Alexander Graham Bell honors and tributes

Alexander Graham Bell c. 1918–1919

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Alexander Graham Bell honors and tributes include honors bestowed upon him and awards named for him.

Alexander Graham Bell received numerous tributes during his life, and new awards were subsequently named for him posthumously.^[1]

Major awards and tributes

Among those tributes:

• Chief George Henry Martin Johnson (Onwanonsyshon) of the aboriginal Six Nations Mohawk Reserve, near Bell's home in Brantford, Ontario awarded him the title of Honorary Chief for his work in translating the unwritten Mohawk language into Visible Speech symbols (c. 1870);^[2]
• The U.S. Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia made Bell's newly created telephone a featured headline worldwide. Among the exhibition's judges were the notable Brazilian Emperor Dom Pedro II and the eminent British physicist William Thomson (Lord Kelvin). Upon hearing Bell's voice through the telephone's receiver, the emperor exclaimed "My God! It talks!"^[1][3] Pedro II and Thomson later recommended the device to the Committee of Electrical Awards, which voted Bell the Gold Medal for Electrical Equipment. Bell also won a second Gold Medal for Visible Speech, for his additional display at the exposition. Ironically, Bell hadn't even planned on exhibiting at the fair due to his heavy teaching schedule, and only went there at the stern insistence of his then-fiancée and future wife Mabel Hubbard (1876);^[4][5]
• Bell received the James Watt silver medal for the telephone from the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society (1877);^[6]
• The Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association (A.K.A. The Association of the Mechanics of Boston) awarded two gold medals to Bell, as exhibitor #626 registered to the New England Telephone Company of Boston, MA, for both the telephone and Visible Speech, twinning the results of the Centennial Exposition held in Philadelphia two years earlier (1878);^[6][7]
• The Society of Arts in London awards him his first Royal Albert medal, a silver, for his paper on the telephone (1878);^[6]
• The Third Paris World's Fair, called the Exposition Universelle, awarded Bell (along with Elisha Gray and Thomas Edison) a Grand Prize for the telephone (1878);^[8]
• Gallaudet College, then called the National Deaf-Mute College, of Washington, D.C. awarded Bell an Honorary Ph.D. 'in recognition of his work for the Deaf' (1880);^[9][10][6]
• The French Academy, representing the French government, awarded Bell the Volta Prize with a purse of 50,000 francs (approximately $10,000) for the invention of the telephone (1880).^{[1][11][12][13][14][15]} Since Bell was becoming increasingly affluent, he used his prize money to create endowment funds (the 'Volta Fund') and institutions in and around the United States capital of Washington, D.C.. They included the prestigious 'Volta Laboratory Association' (1880), also known as the 'Volta Laboratories' and as the 'Alexander Graham Bell Laboratory', as well as creating the Volta Bureau (1887) as a center for studies on deafness. The Volta Laboratory became a permanently funded experimental facility devoted to scientific discovery, and the very next year invented a wax phonograph cylinder that was later used by Thomas Edison;^[16]
• The President of the Third French Republic, Jules Grévy, on the recommendation of his Minister of Foreign Affairs Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire and with the presentations of the Minister of Posts and Telegraphs Louis Cochery, designated Bell with the distinction of an 'Officer Of The Legion of Honour' (Légion d'honneur) by decree on 10 November 1881, in recognition of his inventions (1881);^[1][17],^[18][19][6]

