Gallaudet Memorial Statue, (sculpture).

Gallaudet Memorial Statue, (sculpture).

Wadsworth, Frances Laughlin, 1909-1978, sculptor.

Sculpture House, founder.

Gallaudet Memorial Statue, (sculpture).

Little Alice, (sculpture).

1960. Installed May 1960.

Sculpture: bronze; Base: Elberton light blue granite and cement.

Sculpture: approx. 6 ft. x 30.5 in. x 26 in.

Francis (sic) Wadsworth 1960 (Front of base, incised lettering:) DONATED BY ALUMNI, STAFF,/STUDENTS AND FRIENDS OF/MISSOURI SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF/HONORING/REV. THOMAS HOPKINS GALLAUDET/FATHER OF EDUCATION OF THE DEAF IN/AMERICA/ERECTED MAY 1960 signed

A portrait of a young Alice Cogswell emerging from a huge pair of open hands. She stands with her proper right hand resting on the finger tip of one of the hands and her proper left hand clasping a book to her chest. At the foot of the sculpture is an open book and a quill pen. The sculpture rests on a square base.

Portrait female -- Cogswell, Alice -- Full length

Homage -- Gallaudet, Thomas Hopkins

State of Being -- Disabled -- Deaf

Occupation -- Education

Occupation -- Religion -- Clergy

Figure -- Fragment -- Hand

Object -- Written Matter -- Book

Object -- Other -- Writing Tool

Outdoor Sculpture -- Missouri -- Fulton

Missouri School for the Deaf, 5th & Vine Streets, In front of auditorium, Fulton, Missouri 65251

Sculpture cost $5,391.37 and was funded through donations from alumni, staff, students, and friends of the Missouri School for the Deaf. It honors Rev. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, considered the Father of education of the deaf in America. The young girl portrayed, Alice Cogswell (1805-1831), was the daughter of Dr. Mason Fitch Cogswell of Hartford, Connecticut, and her deafness motivated Gallaudet to push for a special school for the deaf. He and ten other men in Hartford raised enough money to send Gallaudet to Europe to learn how to start a school. Alice was the first pupil enrolled in the American Asylum for the Deaf (later the American School for the Deaf) which opened in 1817 in Hartford. The sculpture is commonly referred to as "Little Alice."

The large pair of hands depicted in the sculpture are those of Rev. Gallaudet. The sculpture is a copy of a nine-foot high sculpture by Frances Wadsworth erected at the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut in 1953 (see IAS record CT000080). The artist worked from the original two-foot model, but changed the hair design. The inspiration for duplicating the sculpture came from Lloyd A. Harrison, a former teacher at the American School for the Deaf who later became superintendent for the Missouri School for the Deaf.

IAS files contain: correspondence of Oct. 15, 1958 from the American School for the Deaf to the artist; correspondence of Oct. 30, 1958 from Sculpture House in New York; an agreement of April 6, 1959 between the Missouri School for the Deaf and Sculpture House; a newspaper article from The Hartford Courant, Sept. 29, 1959; correspondence of Sept. 30, 1959 from the artist; correspondence of Dec. 14, 1967 from Missouri School for the Deaf; a transcription of poem read at the dedication; brief biography of Alice Cogswell.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Missouri survey, 1994.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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