The National Deaf Life Museum is a museum focusing on the culture and history of deaf and hard of hearing people in the United States. Founded in 2007 as the Gallaudet University Museum, the museum is operated by

Gallaudet University Gallaudet University ( ) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. for the education of the deaf and hard of hearing. It was founded in 1864 as a grammar school for both deaf and blind children. It was the first sc ...

and located on the school's campus in Washington, D.C. The museum formally opened in 2014 and changed its name to the National Deaf Life Museum in 2019.

Mission

The institution's mission statement reads: "The National Deaf Life Museum at Gallaudet University promotes and interprets the rich and complex deaf experience through exhibits and programming on campus and online." The museum creates exhibits, displays artifacts and artwork, and shares experiences and stories about the lives of deaf people in the United States, with special attention to the role of Gallaudet students and alumni. Museum Director Meredith Peruzzi describes the NDLM "as serving 'a dual role' for tsvisitors. For members of the Deaf community, it is a place to see themselves, learn about their history, and develop their sense of personal identity. ..For hearing visitors, it offers a chance to learn about our culture, examine their own expectations and experiences of Deaf people, and feel the vibrancy of our signing community.'"

History and location

In 1985, Jack R. Gannon and Rosalyn Lee Gannon established the Gallaudet Museum, located in Chapel Hall, but the museum closed the next year due to insufficient staffing. Gallaudet professor

Jane Norman Jane Norman was a United Kingdom-based women's clothing retailer, owned by Edinburgh Woollen Mill, it is also the sister company of fashion chain Peacocks History The company was founded by Norman Freed in 1952, a descendant of the Compton fam ...

began working to reestablish the museum in 2007; she served as the Gallaudet University Museum director and curator from 2007 to 2013. The museum formally opened in April 2014 as part of the university's 150th anniversary celebrations. Meredith Peruzzi became the director and curator in 2014. The museum was renamed the National Deaf Life Museum in 2019 to recognize the scope of the museum reaching beyond the Gallaudet campus. The museum is located in Chapel Hall, which was known at its opening in 1870 as the Main Central Building. Since 2013, the museum's operations office has been located in the campus Gate House. Chapel Hall at Gallaudet University

Exhibits

Since 2009, the National Deaf Life Museum has created exhibits about Gallaudet University and deaf history and culture in the U.S. more broadly. The museum's information about the Gallaudet community includes campus traditions such as the rat funeral carried out by freshmen and significant coverage of the 1988

Deaf President Now Deaf President Now (DPN) was a student protest in March 1988 at Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C. The protest began on March 6, 1988 when the Board of Trustees announced its decision to appoint a hearing candidate, Elisabeth Zinser, Elizabet ...

protests. Many of the exhibits created by the museum have an online component. A selection of exhibits includes:
Olof Hanson, Conspicuous Leader, 1862–1933
featuring an overview of the life of deaf architect, advocate, and clergyman Olof Hanson
Making a Difference: Deaf Peace Corps Volunteers
telling the stories of deaf people who served in the

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F. ...

Then and Now
showing the Gallaudet campus in its early days as compared with the 2010s
Andrew J. Foster: Missionary, Educator, and Advocate
focusing on the first Black deaf student to graduate from Gallaudet after the Civil Rights movement, Andrew Jackson Foster
Deaf HERstory
focusing on deaf women's lives, education, and activism
The Life of Robert Panara, '45 & H-'86
a traveling exhibit from the

National Technical Institute for the Deaf The National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) is the first and largest technological college in the world for students who are deaf or hard of hearing. As one of nine colleges within the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Rochester ...

highlighting NTID's cofounder,

Robert Panara Robert F. Panara (8 July 1920 - 20 July 2014) was a poet, a professor and a co-founder of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) and the National Theater of the Deaf. Panara is considered to be a pioneer in deaf culture studies in ...

Deaf Difference + Space Survival
sharing the story of the Gallaudet Eleven, who contributed to NASA's

Space Race The Space Race was a 20th-century competition between two Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between the tw ...

studies of motion sickness and weightlessness
We are Equal: The National Fraternal Society of the Deaf
sharing the history of the

National Fraternal Society for the Deaf The National Fraternal Society of the Deaf was an organization of deaf people in the United States and Canada modeled on ethnic fraternal orders that were popular at the beginning of the twentieth century. History The origins of the Society go ...

Language, Culture, Communities: 200 Years of Impact by the American School for the Deaf
a traveling exhibit about the

American School for the Deaf The American School for the Deaf (ASD), originally ''The American Asylum, At Hartford, For The Education And Instruction Of The Deaf'', is the oldest permanent school for the deaf in the United States, and the first school for children with disa ...

History Through Deaf Eyes
part of Gallaudet's "Deaf Eyes" project including a 90-minute documentary and book of photographs
Gallaudet at 150 and Beyond
recognizing the university's sesquicentennial celebration Prior to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the museum received roughly 8,000 visitors per year.

References

External links

* {{official site, https://gallaudet.edu/museum/
The National Deaf Life Museum at Gallaudet University
6-minute news feature from

WUSA (TV) WUSA (channel 9) is a television station in Washington, D.C., affiliated with CBS. It is the flagship property of Tegna Inc. (based in the nearby Virginia suburb of McLean). WUSA's studios and transmitter are located at Broadcast House on Wisc ...

(2021) Deaf culture in the United States Deafness organizations in the United States History museums in Washington, D.C. Near Northeast (Washington, D.C.) University museums in Washington, D.C. Museums established in 2007 2007 establishments in Washington, D.C.