Laurent Clerc was a deaf instructor at the Institution Nationale des Sourds-Muets in Paris, France. When the American Rev. Thomas Gallaudet visited the Institution in the early 19th century, he was impressed with the school and invited Clerc to help him establish an American school for the deaf.

Clerc and his methods are thought to have widely influenced American Sign Language (as much as 50% of modern-day ASL is believed to have derived from French Sign Language). He wrote an autobiography and his life is chronicled in Harlan Lane's When the Mind Hears. He is one of the most renowned deaf people in American history.