Alexander Graham Bell is considered to be one of the most important scientists and inventors the world has ever known. Upon his death in 1922, The New York Times wrote that “the little instrument he patented less than fifty years ago, scorned then as a joke, was when he died the basis for 13,000,000 telephones used in every civilized country in the world.” The patent for the telephone he invented has been called “the most valuable patent ever issued” by the U.S. Patent Office.
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Although he is best known as the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell actually devoted much more of this life to helping people who were deaf or hard of… Read More
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In 1887, a newspaper editor in Alabama, Arthur Keller, was told he should put his deaf and blind daughter Helen, a “wild little creature” of six, into an asylum, as… Read More
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In 1879, Bell invented the audiometer to measure the amount of a person’s hearing loss. It was the first device designed to measure different levels of sound, and is the… Read More
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No. He taught signing as a young teacher of the deaf, and sometimes signed with students including Helen Keller and with his wife Mabel, who was deaf. Bell’s last words… Read More
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In his lifetime of work with the deaf, Bell hoped they could be as integrated as possible with the hearing world and emphasized speech therapy and lip reading for the… Read More
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No. Long before Bell was an inventor, he was a noted teacher of the deaf. Bell taught sign language as a young teacher of the deaf, and sometimes signed with his… Read More
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No. In an 1891 speech about heredity to a group of deaf students at what is now Gallaudet University in Washington, DC titled, Marriage, An Address To The Deaf, Bell was quick… Read More
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Yes. During his lifetime, Bell was a fierce and vocal advocate for the deaf and hard of hearing. As the son and husband of a deaf person and a teacher… Read More
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No. Bell was not a proponent of human engineering. Bell had an interest in the burgeoning science of genetics and heredity stemming from the work of Charles Darwin, whose groundbreaking research… Read More
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Yes. Even the simplest mechanics of genetics were misunderstood at the turn of the 19th Century. Most scientists believed that traits such as deafness were hereditary and that the chances of… Read More
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No. In a 1908 article for National Geographic Magazine titled A Few Thoughts Concerning Eugenics, Bell notes that scientists “have learned to apply the laws of heredity so as to modify and… Read More
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No. Bell gave a talk in 1891 on the subject of marriage at what is now Gallaudet University. He said, “I know that the idea has gone forth, and is very… Read More
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Yes. In a 1908 article for National Geographic Magazine titled A Few Thoughts Concerning Eugenics, Bell endorses the idea that society should “Throw wide the gates of marriage, and where children are produced, close… Read More
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No. This is a completely false narrative with no basis in fact or history. No document exists connecting Bell with compulsory or voluntary sterilization. Read More
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No. Bell played an inconsequential role with the Eugenics Records Office in Cold Spring Harbor, NY. Dr. Charles B. Davenport was the Secretary of the Board of Scientific Directors and Director… Read More
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No. Bell is listed in the program among the 41 members of the honorary committee of the First International Eugenics Conference held in London in 1912. However, Bell did not speak at the event nor did he… Read More
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Yes. Bell had an interest in the emerging science of heredity, and later genetics, as it applied to livestock. In the 1890s, Bell began three decades of observing and recording experiments in… Read More
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No. In 1909, The American Breeders Association, which focused on livestock, launched a new section to study the science of heredity in human beings. This section was divided into two parts: The… Read More
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Yes. Bell was extremely inclusive in his views about society and believed that all adult citizens had a right to vote regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, or… Read More
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No. The controversial case Buck v. Bell, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that laws mandating the sterilization of the mentally handicapped did not violate the Constitution, was decided in… Read More
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Yes. Bell was extremely progressive in his views about women and their role in society. In a 1901 letter from Bell to his wife Mabel, he wrote “If only the educated can… Read More
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No. Bell was a strong and early believer in equal rights. In 1876, Bell hired draftsman Lewis Howard Latimar, the son of a former slave, to execute his drawings and assist… Read More
