58(3), pp. 417-436.

KOCHHAR-LINDGREN, K., 2002. Listening with the Third Ear: Kabuki, Bharata Natyam and the National Theatre of the Deaf. Journal of American Drama and Theatre, 14(2), pp. 35-43.

LINDGREN, K.A., DELUCA, D. and NAPOLI, D.J., 2008. ASL in Performance: A Conversation with Adrian Blue. In: Deaf culture, identity, language, and arts  K.A. LINDGREN, D. DELUCA and D.J. NAPOLI, eds, Gallaudet UP, pp. 232-238.

NOVAK, P., 1996. Jorjan Lynn Jeter: The Stuff of Dreams. American Theatre, 13(10), pp. 42-42.

PEARSON-DAVIS, S., 1986. Working with Deaf and Hearing Actors in the Same Cast: Even If You Don’t Know Sign Language! Youth Theatre Journal, 1(1), pp. 15-19.

PETERS, C., 2006. Deaf American Theater. In:
Signing the Body Poetic; Essays on American Sign Language Literature H.L. BAUMAN, J.L. NELSON, H.M. ROSE, W.C. STOKOE, W.J.T. MITCHELL and C.A. PADDEN, eds, U of California P, pp. 71-92.

RICH, J.D., 1972. National Theatre of the Deaf. Players: Magazine of American Theatre, 47, pp. 115-119.

ROBINSON, C.L., 2006. Visual Screaming: Willy Conley’s Deaf Theater and Charlie Chaplin’s Silent Cinema. In: H.L. BAUMAN, J.L. NELSON, H.M. ROSE, W.C. STOKOE, W.J.T. MITCHELL and C.A. PADDEN, eds, U of California P, pp. 195-215.

RUEBHAUSEN, D.K., 0101. Art Made Accessible: Redefining Accessibility and Cross-Cultural Communication for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing in American Theatre Institution, U of Minnesota.

SCHIMMEL, K.M., 0101. The Effects of Changes in the Rhetoric of the Deaf Culture upon Hearing Playwrights in the Twentieth Century, Bowling Green State U.

STOKOE, W.C., 1984. Not Found, Created: A Major New Source for the Study of Sign Language and Culture: A Review of Sign Me Alice II by Gilbert Eastman. Sign Language Studies, 42, pp. 57-64.

WILSON, J., 1997. Signs of Definitions. In: A. POINTON, C. DAVIES and P. MASEFIELD, eds, British Film Institute, pp. 179-181.

ZACHARY, S.J., 1995. The National Theatre of the Deaf and the Teatr mimiki i zhesta: Two Views on Theatre of the Deaf. Theatre Topics, 5(1), pp. 53-67.

ZACHARY, S.J., 1984. A Language Rationale for Conventional Readers Theatre of the Deaf. Literature in Performance: A Journal of Literary and Performing Art, 5(1), pp. 20-28.

We constantly learn from our visitors, or from helping them try to uncover information. Twice in recent weeks I have had students asking about these terms, ‘Linguism’ or ‘linguicism ’.  Academics often coin new terms or re-use older terms in a very particular sense,  so for me using the terms ‘linguism’ and ‘linguicism’ in relation to sign language was novel. It was difficult to pin them down exactly, despite, or perhaps because of the profusion of material on the web, but what follows seems to be what is meant by academics writing about language.

The OED online defines linguism as either “1 Conversance with, or predilection for, (foreign) languages, or 2 Advocacy of languages on a regional basis” (OED Online). However neither of these terms are the definitions we are after. 

The term(s) in the sense we are interested in here, were coined by Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, a researcher based in Denmark. Lingucism refers to

“ideologies, structures, and practices which are used to legitimate, effectuate, regulate, and reproduce an unequal division of power and resources (both material and immaterial) between groups which are defined on the basis of language.” In other words, linguicism involves an unequal relationship between two or more languages. In such cases, language becomes a means of control and domination. (Wang 2008)

In her definition therefore linguicism is ‘linguistically argued racism’, to use the words of her husband, Robert L.H. Phillipson.  Phillipson wrote a book called Linguistic Imperialism (OUP, 1992), which supports this stance. There is a connection with sign language as explained in these Wikipedia pages.

In 1880, most deaf schools (where sign languages are transmitted from children from deaf families to the children from non-signing hearing families) had adopted oralism, an educational philosophy which prohibits the use of sign languages in favor of oral language. Many sign languages had all but become extinct during this time sometimes called by Deaf people as the “Deaf Dark Ages.” In 1960s, the United States became the first major country to switch back to manualism. Unfortunately, even today, many first-world nations retain oralist educational philosophies and attitudes.

