Deaf History of Martha's Vineyard

If you are visiting Martha's Vineyard and are interested in the history of the Island's deaf population, we highly recommend that you look at this self-guided driving tour by clicking here. You may also contact the library at 508-645-3360 or via email at chil_mail@clamsnet.org to schedule an appointment to speak to a librarian about the deaf community. Please call the library at least a week in advance for planning purposes. If you are with a group and are looking for an organized tour of the Vineyard in ASL, you can contact Patrick J. Costello at www.asltours.com or 774-214-6255. 

NEW ARTICLES:

Scroll to the bottom of this page for "The Buried History of Martha's Vineyard: Nine Deaf Ancestors at Abel's Hill Cemetery," by Sophia La Porta, Jody H. Cripps, Ashley McCollum, Allison Rambo, Lynn Thorp, and Doreen Simons. Taken from the Summer 2025 issue of MV Museum Quarterly.

Click here for a paper on the historical demography of the Martha's Vineyard signing community written by Justin M Power, PhD and Richard P Meier, PhD and published in the Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education.

Click here for 'Bringing Sign Language Back to Martha's Vineyard' by Brooke Turell, Jody H. Cripps and Jaylin Dillard, published in the Society for American Sign Language Journal, Vol. 7, No. 1 (2024)

OLDER ARTICLES:

Click here for 'The Island's Hereditary Deaf: A Lesson in Human Understanding,' by Nora Groce. Dukes County Intelligencer, February 1981.

Click here 'Chilmark's Deaf: Valued Citizens' by Gail Huntington. Dukes County Intelligencer, February 1981.

SIGHT-SEEING TOURS:

Click here for MV Signed Language Heritage Auto Tour

Click here for Deaf Heritage on Martha's Vineyard - A Driving Tour.

VIDEOS: 

Click here for 'Journeys on the Deaf Path,' a 20-minute captioned video about the history of deafness on Martha's Vineyard from 2015. The video is narrated by Ben Lewis and produced by Sorenson Videos.

Click here for 'The Hidden History of Martha's Vineyard Sign Language,' a 10-minute captioned video by Rhode Island PBS Weekly from 2023. 

Click here for an hour-long captioned and interpreted video presented by the Chilmark Library and Martha's Vineyard Museum, about the Chilmark Deaf Community.

Click here for a 12-minute video titled 'MV Signs: Then and Now,' which includes an interview with Joan Poole-Nash.

OTHER WEBSITES:

Click here to visit the Martha's Vineyard Museum Home Learning webpage. Under "Curriculum," click "The Chilmark Deaf Community" to access a 29-page educational resource with a teaching guide, artifact display, writing activity worksheets, hands-on activity guides, and field trip guide.

Click here to visit the Martha's Vineyard Museum's list of archival documents on Hereditary Deafness on Martha's Vineyard, Record Unit 310.

Click here to visit Clemson University's Martha's Vineyard Sign Language Project website.