Viewing page 2 of 19

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Transcription: [00:02:34]
{SPEAKER name="Debbie Sonnenstrahl/Shirley Schultz (interpreter)"}
Sure. Since I love art, naturally one of my favorite stories involves a deaf artist.

[00:02:43]
His name was Cadwallader Washburn. He was, uh, not born deaf, but he lost his hearing at the age of five. Five years old.

[00:02:59]
Once he lost his hearing at five, he never spoke again. Turned his voice off. And used sign language for the rest of his life.

[00:03:10]
He was born in Maine, but he moved to Minnesota when he was very young. And he went to Gallaudet College too.

[00:03:21]
It never failed to amaze me how his mind worked. In fact, he did so uh wonderfully in, during his college days, that when he gave his graduation speech, to an audience of all, uh, people from—edu—different education areas.

[00:03:44]
Even the superintendent of the D.C. school system was in this audience. And he heard there, uh, his speech, guess what the name of his speech was?

[00:03:55]
I can't give the exact name because it was written in, uh, Latin, medical word, but in everyday language it was called "The Working Mind of a Spider."

[00:04:15]
And uh, it went over so well, that after his speech, the superintendent of the D.C. school system came to him and asked for his permission, uh, to use his speech, to publish his speech in a book for fifth and sixth grade, uh, fifth and sixth graders for the public school system in D.C.

[00:04:38]
But that's not the end of the story. He went on to become a famous artist, and he became an etcher, you know what an etcher is? Uh, drawing on metal, block of, uh, copper, and so on?

[00:04:55]
Engraving and then painting it with ink and then making many prints of that. And his prints are in museums all over the country. Uh, British Museum, the Met, here in Washington D.C. and all over the world.

[00:05:08]
But before he could become, uh, get recognition as an artist, he had to earn his bread, earn his trade, so, uh, guess what he became?