ABSTRACT
Gadbois, Albine, called Marie de Bonsecours (1830-74). Canadian educator of deaf-mutes. Born in Longueuil, Lower Canada. Her father, Victor, was a wealthy man and farmer, who gave his son and seven daughters a private education. Albine and three of her sisters – Azilda, Malvina and Philomène – joined the Sisters of Providence, Albine making her profession in 1849. By that time she had already become interested in the education of handicapped children, and had experience of deaf-mutes, both in her family home and in the school for deaf and dumb boys and girls opened in 1846 in the mother house of the Sisters of Providence in Montreal. Mother Tavernier, founder of the Sisters of Providence, was the co-founder of this school. Gadbois began her teaching career at a boarding school at Longue-Pointe. There she was given sole charge of the education of two deaf-mute girls. In 1852 Gadbois spent seven weeks studying the teaching methods employed by the Clercs de Saint-Viateur, and spent the following year at the New York School for the Deaf. In 1854 she resumed her work in Montreal, now with 20 pupils. In 1858 the school was transferred from Longue-Pointe to Saint-Joseph House. At this date the Institution des Sourdes-Muettes de Montréal was catering for 32 girls. The Institution relied upon four main sources of finance. The most important was the support of the Gadbois family, the parents, Victor and Angélique, assigning most of their wealth to the cause. Other donations came from friends, an annual collection, and from municipal and governmental grants. In 1864, when the Saint-Joseph premises had in turn been outgrown, a new building was constructed in Rue Saint-Denis, with a further wing being added in 1872. Gadbois was not only the founder and director of the Institution, she also pioneered methods of teaching deaf-mutes in Canada. She made several visits to the United States, and in 1870 journeyed to Europe, visiting schools for deaf-mutes in Belgium, England, France and Ireland. On her return she adopted, wherever possible, the oral method of instruction. This method was based on the principle that most deaf-mutes can be taught to speak, rather than having to rely solely on sign language. See the entry by Andrée Désilets in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. X.
