Number of Images: 1 ; Color: Black and White ; Size: Xw x Xh; Type of Image: Portrait ; Medium: Negative
Type:
Photographic print
Portraits
Place:
Washington (D.C.)
Genoa (Italy)
Scotland
Date:
1876
Category:
Historic Images of the Smithsonian
Notes:
SIA2012-1090 is a copy print from the original negative MAH-9823C. The photograph carries the inscription "From a photograph taken in 1876, the year in which the telephone was patented."
Summary:
Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), Scottish-born inventor and scientist, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, lived for many years in Washington, D.C., and died in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. As a young man, he consulted physicist Joseph Henry, the first Smithsonian Secretary, about the feasibility of his telephone invention and was greatly encouraged by Henry. He considered Henry as an important mentor and supported the Smithsonian in many ways. Bell served as a citizen member of the Smithsonian Board of Regents, provided seed money for the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, donated collections to the National Museum, and arranged for the move of James Smithson's remains from Genoa, Italy, to the Smithsonian Institution in 1904.
Contained within:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, (photographic print) Record Unit 95, Box 3, Folder: 32 Alexander Graham Bell