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Mabel Gardiner Hubbard (November 25, 1857 – January 3, 1923) was an American businesswoman, and the daughter of Boston lawyer Gardiner Green Hubbard. As the wife of
Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (, born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born inventor, scientist and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and T ...
, inventor of the first practical
telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into el ...
, she took the married name Mabel Bell.Eber, Dorothy Harley
Hubbard, Mabel Gardiner (Bell)
in ''
Dictionary of Canadian Biography The ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography'' (''DCB''; french: Dictionnaire biographique du Canada) is a dictionary of biographical entries for individuals who have contributed to the history of Canada. The ''DCB'', which was initiated in 1959, is ...
'', Vol. 15,
University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institu ...
/
Université Laval Université Laval is a public research university in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The university was founded by royal charter issued by Queen Victoria in 1852, with roots in the founding of the Séminaire de Québec in 1663 by François de Mont ...
, 2003, accessed August 8, 2013.
Toward, 1984. From the time of Mabel's courtship with Graham Bell in 1873, until his death in 1922, Mabel became and remained the most significant influence in his life.Winefield, Richard
Never the Twain Shall Meet: Bell, Gallaudet, and the Communications Debate
Gallaudet University Press, 1987, pp.72–77, , .
Folklore held that Bell undertook telecommunication experiments in an attempt to restore her hearing which had been destroyed by disease close to her fifth birthday, leaving her completely
deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...
for the remainder of her life.Mrs. Bell, Widow Of The Inventor Of The Telephone, Is Dead: Deaf From Girlhood, Her Infliction Inspired Husband's Great Triumph
Ludington Daily News, January 6, 1923. Originally publish in New York Times, January 4, 1923

''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', January 4, 1923.
Eber, 1991; p. 43.


Biography

Mabel Gardiner Hubbard was born on November 25, 1857, in
Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most ...
, United States, to Gardiner Greene Hubbard and Gertrude Mercer McCurdy. She had a near-fatal bout of
scarlet fever Scarlet fever, also known as Scarlatina, is an infectious disease caused by ''Streptococcus pyogenes'' a Group A streptococcus (GAS). The infection is a type of Group A streptococcal infection (Group A strep). It most commonly affects child ...
close to her fifth birthday in 1862 while visiting her maternal grandparents in New York City, and was thereafter left permanently and completely
deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...
. The disease also destroyed her
inner ear The inner ear (internal ear, auris interna) is the innermost part of the vertebrate ear. In vertebrates, the inner ear is mainly responsible for sound detection and balance. In mammals, it consists of the bony labyrinth, a hollow cavity in t ...
's vestibular sensors, additionally leaving her with a greatly impaired sense of balance, to the extent that it was very difficult for her to walk at night in the dark. Mabel was the inspiration for her father's involvement in the founding of the first oral school for the deaf in the United States, the Clarke School for the Deaf. Having been educated in both the United States and in Europe, she learned to both talk and lip-read with great skill in multiple languages.Eber, 1991. pp. 43–45Gray, 2006 She was also, due in great part to her parents' efforts, one of the first deaf children in the nation to be taught to both lip-read and speak, which allowed her to integrate herself easily and almost completely within the hearing world,Eber, 1991; p. 45 an event virtually unknown to those in the deaf community of that era. In support of her parents' efforts to increase funding for deaf education, Mabel testified before a congressional hearing at a young age. Her avoidance of the deaf community until her middle age when her parents died and left her to assume their roles as benefactor to the societies for the deaf, would later lead to criticisms that she was embarrassed by her impairment. Described as "strong and self-assured", Hubbard became one of Graham Bell's pupils at his new school for the deaf, and later evolved into his confidant. They married on July 11, 1877, in the Cambridge home of her parents, when she was 19, more than 10 years Bell's junior. Together they had four children, including two daughters: Elsie May Bell (1878–1964) who married Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor of National Geographic fame, and Marian Hubbard Bell (1880–1962), who was referred to as "Daisy", and who was nearly named
Photophone The photophone is a telecommunications device that allows transmission of speech on a beam of light. It was invented jointly by Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant Charles Sumner Tainter on February 19, 1880, at Bell's laboratory at 1325 ...
by Bell after her birth. Hubbard also bore two sons, Edward (1881) and Robert (1883), both of whom died shortly after birth leaving their parents bereft. From 1877, she and "Alec", as she preferred to call Bell, lived in Washington, D.C. at their home, the Brodhead-Bell Mansion, which they occupied for several years, and from 1888 onwards residing increasingly at their Beinn Bhreagh ( Gaelic for "beautiful mountain") estate, in Cape Breton,
Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native En ...
, Canada. After Bell's death in 1922, Hubbard slowly lost her sight and grew increasingly consigned to the care of her daughters, withdrawing into a world of silent darkness. She died of
pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a mass. These cancerous cells have the ability to invade other parts of the body. A number of types of panc ...
at the home of her daughter Marian, in
Chevy Chase, Maryland Chevy Chase () is the name of both a town and an unincorporated census-designated place ( Chevy Chase (CDP), Maryland) that straddle the northwest border of Washington, D.C. and Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. Several settlements in t ...
, less than a year after her husband, both of whom are buried near their home on "The Point" at their estate of Beinn Bhreagh, originally their summer residence. Her ashes were interred with Alexander's grave exactly one year, to the hour, after his burial. Today, they rest together near the top of their "beautiful mountain" of their estate overlooking Bras d'Or Lake, under a simple boulder of granite.


