Description:
Tureen tray or stand with a view of Hartford, Connecticut's "Deaf and Dumb Asylum," from John and William Ridgway's "Beauties of America" series. The underside of the tray is marked “Beauties of America / Deaf & Dumb Asylum / Hartford, Con. / J & W Ridgway.” The Ridgway family were in business in Hanley between 1814 and about 1840; other Staffordshire printers such as Ralph Stevenson also used this scene (see HD 93.021.1). The first school for the deaf and dumb in the United States, the American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb was established largely through the influence of the eminent surgeon Mason Fitch Cogswell, whose daughter Alice became deaf very young through illness. The American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb was founded in Hartford in 1815, and with the help of Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc, opened on April 29, 1817, the day that Polly (1792-1869) and Rowland (1794-1848) Stebbins, the children of Asa (1767-1844) and Emily Harvey Stebbins (1769-1841) of Deerfield, were enrolled in the first class as the eleventh and twelfth students. Congress donated land for a building that was erected in 1821, shown here as a four-story, classical-style building with pilasters and pediments, and seven chimneys along the roof line. The image of the Asylum is after an engraving by Asaph Williard (1786-1880), who worked in Hartford in 1818. Willard titled the engraving "View of the Asylum for Deaf & Dumb Persons, Hartford, Con." This view was copied by John Warner Barber for his publication Connecticut Historical Collections in 1836.
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