Gallaudet Memorial Statue - Fulton, MO
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 38° 50.892 W 091° 56.413
15S E 591965 N 4300464
This statue also resides in Connecticut, at the American School for the Deaf in Hartford; and is also listed in the Smithsonian listings as IAS CT000080
Waymark Code: WMKNDY
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 05/06/2014
Views: 2
County of statue: Callaway County
Location of statue: State St., entrance loop to Missouri School for the Deaf, Fulton
Artist: Frances Laughlin Wadsworth, 1909-1978, sculptor
Founder: Sculpture House
Text on Base: Donated by Alumni, Staff,
Students and Friends of
MISSOURI SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF
Honoring
Rev. THOMAS HOPKINS GALLAUDET
Father of Education of the deaf in
America
Erected May 1960
Proper Description: "A portrait of a young Alice Cogswell emerging from a huge pair of open hands. She stands with her proper right hand resting on the finger tip of one of the hands and her proper left hand clasping a book to her chest. At the foot of the sculpture is an open book and a quill pen. The sculpture rests on a square base."
~ Smithsonian American Art Museum
Remarks:
"Sculpture cost $5,391.37 and was funded through donations from alumni, staff, students, and friends of the Missouri School for the Deaf. It honors Rev. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, considered the Father of education of the deaf in America. The young girl portrayed, Alice Cogswell (1805-1831), was the daughter of Dr. Mason Fitch Cogswell of Hartford, Connecticut, and her deafness motivated Gallaudet to push for a special school for the deaf. He and ten other men in Hartford raised enough money to send Gallaudet to Europe to learn how to start a school. Alice was the first pupil enrolled in the American Asylum for the Deaf (later the American School for the Deaf) which opened in 1817 in Hartford. The sculpture is commonly referred to as "Little Alice."
"The large pair of hands depicted in the sculpture are those of Rev. Gallaudet. The sculpture is a copy of a nine-foot high sculpture by Frances Wadsworth erected at the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut in 1953 (see IAS record CT000080). The artist worked from the original two-foot model, but changed the hair design. The inspiration for duplicating the sculpture came from Lloyd A. Harrison, a former teacher at the American School for the Deaf who later became superintendent for the Missouri School for the Deaf."
~ Smithsonain American Art Museum