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The impetus behind its founding was the fact that the daughter of a wealthy local Surgeon ( Mason Fitch Cogswell ), Alice Cogswell , was deafened by Fever when she was young, and the British schools were an unacceptable substitute for a local school. Dr. Cogswell prevailed upon the young Gallaudet (who had recently graduated from Yale University 's School of Divinity and began studying at Andover ; he was in Hartford because he was recovering from a chronic illness he suffered from). Cogswell and 9 other citizens decided that the known 84 deaf children in New England needed appropriate facilities. However, competent teachers were not to be found, and so they sent Gallaudet in 1815 on a tour of Europe, where Deaf Education was much more developed an art. After being rebuffed by the Braidwood s, Gallaudet turned to the Paris ian French schoolteachers of the French Institute For The Deaf , where he successfully recruited Laurent Clerc. On the strength of Clerc's reputation, the ASD was incorporated as the "American Asylum for Deaf-mutes" in the month of May, in 1816. When it opened in 1817, seven students (inclduing Alice) enrolled. Gallaudet would be princiapl until 1830. His grandson would follow in his legacy, establishing the missing link- Gallaudet University . Gallaudet University followed the ASD's lead (derived from the methodical signs and Parisian sign language of the French Institute for the Deaf), and taught students primarily in American Sign Language .


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