Charles Rhind is a name that may be familiar to regular readers of these pages.  He was a teacher of the Deaf who became a deacon and then vicar at St. Saviour’s church for the Deaf  in Oxford Street.  You can read the previous entry on Rhind here.  Rhind moved about quite a lot and as usual the census returns can help us flesh out informaion from obituaries and brief biographical mentions.  In the 1861 census, Rhind was living in 23 Windsor Road, Islington, which is just off Holloway Road.  With him was his wife Sophia, his daughter Sophia (born in Belfast ca. 1844), and his sons William (born in London ca. 1848), Charles (born in Wales ca. 1850), then Henry, Edward and Frederick all born in Scotland from ca. 1855 to 1859.  He moved back to London in 1860.  By the time of the 1871 census he was living in Brixton,

We have two books by Charles Rhind, and one at least owned by him and possibly written by him.  His Vocabulary of Verbs with their Meanings and a List of Irregular Verbs, was published in Edinburgh in 1854.  Our copy was owned by Alexander Pender.  A second book that may be by Rhind is rather peculiar.  It is bound with card covered in blue textured cloth, with no publisher or title page, except having “Lessons for the Deaf and Dumb” inscribed on the outer & inner covers.  Indeed the pages in both copies we have are empty of print up until page 25, which is a part of Section 15.  It has sentences with blank spaces as exercises, e.g.

• “John is …… passionate …… sullen” (p.107)
• “The man …… God struck dead for telling a lie was ……” (p.47)
• “Some men drink so much beer that …… …… ……” (p.62)

Pages 1 to 14 of one copy, owned by Charles Rhind himself when he lived in Brixton, are ciovered in beautifully hand written writing with exercises for sections 1 to 12.  It could be written by Rhind himself, or perhaps his daughter Sophia.  To show how sophisticated the pupils were supposed to be in learning vocabulary compared with modern pupils, we note that in section 6, the aresentences that are supposed to be filled in with “Quadruped, Biped, Domestic, Wild” –

• “The cow is ……”
• “The hen is a ……”
• “The fox is not …… ……”
• “Man is a ……” etc.

On page 113, “Of Future Time”, there is a sentence “1860 will be ……” which suggests that it must have been published in the late 1850s.

The third book is exceedingly rare, possibly unique.  It is Illustrated Lessons for the Deaf and Dumb.  The book is full of small charming pictures.  It must date from shortly after 1852 as it shows the launch of HMS Wellington, a new screw-propelled battleship that served in the Crimean War.  Click onto the image to the left.

There are so many great pictures in this book that it is hard to know what to include.  Note the man who is ‘wondering’, ‘shooting a frog’, the ‘maimed veterans’, the ‘oyster-woman’, ‘oppressed by the heat of the sun’, and the ‘Book read by a Dog’!

Census 1861 Class: RG 9; Piece: 151; Folio: 77; Page: 36; GSU roll: 542582h

Census 1871 Class: RG10; Piece: 687; Folio: 45; Page: 12; GSU roll: 823334

Census 1881 Class: RG11; Piece: 617; Folio: 109; Page: 15; GSU roll: 1341142

This is from Caroline Sweet’s First Lessons in English, for the Use of the Deaf (1887) published by the American Asylum in Hartford Conneticutt.  I trust you will be gratified to hear that Mabel dreamed about Santa Claus and reindeer.

We have a few plays in our historical books.  Having a deaf or ‘pretend deaf’ or ‘mute’ character was presumably a simple if clichéd dramatic device.

In 1835 the playwright Thomas Hailes Lacy wrote this short one act farce, A Silent Woman.  The first page says it was “adaptated from a recollection of Mr. Bayle Bernard’s comedy of “The Dumb Belle”.”  It is only seven pages long.  Here, the clichés involve women and deafness.  The playlet involves a young lady, Marianne Sandford, engaged to Arthur Merton, who  is ‘fond of talking’.  Merton, back from a tour of Europe, writes a letter to her father saying, ‘If I have a predeliction in the world, it is for a Silent Woman, and to find Marianne the ultra reverse of that, is an affliction that I do not know how I shall get over.’   Marianne, of course, discovers the letter and decides to teach him a lesson.  I think you can see where this is going…

The father has to pretend that his daughter has lost her speech after a boating accident.  The fiancé‘s line and stage direction at this point is “Tol, lol, &c., &c., (sings and dances)” (p.7).  The father says he is mad, but Merton, apparently delighted, says he will marry “This day – this hour – this minute.”  He says he will be able to talk to her but not she to him.  At this point the father says that would be of no avail as Marianne is now deaf.

MERTON.  That’s very awkward. Dumb-dumb-dumb! – that’s all very well, but deaf-deaf-deaf! can she not hear at all?
SAND.  Yes, if you speak very loud she can make out a portion of what you say.

[…]

MERTON.  I shall be the envy of the world, in having a wife who won’t contradict me.  Ha, ha, ha!  Because she can’t!

[…]

MERTON. (brings chairs, they sit*) Now, then, for a desperate effort. (very loud) How do you do, Marianne? (she gets up, goes to table, brings handkerchief with ear trumpet, sits and puts it to her ear very deliberately) Hang it, this is too bad! to make love through that Infernal Machine is utterly impossible!  but as it is the forlorn hope, here goes—how do you do ? (very loud) Do you hear that, Marianne ? (she nods) Ay, now we shall get on. (shouting) My dear Marianne, I am delighted— (coughs)—that is, I am sorry to see you under such a misfortune —(coughs)—but I am sorry—that is, I am glad to have an opportunity of consoling (coughs)—I can’t stand it, it’s impossible.  I’m as hoarse as a raven already.

