Collection of material by and about Mabel Hubbard Bell, Alexander Graham Bell, Alexander Melville Bell and education of the
Deaf, 1872-1957
Collection processed by and machine-readable finding aid created by UCLA Biomedical Library staff .
Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections for the Sciences
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Descriptive Summary
Title: Collection of material by and about Mabel Hubbard Bell, Alexander Graham Bell, Alexander Melville Bell and Education of the
Deaf,
Date (inclusive): 1872-1957
Collection number: 274
Extent:
21 folders (1 box, 0.5 linear ft.)
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library.Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections for the Sciences
Los Angeles, California 90095-1490
Abstract: 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.
Physical location: Biomed History and Special Collections Cage
Language of Material: Collection materials inEnglish
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
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.
Preferred Citation
Cite as: [Identification of item], Collection of material by and about Mabel Hubbard Bell, Alexander Graham Bell, Alexander
Melville Bell and Education of the Deaf (Manuscript collection 274). Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special
Collections for the Sciences , University of California, Los Angeles.
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Acquisition Information
Purchased from aGatherin', February, 2004.
Biography
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.
The fathers of these two pupils, Thomas Sanders and Gardiner Hubbard, were both well-established, wealthy men, who offered
financial backing for Bell's further research into transmission of speech. The money enabled Bell to hire Thomas Watson, an
engineer with the technical knowledge that Bell lacked, and together they continued experimenting with acoustic telegraphy.
By 1875 Bell was able to submit a patent application for an acoustic telegraph and shortly after the patent was awarded, a
prototype of the telephone was demonstrated at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. It was an immediate world-wide
success. The next year Sanders, Hubbard, and Bell formed the Bell Telephone Company.
MABEL GARDINER HUBBARD BELL (1857-1923) was the daughter of Boston lawyer, financier, and philanthropist Gardiner Hubbard,
and the granddaughter of a Massachusetts Supreme Court justice. Left completely deaf by an attack of scarlet fever at age
five, she learned lip-reading and articulate speech and grew up well integrated into the hearing world. Mabel met Alexander
Graham Bell at his school for the deaf in Boston, where she was his student; she also studied with him privately until Bell
decided he would rather have her as a fiancé than a pupil. They were married in 1877. Mrs. Bell was well respected in her
own right as a philanthropist and supporter of deaf education, carrying on the commitments her father had undertaken to aid
the deaf community. She also supported her husband both intellectually and financially in his various research interests both
during and after and the development of the telephone, such as constructing "a practical flying aerodrome or flying machine
driven through the air by its own power and carrying a man."
ALEXANDER MELVILLE BELL (1819-1905) was a teacher and researcher of physiological phonetics, born in Scotland but later moving
to Ontario, Canada. His father, Alexander Bell, under whom he studied, was an authority on phonetics and defective speech.
Alexander Melville Bell lectured on elocution and philology at various universities in Scotland, England, Canada, and the
Lowell Institute in Boston. In 1881 he moved to Washington, D.C., to teach deaf mutes by his "Visible Speech" method, a writing
system he invented to help deaf students learn spoken language.
Visible Speech was a notation system for the sounds of speech, each of the symbols invented by Bell representing the positions
and motions that the lips, tongue, mouth, etc. need to be in to articulate a particular sound. Visible Speech was independent
of a particular language or dialect and was widely used to teach students how to speak with a "standard" accent. Visible Speech,
also known as the Physiological Alphabet, was used in the education of the deaf for a dozen years or so, but was then found
to be more cumbersome than other methods and was largely abandoned.
Scope and Content
This small collection includes autograph letters, typescripts, pamphlets and ephemera dealing with three generations of the
Bell family. Highlights are the reminiscences of the Bell daughters about their parents and grandparents, letters from Mabel
Bell to her younger daughter, Marion, and a facsimile of a reader prepared by Alexander Graham Bell for one of his pupils.
The collection is organized into the following series:
- Series 1. Mabel Gardiner Hubbard Bell and the Clarke School for the Deaf.. six folders
- Series 2. Alexander Graham Bell.. ten folders
- Series 3. Alexander Melville Bell.. five folders
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Subjects
Clarke School for the Deaf
Bell, Alexander Graham, 1847-1922
Bell, Alexander Melville, 1819-1905
Bell, Mabel Gardiner Hubbard, 1857-1923
Deaf children -- Education
Deaf children -- Language
Hearing-Impaired Persons -- education
Series 1.
