In Our Own Hands : Essays in Deaf History, 1780–1970 PDF
Preview In Our Own Hands : Essays in Deaf History, 1780–1970
Our In Essays in Own Deaf History 1780–1970 Hands Brian H. Greenwald and Joseph J. Murray, Editors IN OUR OWN HANDS IN OUR OWN HANDS Essays in Deaf History, 1780–1970 Brian H. Greenwald and Joseph J. Murray EDITORS GALLAUDET UNIVERSITY PRESS Washington, DC Gallaudet University Press Washington, DC 20002 http://gupress.gallaudet.edu © 2016 by Gallaudet University All rights reserved. Published 2016 Printed in the United States of America Editors’ Note: The cover art, “Fluttering Butterfly Girl,” is a linocut print by David Call, a deaf artist based in California. The work portrays a young girl signing butterfly in American Sign Language. The image of a butterfly is a contemporary symbol used by some deaf communities to symbolize deaf people and sign language. The exuberance of the young girl at the center of this artwork speaks to the theme of agency that runs through the historical essays in the book. A common thread in the essays is that deaf people repeatedly sought to “manage their own affairs” and fought back when they were denied the opportunity to do so. The title In Our Own Hands reflects both the assertion of agency and the use of sign language, the latter being an issue of particular prominence in several of the essays in this volume. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Greenwald, Brian H., editor. | Murray, Joseph J., editor. Title: In our own hands : essays in deaf history, 1780-1970 / Brian H. Greenwald, Joseph J. Murray, editors. Other titles: In our own hands (Gallaudet University Press) Description: Washington, DC : Gallaudet University Press, 2016. Identifiers: LCCN 2016005244 | ISBN 9781563686603 (paperback) Subjects: LCSH: Deaf--United States--History. | BISAC: HISTORY / Social History. Classification: LCC HV2530 .I52 2016 | DDC 305.9/0820973--dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016005244 This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). This book is dedicated to Michael J. Olson, archivist at Gallaudet University for his constant support of teachers, researchers, and students working in deaf history. The value of the Gallaudet University Archives is without parallel elsewhere in the world. CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix INTRODUCTION xi 1 Why Give Him a Sign Which Hearing People Do Not Understand . . . ? Public Discourses about Deafness, 1780–1914 Anja Werner 1 2 “Enlightened Selfishness”: Gallaudet College and Deaf Citizenship in the United States, 1864–1904 Joseph J. Murray 18 3 Citizenship and Education: The Case of the Black Deaf Community Carolyn McCaskill, Ceil Lucas, Robert Bayley, and Joseph Hill 40 4 From Deaf Autonomy to Parent Autonomy in the Chicago Public Day Schools, 1874–1920 Motoko Kimura 61 5 “Are We Not as Much Citizens as Any Body?” Alice Taylor Terry and Deaf Citizenship in the Early Twentieth Century Kati Morton Mitchell 90 6 Unchurched, Unchampioned, and Undone: The St. Ann’s Church Controversy, 1894–1897 Jannelle Legg 105 7 In Pursuit of Citizenship: Campaigns Against Peddling in Deaf America, 1880s–1950s Octavian Robinson 127 8 Revisiting the Memoir: Contesting Deaf Autonomy and the Real Tragedy of Alexander Graham Bell Brian H. Greenwald 149 viii Contents 9 Compromising for Agency: The Role of the NAD during the American Eugenics Movement, 1880–1940 Melissa Malzkuhn 171 10 Normalization and Abnormal Genes: Hereditary Deafness Research at the Clarke School for the Deaf, 1930–1950 Marion Andrea Schmidt 193 11 The “Breakaways”: Deaf Citizens’ Groups in Australia in the 1920s and 1930s Breda Carty 211 12 Divine and Secular: Reverend Robert Capers Fletcher and the Southern Deaf Community, 1931–1972 Jean Lindquist Bergey 239 CONTRIBUTORS 258 INDEX 261 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This collection came together through a fortuitous combination of personal research, presentations, work with former students, and dialogue with others on current research trends in the field of deaf history. The editors noticed that agency, or attempts to claim deaf au- tonomy, was a commonality among these articles. This framework is consistent throughout the book and we believe these contributions also add to a greater understanding of the pressures that different groups of deaf people faced in their work to claim agency at different places and times. We are grateful to the contributors for their enthusiasm and per- sistence. At different points, we have met with these contributors and engaged in delightful conversations about their research. Their work shown here adds new layers to our understanding of the complexities of agency in deaf women, African Americans, religion, organizations, schools, and transnationalism. Deaf people claimed autonomy in some arenas more successfully than in others. Michael J. Olson, interim director of the Gallaudet University Archives, and staff including Seung Hahn, provided indispensable ad- vice, unearthed photographs, offered suggestions, and support. We are very fortunate to be on the same campus as the world’s largest archival collection related to deaf history. Many of the articles in this collection used primary source material available at the Gallaudet University Archives, showing, once again, its value to deaf history and ongoing interpretations of deaf lives. We also express our sincere gratitude to Ivey Pittle Wallace, director of Gallaudet University Press. She has been one of the staunchest sup- porters in the publication and dissemination of deaf history scholar- ship over the past two and half decades, and her unwavering support is also true here. Deirdre Mullervy and Valencia Simmons have been very collegial and we thank Gallaudet University Press for their patience, guidance, and support. We are also grateful to our contributors, three of whom are our former graduate students and remain involved in re- search on deaf lives today.
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