Modern playwrights we think, need not fret – the Oxford Ditionary of National Biography say of Lacy that “His pieces are unremarkable”.

He seems to have been a bit of a rogue with an eye for making money at the expense of others.  The OED also says,

Lacy specialized in buying up copyrights at knock-down prices from impecunious dramatists; but on occasions he assumed copyright without authority. F. C. Burnand, who as an inexperienced playwright in the early 1860s had reason to mistrust him on both accounts, portrayed him as a rather roguish figure in ‘dirty shirt sleeves’, ‘muddling about with books and papers in a very ill-lighted and grimy shop’ (Burnand, 1.368). For his cavalier attitude to copyright Lacy was successfully brought to court for unauthorized dramatizations of copyright novels in Reade v. Lacy (1862) and Tinsley v. Lacy (1863). At his decease the Dramatic Authors’ Society claimed from his estate in unpaid or misappropriated copyright fees the sum of £700, which after negotiation with the executor was reduced to £250. (OED entry)

Our copy was from an 1885 version, and was owned by one Annie Rowlatt or Rowlett, who highlighted the part of Marianne in blue so presumably took that role.

This type of characterisation or use of deafness as a device is the sort of area that we might expect someone to be doing research on.  If you know of any relevant articles please share them by using the comments box.

John Russell Stephens, ‘Lacy, Thomas Hailes (1809–1873)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/15862, accessed 17 Dec 2015]

Panara, R.F. (1972) Deaf Characters in Fiction and Drama, The Deaf American, 24

Susannah Elizabeth Hull, (1843-1922) was born with her twin Agnes in Camberwell, daughter to George Hull a Scottish Doctor and his wife Susanna.  He was a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, and the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh.  In 1851 the family were living in Tonbridge, Kent, but her father clearly prospered in his medical practice as by 1861 they were living in Kensington.  Susannah is hardly remembered today, but she was one of the British representatives at the Milan Conference, and knew Alexander Graham Bell well.  She was first attracted to work with deaf children on reading about Laura Bridgeman, the American deaf-blind lady according to British Deaf Monthly, and was told by her father of the case of two deaf children.  She wrote to the British Deaf Monthly to correct several inaccuracies in their story (Hodgson 1953, p.207-8, BDM vol 9 p.103).  In 1862-3 she became interested in a small girl who was left deaf, blind, and paralysed by scarlet fever.  She was, we are told, encouraged by Dickens’s account of the deaf-blind lady, Laura Bridgman, which he wrote in American Notes.  Accordingly she opened a small home school in 1862, in her father’s house at 1, St. Mary Abbott’s Terrace, Kensington, moving to Warwick Gardens with her family after six years, the better to accommodate her expanding school.

The BDM says she taught at first with the manual alphabet and writing.  In his biography of Alexander Graham Bell, Bruce says

Since 1864 the idea of teaching speech to deaf-mutes had grown in Melville Bell’s mind from an incidental possibility to “one of the prominent utilities of the system,” as he put it.  This claim caught the eye of Bell’s former pupil Susanna E. Hull, who now ran a private school for deaf children at South Kensington.  In the spring of 1868 Miss Hull asked Melville Bell for help following up on the idea.  Thus, on May 21, 1868, Alexander Graham Bell first tried his skill at teaching the deaf, his pupils being two “remarkably intelligent happy-looking little girls” named Lotty and Minna.  (Bruce, p.56)

The BDM article differs slightly – it says

on hearing of Prof. Bell’s “Visible Speech,” by which the deaf could be taught to speak, she went over to America, in one of her vacations, and studied this method, and for some years taught her children to speak in this way.  When however, the late Mr. Arthur Kinsey was appointed Principal of the Ealing College, Miss Hull went to him, and studied the Oral system, and from that time – 1878, has been a strong advocate of the Pure Oral method; not only teaching her own pupils to speak but leacturing on behalf of the children of the poor all over the country, and always pleading for speech for the deaf. (ibid.)

Bruce says that she went to the U.S.A. and spent a month with Alexander Bell in Boston – this would have been in 1872 (Bruce, p.90). “During the school year a dozen or so pupils came to him, among them Theresa Dudley for two or three months, Susanna Hull from London for a month (somewhat to Bell’s regret, since she had “very little ear” for speech) […]” (ibid).  Farrar says, “Another pioneer of the oral teaching in this country is Miss Susanna E. Hull, who had begun the private education of the deaf in 1862, but her method was more a combined than oral one, in which lip-reading was hardly recognised, and it was not until 1873 that she adopted the oral system in its entirety.” (Farrar, 1923, p.75)

Susannah Hull attended the Milan Conference, and in the address or paper which she read there, she said that when she began her work in 1863,

I was ignorant that so vast a number of our fellow beings were deprived of the sense of hearing, and I had no idea that so many institutions existed for the amelioration of their condition. All I then knew had been gathered from a short account of Laura Bridgman and James Mitchell, in Chambers’ Magazine.  […] Then I heard through my father, a London Physician, of the miserable condition of a young lady, who by a succession of fevers had been left lame, maimed, deaf, and almost blind.  No one could be found to educate this unhappy child, and my father was appealed to for advice and assistance.  The slumbering desire of my heart awoke, and I gained permission to attempt the task. (p.69-70)

Told that she could “do nothing for those born deaf without signs”, and that she would have to enter an institution to gain that knowledge, she continued, “Nothing then remained but to teach without signs, or form them for myself.”  She continues,

I enter thus minutely into my first steps to show how utterly unprejudiced I was to any system, how ready to adopt anything that could be to the advantage of my pupils.

