Deaf and Dumb Asylum, Jackson, Mississippi

Authors

Files

Description

This postcard features a color illustration of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum (later called Mississippi School for the Deaf), Jackson, Mississippi, Ca. 1905. The asylum is a long, three story, red brick building with Gothic style towers on either side of the colonial style entrance. Seven small dormers are lined across the roof of the building, three on the left of the entrance towers and four on the right. Street care tracks are depicted as running beside the sidewalk in front of the building. The title of the card is printed in the upper right edge of the image. Located at 1448 West Capitol Street, the school was established by legislature on March 1, 1854, and was originally named the Mississippi Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. In its early years, the school was troubled by a lack of teaching staff, which sometimes closed its doors, but in 1857 Lawrence Saunders, the school’s first student, returned to teach. Although the school was closed during the American Civil War when the building was used as a hospital by the Confederate States Army, it never had to close for lack of instructors again. Saunders continued to teach until he died in an accident on Christmas Day in 1895. This massive building was erected in 1902-09, housing students in dormitories on its upper floors with classes held in the lower levels. A cyclone badly damaged the structure in 1916, and was never fully repaired, which resulted in it being razed in the early 1950s. The school then moved to its Eastover location.

Publisher

S. H. Kress and Co.

Subjects

Postcards; Schools

Keywords

school for the deaf; Jackson, Mississippi

Geographic Location

Jackson, (Miss.)

Object Type

image

Format (original)

postcard

Format (digital)

PDF

Digital ID

MFM_MSS_837_Postcard-Deaf-Dumb-Asylum-Jackson_001

Source

Mississippi State University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections, Manuscripts Unit, Lucius Marion Lampton, MD Historical Images Collection, Mississippiana Collection, Postcard/Photographs, Box 4, Mississippi Capitol Region

Repository

Manuscripts

Digital Publisher

Mississippi State University Libraries (electronic version)

Rights

Copyright protected by Mississippi State University Libraries. Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required.

Contact Information

For more information about the contents of this collection, email sp_coll@library.MSState.edu.

Recommended Citation

Deaf and Dumb Asylum, Jackson, Mississippi, Lucius Marion Lampton, MD Historical Images Collection, Special Collections Department, Mississippi State University