Ossian Edmund Borg (6 August 1812 – 10 April 1892) was a Swedish teacher of the deaf and head of the

Manillaskolan ('Manilla School'), before 1879 ('Public Institute for the Deaf and Blind at Manila'), is a Swedish state school for blind, deaf and hard of hearing children, founded by Pär Aron Borg in 1809. Until the autumn term 2013, the school was loca ...

school for the deaf. He was the son of

Pär Aron Borg Pär Aron Borg (4 July 1776 – 22 April 1839) was a Swedish language, Swedish educator and a pioneer in the education for the Blindness, blind and deaf. Biography Borg was born in the parish of Avesta in Dalarna, Sweden. After studies at Upps ...

, pioneer of deaf schooling in Sweden.

Life and work

Borg was born 6 August 1812 in

Hedvig Eleonora Parish Hedvig Eleonora Parish ( sv, Hedvig Eleonora församling) is a parish in Östermalm's church district (''kontrakt'') in the Diocese of Stockholm, Sweden. The parish is located in Stockholm Municipality in Stockholm County. The parish forms its own ...

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

, Sweden, to

, three years after his father founded (

), the first school for the deaf in Sweden. Borg began his studies in

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inha ...

, Sweden, in 1832; he had decided on the medical field and was ready to take his bachelor's degree in medicine when his studies were interrupted due to the death of his father in 1839. Borg was immediately appointed director and first teacher at the Institute for the Deaf and Blind; he had previously run the institute during his father's trips abroad. Borg would subsequently devote his entire life to the further expansion and development of the institute. Special grants from

King Oscar I Oscar I (born Joseph François Oscar Bernadotte; 4 July 1799 – 8 July 1859) was King of Sweden and Norway from 8 March 1844 until his death. He was the second monarch of the House of Bernadotte. The only child of King Charles XIV John, Oscar i ...

and the

Riksdag The Riksdag (, ; also sv, riksdagen or ''Sveriges riksdag'' ) is the legislature and the supreme decision-making body of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral legislature with 349 members (), elected proportionally and se ...

in 1844 enabled Borg to build a completely new department for the blind, which had previously been housed with the others in the main building, and also to erect a new main building on the site in 1864. Borg knew

Carl Oscar Malm Carl Oscar Malm, also known as C. O. Malm and Carl Oskar Malm (12 February 1826 – 8 June 1863) was Finland's first teacher of the deaf, founder of the first school for the deaf in the country, and the father of Finnish Sign Language. Life ...

, a former student at Manillaskolan from Finland who had studied there during Borg's time as director. Malm considered him a role model; he exchanged letters with Malm, providing detailed advice and supporting him in founding the first school for the deaf in Finland, which opened in

Porvoo Porvoo (; sv, Borgå ; la, Borgoa) is a city and a municipality in the Uusimaa region of Finland, situated on the southern coast about east of the city border of Helsinki and about from the city centre. Porvoo was one of the six medieval to ...

in 1846. On 31 August 1848, Borg married his cousin, Anna Sofia Karolina Sadelin. On 3 May 1868, Borg, together with artist and teacher of the deaf Fritjof Carlbom, founded the Deaf-Mute Society/. He retired in 1875, but continued to assist at the teacher training college he had founded in Manilla and teaching private lessons in

sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...

. Borg died 10 April 1892 in Stockholm and is buried in

Norra begravningsplatsen Norra begravningsplatsen, literally "The Northern Cemetery" in Swedish, is a major cemetery of the Stockholm urban area, located in Solna Municipality. Inaugurated on 9 June 1827, it is the burial site for a number of Swedish notables. Nota ...

References

1812 births 1892 deaths 19th-century Swedish educators Educators of the deaf Heads of schools in Sweden Burials at Norra begravningsplatsen {{DEFAULTSORT:Borg, Ossian Edmund