National Association of the Deaf Historical FilmsIn the early part of the last century, the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) created a set of films of the most fluent 'sign masters' of the time. Their goal was to preserve and demonstrate the sign language of the epoch. Twenty-two films were made between 1910 and 1920, fifteen of which have survived. They featured speeches, poetry and stories performed by twelve master signers. The master signers were of different ages, providing a sample of three generations of ASL users at the time.