On April 8, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln and the United StatesCongress put into effect legislation authorizing the granting ofcollegiate degrees by the Columbia Institution for the Instructionof the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind. At this moment, what becameGallaudet University began a century and a half of offering acollegiate liberal arts education to deaf and hard of hearingstudents. Featuring more than 250 photographs and illustrations,David F. Armstrong's The History of Gallaudet University: 150Years of a Deaf American Institution chronicles itsdevelopment into a modern, comprehensive American university. Atfirst a tiny college of fewer than 200 students, Gallaudet's growthparalleled the emergence of the American Deaf Community and thehistory of the nation in general. In the same way that thecountry's land-grant universities brought higher education to moreAmerican students than ever before, Gallaudet offered the sameopportunities to deaf students for the first time. Gallaudetmirrored other institutions in addressing major issues of the time,from legislated segregation to the Civil Rights movement thatinspired the struggle by deaf people to gain control of thegovernance of their university. Most critically, this volumedetails poignantly the evolution of American Sign Language as alanguage of scholarship at Gallaudet during a time when its use ineducational institutions was largely discouraged or prohibited.Through story and image, it traces the historic path that Gallaudettraveled to be recognized as the finest institution of higher education for deaf people in the world.