SASL Newsletter - Fall 2017 Issue Issue 7 - Fall 2017
The Power of ASL
A Society Supporting Language, Literacy, and
Performing Arts in the Signed Modality
Fall 2017
A Newsletter of the Society for American Sign Language
Issue 7
By Clifton F. Carbin
For nearly a century the eyes of residential students at the provincial school for the Deaf in
Belleville, Ontario, Canada, were drawn to a huge, impressive 1890 portrait of a man, which was
previously hung high on a wall in the auditorium. The subject of the painting was identified as Samuel
Thomas Greene, the first Deaf teacher at the Ontario Institution for the Education and Instruction of the
Deaf and Dumb (now the Sir James Whitney School for the Deaf) when it opened on October 20, 1870,
in Belleville. Further discoveries about Sam’s life, his accomplishments, and his importance to the
history of the Deaf community led to the publication of a biography in 2005.
Sam’s childhood began in the secluded wilderness of
Maine. On June 11, 1843, he was born Deaf to a family of
seven children in North Waterford. The youngest of the children,
he had an older sister, Sarah, who was also Deaf. Because the
family lived far away from any village, church, or schoolhouse,
Sam received some education at home on the farm until the
age of twelve. His parents then sent him to the American
Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb
(now the American School for the Deaf) in Hartford,
Connecticut, which his sister had previously attended from 1846
to 1851. On September 18, 1855, Sam was officially enrolled to
begin his formal education.
During his stay at the American Asylum, Sam progressed
well in both his studies and extracurricular student activities.
One of his instructors was the famous Laurent Clerc (1785–
1869), a Deaf Frenchman who came to the United States and
played a pivotal role with the American-born Thomas Hopkins
Gallaudet (1787–1851) in the founding of the Hartford institution
(Continue on page 5)
Portrait painted by Ambrose W. Mason
The Power of ASL
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Fall 2017 – Issue 7