With regard to signs, I must add, that, on looking back, I date a decline in my success in teaching language, from the time of the introduction of those signs. (p.71)

She explains more of the history of her methods, complains the the “Combined” system “injures the tone of voice”, and that “as the deaf are only to ready to think themselves the objects of detractive remarks, persons so taught will soon find out that their speech is peculiar, and be driven to use their voices less, to depend on silent methods more, and to prefer the society of the deaf.” (p.76)

Hull was a member of the Ealing Society for Training Teachers of the Deaf, and taught at the college’s school in order to gain an insight into Mr Kinsey’s use of the German Method of oralism, and to that end visited German Deaf Schools in 1883 with miss Yale of Northampton, Massachusetts (BDM p.103).   She was one of the many who gave evidence to the Royal Commission on the blind, the deaf and dumb, &c., of the United Kingdom in 1886.  In her testimony, on pages 255-9,  she says (§ 7815) that she visited American Institutions in 1872 and 1873, and many German Institutions in 1883.  Among other interesting things, she also says (§ 7884-5) that they had trouble at the college in recruiting men.

Susannah Hull wrote several pamphlets, some are listed below.  She died on November the 24th in Sidcup, Kent, well regarded by her teaching friends, if the obituary in Teacher of the Deaf (thin as it is on biographical detail) is to be believed, but no doubt she was a disappointment to those who favoured manual education.

Clearly there are interesting avenues for research here, such as the teaching methods of early oralists as opposed to manualists (the Royal Commission report is useful here), a better understanding of the chronology of oralism and manualism, and following up on individuals from oralist and manualist backgrounds to examine as far as possible their stories after leaving education.

[Note: I originally wrote that there should be no ‘h’ Susanna, but she did sign her letter to the BDM with the ‘h’ so I have made a few corrections & added a little more information 7/2/2020]

Bruce, Robert V. Bell : Alexander Graham Bell and the Conquest of Solitude., 1973

Farrar, A., Arnold on the Education of the Deaf. 2nd edition, 1923.

Hodgson, K. The deaf and their problems. 1953

McLoughlin, M.G., A History of the Education of the Deaf in England,

Miss Hull’s Life Work, British Deaf Monthly, 1899, Vol.8, no.90, p.113

New Institute for the Deaf at Rochdale, opened by Miss Hull, Oldham Deaf-Mute Gazette, November 1907, p.45-53

Obituary. Teacher of the Deaf, 1922, 20, 161-64.

Our teachers: Miss Susannah E. Hull. British Deaf Monthly, 1900, 9, 84, 103, 121. (photo)

Susannah E Hull, works in the Historical Collection:
Lessons in intuitive language, from the pictures published by the Educational Supply Association…No.1, Industrious children moral series. London, Educational Supply Association, 18–?

My experience of various methods of educating the deaf-born: a paper written for the International Congress at Milan, September, 1880, p.69-84.

Teaching the dumb to speak: a health question for the working classes, a question for the rich. London, Witherby, 1884.

Letter to Miss Rogers on the International Congress held at Milan, Italy, September 6-11, 1880. Dated November 10, 1880 [Northampton, Mass: Clarke Institution, 1880]. Published as pp. 35-43 of the Appendix to the 13th Annual Report of the Clarke Institution.

A few words on the extension of our work. 18–?

I thought it might be of interest to add a list of her pupils from the 1881 census, the only one where she is listed with her students.  I was unable to track her in the 1871 census and I suspect that she was travelling, though a careful search with variants of her name might find her, as transcribers often make errors.  Most of these pupils will have been in the school when Hull attended the Milan Congress in September 1880.

Address		Surname	Relationship to Head	Age	Estimated birth year	Gender	Occupation	Place of birth		Country of birth
Holland Rd 89	Susanna	Hull	Head	38	1843	Female	Instructor Of The Deaf By Vocal Speech	Peckham	Surrey	England
Holland Rd 89	Clementina M.	Hull	Sister	37	1844	Female	Artist Oil Watercolor	Peckham	Surrey	England
Holland Rd 89	Jessie M.	Warden	Pupil	11	1870	Female	Scholar	(Brit Sub)		India
Holland Rd 89	Phoebe G.	Sandbach	Pupil	9	1872	Female	Scholar	Manchester
Holland Rd 89	Laura E.J.	Gofton	Pupil	8	1873	Female	Scholar		Yorkshire	England
Holland Rd 89	Beatrice M.	Isleton	Pupil	9	1872	Female	Scholar	Camberwell
Holland Rd 89	Lilian M.	Isleton	Pupil	7	1874	Female	Scholar	Caterham	Surrey	England
Holland Rd 89	Margaret O.	Allan	Pupil	8	1873	Female	Scholar	(Brit Sub)		India
Holland Rd 89	Chas.F.	Coyney	Pupil	9	1872	Male	Scholar		Derbyshire	England
Holland Rd 89	Cecil H.R.	Jones	Pupil	7	1874	Male	Scholar	(Brit Sub)		Venezuela
Holland Rd 89	Philip H.	Francis	Pupil	8	1873	Male	Scholar	Addlestone	Surrey	England
Holland Rd 89	Henry	Francis	Pupil	6	1875	Male	Scholar	Addlestone	Surrey	England
Holland Rd 89	Harry	Hedgland	Pupil	8	1873	Male	Scholar
Holland Rd 89	Mary	Van		42	1839	Female	Governess Assistant (S M)	London, London	Middlesex	England
Holland Rd 89	Lititia	Amies	Servant	54	1827	Female	Hsekeeper Domestic	Norwich	Norfolk	England

