Gallaudet University
Gallaudet University, a coeducational, privately controlled university in Washington, D.C. It has an undergraduate college of liberal arts for deaf persons and a graduate school of education that trains individuals to teach and to work with the hearing imparied. The university receives substantial federal financial support. It was established in 1856 as Kendall School, incorporated in 1857, and in 1864 was authorized to grant degrees—the world's first college for the deaf. Following several name changes, it was renamed in honor of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet in 1894.