1847-1922

Scottish-American Inventor

Alexander Graham Bell is best known for his invention of the telephone in 1876. However, he was also the second president of the National Geographic Society, invented a number of other useful devices, founded the first telephone company, and was a noted humanitarian. In short, in spite of the tremendous impact the telephone has had on society, Bell would have been a remarkable and important figure even without the invention.

Bell was born in Scotland in 1847 to a mother who was nearly deaf and a father who was an expert in speech. These facts, coupled with his grandfather's prominence as a speech expert, ensured Bell's interest in sound and speech from an early age, and he spent much of his life helping to teach the deaf to communicate.

Alexander Graham Bell. (AT&T Laboratories. Reproduced by permission.)

One of Bell's first jobs...