Gallaudet University, Washington DC
Gallaudet was founded in 1864 as a grammar school for blind and deaf children by Amos Kendall, an American lawyer and journalist who rose to national prominence through the newspaper he published in Frankfort, Kentucky. He strongly supported Andrew Jackson’s candidacy for the presidency, for which he was rewarded with the post of Postmaster General, a position through which he controlled all of the postmaster positions in the country.
Kendall made a fortune in publishing and lost it through downturns in the economy and a series of lawsuits against him by postal contractors which had lost money when he tried to eliminate corruption in the postal system while serving as postmaster general, and he returned to the practice of law. The lands he owned in Kentucky lost value, and his Washington DC law practice did not generate sufficient income for him to pay the taxes on them.
When Kendall was offered a position as business manager by Samuel Morse in a new telegraph company in 1845 he accepted, receiving a commission of 10% on patent licenses he successfully obtained. Using the commissions he started the Magnetic Telegraph Company, operating a line between Washington and New York, the nation’s first privately held telegraph line, and when he sold it to the American Telegraph Company in 1859 his wealth was restored.
In 1857, after deaf and blind children under the care of Platt Skinner were removed from his custody under accusations of abuse, Kendall donated his home and two acres of the farmland around it and established the Kendall School. He hired the innovative teacher of the disabled Edward Miner Gallaudet to run the school, and Kendall placed himself as the president of the board of directors. Within a short time he was lobbied for more advanced education for the deaf and blind.
Kendall worked with Congress and in 1864 Congress enacted legislation creating the National Deaf-Mute College. The following year Congress authorized the purchase of fourteen acres of Kendall’s farm, Kendall Green, for the construction of the college. It was Kendall who changed the name of the college to Gallaudet College, which later became Gallaudet University. It was the first academic institution dedicated to the deaf and near deaf in the world.