Decree awarding Helmholtz, Bell, and Edison, the Legion of Honour

• The Society of Arts issues their second Royal Albert silver medal to him for his paper on his proudest achievement, the photophone, invented a year earlier (1881);^[6]
• Illinois College awarded him an LL.D. degree (1881);^[6]
• The University of Würzburg, Bavaria granted Bell an honorary (Ph.D.) (1882);^[1][10][6]
• The National Academy of Sciences elected Bell as a member (1883);^[20][21]
• The Rupert Charles University of Heidelberg, Germany awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Medicine degree, for Bell's invention of an ultrasound metal detector, used in a bid to save the life of President James Abram Garfield (1886)^[22];
• Harvard University granted him an honorary 'Doctor of Laws degrees (LL.D.) (1896);^[4][6]
• The National Geographic Society appointed him President (1898-1903);^[23]
• The United States Senate granted him several appointments as a regent of the world famous Smithsonian Institution (1898-1924);^{[24][23][25][6]}
• The U.S. Census Bureau appointed him a special agent to the bureau in order to determine the extent of the Twelfth Census that applied to the deaf of the United States (1900);^[6]
• The Society of Arts of London, England, awarded him the Albert Medal for his invention of the telephone (1902);^[23][6]
• St Andrew's University awarded Bell a Doctor of Philosophy degree (Ph.D.) (1902);^[6]
• The University of Edinburgh granted him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree (1906);^{[4][10][9][26][27][28]}
• Oxford University granted him an honorary Doctor of Science degree (D.Sc./Sc.D.) (1906);^[4][10]
• The American Association of Engineering Societies awarded him the John Fritz Medal (1907);^[21][6]
• The Franklin Institute awarded Bell the Elliott Cresson Medal in the field of Engineering for "Electrical Transmission of Articulate Speech" (1912);^[29][6]
• George Washington University awarded him an Honourary Degree (1913);^[6]
• The Royal Society awarded him the David Edward Hughes Medal for "an original discovery in the physical sciences, particularly electricity and magnetism or their applications" (1913);^[24]
• Dartmouth College awarded Bell an honorary Doctor of Laws degree (1913，possibly 1914);^[30][6];
• The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers awarded him the Thomas Alva Edison Medal "for a career of meritorious achievement in electrical science, electrical engineering or the electrical arts" (1914);^[9][6];
• Bell, the celebrity, in New York, ceremonially inaugurated the United State's first transcontinental telephone system with a widely reported telephone call to his former assistant Thomas Watson in San Francisco, during which Watson quipped to Bell that he could hear him "much better now" (1915);^[1][31][32]
• Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, presented an honorary 'Doctor of Laws degrees (LL.D.) to him (1916, possibly 1908);^[4][33][6];
• The Governor General of Canada, Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire, unveiled the Bell Telephone Memorial (photo below) erected in Bell's honor in The Telephone City's (Brantford, ON) Alexander Graham Bell Gardens as part of the City of Brantford's public parks system. The Bell Homestead, the Bell family's first home in North America, was also dedicated at the same time (1917);^[21]

The Bell Telephone Memorial, commemorating the invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell. The monument, paid by public subscription and sculpted by W.S. Allward, was dedicated by the Governor General of Canada, Victor Cavendish, 9th Duke of Devonshire with Dr. Bell in The Telephone City's Alexander Graham Bell Gardens in 1917. (Courtesy of: Brantford Heritage Inventory, City of Brantford, Ontario, Canada)

• Dr. John H. Finley, founder of the Junior American Red Cross and New York State Commissioner of Education, presented Bell with the Civic Forum Medal of Honor for Distinguished Public Service at Carnegie Hall (1917);^[34]
• The City of Edinburgh made him a Burgess and honored Bell with its Freedom of The City award during his final visit to Europe (1920).^[4][21][35]

Other citations, honours and awards

• Bell received numerous honorary degrees during his life. Among them were:^[22][10]
  • Doctor of Philosophy degree (Ph.D.) from Illinois College in recognition for his work for the deaf;^[10]
  • Doctor of Laws degree (LL.D.) from Amherst College;^[33]
• Bell also received the Karl Koenig von Wuerttenberg gold medal;^[6]
• Bell was nominated as a Resident Member of the Boston Society of Natural History (1876).^[36]

Other posthumous tributes

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• Upon Bell's death, during his burial, "....every phone on the continent of North America was silenced in honor of the man who had given to mankind the means for direct communication at a distance" ;^[37][38]
• When he heard of his death, Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King cabled Mrs. Bell, saying:

