Evening star., 1938-12-04
BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS,

BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.
The approaching 18th anniversary
OF Gallaudet College, only college
for the deaf in the world, and the
scheduled visit to America of the
King and Queen of England, are
associated In the mind of Miss Eliza
beth Peet, Gallaudet's dean of
women.
For in 1850. when the late King
Edward VII, then Prince of Wales,
was on his visit to America, he and
his royal encourage were guests at
the New York Institution for the
Deaf, at that time headed by her
grandfather, Harvey Prindle Peet,
with her father, Isaac Lewis Peet, as
his first assistant. This institution
was selected for the royal visit be-
cause it was the leading one of its
kind in the United States and one
of the outstanding in the world.
In a red leather-bound autograph
album of Miss Peet's which was her
mothers, you may view the sigma
lures of Edward VII, grandfather of
Britain's present sovereign, and of
Edward VIII, his brother, now the
Duke of Windsor. 1t is naturally
Miss Peet's fond hope that on one
of the blank pages of this same
album there also may be inscribed
the autographs of Britains visiting
majestieS.
Association between the Gallaudet
and Peet families in Americas an
mails OF education for the deaf goes
back more than a century to the
year 1922. In 1917 Thomas Hopkins
Gallaudet, for whom Gallaudet Col
lege was later named, had estab-
llshed at Hartford, Conn, America S
nrst permanent. State supervised
school for the teaching of the deaf.
Five years later he asked the grand
father of Miss Peet to become as
sociated with him. Harvey Peet,
whose original intention had been to
enter the ministry, had that June
been one of Yale's 10 honorary
graduates.
OAsos0AuAuS AuHuCHCCs
DR.. Peet's granddaughter, Eliz-
abeth, distinguished educator OF the
deaf in her own right, is the out
standing feminine professional in
duence in Gauaudet College
There are fascinating intermediate
links, too, in the chain of teaching
Gal1audets and Peets, whose equal
IN the advancement of the education
of the deaf is not to be found in the
records of American biography.
When New York State determined
to make its institution for the deaf
an outstanding one, it endeavored
to obtain the services of Thomas
Hopkins Gallaudet. DR.. Gallaudet
declined the offer, but recommended
Tor the position his brilliant young
assistant, Harvey Prindle Peet. Un-
der DIR. Peets guidance and later
that of his son, Isaac Lewis Peet.
who was Miss Peet's father, this
institution achieved international
distinction and leadership in its field.
10 1t went the great of our own and
other lands to see first hand what
was being achieved to open hitherto
closed doors of opportunity to the
deaf.
To Isaac Lewis Peet, then aiding
his father in the New York Insti-
tuition for the Deaf, Amos Kendall
in 1857 offered the superintendency
OF what has since by act of Con-
gress become the Columbia Insti-
tuition for the Deaf in the District,
with Gallaudet College as its edu-
cational capstone.
Suggested Gallaudet.
Feeling that he could not leave
the New York institution, DR.. peet
suggested as ideal for the Washing
ton post Edward Gallaudet, young
est son Of Thomas Hopkins Gal
laudet.
Once again, this time SO years
after Edward Gallaudet began his
work for the deaf in the Nations
Capital, the moving hand Of destiny
was to weld still another link in
the continuing educational chain
between Gallaudet and a Peet.
To the Rhode Island School for the
Deaf at Providence went Edward
Gallaudet, son of Thomas Hopkins
Gallaudet, on mission to Eliza
beth Peet.
To her he said, and his father be-
fore him had said to her grand
father, I'VE need you in our work
with the doaf" E1jzohotl D>o% 1;I.>
her grandfather before her, needed
that call from a Gallaudet. In do
ing so, like the distinguished Peets
before her, she, too, made educa-
tional history. for she later became