Lot 153
Bell, Alexander Graham -- Autograph Letter Signed Re "Visible Speech" (1847-1922) Scientist and inventor, best known for inventing the telephone. Bell's mother and wife were deaf, which had a great influence on his work. He spent years teaching "deaf mutes" and in training instructors to teach them, as well as funding research on deafness--all while perfecting the telephone and working on numerous other inventions. Autograph letter signed "A. Graham Bell," one page, on ruled "Clarke Institution for Deaf Mutes" letterhead, Northampton, Mass., Mar. 6, 1872. To Mr. Perkins, Secretary of the Social Science Association in Boston: "I shall be pleased to know what you decide upon concerning the Illustration. I shall be happy to purchase two hundred copies of the article on visible speech -- if you will kindly let me have them in a pamphlet form." Light toning and one small edge split, else fine.
Bell's father, Melville Bell, was the creator of Visible Speech, a system of symbols to aid people in speaking words in any language, even if they had not heard it. Melville Bell toured the United States in 1868, demonstrating Visible Speech, and in 1870, he was invited by Sarah Fuller, who ran a school for deaf-mutes in Boston, to apply the system. Melville sent Alexander instead and in the spring of 1872, Alexander was invited to the Clarke Institution for Deaf Mutes, where this letter was written, to demonstrate Visible Speech. In the fall of 1872, he opened the School of Vocal Physiology and Mechanics of Speech in Boston. Estimate $1,500 - 2,000
Ex Sotheby's, May 22, 1985.
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| Realized $960 |
