Cogswell, Alice

Born at Hartford, CT; deafened from spotted fever before age 2. Her father was a neighbor of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, who was moved to see if Alice was teachable. After successfully teaching her the word "hat", Gallaudet was asked by Alice's father, Mason Fitch Cogswell, to continue her education and to teach other deaf Connecticut residents as well. Cogswell and other Hartford citizens sent Gallaudet to Europe to learn methods of deaf education. Alice became the first pupil enrolled in Gallaudet's new school, the American Asylum for the Deaf, in 1817, and finished her schooling in 1823. Almost nothing is known of her life after that, except that she never married, and died of a "broken heart" 13 days after the death of her father. A dormitory building at Gallaudet University is named in her honor.