Today in 1817 the oldest school for the deaf was established in Hartford, Connecticut. The American School for the Deaf was founded by Dr. Mason Fitch Cogswell and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. Cogswell had a deaf daughter, Alice Cogswell, that beame deaf after the fever
On April 15, 1817, the Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons opened with seven pupils in Hartford. The institution, later renamed The American School for the Deaf, was the first American school dedicated exclusively to the education of the deaf. The Connecticut General Assembly granted a charter for the school in 1816 through the persistent efforts of Dr. Mason Fitch Cogswell, who had a deaf daughter, and Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet.