Deaf and Dumb Asylum Band Box

Few may know that our business began as a bandbox collection when a six-year-old David Schorsch was gifted a Hannah Davis (1784-1863) example by his mother, Majorie “Peggy” Schorsch, a prominent dealer and collector throughout her life. A few years later, he acquired another example from his neighbor, and his collection—and later business—would grow from there. We continue to delight in these paper-covered boxes, each seemingly having its own unique appeal and personality. This box, recently sold, is wrapped in a paper depicting the New York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, a poignant subject vividly captured in contrasting blue and orange.

This vibrant box is enveloped in a paper depicting the New York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, specifically when it was located at 50th Street and Fourth Avenue (present-day Madison Avenue) in the early 1830s. and is likely based on an engraving from Theodore S. Fay, Views in New York and its Environs from Accurate, Characteristic, and Picturesque Drawings, Taken on the Spot…which was published in New York in 1831.

“Deaf and Dumb Asylums” were instrumental in the development of deaf (and deaf-mute) communities and the education of people with such disabilities. The first and most important of these institutions was founded in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1817 by Reverend Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (1787-1851), who studied education of the deaf in England and France, including the method of sign communication. This school, the Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons, later renamed the American School of the Deaf, pioneered American Sign Language and supported people with disabilities in living dignified lives; unlike many other schools, it began admitting African American students as early as 1825.

Around the same time, new forms of travel were coming into being, and as a result, bandboxes—boxes for storing hats, jewelry, ribbons, accessories, etc., decorated in block-printed paper—became highly popular travel items. They were made in a variety of shapes and in progressive sizes and used by both men and women. Additionally, at this time, women were beginning to enter the factory workforce and earning income, which they could use to purchase clothing items. Bandboxes were needed to protect such items in their dormitories and on their frequent trips home. Additionally, Americans with greater means began travelling throughout the Northeast to take in scenery and visit Revolution-era monuments in what was called the “Northern Tour.” 

Despite a great many of these fragile and inexpensive boxes being lost and discarded over time, bandboxes are still prolific in today’s collector’s market, owing to their original abundance. But because paper is fragile and apt to fade, consequently, these survivors are found in a range of conditions. This “Deaf and Dumb Asylum” example survives in a truly remarkable state of preservation, retaining vibrant, unfaded colors.

The most impressive collection of bandboxes is maintained by the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont, founded by the heiress and pioneer collector of American folk art, Electra Havemeyer Webb (1888-1960). The only major book dedicated to the subject of bandboxes is Hat Boxes and Bandboxes at Shelburne Museum, published in 1960 by Lilian Baker Carlisle. This book categorizes and describes the paper designs found on the bandboxes in the Shelburne Museum collection; the “Deaf and Dumb Asylum” paper is documented in the chapter “Historical Designs Commemorating People and Places” (p. 172), but only in the form of a fragmentary panel, which further emphasizes the rarity of this box. 

In her entry on this paper, Carlisle briefly describes how “Deaf and Dumb Asylums” were found in many cities, the most famous being the Connecticut institution. Notable for American folk art enthusiasts, the highly celebrated itinerant portraitist John Brewster, Jr., who was deaf, attended this school in his adulthood. Because Brewster was working well before the establishment of this school and the invention of ASL, he likely communicated with the hearing world through pantomime and writing, making it all the more remarkable that he traveled far throughout the Northeast, negotiated prices, worked with his sitters to decide on poses and props, and cohabitated with them for weeks at a time. John Brewster, Jr., is one of our favorite artists, and we frequently buy and sell his work. There is a unique poignancy in his ability to capture the intricacies of a sitter’s facial features and expression, especially their gaze—almost certainly because eye contact was a critical means of communication for him as a deaf person.

Schools such as the Connecticut Asylum and the New York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb provided deaf people with a sense of community. The New York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb opened in 1818, a year after the Connecticut school, and is the second-oldest permanent school for the deaf in the United States. It was initially housed in an almshouse for the poor and sick on Chambers Street in City Hall Park, but in 1829 relocated to the 10-acre estate depicted on this bandbox’s paper, at 50th and Fourth (now Park) Avenue. The school would move again in 1856 to an estate in Washington Heights, purchased from James Monroe, nephew of the President, and for whose daughter, Fanny, the school would be renamed “Fanwood.” Today, it is the New York School for the Deaf in White Plains, New York, which provides a 10-month K–12 educational program to 165 deaf or hearing-impaired students, as well as preschool and early-childhood programs for children under 3 years old.

John Brewster, Jr., eventually made the decision to leave the Connecticut Asylum for the Deaf and rejoin the hearing world. Today, this same choice is faced by many deaf people and the parents of deaf children: whether to socialize (and learn) primarily within deaf communities or to “mainstream” alongside non-deaf peers. Possibly the most remarkable example of deaf and hearing communities coming together is the example of Martha’s Vineyard between the 17th and mid-20th centuries, where a significant population of deaf people coexisted alongside their hearing counterparts in certain towns on the island. There, nearly everyone was able to use some form of sign language, and deafness was embraced as a normal part of daily life. 

All antique objects tell a story, and this bandbox is an especially moving example. It was a highlight of our booth at the recent Delaware Antiques Show.