This study investigates the cradle of the Dutch deaf community, that is: the education of the deaf as it was carried out in Dutch deaf institutes. The education of the deaf in the Netherlands was organised along religious boundaries, within the pillarized Dutch society. The focus of this study is the developmental history of ideas in the education of the deaf, understood as meaningful wholes of experiences, opinions and ideas regarding deaf people, their upbringing and their education. Three Dutch institutes for the deaf have been studied in this multiple case study: a non-denominational institute, a catholic institute and an orthodox-protestant institute. The reconstruction of the historical development of conceptions of deaf people is carried out on the basis of four themes, namely: the founding of the institutes, the position of the institutes regarding compulsory schooling for deaf children, the professionalization of the education of the deaf and the aftercare that the institutes offered their ex-pupils. The full studied period is 1790-1990: from the founding of the first deaf institute to the peak of the emancipation movement of the deaf community. The research method in this study is content analysis. In the first theme, ‘founding’, it was found that the motivation of the founders of deaf institutes to start with the education of the deaf was consistent with their philosophy of life. For the theme ‘compulsory education’ it was found that the denominational institutes rejected compulsory education because of parental rights on freedom of religion and education, whereas the non-denominational institute advocated compulsory education for the deaf, because of their right on education. The third theme, ‘professionalization’, shows how the three institutes became united in their conceptions of language and thought of deaf people, and their choice for the use of spoken language in the education of the deaf. However, though the discourse was technological, the arguments pro and contra sign language can be traced ...