Isaac Lewis Peet was an American educator of the deaf.
Background
Isaac Lewis Peet was born on December 4, 1824 in Hartford, Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. He the eldest son of Harvey Prindle Peet and Margaret Maria (Lewis) Peet. His father was an instructor and business manager of the school, and his mother became the matron in charge of domestic affairs. When he was seven years of age his parents moved to New York, where his father took charge of the New York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, of which he remained active head until 1867. Isaac Lewis Peet was brought up, therefore, in close contact with deaf children and in the midst of work for their education.
Education
Isaac Lewis Peet attended private schools in New York City, was graduated with honor from Yale College at the age of twenty-one, and immediately thereafter became a teacher under his father in the New York Institution. Here he served successively as instructor, vice-principal, principal, and principal-emeritus until his death. In 1849 Issac graduated from Union Theological Seminary, but he was never ordained.
Career
Issac Lewis Peet succeeded his father as head of the school in 1867 and was its chief executive until 1892, when he retired. He spent the remainder of his life in a beautiful residence adjoining the New York Institution. Peet was a member of the Conference of Superintendents and Principals of American Schools for the Deaf and its president in 1896. From 1868 to 1895 he served continuously as a member of the executive committee of the Convention of American Instructors of the Deaf. He was president of the Medico-Legal Society of New York City, and was interested in other welfare work. He wrote numerous articles on the instruction of the deaf, mostly published in the American Annals of the Deaf or read before meetings of members of his profession. Notable among these essays were "The History of Deaf Mute Instruction during One Hundred Years, 1776 - 1876" and "The Psychical Status and Criminal Responsibility of the Totally Uneducated Deaf and Dumb".
Isaac Lewis Peet also published Monograph on Decimal Fractions (1866) and Language Lessons, Designed to Introduce Young Learners, Deaf Mutes and Foreigners to a Correct Understanding of the English Language on the Principle of Object Teaching (1875). He died on December 27, 1898.
Achievements
Issac Lewis Peet was a distinguished person. He devoted his life to the interests of deaf and dumb people.
Connections
Issac Lewis Peet was married in 1854 to Mary Toles, daughter of Alvah and Mercy (Fuller) Toles, of Chautauqua County, New York, a brilliant young deaf woman who had formerly been his pupil. They had a daughter and three sons.
