Hirn, Maria Lovisa Klingenberg

Deaf from illness in early childhood. Met Fritz Hirn (q.v.) at age 14, who instructed her privately before she enrolled at the new school for the deaf at Porvoo. In 1863, married Fritz Hirn in probably the first deaf-to-deaf marriage in Finland. As he became more and more involved in his teaching duties, she gradually learned his photography trade and took over his photography studio, which eventually reopened in 1871 under her name only. She opened another new studio in 1882, but gave up her popular photography business in 1886 for reasons now unknown, retiring to Helsinki. In 1910-1916, took many photographs of people signing, some of her husband, to illustrate Finland's first dictionary of sign language, De D˜vstummas +tb˜rdssprsk i Finland.