The Dr. Susan D. Rutherford Collection on DEAF Media, Inc.

The Dr. Susan D. Rutherford Collection on DEAF Media, Inc. was donated to the Gallaudet University Archives in 2025. Per Dr. Rutherford's wishes, the collection has been made available online. Some materials, such as the American Culture: The Deaf Perspective series, were made available with permission from the San Francisco Public Library.

DEAF Media, Inc. was founded in 1975 in California. The organization took on a variety of activities. These activities ranged from producing shows such as Rainbow's End and Silent Perspectives, to hosting their biennial Celebration: Deaf Artists and Performers event, to A Feast for the Eyes, an annual ASL storytelling event.

Following in the shoes of Ed Ingham, Betsy Ford, and Howie Seago, Dr. Rutherford took the helm of DEAF Media, Inc. in 1981 as its Executive Director. She held this role for more than thirty-five years.

In addition to DEAF Media, Inc. projects, videos from Dr.Rutherford's Linguistics 159 class focusing on Deaf culture are also included in this collection.

For more information on DEAF Media, Inc. and Dr. Susan D. Rutherford's life, review the materials in Series 1: History of DEAF Media, Inc.

The videos in this collection were converted to digital format by Dr. Susan D. Rutherford and her partner, Rick Clogher. Most video descriptions are pulled directly from their own descriptions of these videos.