Louis Laurent Marie Clerc (; 26 December 1785 – 18 July 1869) was a French teacher called "The Apostle of the Deaf culture in America" and was regarded as the most renowned deaf person in American deaf history. He was taught by Abbé Sicard and deaf educator Jean Massieu, at the Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets in Paris. With Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, he founded the first school for the deaf in North America, the Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, on April 15, 1817, in the old Bennet's City Hotel, Hartford, Connecticut. The school was subsequently renamed the American School for the Deaf and in 1821 moved to 139 Main Street, West Hartford. The school remains the oldest existing school for the deaf in North America.
Biography
Laurent Clerc was born December 26, 1785, in La Balme-les-Grottes, Isère, a village on the northeastern edge of
Lyon, to Joseph-François Clerc and Marie-Élisabeth Candy. Clerc senior was the mayor and the home was a typical
Bourgeoisie household. When he was one year old, baby Clerc fell from a chair into a fire, suffering a severe burn and obtained a permanent scar on the right side of his cheek. Clerc's family believed his deafness and inability to smell were caused by this accident, but Clerc later wrote that he was not certain of this and might have been born with these sensory impairments. The facial scar later provided the basis for his
Sign name, performed with the
Fingerspelling for "U" (thumb out), with the pads of the two fingers stroked twice downward on the right cheek.
Clerc attended Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris when he was 12 years old and soon became a teacher there. While there, he was taught by Abbé Sicard and Jean Massieu, who was deaf. In 1815 he traveled with Sicard and Massieu to Britain to give a lecture and met Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, who was traveling in search of means for instructing deaf children. Gallaudet had been treated with suspicion by Robert Kinniburgh of Braidwood's Academy, and so fatefully chose to turn to France, accepting an invitation to visit the school in Paris.
Clerc married one of the first pupils – Eliza Crocker Boardman.
Clerc died at the age of 83 at his home in Hartford. The 1869 obituary in the New York Times says, Clerc came to Hartford in 1816 and became a teacher in 1817, then served more than 50 years "in the cause of deaf-mute instruction" and "his abilities, zeal, and graces of character made him always respected and loved."
Legacy
Generally, prior to the onset of organized
Deaf education, deaf people were regarded as unintelligent and incapable of education. Laurent Clerc became one of the most recognizable figures in Deaf history of the United States thanks to his significant role in shaping deaf education. As a person who could neither hear nor speak from a young age, and, despite this, acquired excellent command of spoken languages at an age far past the prime years for language acquisition, he became an exemplary personification of educability and high intellect.
Largely due to Clerc's contribution to the education of the Deaf in America, several awards, buildings, funds, and other honors were named after him, most notably at Gallaudet University
Film
Laurent Clerc is portrayed in the film
Sign Gene, the superhero film about deaf mutants who have superhuman powers through the use of
sign language, as the fourth great-grandfather of the leading character
Tom Clerc (played by
Emilio Insolera). The film was released in September 2017.
Works
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"Autobiography of Laurent Clerc," Chapter III, in: Tribute to Gallaudet – A Discourse in Commemoration of the Life, Character and Services, of the Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet, LL.D. – Delivered Before the Citizens of Hartford, Jan. 7th, 1852. With an Appendix, Containing History of Deaf-Mute Instruction and Institutions, and other Documents. By Henry Barnard, 1852. page 102.)
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The Diary of Laurent Clerc's Voyage from France to America in 1816 (West Hartford, CT: American School for the Deaf, 1952). 22 pages.
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An Address Written by Mr. Clerc and Read By His Request at a Public Examination of the Pupils in the Connecticut Asylum Before the Governour and Both Houses of the Legislature , 28 May 1818.
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Address at the Inauguration of Gallaudet University, 1864 .
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"Reminiscences of Laurent Clerc," by L.C.T. Silent World, July 1871, pages 5–6.
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"Visits to Some of the Schools for the Deaf and Dumb in France and England," American Annals of the Deaf:
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Volume 1, Number 1, October 1847 pages 62–66.
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Volume 1, Number 2, January 1848, pages 113–120.
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Volume 1, Number 3, April 1848, pages 170–176.
See also
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American Sign Language
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Bilingual-bicultural education
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Deaf culture
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Deafness medical, vs disability and cultural models
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French Sign Language
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Roch-Ambroise Auguste Bébian
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Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf
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William Stokoe
Further reading
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Denison, James. "The Memory of Laurent Clerc: Dedication Address for Clerc Memorial", American Annals of the Deaf, Volume 19, Number 4, October 1874, pp. 238–244.
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Gallaudet, Edward Miner. "Life of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet – Founder of Deaf-Mute Instruction in America" by Edward Miner Gallaudet, 1888. For information about Laurent Clerc, see pp. 92 and following.
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Irving, Washington (editor). "The Deaf and Dumb" in: Analectic magazine. May 1820 issue. Philadelphia, Pa.: Moses Thomas, pp. 419–431. via Google books.
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Lane, Harlan. When The Mind Hears: A History of the Deaf, by Harlan Lane. Chapter 1, "My New Family" .
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Massieu, Jean; Laurent Clerc; and Roch Ambroise Cucurron Sicard. 1815. Receuil des définitions et réponses les plus remarquables de Massieu et Clerc, Sourds-Muets, aux diverses questions qui leur ont étés faites dans les séances publiques de M. l'Abbé Sicard, à Londres. ( A collection of the most notable definitions and responses of Massieu and Clerc, deaf and dumb, to the various questions put to them, at the public lectures of the Abbé Sicard, in London). Cox and Baylis, London, 1815.
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Porter, Samuel. "Retirement of Mr. Clerc", American Annals of the Deaf, Volume 10, Number 3, July 1858, pp. 181–183.
External links
