This talk will explore Rochester’s earliest deaf social history. Rochester boasts the largest per capita deaf population in the world. It is home to two internationally famous deaf education institutions – The Rochester School for the Deaf (1876) and The National Technical Institute for the Deaf at the Rochester Institute of Technology (1968). The presentation explores the earliest community and the multiple synergistic forces that culminated in the creation of the Rochester School for the Deaf. 

Mary Beth Kitzel is a Visiting Assistant Professor and a researcher in the History Department of the College of Liberal Arts and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology. A historical geographer and Rochester native, Kitzel studies the origins of deaf communities and their institutions. Her most recent project focuses on Rochester’s Deaf Community in the nineteenth century. She also studies Early Modern and early Victorian deaf communities in Southern England. Kitzel is the founder and Director of the Field School in Deaf Geographies, a summer research program for undergraduates. The 2015 Field School’s research served as the starting point for this project.