However the view of Phillipson is not without its critics. In a review of Linguistic Imperialism, Alan Davies said,

Two cultures inhabit LI [Linguistic Imperialism]. One is the culture of guilt — colonies should never have happened, empires never existed, and now we should end their perpetuation, which is made through the imposition (however indirect) of English (or presumably any other language of imperialism). The second culture is that of romantic despair — we shouldn’t be doing what we are doing — a theme common to our current cultures of the environment, a Rousseau-like desire to return to nature and to innocence. (Davies 1996)

Davies argues that

in highly multilingual societies, English (or some substitute) is necessary, and that to restrict it (as, for example, in Malaysia) is to reinforce the special privileges of the élite (who have English anyway through private and/or foreign education) as against the masses (who do not have English). (ibid)

Alan Davies (1996): Review Article: Ironising the Myth of Linguicism, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 17:6, 485-496

Fang-Yu Wang, Nationalism without Linguism? Reevaluating the Chinese orthography in the context of language revitalization. 2008 

http://tinyurl.com/cyj3sr3

http://tinyurl.com/bsg9yaz

Two ‘modern’ but still ‘historical’ items for you today.

The first which was re-discovered by one of our visitors, is a satirical pamphlet dated 1993 by our former librarian. Called The Dirty Earmould, (click onto the picture for a larger size) this is the product of an anonymous Deaf activist or activists from the time when Deaf radicalism was becoming militant in its opposition to being treated as ‘colonies’, in the terminology of Paddy Ladd (Understanding Deaf Culture, 2004, p. 72). It is not subtle but goes for the jugular; How can I tell if my mother is an oralist, “Fact: Grey haired fuddy-duddies and tarts can fall prey to oralism”; Letters – “Dear Sir, Today I looked out of my window and to my horror, I saw two deaf children. They were waving their hands about in a most violent manner reminiscent of the Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Can nothing be done to stop this exhibitionist streak in modern children?”;  “How many oralists does it take to change a lightbulb? Nine, one of them to hold the bulb in the mouth, the other eight to turn the oralist round.” etc.

The second item is a lecture given by the sign language researcher Mary Brennan at the Leeds Incorporated Institution for the Blind and Deaf at their A.G.M. in November 1978. Brennan, who died on 23rd of June 2005, called her talk The Rising Status of Non-verbal Communication.

Brennan points out that in Shakespeare’s age,

a great debate was going on as to the worthiness and adequacy of the English Language. Before that time most of the important works, in for example, Religion and Philosophy, had been written in Latin or Greek as it was assumed that it was impossible to express abstract ideas and complex thought in English. Seen from the perspective of the twentieth century, this seems absolutely ludicrous.

[she explores this theme further and then continues]

William Labov, an American linguist, who has studied the language of black American speakers, has said that the prejudice against certain dialects is caused by ignorance of the basic facts about human language and the people who speak it. It seems to me that this is exactly the case in relation to the status of the non-verbal communication system used by the deaf community. While many experts on deaf education or deaf welfare remain uninformed about the nature of sign language, the prejudice against sign language will continue. But, in changing people’s attitudes to the language of the deaf, we are changing people’s attitudes to deaf people themselves.In achieving a proper status for the communication of deaf people we are achieving a recognition of the rights and dignity of deaf people themselves.

This copy is probably rare and may be unique. This sort of ‘grey literature’ illustrated by these two items, is found in abundance in the R.N.I.D. library. It does not perhaps carry the weight of peer-reviewed studies, but it can in fact give colour to and illuminate a topic and a period in a way that other sources cannot. Here’s to ephemera!

Brennan, Mary. The Rising Status of Non-verbal Communication. Unpublished (?) photocopy

Brien, David ed. Dictionary of British sign language; with an introduction by Mary Brennan ; compiled for the British Deaf Association by the Deaf Studies Research Unit, University of Durham

Brennan, Mary, Colville, Martin D., Lawson, Lilian K. Words in hand : a structural analysis of the signs of British sign language /  –  [2nd ed.] / [revised by Gerry Hughes]

There is at present some pressure for more captions or subtitles to be made available on web content among other places (search for example with #captionTHIS on Twitter). However, for some Deaf people or people with hearing difficulties this may not help as there are other factors involved such as the speed of captions appearing on the screen, particularly with literal translation, and also the reading ability of the person. People who may have sign language but have low or no reading ability of English or their national language, are therefore often excluded from national life and isolated. Here are a few articles from Medline (via PubMed) that look at subtitles or captions:

