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Edward Allen Fay

Morristown, New Jersey, 1843 - 1923, Washington, DC

BiographyLC name authority rec. no.n85171006
LC Heading: Fay, Edward Allen, 1843-1923

Biography:
Edward Allen Fay, a prominent teacher, editor, and researcher of deaf people and deafness, played a critical role in late 19th- and early 20th-century deaf history.

Fay was born on November 22, 1843, in Morristown, New Jersey. His father, Barnabas Fay, taught at the New York School for the Deaf. In 1854 Edward's father became the first principal at the state school for the deaf in Flint, Michigan, and the family relocated to the new school. Although Edward attended public school, had no deaf relatives, and could hear, his early immersion in deaf culture through the residential institutions where his father served enabled him to acquire fluency in American Sign Language. Upon graduating from the University of Michigan in 1862, Edward Fay began teaching at his father's prior workplace, the New York School for the Deaf. In 1866 Edward Miner Gallaudet recruited Fay to teach history and ancient languages at the newly established National Deaf-Mute College (now called Gallaudet University) in Washington, D.C. In addition to his faculty work, Fay served from 1886 to 1920 as vice president of the college.

In 1871 Fay married a hearing woman, Mary Bradshaw; the couple had six sons and one daughter. His daughter, Helen Bradshaw Fay (1881–1957), also entered the deaf education profession.

Fay had a significant impact in the scholarly study of deaf education. His 1893 work, Histories of the American Schools for the Deaf, provided the first comprehensive study of residential schools in America, offering a reference tool for historians and specialists interested in deaf education. In addition Fay served as editor of the American Annals of the Deaf, the premier publication in the field.

An engaged researcher and advocate, Fay used his prominent status as an educator and editor to act as an outspoken opponent of eugenicists who marked deaf people as defective. In particular, he critically questioned Alexander Graham Bell's 1883 influential study Memoir Upon the Formation of a Deaf Variety of the Human Race, which stigmatized deaf cultural attributes such as deaf intermarriage and use of signed communication, warning that it would produce a distinct race of deaf people. Surveying nearly 4,500 deaf individuals, Fay spent six years carefully researching Bell's specific claims. His own Marriages of the Deaf in America, published in 1898, not only provided substantial evidence that contradicted the Memoir but offered a compassionate, social interpretation of deaf Americans and their rights to liberty and happiness. Many members of the deaf cultural world heralded Fay's study, but the rise of eugenics in America and the prominence of Bell limited its ultimate impact.

As a hearing person fluent in signs, Fay was in the uniquely powerful position to bridge hearing and deaf communities and cultures. Hearing politicians, scholars, and educators respected Fay's authority in the field of deafness, and deaf people embraced him as a friend and mentor. His commitment to advocacy on behalf of deaf people and deaf culture is evidenced by his many conference presentations and publications that explicitly advocated signed communication.

His fluency in sign language and historic place in the community motivated leaders of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) to recruit him as part of their campaign to preserve sign language before World War I. Using recently developed motion picture technology, the NAD filmed a small corps of "master signers" and shared copies of the movies with communities of deaf people across the nation for decades. The only other hearing master signer included in this series was Edward Miner Gallaudet.

Fay continued his work at Gallaudet College until 1922, when he retired due to ailing health. He died on July 14, 1923, at the age of 79.

Fay's life story reveals generational connections to deaf education and to advocacy. Formative experiences, common to deaf people and many of their hearing siblings or children, motivated many people since the early 19th century to seek careers in deaf-related fields. His father's work at deaf schools clearly shaped Fay's outlook on the deaf community, which he shared in turn with his own children. Fay also was a significant hearing ally to the deaf world at a time of particular challenge. The rise of eugenics and oralism specifically threatened deaf cultural identity, and Fay's scholarly activism, along with the community's committed resistance, helped preserve and protect America's deaf culture. Fay's numerous publications, along with his example, continue to assist historians and others interested in understanding deaf education and experiences in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
(Soulier, Sylvie. "Fay, Edward Allen." In Burch, Susan, ed. Encyclopedia of American Disability History. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. American History Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?
ItemID=WE52&iPin=EADH0253&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 4, 2016).

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Last Updated8/7/24

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