“As long as we have Deaf people on earth we will have signs, and as long as we have our films we can preserve our beautiful sign language in its original purity.
It is my hope that we will all love and guard our beautiful sign language as the noblest gift God has given to deaf people.”
Preservation of the Sign Language by George William Veditz, president of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) of the United States.
Source: Library of Congress
Original Date: 1913
Language: (Old) American Sign Language (ASL)
History: “On behalf of the NAD, Veditz made this film specifically to record sign language for posterity at a time when oralists (those who promoted lip reading and speech in lieu of sign language) were gaining momentum in the education of the hearing-impaired. The film conveys one of the ways that deaf Americans debated the issues of their language and public understanding during the era of World War I.” – LOC