Samuel Heinicke, who died on 30th of April 1790, was a pioneer of Deaf education. He used the oral method as opposed to the manual methods of the French sign language pioneer Charles-Michel de l’Épée with whom he had an exchange of letters arguing about the best way to teach. Heinicke kicked off the exchange when he wrote to l’Épée’s pupil, Abbé Stork in Vienna, probably in 1780. It was a classic academic split, with some rather superior comments on both sides:

If you had perused a work published by me entitled “The Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, or the way of Learning laid open by Methodical Signs,” your epistle to the teacher at Vienna would not have been filled with such rigorous stricture upon this method, and his adoption of it. The signs made use of in our mode of teaching are not hieroglyphical, as you suspect: they are indeed a selection of such as are natural, or which have a raciocinative connection, if I may so express it, with the things to be signified. [...]

Thus it appears, learned Sir, that you have censured a Method to which you are an utter stranger: but, so far from conceiving the least resentment at this, I am highly rejoiced that a learned Professor of the University of Leipzig should so devote himself to the vocation to which my labours have been dedicated for many years.

In Heinicke’s second letter to de l’Épée, he says, “Although I greatly esteem the letters which you lately did me the honour to address to me, I cannot but confess that our notions touching the most eligible manner of instructing the Deaf and Dumb are wholly at variance, and, I very much doubt, will never be reconciled.” He finishes, “If you suppose that I make no use of the dactylology in my tuition, you are very much mistaken”. As Garnett glosses, this completes the breakdown of understanding between the two men, for Heinicke uses Zeichensprache, the language of signs, but the Latin version l’Épée received has it as Dactylology, finger-spelling. In his third and final letter, this misunderstanding leads l’Épée to insult Heinicke by saying “this system of yours is merely mechanical” (Garnett p.46).

In the end, taking his arguments to the editor of the Vienna Realzeitung, a long assessment was made by the Rector and Fellows of the Academy of Zurich. The editor sums up, saying Heinicke “accomplishes more”, while l’Épée “contents himself with the sign language (Zeichensprache)” (ibid. p.54). In part of their assessment of the argument the academicians say,

“In a word, it appears very clear to us that, although Mr. Heinicke is so bold in his reprehensions of your method of tuition, he has very little knowledge of it; that he never read and probably never saw the publication  in which it is laid open. In what other manner can we account for his rashly confounding your system with the system of others; for his falling into the many mistakes which we have noticed; and, in particular, for his asserting and allowing it to be asserted by others who have publically adjudged his methods to be superior to yours, that your pupils are not taught to speak?

That the German method of Heinicke’s  was eventually to triumph in the 19th century over the French or manual, was of great import for the whole of the Deaf community in Germany and abroad, both at that time and right up to the present.

Garnett, Christopher B. Jr.  The Exchange of Letters Between Samuel Heinicke & Abbe Charles Michel De L’Epee. Vantage Press, New York, 1968

Schmaehl, Otto. Samuel Heinicke and the Education of the Deaf. Volta Review, 1970, 72:237-41

Jack Ashley was President of Action on Hearing Loss, formerly the RNID, from 1987 when he succeeded Lord Chalfont. Losing his hearing in 1967 after an operation, in his two autobiographies Journey into silence (1973) and Acts of defiance (1992) Ashley describes how he came to be involved with the RNID. Helen Keller had recently died and there was talk of a joint Blind/Deaf fund in her memory. He hoped to bring the two groups together.

The General Secretary at the Royal National Institute for the Deaf was helpful and anxious that the venture should succeed. But he did not seem optimistic and I did not press him to explain his reservations. When I went to the Royal National Institute for the Blind I understood his pessimism. The building was far more impressive than that of the Institute for the Deaf and it was much better staffed; although by no means lavish, it was clearly better endowed. The General Secretary was pleasant, brisk and willing to consider any initiatives and attend exploratory meetings for a joint fund; but whereas the officials for the deaf strongly supported my provisional plan, those of the blind were not notably enthusiastic.

He continues further on,

I later learned that the blind have charitable donations of some £2,000,000 a year compared with £20,000 for the deaf. With public generosity biased to this extent, I began to understand why the blind chose to avoid cooperating with the deaf.

