Alexander Melville Bell
| Alexander Melville Bell | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
March 1, 1819 Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Died | August 7, 1905 (aged 86) |
| Resting place |
Rock Creek Cemetery Washington, D.C. |
| Education | University of Edinburgh |
| Occupation | Teacher, Lecturer, Scholar |
| Employer | various universities |
| Spouse(s) | Eliza Symonds |
| Children |
Alexander Graham Bell plus two other sons |
| Parent(s) | Alexander Bell |
Alexander Melville Bell (1 March 1819 – 7 August 1905) was a teacher and researcher of physiological phonetics and was the author of numerous works on orthoepy and elocution.
Additionally he was also the creator of Visible Speech which was used to help the deaf learn to talk, and was the father of Alexander Graham Bell.
Alexander Melville Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and studied under and became the principal assistant of his father, Alexander Bell (1790–1865), an authority on phonetics and speech disorders. From 1843 to 1865 he lectured on speech elocution at the University of Edinburgh, and from 1865 to 1870 at the University of London. Melville married Eliza Grace Symonds (d. Georgetown, Washington, D.C., January 5, 1897), the only daughter of a British naval surgeon.
In 1868, and again in 1870 and 1871, Melville lectured at the Lowell Institute in Boston, Massachusetts after having moved to Canada. In 1870 he became a lecturer on philology at Queen's College, Kingston, Ontario; and in 1881 he moved to Washington, D.C. at the suggestion of his son Graham, where he devoted himself to the education of the deaf by the use of Visible Speech in which the alphabetical characters of his linguistic invention were representative graphic diagrams for the various positions and motions of the lips, tongue, mouth, etc., as well as other methods of orthoepy.
Prior to departing Scotland for Canada Melville Bell had published at least 17 works on proper speech, vocal physiology, stenography and other works. Besides instructing at Queens College he also lectured in Boston, Montreal, Toronto, London, and other universities including a series of 12 lectures at Boston's Lowell Institute. When the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall (later King George V and Queen Mary) called on Brantford for a visit, Melville was asked to greet the dignitaries at the public event. He became a Fellow of the Educational Institute of Scotland, the Royal Scottish Society of Arts, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as well as obtaining memberships in other societies.
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