Alexander Graham Bell Discusses Teaching The Deaf With Sarah Fuller, Principal Of The Horace Mann School

ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL (1847-1922). Bell was an inventor, scientist and advocate best known for patenting the first practical telephone and creating AT&T in 1885. SARAH FULLER (1836-1927). Fuller was the first principal of the Boston School for Deaf-Mutes, later renamed the Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. In 1890, she gave the first speech lessons to Helen Keller. TLS. 2 pg. 8 x 10. December 14, 1899. Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. A typed letter signed Alexander Graham Bell to Miss Sarah Fuller on educational research and practices for teaching the deaf: Your note is most timely I am glad the annals published a translation of De LEpas (truncated) views upon oral teaching, although it was made by Mr. Dudley George not Francis Green. I was just working up the Arrowsmith matter when your letter came. According to Aerosmith the English translation of De LEpas work published in 1801 had entirely disappeared by 1819 when Arrowsmiths book was published, and he was inclined to think that the edition had been suppressed. The annals says he produced it and it said in the second part of his work with notes, though whether the same translation or a new one of his own we are not informed. See animals for 1849 volume two page 50. Will you kindly compare the translation of De LEpas work given by Aerosmith, with Francis Deans translation of 1801, which is re-printed in the annals of a four 1850 volume X11 page one through 132 I should like to know whether they are in the same or not I should also like to know what Aerosmith said about the addition of 1801 being suppressed. In the same envelope with your note came your note of December 8 concerning the census matter for all many thanks. Bell was a life-long advocate for teaching deaf children how to speak. Many believe his advocacy and desire to invent the telephone both came from the deafness of his wife, Mabel Gardiner Hubbard, since childhood. In 1871, Bell introduced the Visible Speech System at the Horace Mann School by providing training for Fuller's instructors. Both he and Fuller encouraged speech therapy and lip reading over sign language, and this letter references research and theories pushed by Charles-Michel de l'pe and John P. Arrowsmith to better integrate deaf children into the hearing world. Many members of the deaf community disagreed with Bell and Fuller, fearing that their proposals would close deaf schools. The type on the letter is faint but is in otherwise very good condition. Nearly all Bell letters in the marketplace are autograph requests, so a letter with historic content is unusual. (Inventory #: 5910)