The poverty of the organisation for the deaf is a reflection of the striking difference in the public attitude to the two disabilities. The average person feels gratified helping a blind man across the road; he feels he has done his good deed for the day. But co-operation with the deaf involves positive and continuous help rather than a gesture which is soon over and done with. (Journey into silence p.164-5)

Ashley was approached by Air Vice-Marshal E.D.D. Dickson, Chairman of the RNID from 1960-1971, to go to Edinburgh and give the opening address at their biennial conference in October 1968.

The invitation posed an interesting question. Was I to begin campaigning for deaf people now that I was myself deaf, and would this be seen as special pleading? [...]I thought the best thing would be to try to help deaf people in much the same way as I would aim to help all others who were disabled. (Acts of defiance1992, p.176).

Jack and Pauline in Edinburgh

Suffering from tinnitus, his memories of Edinburgh were dominated by “the shrieking and roaring in my head [...] as they have on so many occasions since.” He had a warm reception, and spoke widely, including about his anger at attitudes to deafness in the public and media.

The audience responded generously, and the media coverage was extensive. At Edinburgh, I struck a small  blow for deaf people and passed another landmark in my own rehabilitation.

In Acts of defiance, Ashley devotes a chapter to deafness called Deaf World. He talks of his frustrations with patronising colleagues, the difficulties of trying to lip-read.  “In striking contrast to those prejudiced against deaf people, Princess Diana did all she could to help.” (ibid, p.344). He describes how he became RNID President -

The RNID, an old-established organisation, had an elderly feel when I first came into contact with it. After speaking at the Edinburgh conference in 1968, just after losing my hearing, my relationship with it was restricted to keeping in touch with its officers and speaking at occasional meetings.

However, in 1986, with new leaders and a more demanding membership, it became more thrusting and effective. Its Chief Executive, Mike Whitlam, gathered together a team of professional directors, clarified its image and adopted a higher profile.[...] He was supported by an energetic, intelligent Chairman, Winifred Tumin, the mother of two deaf daughters.[...] I served for a while on its General Management Committee and then, in October 1987, I was elected President.

Jack Ashley did a tremendous amount to help people in his life and we will just highlight some of his contributions in speaking out in the cause of Deaf People in Parliament and elsewhere for more than forty years -

• He encouraged the government to make television companies to have a greater percentage of subtitles under the Broadcast Bill in 1990 than was originally intended (Acts of defiance 1992, p352-3).

• Having seen how it helped his mother, in 1973 he pressed Keith Joseph to give all deaf people a behind-the-ear hearing aid free of charge (Acts of defiance 1992, p345).

• Along with RNID representatives and the consultant and tinnitus expert Jonathan Hazell, he founded the British Tinnitus Association in a room at the House of Commons in November 1979  (Acts of defiance 1992, p.351).

• He tabled an Early Day Motion calling upon the Government to give official recognition to BSL and to remedy the shortage of fully trained interpreters (EDM 943). Sign Language. British Deaf News. 1991, Sep, 5.

• The common belief that an 18th-century statute debarred ‘deaf and dumb’ people from becoming MPs was refuted by the Lord Chancellor in a letter to Lord Ashley stating that there is “nothing in common law, customs of Parliament or statute preventing a deaf person from becoming an MP”. See Hear, 1995, Dec, 6.

• The All-Party Disablement Group is a Parliamentary group that was founded by Jack Ashley in 1969 and chaired by him for forty years . BABER, P. Never a backbench issue. Disability Now, 1998, Nov, 14.

• The Jack Ashley Millennium Awards for Young Deaf People (1999-2002).  “By the end of the initiative’s three-year lifetime, 150 young deaf people had, between them, received £789,305 worth of awards.” Talk, 1999, 171, 6, and 172, 13; Talk, 2001, 182, 4. (Includes list of winners); Curtain comes down on Awards scheme. Talk, 2002, 189, 17; ‘Graduation’ ceremony honours UK’s finest. Talk, 2003, 191, 18-19.

• His wife Pauline, a governor at the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital, with the help from specialists at the hospital established the Hearing Research Trust to help fund research into deafness (now Deafness Research UK) in 1985. Jack Ashley became the President.

• The RNID and the Jules Thorne Charitable Trust had given funding to Graham Fraser, the pioneer of cochlear implants at UCL, for a programme of implants. In 1989 Ashley took a deputation that included Fraser to see the Health Minister David Mellor, who then managed to get NHS funding for a four year funding of cochlear implants.