"[The Government expresses] to you our sense of the world's loss in the death of your distinguished husband. It will ever be a source of pride to our country that the great invention, with which his name is immortally associated, is a part of its history. On the behalf of the citizens of Canada, may I extend to you an expression of our combined gratitude and sympathy."^[1]

• U.S. President Warren Harding also telegrammed Mrs. Bell, saying:

"The announcement of your eminent husband’s death comes a great shock to me. In common with all of his countrymen, I have learned to revere him as one of the great benefactors.... and among the foremost Americans of all generations. He will be mourned and honored by human kind everywhere as one who served it greatly, untiringly and usefully";^[1]

• A large number of Bell's writings, notebooks, papers and other documents were established at the United States Library of Congress Manuscript Division, as the Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers. The collection is currently available for online viewing;
• Another large collection of Bell's documents reside at the Alexander Graham Bell Institute at Cape Breton University, Nova Scotia;
• The bel (B), and the smaller decibel (dB), units of measure of sound intensity were invented by the Bell Labs, and were named in his honor. The units are widely used in science, technology and engineering (1937);^[39]
• The US Merchant Marine ship S.S. Alexander Graham Bell (hull #583) was launched and commissioned for service in the Second World War (18 October 1942);

Historical plaque marker in Washington, D.C., marks one of the sites used by Bell's photophone.

• The Telephone Pioneers of America dedicated a plaque on the wall of the Franklin School at 13th & K Streets NW in Washington, D.C., honoring Bell's invention of the photophone, the precursor of fibre-optical communications, and which he referred to as his 'greatest invention'. The plaque read:

"From the top floor of this building Was sent on June 3, 1880 over a beam of light to 1325 l Street the first wireless telephone message in the history of the world. The apparatus used in sending the message was the photophone invented by Alexander Graham Bell inventor of the telephone this plaque was placed here by Alexander Graham Bell Chapter Telephone Pioneers of America"; (1947)

• The Hall of Fame for Great Americans inducted Bell by 70 votes (1950);^[40]
• The Salem, MA Essex Institute presented a plaque (originally dedicated in 1922) honoring Alexander Graham Bell and his financial supporters Thomas and Mary Ann Brown Sanders to the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company, located on Essex Street on the YMCA Building (1958);^[41]
• At the age of 19, Bell wrote a report on his studies of tuning fork resonance and sent it to philologist Alexander Ellis, a colleague of his father.^[42] Ellis would later be portrayed as Professor Henry Higgins in George Bernard Shaw's famous play, Pygmalion, in 1913. Pygmalion was later adapted into the Oscar Award-winning movie My Fair Lady, where in hommage to Bell's work teaching the deaf to speak, the movie's central character, Prof. Higgins (played by famed actor Rex Harrison) refers to the use of "Bell's Visible Speech" (1964).
• The National Aviation Hall of Fame (NAHF) enshrined him as a member for his extensive pioneering research in aeronautics (1965);^[24][43]
• The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) inducted Bell as a member, describing his works: ...Bell's inventive genius is represented only in part by the 18 patents granted in his name alone and the 12 he shared with his collaborators. These included 14 for the telephone and telegraph, four for the photophone, one for the phonograph, five for aerial vehicles, four for hydroairplanes, and two for a selenium cell (1974);^[24][44]
• The IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal was created in his honor by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (currently sponsored by Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs), to annually award outstanding contributions in the field of telecommunications (1976);
• The Royal Bank of Scotland issued a £1 commemorative banknote to mark the 150th Anniversary of the birth of Alexander Graham Bell.^[45] The illustrations on the reverse of the note include Bell's face in profile, his signature, and objects from Bell's life and career: users of the telephone over the ages; an audio wave signal; a diagram of a telephone receiver; geometric shapes from engineering structures; representations of sign language and the phonetic alphabet; the geese which helped him to understand flight; and the sheep which he studied to understand genetics (3rd March 1997);

