The history of the National Association of the Deaf dates back to 1850, when the New England Gallaudet Association of the Deaf was founded. It served as a predecessor for the National Association for the Deaf, which was established on August 25, 1880 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was later incorporated in Washington, D.C. in 1900. The first home office opened in 1950 in Chicago, and Halex House in Silver Spring, Maryland, where NAD has its headquarters, was dedicated in 1973.

Four men are given credit for founding the National Association of the Deaf. Robert P. MacGregor was its first president and the founder of the Cincinnati Day School for the Deaf. Edmund Booth of Iowa is known as the “father of NAD” but declined the first presidency in favor of MacGregor. Booth was a graduate of the Hartford school, where he studied under both Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc. He later became the owner and editor of a successful newspaper, the Anamosa Eureka. Henry Rider and Edwin Hodgson, both of New York, were among the first to endorse a national association of the deaf through the printed press. They both, at separate times, owned the “Deaf Mutes Journal.”

The National Association of the Deaf has served in the best interests of deaf Americans for over one hundred years. It has made every effort to create a favorable social image of deaf culture. NAD has fought for compulsory education laws for deaf children and retention of the combined system (oral and sign language) in residential schools for the deaf. It also has successfully diminished impostors who solicit money from the public by pretending they are deaf. In addition, the NAD has protected basic civil rights of deaf Americans, such as the right to equal justice, the right to exercise franchises, assume the responsibilities of taxpayers, equal employment opportunities, and motor vehicle use.

The Miss Deaf America Pageant was established in 1972 at the 31st convention of the National Association of the Deaf in Miami Beach, Florida, and continues to this day.