Alexander Graham Bell Family

A Register of Its Papers in the Library of Congress

Prepared by Grover Batts, Paul Colton, David Mathiesen, and Thelma Queen
Revised and expanded by Bradley E. Gernand and Margaret McAleer

Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

Washington, D.C.

1999

Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html

Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress Manuscript Division, 2000

Finding aid URL: http://hdl.loc.mss/eadmss.ms000011

Latest revision: 2004-11-16

Table of Contents

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

Names:

Subjects:

Occupations:

Administrative Information

Provenance:

Processing History:

Transfers:

Copyright Status:

Microfilm:

Electronic Format:

Preferred Citation:

Biographical Notes

Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Melville Bell

Scope and Content Note

Related Material

Organization of the Papers

Description of Series

Container List

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.

Administrative Information

The papers of the Alexander Graham Bell family were given to the Library of Congress between 1947 and 1984. The main body of papers was deeded to the Library by the Bell family in 1975. Additional items were transferred from various sources in 1977. Mabel H. Grosvenor deposited material in 1976 and 1977. Additional material was purchased in 1998.

The papers of the Alexander Graham Bell family were arranged and described in 1976. Additional material was incorporated into the collection in 1981, 1985, and 1999.

Items have been transferred from the Manuscript Division to other custodial divisions of the Library. Some photographic prints, negatives, and other pictorial material have been transferred to the Gilbert H. Grosvenor Collection of Photographs of the Alexander Graham Bell Family in the Prints and Photographs Division. Cartographic material has been transferred to the Geography and Map Division. Music compositions have been transferred to the Music Division. All transfers are identified in these divisions as part of the Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers.

Copyright in the unpublished writings of Alexander Graham Bell and the members of his family represented in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public.

A microfilm edition of many of Bell's scientific notebooks is available on twenty-two reels from the Library's Photoduplication Service for purchase subject to the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.). This microfilm edition may also be requested on interlibrary loan through the Library's Loan Division. No more than ten reels may be requested for each loan period of one month. A microfilm edition of “The Tongue” by Alexander Bell (1790-1865) is available on one reel from the Library's Photoduplication Service for purchase subject to the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.). The microfilm consists of a negative copy and is housed in the Photoduplication Service.

Selected items from the papers of the Alexander Graham Bell family are available on the Library of Congress Web site at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/bellhtml/ and may also be viewed via links provided in the container list of this register.

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container or reel number, Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Biographical Notes

Scope and Content Note

The Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers span the years 1834-1970, with the bulk of the material concentrated during the period 1855-1922. They include correspondence, diaries, journals, speeches, publications, and scientific notebooks of Alexander Graham Bell, his wife, Mabel Gardiner Hubbard Bell, and their forebears and descendants, members principally of the Bell, Hubbard, Grosvenor, and Symonds families. They document Bell's varied activities throughout his entire career. Although the bulk of the items pertains to the invention of the telephone in 1876, Bell's contributions to the education of the deaf and his scientific and technological interests in a wide range of subjects are also amply represented, including eugenics, marine engineering, and aviation.

Among the scientific material in the papers is a group of notebooks in which Bell recorded his daily experiments and observations, including the entry for March 10, 1876: "I then shouted into M[outhpiece] the following sentence: 'Mr. Watson - come here - I want to see you.' To my delight he came and declared that he had heard and understood what I said."

Although much of Bell's voluminous correspondence is contained in the General Correspondence series, an even larger part is included in a Subject File. Among the many people with whom Bell corresponded are Edward M. Gallaudet, Joseph Henry, Helen Keller, George Kennan, Samuel P. Langley, Guglielmo Marconi, Simon Newcomb, John Wesley Powell, Charles Sumner Tainter, and several presidents of the United States, including Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft, and Woodrow Wilson.

The Family Papers series includes papers of Alexander Graham Bell's father, Alexander Melville Bell, a leader in the field of vocal physiology and elocution, and Mabel Gardiner Hubbard Bell's father, Gardiner Greene Hubbard, one of the founders of the telephone industry and the first president of the National Geographic Society. There is also a group of letters exchanged between Alexander Graham and Mabel Gardiner Hubbard Bell, 1875-1921. The Family Papers extend to many of Bell's descendants, including members of the Fairchild and Grosvenor families.

Additions made to the collection in 1981 and 1998 include correspondence and related papers of the Genealogical Record Office founded by Bell to study the impact of heredity on longevity. Also included are docket books of United States and British patents, published volumes of the American Annals of the Deaf, some of which were annotated by Alexander Graham Bell, correspondence of Mabel Gardiner Hubbard Bell and her daughter, Marian Fairchild, scrapbooks, and court proceedings of Bell patent litigation.

Related Material

The Grosvenor Family Papers in this division include material related to Alexander Graham Bell and his family.

Organization of the Papers

The collection is arranged in twelve series:

• Journals and Diaries, 1867-1910
• Family Papers, 1834-1972, n.d.
• General Correspondence, 1870-1922, n.d.
• Subject File, 1845-1939, n.d.
• Beinn Bhreagh Recorder, 1909-1922
• Scientific Notebooks, 1879-1922, n.d.
• Article and Book File, 1901-1904, n.d.
• Speeches and Interviews File, 1876-1922, n.d.
• Miscellany, 1865-1974
• Additions, 1847-1954, n.d.
• Oversize, 1872-1956, n.d.
• Microfilm, 1861-1922

Description of Series

Container List