Mabel Gardiner Hubbard Bell and the Clarke School for the Deaf.
Physical Description:
six folders
Box 1, Folder 1
"Mabel Hubbard Bell -- 1859-1923", a reminiscence by Caroline A. Yale.
1923
Scope and Content Note
four-page reprint with illustration of Dr. and Mrs. Alexander Graham Bell in the garden of their Nova Scotia home; the text
includes quotes from Mabel Bell's speech of 1894 [see next entry]
Note
from: "The Volta Review", March, 1923
Box 1, Folder 2
A speech by Mabel Bell on speech-reading, presented to the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf.
1894
Physical Description: 18 p. (9 sheets)
Scope and Content Note
Mabel Bell's typescript, with editing in her own hand; she describes her own experiences, and summarizes into six propositions
Box 1, Folder 3
"Mrs. Alexander Graham Bell -- a reminiscence", by Mrs. Gilbert Grosvenor [nee Elsie Bell].
13 June 1957
Physical Description: 10 p. (5 sheets)
Scope and Content Note
printed and typescript versions of a speech given at a Clarke School Alumni Association reunion
Note
Mrs. Grosvenor was the Bell's older daughter
Box 1, Folder 4
Letters from Mabel Bell to her younger daughter, Marion (Daisy).
1913-1919
Scope and Content Note
four partial or whole letters, mostly discussing family matters; Mrs. Bell speaks at length about the grandchildren who are
staying at their Nova Scotia home, their schooling, friends, etc.; there is some mention of Montessori schools
Box 1, Folder 5
"The Montessori Method and New York Children".
1910
Physical Description: 15 p. booklet, 4.25 x 5.5"
Scope and Content Note
a booklet published by The Montessori Educational Association, New York chapter, outlining plans for establishing a Montessori
school in the lower East Side of New York, in a 77th St. tenement
Note
these family members served as officers of the New York Chapter: Mrs. Alexander Graham Bell, President; Gilbert H. Grosvenor
[son-in-law], Treasurer; Alexander G. Bell, Charles J. Bell and Gilbert H. Grosvenor, Trustees; Mrs. David Fairchild [daughter],
Executive Committee
Box 1, Folder 6
Photograph of Harriet Burbank Rodgers.
undated
Physical Description: 6.5 x 9.5"
Scope and Content Note
bust portrait with caption on back; Harriet B. Rogers was the first principal of the Clarke School for the Deaf, 1867-1886,
a pioneer oral teacher of the deaf
Series 2.
Alexander Graham Bell.
Physical Description:
ten folders
Box 1, Folder 7
Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (AG Bell), Washington, D.C.
undated
Scope and Content Note
typed sheet with two paragraphs on the purpose and founding of AG Bell, which includes a quote from a letter by A. Graham
Bell: "Now we shall...teach speech to little deaf children...."
Box 1, Folder 8
Letter requesting the story of the introduction of the telephone at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia
20 March 1922
Physical Description: 2 p. (2 sheets)
Scope and Content Note
J. Hampton Moore, Mayor of Philadelphia, requested a statement that could be used for publication in connection with the upcoming
Sesqui-Centennial in 1926
Note
the story is told by Elsie Bell Grosvenor in a reminiscence of her mother - see Folder 3
Box 1, Folder 9
Printed fee schedule: "Mr. A. Graham Bell's Card of Terms".
1872
Physical Description: 1 p., 5.5 x 6.5"
Scope and Content Note
rates are listed for Private Instruction, Instruction of the Deaf in Speech, and Teachers of the Deaf and Dumb
Note
A. Graham Bell opened his Boston "School of Vocal Physiology and Mechanics of Speech" in October 1872; one of his pupils was
Helen Keller, another was Mabel Hubbard; soon much of his teaching time was taken up by five-year old George Sanders, whose
wealthy father offered Bell a place in Salem, Mass. where he could live, teach and continue his experiments on the transmission
of sound
Box 1, Folder 10
Facsimile of a reader prepared by Alexander Graham Bell for George Sanders.