CENSUS

1911 Class: RG14; Piece: 3721; Schedule Number: 15

1881 Class: RG11; Piece: 28; Folio: 15; Page: 15; GSU roll: 1341006

1851 Class: HO107; Piece: 1614; Folio: 142; Page: 20; GSU roll: 193515

We have a number of interesting badges collected in the past, many presented to the library by Pierre Gorman, the former librarian.  The notes are based on information from that era.  We have many more badges than this selection here.  Click the images for a larger size.

The first one here is the badge of the Guild of St. John of Beverley for the Deaf.  This particular badge was presented to the library in 1958 by George Robinson, superintendent and secretary of the Swansea Mission to the Deaf and Dumb from 1933-44.  We are told that he received the badge from Selwyn Oxley when he married in 1933, “together with a garish tie”.  The Guild was founded in Yorkshire in 1896 but reconstituted with a London branch in 1915.  Selwyn Oxley seems to have taken it over, running it with enthusiasm for a time.  After his death it appears to have declined. We have various Guild material in the library, including some annual reports.

Next we have two National Institute for the Deaf badges.  The N.I.D. became the R.N.I.D. and now of course  Action on Hearing Loss.  The red badge was designed for deaf persons to wear, the blue for hard of hearing.  There are discussions in reports and early copies of the Silent World about badges like this, with some different suggested designs.  I suppose these date from around 1948-50.

The next four badges, donated by Pierre Gorman, are for three World Federation of the Deaf congresses.  The gold one with the hand is from the Zagreb Congress of August 1955.  The blue and white one is from the Rome Congress of September 1957.  The next one is from the 1959 Congress which was in Wiesbaden.  The last of these, the one with the mermaid – “Syrenka Warszawska” – the Warsaw coat of arms, is from the Warsaw Congress of August 1967.

The next badge is particularly interesting.  The Committee Report of the Liverpool Adult Deaf and Dumb Benevolent Society for 1915 (published in the 1916 report), whose Hon. Secretary was George Healey and whose Superintendent was Ernest Ayliffe, says,

The Deaf have shared with others in the wish to do something to give expression to their patriotism. A Deaf Volunteer Corps was formed early in the year and it has a membership of ninety-four. Military and Swedish Drill have been taken, and there is no doubt that the discipline and physical exercise have been beneficial.

That suggests that this badge is going to be pretty rare!

Next we have a badge from the National Association of Deaf Motorists.  It has a design that depicts a steering wheel.  As this is the first mention of them on the world wide web, I am unable to add anything more.  It would probably have been active in the 1930s to 1950s, but that is a guess.  It may be a topic someone would like to research.

Next we have a badge for the B.D.D.A., the British Deaf and Dumb Association, now of course the B.D.A.  The badge was originally luminous, issued to Deaf people in the Second World War.  Because they were unable to hear daylight air-raid sirens, the idea was that passers-by would be able to tell them when there was an air-raid.  During black-outs of course it would have, in theory at least, alerted motorists (perhaps from the N.A.D.M.!) and pedestrians to their presence.  Its size does not suggest that it would be terribly effective.  According to the note with the badges, “It should be noted that after the first wave of enthusiasm, few deaf people continued to wear them for the remainder of the war.”

 

Andreas Elias Büchner was a German doctor, born in Erfurt in 1701 and who died in Halle in 1769.  He was educated at the protestant school, then went on to study at the universities of Erfurt, Halle and Leipzig.  He became a member of the Prussian Academy of Science in 1738, and a professor at Halle University in 1744.  He was a follower of the Halle doctor and chemist, Friedrich Hoffmann.

Büchner’s book is on “An easy and very practicable method to enable deaf persons to hear: together with a brief account of, and some reflections and observations upon, the several attempts formerly made for the benefit of such persons.”

He says,

I shall relate the several means devised, in order to amend this sense, when impaired, or retrieve it, when intirely lost ; or by help of the other senses, and a tolerable degree of understanding in the patient, to render its loss, in some measure, more tolerable : and lastly, I shall select, among the several methods proposed, that, which to me appears, to be the easiest and most simple.  But, previous to this, I shall briefly explain the reasons of the principal defects of the sense of hrearing, both from their causes, and from the structure of the outer and inner ear ; and then more accurately determine the greater or less utility of the methods hitherto employed, in order to amend these defects. (p.iii-iv of English translation)

