Another school for the deaf in Baltimore...........there is this deep thing to Baltimore...........i am not sure what it is.............John Hopkins is there............

ollege-level classes were offered for the first time during the 1863-64 academic year. Congress provided approval for Columbia to grant college degrees, and an enabling act for the college was passed and approved by President Lincoln. An elaborate inauguration ceremony was held in June with Laurent Clerc in attendance. Fourteen acres of land was purchased with money supplied by the government. Gallaudet was promoted to the position of president of the institution. He continued to push for funds for expansion and new buildings. Gallaudet also proposed discontinuing services for blind students, saying that the small number of blind students would be better served at the school for the blind in Baltimore.^[18]

The enrollment numbers increased rapidly during the 1864–65 academic year. Gallaudet asked the government for money to accomplish several projects, including the construction of an ice house and a gas house, sewer lines, and more. Major construction continued on campus. The name of the collegiate department was changed to "National Deaf-Mute College". The blind students were transferred to a school in Baltimore.^[19]

During the 1865–66 academic year, Gallaudet responded to criticism from supporters of the oral method in Massachusetts, saying that oral instruction is usually of little value to congenitally deaf children. Gallaudet proposed that a representative of the school be sent to Europe to study the methods employed there, in order to determine which types of instructional methods might be added to those methods already being used successfully at the Columbia Institution and other American schools. Combined enrollment of all levels of instruction, including the collegiate level, exceeded 100 for the first time during this year. There were 25 students enrolled in the college, including students from 14 states of all parts of the Union. Edward Allen Fay joined the faculty as a professor of history, having learned to sign as a child.^[20]

Old Fowler Hall, circa 1866

In the 1866–67 academic year, the building for the primary school was extended and sickness was thereby reduced. A mathematics professor was hired for the first time. More money was needed to accommodate additional students expected to swell the ranks of the school.

Gallaudet gave a lengthy account of his travels to Europe and was very critical of the extent to which speech is taught to deaf children in European schools for the deaf. Nevertheless, he recommended that a limited amount of speech training be afforded to deaf students in America to those who show they can benefit. His travels took him to:Doncaster, England; Birmingham, England; Manchester, England; Liverpool, England; Glasgow, Scotland; Belfast, Ireland (Belfast, Northern Ireland); Dublin, Ireland; Geneva,Switzerland; Nancy, France, Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort, France; Vienna, Austria; Leipsic, Saxony (Leipzig, Germany); Lubec (Lübeck, Germany); Frankfort On-the-Main (Frankfurt, Germany); Brussels, Belgium; Zurich, Switzerland; Rotterdam, Netherlands; Paris, France; Weissenfels, Prussia (Weißenfels, Germany); Prague, Bohemia; (Prague, Czech Republic); Berlin, Prussia (Berlin, Germany); Milan, Italy; Genoa, Italy; Turin, Italy; Dresden, Saxony (Dresden, Germany); London, England; Edinburgh, Scotland; Bordeaux, France; Marseilles, France; Munich, Bavaria (Munich, Germany); Bruges, Belgium; St. Petersburg, Russia; Åbo, Finland (Turku, Finland); Stockholm,Sweden; and Copenhagen, Denmark.^[21]