BELL ALEXANDER GRAHAM Autograph Letter Signed to Dear Miss P

Sale 2394 - Lot 49

Price Realized: $ 1,625

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000

BELL, ALEXANDER GRAHAM. Autograph Letter Signed, to "Dear Miss Powers," offering to translate a message that he had written in Line Writing notation, and expressing pleasure at meeting her during his visit to the [Illinois] Institution [for the Deaf and Dumb]. 1 page, oblong 8vo, leaf from autograph album; faint dampstaining at upper edge. Jacksonville, IL, 26 February 1885

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"I have written a few lines in 'line-writing' for Miss Hoenn[?]. Should she be amenable to read what I have written, tell her to send me a copy of it and I will translate. It has given me great pleasure to visit the Institution and it has given me still greater pleasure to meet you . . . ."
Bell's father, Alexander Melville Bell (1819-1905), was an educator and developer of an instructional method designed to teach speech to the deaf; his system included a stenographic notation entitled "Line Writing." In 1890, the younger Bell became the first president of the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf (today known as Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing). In February of 1885, Bell visited the Illinois Institution for the Deaf and Dumb (operating today as the Illinois School for the Deaf) in Jacksonville, IL, to collect information on deafness and education, which resulted in a letter published in the February 13, 1885, issue of Science.