He discusses Amman’s oral method –

indeed, the accurate attention to, and careful imitation of, all the particular motions requisite to the articulation of sounds, constitute the whole of Amman’s method.  As in this, or in any other method of the same kind, the organs of hearing contribute nothing to the effect, it may indeed, be employed in all the defects and imperfections of the auditory organs, by which either deafness or a difficulty of hearing is produced.  This method, is however, subject to several considerable imperfections, which render it greatly inferior to the following methods, by which the auditory nerve itself is made at the same time to be affected. (p.20)

He discusses Sebastian Truchel’s ‘acoustic drum’ that he had demonstrated to the Royal Academy of Science in Paris in 1718 -“A person hard of hearing in both ears, may, by means of a semicircle of brass or silver, which goes round the hinder part of the head, under the hair or peruke, fasten two such drums to his ears” (p. 24-5).  He talks of other methods of ‘hearing’ vibration – “Conrad Victor Scheider, so celebrated for his description of the mucose glands of the nose, in his book, De ossibus temporum, published at Wittemburg in 1653, in 8vo, p. 43, relates the same thing of some peasants, who sticking their staves in the earth, held one end in their teeth” (p. 28).  Further on he says, “the deaf person may hear very well, on holding, by the lower rim, a beer-glass, to the upper teeth” (p.42).

His method of getting someone to ‘hear’ seems to have involved feeling vibrarions via some material – essentially using bone conduction.  The German original is much longer than the English version, so there may well be much more to it.

Andreas Büchner had a correspondence with Linnaeus.  In 1760, just after the book here was published, he wrote saying that he had not answered Linnaeus earlier as at the beginning of August, Austrian troops had invaded Halle and the surrounding country.  The summary of the letter tells us that they

“extorted a heavy tax, more than 300,000 imperial thalers, from the inhabitants, even the professors, before they left at the end of October.  About then, the painter and engraver Gottfried August Gründler had been taken ill and lain in bed for several weeks so that Büchner could not get the delineation of a Cancer [presumably a crab] that he wanted to send to Linnaeus.”

Büchner asked him for a specimen of particular butterfly that featured in the 10th edition of Systemma Naturae. 

On this page he discusses the history of deaf education, covering Peter Pontius, Paul Bonnet, John Wallis,  and so on.

I found very little on Andreas Elias Büchner on a brief search.  Perhaps he is a forgotten figure in the history of science, or perhaps he is only marginal.    If you have had an opportunity to read the original book in full, please make a comment.

Curiously there is a modern Andreas Büchner who works on hearing – an onomastic nominative determinism? http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/lary.23214/abstract

[Picture of Büchner from Wikimedia Commons]

Wikipedia entry

An easy and very practicable method to enable deaf persons to hear: together with a brief account of, and some reflections and observations upon, the several attempts formerly made for the benefit of such persons.  London, MDCCLXX. [1770]. Available from Eighteenth Century Texts, online.

Abhandlung von einer besonderen und leichten Art, Taube hörend zu machen : Nebst noch einigen andern vormals besonders bekannt gemachten Medicinischen Abhandlungen.  Published in Halle in two parts, 1759 & 1760

Zelle, Carsten, Experiment, Observation, Self-observation.  Empiricism and the ‘Reasonable Physicians’ of the Early Enlightenment. Zelle / Early Science and Medicine 18 (2013) 453-470.

George F. Healey (1843-1927) was Missioner to the Deaf, at the Liverpool Adult Deaf and Dumb Benevolent Society from its inception in 1864.  Born at Gateacre, in the Liverpool suburb of Little Woolton on August the 28th, 1843, the son of a coach builder, Gerorge lost his hearing when less than one – “an accident which occurred to him brought on acute inflammation of the brain” (Oldham Deaf–Mute Gazette).  His obituary in the Deaf Quarterly News tells us it was a fall from his nurse’s arms, but that the loss was not discovered until he was nearly two (p.1).  He became a pupil of Mr. H.B. Bingham of Rugby for eight years, and was taught by the ‘combined method’, that is sign language and articulation and lip reading.  The Oldham Deaf–Mute Gazette says of Bingham, “there has never been a more successful instructor of the deaf, his aim evidently being to adapt the method to the child instead of the child to the method, and not a few of his pupils have filled and are filling responsible positions in a manner that reflects credit alike on teacher and taught.” (ibid p.207)  A final year was spent under a Liverpool teacher of the deaf, Dr. David Buxton (1821-1897).

After his schooling, Healey worked for his father at the coach works in Berry Street.  His obituary in the Deaf Quarterly News tells us that he was inspired by annual visits to London, where he heard the Revs. Samuel Smith and Charles Rhind preach (p.1).  The British Deaf Times obituary says he was first taken by Mr. G. Bright Lucas in 1862.  At that time there was little being done to help the adult deaf in Liverpool, so Healey worked with his friend Robert Armour (1837-1913) to start the Liverpool Adult Deaf and Dumb Benevolent Society in 1864 (ibid p.208).  He was the Hon. Secretary until 1895, then Vice-Chairman.

Healey worked hard to raise money for a new Liverpool Instiute building, and it was opened on May the 16th, 1887 by H.R.H. Princess Louise.  He was himself fortunate that his parents left him and his sister enough money to make them financially secure, but .

He gave evidence to the Royal Comission of 1881 regarding deaf education, being a firm advocate for the combined method.  “Mr. Healey has a horror of extremists, experience having convinced him that such people in any cause seldom do much good, but invariably accomplish a great deal of mischief.” (Oldham Deaf–Mute Gazette p.206).  Healey was also Hon. Treasurer to the BDDA, and one of its founders.  His influence was wide, and he travelled we are told, to most of the missions across the country, for example helping start the Cork mission in the 1880s (ibid p.2010).

