Abraham Farrar (1861-1944) was an important figure in deaf education in the late nineteenth century and early decades of the twentieth century. He was also a noted book collector, who developed an impressive personal library of works on deafness. Farrar's collection of books focussed on deaf education, the social, cultural and medical aspects of deafness and the philosophy of language (including sign languages). Farrar donated his library to the University of Manchester in 1928, and it now forms part of the Deaf printed collections of the Library's Special Collections.
Abraham Farrar was born in Headingley, then on the outskirts of Leeds, in 1861, the son of a wealthy gentleman. At the age of three, he caught scarlet fever, and became deaf. Farrar's education was quite unusual for deaf children of wealthy backgrounds; usually these children would be taught at small specialist private schools, but Farrar received personal tutoring from Thomas Arnold (1816-1897), a nonconformist minister, who had a long-standing interest in deaf education. Arnold was convinced that oral instruction ("oralism") was superior to the prevalent manual ("sign") systems, and he focussed his great energies on educating Farrar to demonstrate the superiority of oralism. From the age of seven until his late 'teens, Farrar lived with the Arnold family in Northampton and was given an intensive education in lip-reading and speech development. This was so successful that Farrar was presented to public audiences and in the press to demonstrate Arnold's superior teaching system.
Farrar's academic successes saw him achieve matriculation at the University of London, although he did not in fact read for a degree. He worked for a time in an architect's office and then for a solicitor. However, his personal wealth allowed him to lead the life of an independent scholar, and he returned to live with his parents in Yorkshire. Farrar continued to assist Arnold, helping produce an innovative manual for teachers of the deaf. He also started to build up a library on Deaf subjects. He was a frequent contributor to the press on Deaf matters, where he advocated oralist methods, and was an active supporter of the National Association of Teachers of the Deaf.
In 1912, Farrar married Evelyn Smith, and they lived in London and Chislehurst. Farrar was an avid collector of books on Deaf subjects, and he amassed a collection of over one thousand books. His collection included authors such as Jan Conraad Amman, his mentor, Thomas Arnold, Charles and Henry Baker, Alexander Graham Bell, Franz Hermann Czech, Daniel Defoe, Charles-Michel de l’Épée, Manuel Ramirez de Carrion, John Wallis and Paulo Zacchia, together with many early editions of classical authors who mentioned deafness in their works. After donating his collection to the University of Manchester in 1928, Farrar published a catalogue of this collection in 1932.
