Mabel Gardiner Hubbard
Mabel Gardiner Hubbard Bell[1][2][3] (November 25, 1857 – January 3, 1923) was an American businesswoman, and the daughter of Boston lawyer Gardiner Green Hubbard. She was the wife of Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the first practical telephone.
Mabel Gardiner Hubbard
January 3, 1923 (aged 65)
Businesswoman
- Elsie
- Marian
- Edward
- Robert
- Gardiner Greene Hubbard (father)
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.[1][4] 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.[3]: 1 [5][6][7][Note 1]
Stock ownership in the Bell Telephone Company[edit]
The Bell Telephone Company was organized on July 9, 1877, by Hubbard's father Gardiner Greene Hubbard who owned 1,387 of the 5,000 issued shares and had the title of "trustee". Hubbard's husband Alexander Bell owned 1,497 shares. Bell immediately transferred all but 10 of his shares as a wedding gift to his new bride. A short time later, just prior to leaving for an extended honeymoon of Europe, Hubbard signed a power of attorney giving control of her shares to her father. This made Gardiner Hubbard the de facto president and chairman of the Bell Telephone Company,[18] which later evolved into American Telephone & Telegraph, (aka AT&T) at times the world's largest telephone company.
Support to aeronautical research[edit]
Hubbard was highly intelligent but usually preferred to remain in the background while Bell conducted scientific discussions and meetings among his peers—for many decades he held regular Wednesday evening intellectual salons in their home parlour, dutifully documented in the multiple volumes of his "homenotes".[4] However, Hubbard strongly believed that a heavier-than-air vehicle could be designed to fly, and she provided the inspiration and financing of about $20,000CAD to that end, a significant amount in 1907 (approximately $450,000 in 2008 dollars).[19]
At that time Hubbard sold some of her real estate and gave that amount of money to her husband and four others to establish the Aerial Experimental Association (AEA),[20] for the purpose of constructing "a practical flying aerodrome", Canada's first heavier-than-air vehicle, the Silver Dart.[19] Based on their scientific experiments, the aircraft they designed and built incorporated several technical innovations not previously invented for flight, including lateral control by means of ailerons.[21] Partly because of her founding of the AEA, but also for founding social and educational institutions, she was named a National Historic Person in 2018.[22]