George never married but lived for many years with his sister Florence.

Dear Friends of the Deaf No.2 Mr. George F. Healey , Oldham Deaf–Mute Gazette Jan-Feb 1906, p. 205-11

Mr. George F. Healey, Ephphatha No. 63, Autumn 1924, p.842-3

The Late Mr. George F. Healey, Deaf Quarterly News, No.92, p.1-3 Jan-Mar 1928 (includes photo)

Mr G.F. Healey, Liverpool, British Deaf Times 1928 Vol 25 p.12

Our Portrait Gallery No.3 Mr George F.Healey. Our Monthly Church Messenger to the Deaf p.29-30 1894 includes (photo)

W.R. Roe, Mr. George F. Healey, Peeps into the Deaf World 1917 p.61-3

The OLDHAM DEAF AND DUMB SOCIETY had its roots in 1851, when a Mr. William Bolton gathered all the local deaf people he could for a meeting in St. Peter’s Schoolroom, not far from Union Street where the society later found a home.  The only William Bolton I found in the 1851 census for Bolton, is not shown as ‘deaf’ on the census, but that does not mean he was not.  At any rate this did not get going as a regular service or mission at that time, we are told, until a Mr. John Street (hearing) became involved.  He got Andrew Patterson of Old Trafford involved (M’Cormick p.32, & Abraham p.163).   A free tea was then held for the ‘mutes’ (Abraham),  at ‘the Bent’, a place on the junction of West Street and Middleton Road, patterson being supported by two teachers, Hogg and Goodwin.   After this they announced that there would be a regular service at the Town Hall, conducted by the Manchester teachers.  Abraham says it was at some time in 1852 or 1853 that this commenced.  I suspect a search of local records might narrow this down.

Those who have followed this blog for a while may recall we have discussed Oldham and Ralph Clegg before.  The mission joined with that of Manchester in 1868/9, under the Rev. George A.W. Downing (ca. 1828-1880), but this did not please everyone and there was a break away group before the Oldham mission finally ‘officially’ split off in 1888.  Irish born Downing had worked as a teacher at the Claremont Institution for five years, then the Diocesan Institution for the Deaf and Dumb in Strabane where he remained for twelve years.  From there he went to work in north east London in an area that included Holloway and Whitechapel (M’Cormick p.33).  He only left there, we are told, when the Rev. Stainer resigned his position.  Downing married Catherine Siddon, eleven years his senior, and they had a son George.  George senior died in 1880.

A long standing member of the Institute was Richard Heseltine (ca. 1828-1907).  He was a machine joiner, ‘deaf from birth’ (1881 census), born at Masham in Yorkshire and married to a hearing lady.  In 1903 M’Cormick described him as ‘fairly robust, silver-haired, genial and reminiscent’ (p.34).

The articles I quote from have much more detail than I can put into a short post here, but after the various difficulties with the years when the mission was divided , it was taken on by Archibald Welsh (ca. 1859-1940?) of the Old Trafford School, “a man of strong nerve, and endowed with great powers of endurance” (ibid p.41).  He sorted out the split, and M’Cormick says,

There is a touch of grim humour in the following concise paragraph dealing with this period, which will appeal to all who follow the trend of this little sketch, viz. :- “Overtures made by the leader of the rival association for amalgamation are declined by the Committee, and shortly after it ceased to exist.” (ibid p.39)

Under Welsh they acquired new premises for £1,500 in 1890 (ibid p.40).  He stayed until 1899 when he moved to Dundee.

His successor, William John M’Cormick (or McCormick) (ca. 1862-1919), who lost his hearing as an adult, while preparing for a musical degree.  He later told his missionary friend Bodvan Anwyl, that when he moved from Cork to Oldham, he had to abandon one set of signs for another (Anwyl, p.42).  M’Cormick was still able to play the organ, despite having also lost a finger.  He was succeeded as missioner to the deaf by his wife, Bessie.

In 1906 Gilby tells us that Mrs. (Bessie) M’Cormick took a party to London-

It was a hectic time, the very next morning I had to meet Mrs. McCormick a Missionary’s wife, with a party of deaf from Oldham. After breakfast they had to be taken to see the Tower of London and St. Paul’s Cathedral, plus some of the sights in Westminster. A Committee in the afternoon over a concert to be held at Lord Meath’s house on behalf of the National Physical Society. Then the Oldhamites had to be seen off. (Gilby memoirs p.192-3)

M’Cormick revived the Oldham Deaf Mute Gazette in 1902, and we have an incomplete set of possibly unique copies through to 1918, and we may guess that when he became ill the Gazette ended.

M’Cormick, Brief sketch of the history of our society, Annual Report 1903, p.32-46

Historical summary showing the progress of the Oldham Deaf and Dumb Society, Report (1910), p.34-40

Abraham, Ernest J.D., History. British Deaf-Mute and Deaf Chronicle, 1894, 3(35), 163-64.

Anwyl, Bodvan, The late Mr. W.J. McCormick, The British Deaf Times, 1919 p.42-3

1891 Census – Richard Heseltine, Class: RG12; Piece: 3312; Folio: 51; Page: 17; GSU roll: 6098422

Trip to London, Oldham Deaf Mute Gazette, June-July 1906, p.16-19

This article was written by our colleague Debora Marletta, with some additions.

