Attendees are gathered on the steps of Mott Hall. The Fifth National Conference of Principals and Superintendents of Institutions for Deaf-Mutes took place during July 9-13, 1884 at the Minnesota Institute for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind in Faribault. At this conference, the advisability of employing deaf teachers to teach deaf students was discussed, and this issue became part of the oralism vs. manualism debate in deaf education. The man sitting in the front row on the left end is Dr. James L. Smith. Sitting to the right of Dr. Smith is Olof Hanson. The bearded man in a buttoned jacket standing in the front row, to the right of a woman in a white dress, is Dr. Philip G. Gillett, Superintendent of the Illinois School for the Deaf. The bearded man to the right of Dr. Gillett is Judge Rodney A. Mott. The man with a mustache standing in the front row on the right end is George Wing. The man with a hand thrust inside his jacket in the second row, fourth from the left, is Edward Miner Gallaudet, President of the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb (later renamed Gallaudet College). The man with a dark beard standing to the right of center, behind a woman in a striped dress, is Alexander Graham Bell.
Contributing Institution:
Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf Alumni Association Museum