Alice Cogswell (Hartford, Connecticut deaf resident)

Statue at the American School for the Deaf of Gallaudet teaching a young Alice Cogswell.

Alice Cogswell (August 31, 1805 - December 30, 1830) was the inspiration for the creation of the American School for the Deaf in West Hartford, Connecticut.

Cogswell was born on August 31, 1805 in Hartford, Connecticut as the daughter of Mason Fitch Cogswell and Mary Ledyard. At the age of two, she became ill with cerebral spinal meningitis. This illness took her hearing and later she lost her speech as well. At the time, deafness was viewed as the equivalent of a mental illness, and it was believed that the deaf could not be taught. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, her neighbor, soon noticed that she wasn't interacting with the other children, and when he asked why, he was informed she was deaf. Intrigued, he decided to teach her to communicate through pictures and writing letters in the dirt. He and Alice's father, Mason, decided that a formal school would be best for her, but no such school existed in the United States.

During her youth, Cogswell attended a hearing school and somewhat furthered her education, though the situation was not ideal. Cogswell and six other deaf students finally entered the school that would become the American School for the Deaf in April 1817.

On December 30, 1830, Cogswell died at the age of 25, exactly twenty days after the death of her father. She became well-known as a remarkable figure in the history of deaf culture, representing an extraordinary breakthrough in deaf education.