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Collection of material by and about Mabel Hubbard Bell, Alexander Graham Bell, Alexander Melville Bell and education of the Deaf, 1872-1957

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Table of contents

Container List

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]

Container List

Mabel Gardiner Hubbard Bell and the Clarke School for the Deaf.

Alexander Graham Bell.

Alexander Melville Bell.