Richard Meier and Justin Power, linguistics professors at the University of Texas, have published a new paper entitled The Historical Demography of the Martha’s Vineyard Signing Community, inspired by the seminal work of anthropologist Nora Ellen Groce.
Sign Language
February 19, 2024
Thomas Humphrey
November 12, 2023
Riis Williams
Four researchers and educators traveled to the Vineyard to take part in the event on Nov. 8, organized by MV Signs: Then and Now, a project founded in 2016 by Islander Lynn Thorp to teach and revive ASL.
February 26, 2019
Holly Pretsky
David Martin, former educator and administrator at Gallaudet, visited Vineyard Haven on Sunday to talk about the legacy of the Martha’s Vineyard deaf community of the 18th and 19th centuries.
December 22, 2016
Alison L. Mead
Lynn Thorp is the energy behind MV Signs: Then and Now, an endeavor to revive Martha’s Vineyard sign language used from the 17th to 19th century.
April 16, 2015
Mary Jane Carpenter
One of the more interesting houses up-Island is 231 State Road in Chilmark. It is an unusual house for Chilmark: a Queen Anne style Victorian, painted yellow, with a turret.
May 27, 2010
Megan Dooley
Sitting in a coffee shop in Oak Bluffs this week, Casandra Paasche could barely contain her hands as she spoke. Though speaking to a hearing person, her hands followed up every word with a signed gesture. As a sign language interpreter, she has made a career of translating spoken English for the deaf, and signing comes as naturally to her as breathing.
December 5, 1997
Julie Dulude
This weekend, the Island remembered a time when many of its residents were bilingual -- when Vineyarders spoke both English and sign language and for over 250 years the deaf were accepted, not stig
August 20, 1985
David Corr
Chilmark fishermen Christopher Murphy approached medical anthropologist Nora Groce after her delivery of the last Nathan Mayhew Seminars lecture of the summer Thursday night, and recalled a remna
March 25, 1966
Joseph Chase Allen
There were several deaf-and-dumb persons, as deaf-mutes were called, living in the Island towns.
February 6, 1931
Vineyard Gazette
Just a few issues back, this column carried the biographical sketch of Joseph West of Chilmark, who is a deaf mute. This present article contains a similar sketch of his sister, Mrs.
January 9, 1931
Vineyard Gazette
This is the story of one who has lived always in the eternal silence, nearly three-quarters of a century without ever hearing the sound of human voice or the song of a bird, and who has never bee
August 24, 1922
Vineyard Gazette
The death of Alexander Graham Bell arouses renewed interest in the great inventor’s connection with Martha’s Vineyard.
