Theophilus Hope D’Estrella

This painting is Theophilus Hope D’Estrella, Deaf Photographer, Artist, Teacher. 1851-1929. He was born deaf in San Francisco, California. He was dumped on the doorstep of California School for the Deaf in Berkeley.
He became the first male student to attend the school. The school became his home for 50 years. D’Estrella studied photography at the University of California, Berkeley and art at California School of Design in San Francisco. He became an art teacher at California School for the Deaf Fremont. Two of his deaf students were Deaf artists, Granville Redmond and Douglas Tilden. One of D’Estrella’s supporters was Virgil Williams, to whom he encouraged
that he worked on something that relates to Deaf art. D’Estrella had done numerous photographic works until 1910, many were destroyed by fire. D’Estrella died of cancer at the age 78 in 1929.