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Mabel Gardiner Hubbard (November 25, 1857 – January 3, 1923), was the daughter of Boston lawyer Gardiner Greene Hubbard, who was the first president of the Bell Telephone Company. As the wife of Alexander Graham Bell, an eminent scientist and the inventor of the first practical telephone, she took the married name Mabel Bell.〔〔Toward, 1984.〕 From the time of Mabel's courtship with Graham Bell in 1873, until his death in 1922, Mabel became and remained the most significant influence in his life.〔〔 Folklore held that Bell undertook telecommunication experiments in an attempt to restore her hearing which had been destroyed by disease close to her fifth birthday, leaving her completely deaf for the remainder of her life.〔Toward, 1984.〕〔(Mrs. Bell, Widow Of The Inventor Of The Telephone, Is Dead: Deaf From Girlhood, Her Infliction Inspired Husband's Great Triumph ), Ludington Daily News, January 6, 1923. Originally publish in New York Times, January 4, 1923〕〔(Mrs. A.G. Bell Dies. Inspired Telephone. Deaf Girl's Romance With Distinguished Inventor Was Due to Her Affliction ), ''New York Times'', January 4, 1923.〕〔Eber, 1991; p. 43.〕 == Biography == Mabel was born on November 25, 1857 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, to Gardiner Greene Hubbard and Gertrude Mercer McCurdy.〔 She suffered a near-fatal bout of scarlet fever close to her fifth birthday in 1862 while visiting her maternal grandparents in New York City, and was thereafter left permanently and completely deaf.〔〔 The disease also destroyed her inner ear's vestibular sensors, additionally leaving her with a greatly impaired sense of balance, to the extent that it was very difficult for her to walk at night in the dark.〔 Mabel was the inspiration for her father's involvement in the founding of the first oral school for the deaf in the United States, the Clarke School for the Deaf. Having been educated in both the United States and in Europe, she learned to both talk and lip-read with great skill in multiple languages.〔〔Eber, 1991. pp. 43-45〕〔Gray, 2006〕 She was also, due in great part to her parents' efforts, one of the first deaf children in the nation to be taught to both lip-read and speak, which allowed her to integrate herself easily and almost completely within the hearing world,〔Eber, 1991; p .45〕 an event virtually unknown to those in the deaf community of that era. In support of her parents' efforts to increase funding for deaf education, Mabel testified before a congressional hearing at a young age. Her avoidance of the deaf community until her middle age when her parents died and left her to assume their roles as benefactor to the societies for the deaf, would later lead to criticisms that she was embarrassed by her impairment. Described as "strong and self-assured", she became one of Graham Bell's pupils at his new school for the deaf, and later evolved into his confidant.〔 They married on July 11, 1877 in the Cambridge home of her parents, when she was 19, more than 10 years Bell's junior.〔〔 Together they had four children, including two daughters:〔 Elsie May Bell (1878–1964) who married Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor of National Geographic fame, and Marian Hubbard Bell (1880–1962), who was referred to as "Daisy", and who was nearly named Photophone by Bell after her birth. Mabel also bore two sons, Edward (1881) and Robert (1883), both of whom died shortly after birth leaving their parents bereft.〔Gray, 2006.〕 From 1877, Mabel and "Alec", as she preferred to call him, lived in Washington, D.C. at their home, the Brodhead-Bell Mansion, which they occupied for several years, and from 1888 onwards residing increasingly at their Beinn Bhreagh (Gaelic for "beautiful mountain") estate, in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada. After Alec's death in 1922, Mabel slowly lost her sight and grew increasingly consigned to the care of her daughters, withdrawing into a world of silent darkness.〔 She died of pancreatic cancer at the home of her daughter Marian, in Chevy Chase, Maryland, less than a year after her husband,〔〔〔 both of whom are buried near their home on "The Point" at their estate of Beinn Bhreagh, originally their summer residence. Her ashes were interred with Alexander's grave exactly one year, to the hour, after his burial.〔 Today, they rest together near the top of their "beautiful mountain" of their estate overlooking Bras d'Or Lake, under a simple boulder of granite.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mabel Gardiner Hubbard」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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