UCL Provost Dr. Derek Roberts and Jack Ashley at the RNID Library, January 1994

William Shakespeare’s birthday today marks the start of the London Globe Theatre’s Shakespeare festival for the ‘Cultural Olympiad’.

Deafinitely Theatre are performing Love’s Labours Lost.

See also the translation lectures here.

You can find DVDs of Shakespeare in BSL here, and in ASL there is a Shakespeare Project – ASL Shakespeare Project.

London Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb (1792-1902) and the Old Kent Road School (1902-1968)

The first free school for deaf children of the poor in the UK, the London Asylum was founded in 1792 by the Rev. John Townsend. Here is a brief chronology.

1792    Opened in Grange Road, Bermondsey.

1809    Moved to Old Kent Road, Southwark.

1840    The streets each side of its grounds were named Townsend Street and Mason Street after its founders.

1862    Some pupils moved to temporary accommodation in Margate.

1875    New building opened in Margate – younger pupils educated in London, older pupils in Margate.

1883    Younger pupils moved from London to temporary accommodation in Ramsgate.

1886    Old asylum demolished and new building for younger pupils erected on its site.

1902    Pupils in London moved to Margate (now the Royal School for Deaf Children, Margate), and building and site sold to the London School Board.

1903    The Old Kent Road School opened, with a school for physically handicapped children on the ground floor and a school for deaf children on the second floor. Properly speaking therefore, this school was a new foundation.

1904    London County Council took over the functions of the London School Board.

1908    J.D.Rowan became headmaster until he retired in 1932 (British Deaf Times, 29 (341-2), 56).

1965    The Inner London Education Authority took over the functions of London County Council when the latter ceased to exist.

1968    The Old Kent Road School closed and a new school, Grove House in Elmcourt Road, Norwood, opened, surviving until 1999.

LCC Old Kent Rd School – Games (click for larger size) I suspect the man on the left is Rowan.

Deaf Pupils Included (among others) -

ARNOLD, George (1855- ?  ) Deafened at the age of 8 and educated at the Old Kent Road and St John’s College, a private school in Margate; on leaving school trained as a tailor with Mr W. Fletcher, tailor to King King Edward VII.

ALLERY, Bernard (1921-93) Team manager and chairman of Lewisham Deaf Football Club; educated at Old Kent Road School and Anerley Deaf School.

ASH, Harry (1863- 1934) Deafened by scarlet fever at 18 months; sent to the London Asylum in the Old Kent Road when he was 11, and later to Margate; designer at the Hogarth Works, Chiswick.

BLOUNT, Hiram (1870?-1932) Deafened at the age of 5; educated at Old Kent Road, London; missioner to the deaf in Plymouth from 1899 until his death in 1932.

DAVIDSON, Thomas (1842-1919) Private pupil of Thomas Watson at the Old Kent Road Institution, who became an artist specialising in naval scenes.

GLOYN, John P.  (1830- ? ) Son of a London solicitor; deafened between 2 and 3 years old and educated at the Old Kent Road Asylum ; set up in business as a mathematical instrument maker; involved in ‘deaf work’ in a voluntary capacity until 1872 when he was appointed Missionary for the Northern District of the Royal Association for the Deaf and Dumb.

POLCHAR, Mark Michael (1903-94) Pupil at Old Kent Road and Anerley Deaf Schools; founded Clapham Deaf Club’s cricket and football teams in 1925.

(There are references for all the above people  for those interested.)

Further reading:

An historical sketch of the purposes, progress, and present state, of the asylum for the support and education of the indigent deaf and dumb children, situate in the Kent Road, Surrey: with the rules of the society, and a list of its officers and governors. London, March, 1831, see Margate School institutional archive box.

History (up to 1843) The Edinburgh Messenger No.2, p.10-11, 1843

History (up to 1876). Deaf and Dumb Magazine (Glasgow), 1879, 7, 40-43. (illus)

History (up to 1880). Deaf and Dumb Magazine (Glasgow), 1880, 8, 14-26. (illus)

Quarterly Review of Deaf-Mute Education, 1887, 1, 167-78, 197-202.

History, British Deaf-Mute and Deaf Chronicle, 1894, 3, 81-82. (illus)

Teacher of the Deaf, 1904, 2, 29.

British Deaf Times, 1906, 3, 121-25. (photos)

ALLERY, B. Old Kent Road School for the Deaf. The author, 1969 and 1971. (RNID Library locastion: C5664 (REF)

also in: British Deaf News, 1969, 7(5), 148-49.

