Was Ferdinand Berthier Born Deaf? Details Explored Following Googles Tribute

Publish date: 2024-05-03

Ferdinand Berthier was a deaf educator, and intellectual and political organiser in nineteenth-century France. He passed away on 12 July 1886 at the age of 82. Berthier was regarded as one of the earliest champions of deaf identity and culture. On September 30, 2023, Google celebrated his 220th birthday with a Google Doodle. Was Ferdinand Berthier born deaf? Let us find out more.

Ferdinand Berthier Biography

Berthier was born on 30 September 1803 in Louhans, Saône-et-Loire. He attended the famous school for the Deaf in Paris as a young student in 1811. After school, young Ferdinand came from the rural southeast of France to learn basic vocational skills and literacy to prepare him for work as a tradesman. Berthier was influenced by his teacher Roch-Ambroise Auguste Bébian. By the age of 27 Berthier had become one of the more senior professors at the school.

Ferdinand petitioned the French government for permission to create the Société Centrale des Sourds-muets in 1837. This was officially founded the following year as the first organisation to represent the interests of the deaf community. Berthier played a delicate balancing act as a passionate defender of the deaf identity and sign language, while under a repressive social and political climate.

Berthier wrote books about deaf history and deaf culture, noting deaf artists and sign-language poets of his time. He died on 12 July 1886 in Paris, aged 82.

Google Doodle Celebrates Ferdinand Berthier

On September 30, 2023, Google celebrated his 220th birthday with a Google Doodle. Ferdinand Berthier was a deaf educator, and intellectual and political organiser in nineteenth-century France. He passed away on 12 July 1886 at the age of 82. Berthier was regarded as one of the earliest champions of deaf identity and culture.

Was Ferdinand Berthier Born Deaf?

Born on 30 September 1803, in Saône-et-Loire, France, Berthier encountered deafness at an early age. By the age of eight, this transformative experience led him to enrol at the National Institute for the Deaf in Paris.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qLTBmqqeZpOkunDDwKxkn52imbavrc2dZJudoqm1qrHRZpmoqp5isaatxWabnqyRnrm0ecSxp6WnopqxbrLOpaOor5mjtG6zzqiepZ2jYsGztcGuq55n