Born in Genoa on the 22nd of June 1800, Tommaso Pendola (1800-83) joined the order of the ‘Scolopi’, the Piarists (Order of Poor Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools) at the age of 16.  In 1821 he began to teach at the Collegio Tolomei in Sienna. The following quotation is phrased in a way that will sound familiar to regular readers –

Having found several deaf-mutes in Sienna, his city of adoption, he was so moved by these unhappy souls, shut out from the consolation of speech, and so desirous of relieving them from their melancholy condition, that, in 1825, he went to Genoa and placed himself, for nearly a year, as a youthful scholar under Padre Ottavio Assarotti, of the Scolopian Order, who, like De l’Epée in France, was another father to the deaf in Italy. Having learned the method well, Padre Pendola spent all his means in providing a refuge for these unfortunate ones and instructing them. (Matson, p.214-5)

L’Abate Ottavio Giovan Battista Assarotti (1753-1859) had founded the first deaf school in Italy, at Genoa, in 1801.

In 1831, under the auspices of the Grand Duke Leopoldo, Pendola founded and directed in Sienna an institute dedicated to the education of poor deaf people, later known as the Istituto Tommaso Pendola and now part of Asp (Azienda Pubblica dei Servizi alla Persona) ‘Città di Siena’.  In 1844 it was united with the school at Pisa.

Exulting in his heart, happy in relieving misery, he was the first among us to give a gentle and pious mother to these afflicted ones, calling to his Institution “The Daughters of Charity,” and when, in 1848, the members of this order were driven from Sienna as by a whirlwind, those of them that were with him remained peacefully under the protection of his uncontested authority. (Matson, p.215)

As Director at the Istituto, Pendola wrote a number of treatises on deafness and founded, in 1872, the quarterly journal titled L’Educazione dei Sordomuti (now L’educazione dei Sordi [The Education of the Deaf]).  Pendola had been a manual teacher, using sign language, influenced by Sicard, but he modified this teaching method under the influence of his friend Assarotti.

The aim of his new journal was pedagogical, its content directed primarily at teachers of the deaf:

‘The publication was aimed at the analysis of the didactical and pedagogical methods recommended to the teachers of the deaf’ [Esame critico dei mezzi pedagogici e didattici che vengono eventualmente raccomandati o proposti alla scuola dei sordomuti’] (L’Educazione dei Sordomuti, Anno I Serie III, vol. 26, 1903, p. 3).  The journal was also aimed at the promotion of the ‘metodo orale’ [‘the oral method’] or oralism, which had been popular in the United States since the 1860s, and had become known to Pendola via the priest Serafino Balestra, who had introduced into Italy the method known as ‘lip reading’.

Oralism – which opposed the use of sign language whilst advocating the use of speech and lip reading in the teaching of the deaf – was now deemed to be the most natural, appropriate and apt method for the social regeneration of the deaf: ‘il metodo orale è, senza contrasto, il più naturale, il più conveniente e il più opportuno per la rigenerazione sociale dei sordomuti’ (Ibid. p.2).

In 1873, a year after the journal was founded, Pendola organised the Congresso internazionale sull’educazione dei sordomuti di Siena [The International Conference for the Education of the Deaf Mutes of Siena].  As with the journal, the conference provided a platform to discuss the advantages of oralism vs manualism, also setting the theoretical basis for the Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf, held in Milan in 1880.  The ‘Milan Conference’, as it became known, formally established that oral education was superior to manual education, passing a resolution that banned the use of sign language in schools.  As readers of this website and those familiar with sign language will know, it caused much dissent, and is now seen by many as very harmful to the deaf community.  Pendola himself was not present, being old and frail, but was proclaimed honorary president (Matson, p.215).  Enthused by Oralism in the 1870s, Pendola was was appointed by the government as president of a commission to draw up plans for compulsory education of deaf children (ibid, p.216).

Volume 26 of L’Educazione dei Sordomuti, offers a large number of contributions for those interested in the history of the education of the deaf, including that of a teacher, who, in his article entitled ‘Il vocabolario dei nostri allievi’ [‘the Vocabulary of Our Students’] writes that repetition is fundamental in the teaching of a language, even in the case of deaf people. It also includes a review to Dr. Bezold’s book, published in 1902, on the aetiology of deaf-muteness, and a bibliography of studies on deafness within the context of education.

Pendola would seem to have been highly thought of by those who knew him.  He was a professor at the Uninersity of Sienna for thirty years, where, we are told, he fought against the influence of the “popular sensualist school of French materialism” (Matson, p.214).  His funeral on the 14th of February, 1883, seemingly held with greater pomp than he might have wished, was attended by much of the populace, and as he had wished, he was buried ‘with the poor, and in the midst of the deaf and dumb, my pupils’ (ibid p.217-8).

This is one of our copies of Pendola’s book, L’Educazione dei Sordo-muti in Italia, 1855.  It appears to be an inscription by the author.  His journal, L’Educazione dei Sordi, now available online, continues its publication of research articles, bibliographies and individual experiences in keeping with its pedagogical and didactical purposes.

We have a long run in the library from the third series, from 1903 to 1925, then picking up again in 1948.

Portrait of Tommaso.