1873-1874, 1917
Physical Description: 23 p., photographs mounted on heavy paper, bound; 7.75 x 8"
Scope and Content Note
a note on the first page reads: "1331 Conn. Ave., Washington, D.C. March 24, 1915. This little book of pictures, accompanied
by stories, was prepared in 1873 for the use of George Sanders, then about six years of age. It represents my method of teaching
written language to a very young congenitally deaf child. Alexander Graham Bell"; each of the 18 handwritten stories is one
page long, accompanied by an illustration, and some also have questions for the reader; a few of the illustrations are missing
Note
the facsimile copies were produced for contributors to the Volta Bureau
Box 1, Folder 11
Printed reproduction of letter written by A. Graham Bell to Annie A. Sullivan, teacher of Helen Keller.
1892
Physical Description: 1 p. (1 sheet); 13 x 20 cm.
Scope and Content Note
Bell is asking for more specific details about Sullivan's methods with Keller, to help him and others understand better the
process by which deaf children can learn language
Note
Bell introduced Helen Keller to Miss Sullivan. Keller laid the cornerstone in 1893 for Bell's Volta Bureau building
Box 1, Folder 12
Two flyers for a speech by A. Graham Bell, "The Science of Speech".
1901
Physical Description: 4.5 x 7"
Scope and Content Note
two versions of an advertisement for the New York lecture announced by The Bell Visible Speech Club
Box 1, Folder 13
American Genetic Association.
circa 1910
Scope and Content Note
pamphlet describing the American Genetic Association, of whose Council Bell was a member; also a printed "with the compliments
of" slip from Bell
Note
Bell was interested in the question of inheritance of deafness
Box 1, Folder 14
Business card from Japan.
1921
Physical Description: 3.25 x 1.75"
Scope and Content Note
card from Dr. med. Kozo Uchida, South Manchuria Railway Co., with the note "I am Isawa's cousin - he is dead 5 year ago"
Note
Isawa, whom Bell had taught in 1876, had helped in the testing of the telephone at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia
Box 1, Folder 15
Group photograph.
29 August 1901
Physical Description: 8 x 10"
Scope and Content Note
five adults in a rural setting, including A.G. Bell and his wife Mabel
Box 1, Folder 16
Photograph of Alexander Graham Bell.
1918
Physical Description: 5 x 9"
Scope and Content Note
full-length snapshot, with caption on back, taken by J. Reynolds Madart in front of Gilmore Gymnasium, the Clarke School,
on graduation day
Note
Dr. Bell was President of the Clarke School Board of Corporators until 1922
Series 3.
Alexander Melville Bell.
Physical Description:
five folders
Box 1, Folder 17
"A Biographical Sketch of Alexander Melville Bell".
1898
Physical Description: 5.5 x 7"
Scope and Content Note
pen and ink portrait and two pages of text, from "The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography", published by James T. White
and Co. as a small pamphlet
Box 1, Folder 18
Entry tickets to "Shakesperian Readings".
circa 1881-1889
Physical Description: 4.5 x 3"
Scope and Content Note
"Shakesperian Readings" printed on white cards, signed "A. Bell in ink and numbered 81 and 83
Note
A.M. Bell moved to Washington, D.C. in 1881 and began giving elocution lectures and and literary readings
Box 1, Folder 19
Tools for teaching Visible Speech to the deaf.
1892
Physical Description: pamphlet: 16 p., 6 x 8"; flash cards: 2 x 3"; projection cards: 4.5 x 4.5"
Scope and Content Note
instruction pamphlet titled "Bell's popular shorthand or steno-phonography", American version; 15 flash cards, each with a
simple drawing of an object and the object's name both in letters and in shorthand; 5 projection cards
Box 1, Folder 20
Postcard in Visible Speech.
17 October 1897
Physical Description: 5.5 x 3.5"
Scope and Content Note
a postcard written in Visible Speech from A.M. Bell (signed AMB) to his granddaughter, Marion H. Bell at Mrs. Pitt's School,
Utica, New York
Box 1, Folder 21
Reminiscences by Marion H. Bell Fairchild.
undated
Physical Description: 12 p. (9 sheets)
Scope and Content Note
autograph pages of memories about her Hubbard and Bell grandparents
Note
Mrs. Fairchild mentions the lessons in Visible Speech that her Grandfather Bell gave her [see previous folder]