Description:Group photographs of school children were commonplace in the late 19th century. With the establishment of mass schooling after the 1870 Education Act local School Boards organised classes for children who were deaf. The children here are of mixed age and gender.
A specialist school for forty ‘deaf and dumb’ children had opened in Birmingham in 1815. It took children from across the country. The school employed the Braidwood method where sign language was used alongside the teaching of speech and lip reading. At an annual general meeting of those who financially supported the school the children were publically examined by giving a demonstration of what they had learnt.