Matson, Mrs. Kate L., Padre Tommaso Pendola, American Annals of the Deaf, 1883, Vol.28 p.213-9 (Matson’s article is mainly the words of Pendola’s friend, Padre Alessandro Toti.

Born in Cork in 1791, Charles Edward Herbert Orpen founded the first Institution for the Deaf in Ireland.  According to his biographer, Emma Lucretia le Fanu, mother of Sheridan Le Fanu, he was supposed to become a doctor, proceeded to do an apprenticeship and then discovered his teacher was not a licentiate of the Dublin College of Surgeons, so he had to embark on a new apprenticeship.  When Charles finally qualified, he toured in England, visiting ‘hospitals, prisons, manufactories &c.’ (Orpen 1836, p.ix).  According to his book ‘Anecdotes’, one of the people he visited was Dr. De Lys in Birmingham, who gave him a report on the newly established Birmingham institution.

While resident in Edinburgh and London, I had never even heard of the existence of such Asylums in these capitals; and in such ignorance then was I as to the wretched state of the Deaf-mute when uneducated, and the importance and interesting nature of their instruction, that I took so little interest about them, as not even to visit the school in Birmingham at that time.  On looking into the Report, however, I found that it originated from a few lectures on the subject, and the exhibition of a little girl, whom Dr. De Lys and his friend Alexander Blair, Esq. had partially educated for that purpose.  I knew that no such school had ever existed in Ireland; and it occurred to me, that perhaps I might at some future time be able to apply the same means to the same end, for the good of my own country. (ibid, p.ix-x)

We have a copy of Orpen’s concisely titled book, The Contrast between Atheism, Paganism and Christianity, Illustrated; or, the Uneducated Deaf and Dumb, as Heathens, Compared with those who have been Instructed in Language and Revelation, and Taught by the Holy Spirit, as Christians (1828).  It is dedicated by Orpen to Edmond Nugent, Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1827-8.  It appeared in a second edition, as Anecdotes and Annals of the Deaf and Dumb (1836). In it, Orpen tells us how he took a neglected orphaned child called Thomas Collins from a Dublin institution where Orpen had served his apprenticeship under Surgeon Todd, the House of Industry.  Fumbling his way along, being ignorant of teaching, he eventually got the child to acquire some vocabulary and ability to pronounce words and letters (Quarterly Review of Deaf Mute Education, p.365, Anecdotes p.x).  Collins became an appentice printer and printed Orpen’s Anecdotes (p.xi).  The idea of taking an ‘exibition pupil’ like this to demonstrate to the public what might be achieved in the education of a deaf child, was not unique of course.

Inevitably for the period, Orpen was religiously motivated, and the passages he writes in the Anecdotes  demonstrate this.  He is at pains to say that Thomas Collins “knows himself as a sinner, and the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Saviour” (p.xi).

There never was but one missionary to the Deaf and Dumb; that missionary was a Jew ; that Jew was Jesus. Shall we be innocent, if we do not teach them to read his history? (p.384)

Orpen was also supportive of the use of sign lanuage, and in the Anecdotes, where each chapter is supported by extended quotes from various sources, for example p.474-6 qoutes Mr. Lewis Weld of the Pennsylvanian Institute, “it is is capable of expressing the nicest shades of thought, and of application to all the concerns of life.”

As well as supporting the education of Deaf people in sign language, he supported the use of Irish Gaelic, and the Anti-Slavery Society.  In 1823 he married Alicia Sirr, and had a large family (Le Fanu, Chapter 11).  In 1826 when Thomas Collins had a pocket watch, the gift of the Doctor’s brother, stolen, at the trial orpen interpreted for the court (p.106-7).  This shows us that he must have been an able signer.  In 1833 Orpen left Dublin, hoping to open a school in Birkenhead, but it fell through (Le Fanu p.124, p.128-9).  “Schemes at variance with long-established systems and confirmed habits seldom meet with success till after a great length of time has elapsed” (ibid).

When two of his sons went to sea, and were so taken with the beauties of the Cape that they decided to stay there, Orpen determined to follow them, arriving in 1848 (ibid p.137).  Orpen, who was ordained in South Africa, opposed slavery and the exclusion of black people from the Dutch churches (p.210-2).  Le Fanu says of slavery, “Those who have had opportunities of seeing it best know how it brutalizes those who are bent on perpetuating it for their own sordid objects” (ibid p.217).  Orpen died on the 20th of April, 1856 (ibid p.237).  Le Fanu ends her biography, “Truly, he was a good man” (ibid p.243).

Wikipedia entry on Orpen

Charles Edward Herbert Orpen, Anecdotes and Annals of the Deaf and Dumb, 1836 [library historical books]

A Magazine Intended chiefly for the Deaf and Dumb, Vol.3, No. 30, p.86-7

Quarterly Review of Deaf-Mute Education, 1888, 1, 364-374.

British Deaf-Mute and Deaf Chronicle, 1895, 4, 145-146. (illus)

Educating the deaf of Ireland. III. The work at Claremont. British Deaf Times, 1904, 1(10), 217-19. (photos)

POLLARD, R. The Avenue: the history of the Claremont Institution (1816-1978). The author, 2001. (illus)

UPDATE: 3/11/2015

Rachel Pollard produced another more extensive book on the Claremont Institution, under the same title in 2006 –
The Avenue: A History of the Claremont Institution, Denzille Press ISBN-10: 0955323908