Description
A small collection of autograph letters, typescripts, reprints, photographs, and ephemera focusing on the teaching of speech
to the deaf by Alexander Graham Bell, his wife Mabel Hubbard Bell, and his father Alexander Melville Bell. Included are reminiscences
written by the Bells' two daughters about their illustrious parents and grandparents, letters from Mabel Bell to her younger
daughter, a facsimile of a reader prepared by Alexander Graham Bell for one of his young deaf pupils, and a postcard written
in "Visible Speech" from Alexander Melville Bell to one of his granddaughters.
Background
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL (1847-1922) is world-renowned as a scientist and innovator, inventor of the first practical telephone.
Less attention is usually paid to his deep interest in the problem of speech acquisition for the deaf, an interest that guided
his early research on hearing and speech. Bell was born in Scotland into a family -- grandfather, father, brother -- who were
all involved with elocution and speech, and both his mother and wife were deaf. The Bells moved to Ontario, Canada, mostly
for health reasons. In 1871 the young Bell went to Boston in his father's stead to teach at the Boston School for Deaf Mutes
and subsequently at the Clarke School for the Deaf, in Northampton, Massachusetts. By the next year Alexander Graham Bell
opened a School of Vocal Physiology and Mechanics of Speech in Boston; he also established a highly successful private practice
teaching language to the deaf. In 1873 he became Professor of Vocal Physiology and Elocution at Boston University. Throughout
this period he had continued his experiments on hearing, hearing devices, and the transmission of sound and articulate speech
but, finding the time for research to be insufficient, Bell gave up the private practice in 1873 and kept only two private
pupils, George Sanders and Mabel Hubbard.
Extent
21 folders (1 box, 0.5 linear ft.)
Restrictions
Property rights to the physical objects belong to the UCLA Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, History & Special Collections
for the Sciences. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility
of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to
publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Availability
Collection is open for research.