Deaf to Bell's utterances

Hubbard was the indirect source of her husband's early commercial success after his creation of the telephone. The U.S. Centennial Exposition in
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
in 1876 made Bell's newly invented telephone a featured headline worldwide. Judges Emperor Dom Pedro II of the
Empire of Brazil The Empire of Brazil was a 19th-century state that broadly comprised the territories which form modern Brazil and (until 1828) Uruguay. Its government was a representative parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the rule of Emperors Dom ...
and the eminent British physicist William Thomson (
Lord Kelvin William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, (26 June 182417 December 1907) was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer born in Belfast. Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, he did important ...
) recommended his device to the ''Committee of Electrical Awards'', which voted Bell the ''Gold Medal for Electrical Equipment''. Bell also won a second ''Gold Medal for Visible Speech'', for his additional display at the exposition, helping to propel him to international fame. Bell, who was then a full-time teacher, hadn't even planned on exhibiting at the fair due to his heavy teaching schedule and preparation for his students' examinations. He went there only at the stern insistence of his fiancée and future wife.Waite 1961. pp. 158–169. Hubbard understood Bell's reluctance to go to the exhibition and display his works. She secretly bought his train ticket to Philadelphia, packed his bag, and then took the unknowing Bell to
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...
's train station where she told her shocked fiancé that he was going on a trip. When Bell started to argue, Hubbard turned her sight away from him, thus becoming literally deaf to his protests.


Stock ownership in the Bell Telephone Company

The
Bell Telephone Company The Bell Telephone Company, a common law joint stock company, was organized in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 9, 1877, by Alexander Graham Bell's father-in-law Gardiner Greene Hubbard, who also helped organize a sister company – the New Engl ...
was organized on July 9, 1877, by Hubbard's father Gardiner Greene Hubbard who owned 1,387 of the 5,000 issued shares and had the title of "trustee". Hubbard's husband Alexander Bell owned 1,497 shares. Bell immediately transferred all but 10 of his shares as a wedding gift to his new bride. A short time later, just prior to leaving for an extended honeymoon of Europe, Hubbard signed a
power of attorney A power of attorney (POA) or letter of attorney is a written authorization to represent or act on another's behalf in private affairs (which may be financial or regarding health and welfare), business, or some other legal matter. The person auth ...
giving control of her shares to her father. This made Gardiner Hubbard the de facto president and chairman of the Bell Telephone Company, which later evolved into American Telephone & Telegraph, (aka AT&T) at times the world's largest
telephone company A telephone company, also known as a telco, telephone service provider, or telecommunications operator, is a kind of communications service provider (CSP), more precisely a telecommunications service provider (TSP), that provides telecommunicat ...
.


Support to aeronautical research

Hubbard was highly intelligent but usually preferred to remain in the background while Bell conducted scientific discussions and meetings among his peers—for many decades he held regular Wednesday evening intellectual salons in their home parlour, dutifully documented in the multiple volumes of his " homenotes". However, Hubbard strongly believed that a heavier-than-air vehicle could be designed to fly, and she provided the inspiration and financing of about $20,000 CAD to that end, a significant amount in 1907 (approximately $450,000 in 2008 dollars).Rannie Gillis
Mabel Bell Was A Focal Figure In The First Flight of the Silver Dart
Cape Breton Post, September 29, 2008. Retrieved fro

website, April 2, 2010.
At that time Hubbard sold some of her real estate and gave that amount of money to her husband and four others to establish the
Aerial Experimental Association The Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) was a Canadian-American aeronautical research group formed on 30 September 1907, under the leadership of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell. The AEA produced several different aircraft in quick succession, with eac ...
(AEA),Toward, 1984. pp.141–155 for the purpose of constructing "a practical flying aerodrome",
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...
's first heavier-than-air vehicle, the Silver Dart. Based on their scientific experiments, the aircraft they designed and built incorporated several technical innovations not previously invented for flight, including lateral control by means of
aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement arou ...
s.Kermode, A.C. ''Mechanics of Flight'', Chapter 9 (8th edition), Pitman Publishing Limited, London, 1972, . Partly because of her founding of the AEA, but also for founding social and educational institutions, she was named a National Historic Person in 2018.Government of Canada Announces New National Historic Designations
Parks Canada news release, January 12, 2018


Family tree


References

Notes Citations


Further reading

* * * * * *Waite, Helen Elmira. (1961). ''Make A Joyful Sound: The Romance of Mabel Hubbard and Alexander Graham Bell''. Macrae Smith Company. ISBN 9781258250607. * *


External links

*
Alexander & Mabel Bell Legacy Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hubbard, Mabel Gardiner 1857 births 1923 deaths Deaf people from the United States Alexander Graham Bell People from Baddeck, Nova Scotia Gardiner family Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada)