For their roles in Deaf history, Clerc and Gallaudet make several appearances in my ASL dictionary, both as young pioneers and older wise leaders. To celebrate tomorrow’s International Day of Sign Languages 2023, the ASL Name Signs for Clerc and Gallaudet.
For Clerc’s ASL Name Sign, I drew a handsome young Frenchman with facial scarring on his right cheek. The U hand strokes the right cheek twice to refer to the permanent scar he carried from a fireplace injury as a child.
Louis Laurent Marie Clerc was a French Master Teacher at Paris’ Royal Institution for the Deaf who had trained under Abbe Sicard.
When American Minister Thomas Gallaudet went to the School to learn sign language, Clerc became his teacher and over time, his close friend.
Seeing the needs of the deaf community in the New World, Clerc agreed to leave France for three years to assist Thomas Gallaudet and Mason Cogswell in founding and maintaining the first American School for the Deaf in 1817. Clerc served more than 50 years in deaf instruction. His outstanding work for the deaf community as both teacher and mentor earned him the title ‘Apostle of the Deaf’.
#ASL #signlanguage #clerc #laurentclerc #internationaldayofsignlanguages2023 #cartoon #myasldictionary
