SAMUEL THOMAS GREENE:
A Legend in the Nineteenth Century Deaf Community
Reviewed by Joyce Lange
Vibes (The Canadian Hearing Society Magazine), Volume 33, Number 3, December 2005.
Deaf readers and Deaf history buffs will enjoy reading this latest, richly illustrated book by Canadian Deaf author, Clifton F. Carbin. Those with ties to Ontario, New England or Gallaudet University may recognize names, places, organizations and historical events that are unique to our Deaf world -- something too rarely experienced by Deaf readers.
Samuel Thomas Greene has two stories. The first is an archival tale cobbled together from a myriad of historical records about the life of Greene, a Deaf educator and trailblazer who was born in the United States in 1843 and died in Canada in 1890. Greene, an American transplanted to Canada, left enduring legacies -- one of which was founding the precursor of the Ontario Association of the Deaf (1886), the oldest consumer organization in Canada.
The second story of the book occurs some 80 years later after Greene's death, beginning with an old life-sized portrait hanging high on the wall in the auditorium at the present-day Sir James Whitney School for the Deaf in Belleville, where Greene once taught. Although prominently hung, it was so high up that no one could read the wooden nameplate inscription. Once the inscription was deciphered, it turned out to be Greene. But until then no one knew anything about the man in the portrait and it was widely assumed that he was a famous hearing person from long ago. Thus a man and his legacy had been separated.
Greene's important achievements lived on through the decades, but his name nearly disappeared until, quite by chance, Clifton Carbin came across Greene's photograph and some biographical information while researching something else. Recognizing the portrait from his own student days at the Belleville school, he was intrigued to learn that the man, Samuel Thomas Greene, was Deaf.
Indeed, as the old portrait had signalled to the generations, Greene was very important in his time. But who was he? Where did he come from? What did he do? What was he like? How did he die? Where is he buried?
Uncovering the answers led the author on a 30-year journey culminating for us, the readers, in a story gleaned from a selection of original school compositions, letters, writings, speeches, photographs and other documented information, all meticulously acknowledged in Carbin's trademark endnotes, appendices, and extensive bibliography and index. Valuable historical records that might otherwise have been lost are now flagged and will be preserved as a result of this book. Besides, some of the answers to the questions are most unusual!
Above all, Samuel Thomas Greene is a valuable role model to present and future generations. He will not be forgotten again. This marvelous biography reunites Greene with his legacy and restores him to us.