A mother and her son. British Deaf News, 1997, Jun, 7. (Mrs Creasy and her deaf son John were the inspiration for Rev Townsend’s action; John Creasy trained William Hunter, the Asylum’s first deaf teacher.)

STAINER, William (1828-98)

William Stainer was an elder brother of the famous composer, Sir John Stainer, who wrote the music to Good King Wenceslas among other more notable compositions. Their father William Stainer (1802–1867) was a schoolmaster at the parish school of St Thomas’s, Southwark, and his wife, Ann Collier (1803–1884), the descendant of an old Huguenot family which had settled in Spitalfields (see Dibble).  William helped his father in the school, teaching boys only a little younger than himself. He also attended lectures of Dr. Leeson at St. Thomas’ Hospital, before becoming a student at the Church of England’s ‘National Society for Promoting Religious Education’. In 1842 aged only 14, he began teaching deaf children at the Old Kent Road School (the London Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, Old Kent Road).

Having gained experience teaching all age groups, in 1854 he left to became the Superintendent of the Adult Deaf and Dumb Society, Manchester. According to his biographical entry in the Deaf and Dumb Times,

he had not been long at work before he became aware that besides the exclusion of young children from the school caused everywhere by the minimum age for admission being fixed too high, the evil was especially magnified in the manufacturing populations of the north, where young mothers were so commonly called to leave there children and work all day long in the various processes of the cotton manufacture. The evil had struck other observers before him, but no one had grappled with it. He did so. He took council with influential persons; stirred up general interest in the subject; travelled over and canvassed the county; got up a great bazaar held at the Free Trade Hall in 1859, at which £7,000 were realised in five days, and this sum being augmented to £12,000 by numerous donations, the Manchester Infant School was started, built, and opened, and for the first seven years was conducted by Mr. Stainer himself.

Wishing to extend his work to the adult deaf, Stainer made representations to the first Bishop of Manchester, James Prince Lee for specially ordained priests to perform this ministry, but Lee refused. “Lee was stubborn, domineering and opinionated, and was greatly disliked for his personal dictatorial style” (see here). Not to be put off, Stainer went to study at St.Mary’s Hall, Oxford, then Salisbury Diocesan College, finally being ordained in 1872 by the Bishop of London, becoming the second chaplain to the Royal Association in aid of the Deaf and Dumb, at St Saviour’s, Oxford Street after the Re. Samuel Smith. He did not return to minister in Manchester, but was sent to the East End, something that coincided with the Elementary Education Act of 1870 and the realization that many uneducated children were deaf (Deaf and Dumb Times). Meeting with the School Board’s chairman Sir Charles Reed, Stainer undertook to start teaching them, holding the first class of five pupils on 14th of September 1874. The numbers increased to 400 pupils under the Metropolitan School Board by 1889, and 600 by 1898. They then established what became known as Stainer Homes to accommodate the children who lived some distance from the schools. A small fee was charged for board but other care was free.

Stainer gave generously, often from his own resources. He finally retired in 1896 after 22 years. He was a fluent signer and originally used sign language to teach, but “became more and more interested in the oral methodology” (Woodford). He attended the (infamous) Milan Conference in some capacity, perhaps as an observer. The Stainer Homes were not to survive him and were sometimes poorly managed, finally being condemned by a Schools Board report in May 1898. [We may write about them in a future post]. Stainer died in 1898 and was buried in Highgate Cemerery.

Among other achievements we are told that he was one of the original promoters of the Conference of Headmasters, a promoter of The Quarterly Review of Deaf Mute Education, and “with Dr.Elliott, he was, in July 1885, founder of the College of Teachers, of which his brother, Sir John Stainer, then organist of St.Paul’s, was the first President.” Visiting the U.S.A. in 1887 he received an L.H.D. from Columbia College, Washington, an he was an Associate of the Training College, Ealing, and a Fellow of the Association for Oral Instruction, Fitzroy Square.

The Rev. Dr. Wm. Stainer. Deaf and Dumb Times, 1889, 1, 4-5. (photo)

Jeremy Dibble, ‘Stainer, Sir John (1840–1901)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/36234, accessed 24 Feb 2012]

Obituary. British Deaf Monthly, 1898, 7, 140-141. (photo)

Obituary. Quarterly Review of Deaf-Mute Education, 1898, 6, 75-79.

Obituary. The Silent Messenger, 1898, No.5 Vol 1 (New Series) May, p.69-7-

WOODFORD, D.E. The rise and fall of the Stainer’s Homes. Deaf History Journal, 1999, 3(2), 27-38.