John Carlin
1813-1891
John Carlin was born in Philadelphia in 1813. He attended the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf and was graduated from there in 1825. He was the one of the original class of 16 taught at school.
In 1823, he and five other students went to
Harrisburg with Principal Weld. Those students were to give an exhibition
before the Governor.
After studying drawing and portrait
painting under two local masters, he went to London in 1838 and did studies
from the antiques in the British Museum. He became a pupil of Paul Delaroche in
Paris. He returned to America in 1841 and settled in New York City as a painter
of miniatures.
Carlin was also a well known as a poet. He
published some verses entitled The Deaf-Mutes' Lament in the Philadelphia
Saturday Courier. He produced several other poems that were astonishing because
during that time a deaf poet was unheard of. The editor of the American Annals
of the Deaf said, "We should almost as soon expect a man born blind to
become a landscape painter, as one born deaf to produce poetry of even
tolerable merit."
There was an exhibition of Carlin's
painting in the Detroit Institute of Arts. One painting entitled After a Long
Cruise depicted sailors making merry on the wharf, against a background of
four-mastered schooners. He also painted a portrait of Laurent Clerc using the
method of charcoal drawing. It is presently in the Gallaudet University
collection. His oil painting of Laurent Clerc hangs at the Kentucky School for
the Deaf.
Carlin had published several articles. The
Saturday Post published a series of articles by Carlin on the science of
architecture. In 1868 he published a book for children titled The Scratchiest
Family, which included drawings of monkeys, engraved by another deaf artist.
Carlin excelled in fund raising. He raised
$6000 for the building fund of the St. Ann Church for the Deaf in New York.
Starting in 1873, and for the next eight years, he headed a committee to raise
funds to build the Gallaudet Home for Aged and Infirm Deaf.
He even influenced Edward Miner Gallaudet
to found a college for the deaf. He was an orator at the formal opening of
Gallaudet University in 1864. He received the first honorary degree of Master
of the Arts by the College. Carlin suggested a monument to the memory of Thomas
Hopkins Gallaudet. Statues of both Gallaudet and Alice Cogswell were erected on
the campus of Gallaudet University in 1889.
Carlin was an orator at the Pennsylvania
Society for the Advancement of the Deaf's first convention in 1881where he
served as temporary Chair.
His philosophy on sign language was different from that of many deaf people. Carlin believed, even though he was deaf and unable to speak or lip read, that speech and lip reading should be taught to the deaf. He classified the sign language into four elements; Natural Signs, which he considered superfluous and retarding to process; Verbal Signs, or word-for-idea, which he considered most necessary; Pantomimic Signs, which he favored in moderation to depict passions and imitate action; and Individual (Name) Signs, which he condemned as "wholly nonsensical" and a lazy avoidance of the spelling-out of proper names.
Carlin was married to Miss Seward of the
family of President Abraham Lincoln's famous Secretary William Henry Seward. He
died on April 23, 1891.
Contributing:
Reginald L. Boyd
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