Rochester School for the Deaf anniversary

It was on this date (Feb. 3) in 1876 that the first school for the deaf in western New York was founded. It was called the Western New York Institution for Deaf Mutes and in 1920 became the Rochester School for the Deaf. One of the school's early superintendents only allowed students to use finger-spelling speech rather than sign language, which became known as the "Rochester method" according to Peter V. Paul's Language and Deafness.