The Walk of Fame 'Bell Star' on Toronto's Simcoe Street

• Canada honoured Bell with a $100CAD gold coin in tribute to the 150th anniversary of his birth (1997),^[46] and with a silver dollar coin celebrating the 100th anniversary of flight in Canada (2009);^[47]
• Canada's Walk of Fame in Toronto, Ontario awarded a special star to Bell as part of its new "Innovators' Category". The star (photo at right), with an early model telephone engraved in its very center, is located on Simcoe Street in Toronto (2001); ^[48][49]
• The Ontario Government's Member of Parliament, MPP Dave Levac, along with Bell's descendants, dedicated the Brant County section of Provincial Highway 403 as "The Alexander Graham Bell Parkway", as well as an outdoor stage named the "Bell Heritage Stage" in Brantford, Ontario (2005);^[50]
• Google created a special webpage on his birthday, with links to informational websites on him (2008);^[51]
• Canada also established the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site which includes the Alexander Graham Bell Museum, in Baddeck, Nova Scotia;
• Numerous other countries also issued coins, of both nominal and high value, as well as stamps dedicated to him and his inventions. Among the stamp releases are multiple definitive and commemorative issues by both Canada and the United States.

Honorary names of schools, organizations, awards, and placenames

A number of schools, institutes, organizations, academic scholarships, awards, and places have been named in honour of Bell. A number of historic sites and other marks also commemorate both him and the first telephone company buildings. Among them are:

Of international stature (partial list):

• The IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal, created by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers to annually honor outstanding contributions in the field of telecommunications (since 1976);

In Canada (partial list):

• The City of Brantford, Ontario dedicated a major monument to Bell in 1917, the Bell Telephone Memorial within its Alexander Graham Bell Gardens , its inscription reading: "This Monument, the work of Walter S. Allward, R.C.A., Sculptor, was placed here through International subscription by the Bell Telephone Memorial Association to mark the invention of the Telephone at Brantford by Alexander Graham Bell in 1874". Additionally a large monument of a seated Bell is found at the entrance to Brantford's newer Bell Telephone Company of Canada building;
• The Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarships for Masters and Doctoral studies in engineering and the natural sciences is awarded annually by Canada's Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Ottawa, Ontario (note the double usage of "Bell" in the award name);
• Graham Bell-Victoria School, a public school in Brantford, ON (an amalgamation of two different public schools);
• Alexander Graham Bell Public School, in Ajax, ON;
• Alexander Graham Bell High School, in Halifax, Nova Scotia;
• Alexander Graham Bell Institute, a part of Cape Breton University in Nova Scotia;
• Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site, maintained by Parks Canada, which incorporates the Alexander Graham Bell Museum, in Baddeck, Nova Scotia. The site is close to Bell's original Beinn Bhreagh estate. The National Historic Site in Baddeck, in conjunction with the Bell Museum are open to visitation;
• The Bell Homestead, also known as Melville House, overlooking Brantford, Ontario and the Grand River, was Bell's first home in North America. Both the Bell Homestead and the historic Bell Telephone Company Building (see below) are open to visitors;
• The Bell Homestead Society maintains two historic buildings related to the extended Bell family: the first being their private residence (see item above) and the other one being The Henderson Home, Canada's first telephone company building of the nascent Bell Telephone Company of Canada. The Henderson Home was originally built on Sheridan Street within the city of Brantford, Ontario, and was then carefully relocated in 1969 to its current site at the historic Bell Homestead site. Both the Bell Homestead and the Bell Telephone Company Building are open to visitation;
• The Alexander Graham Bell Memorial Park, featuring a broad neoclassical monument depicting mankind's ability to span the globe;
• The Alexander Graham Bell Museum (opened in 1956), which is part of the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site (completed in 1978) in Baddeck, Nova Scotia. Museum artifacts were contributed by Bell's daughters;
• The Graham Bell Museum Gift Shop & Tea Room, on Big Baddeck Road, Baddeck, Nova Scotia, B0E 1B0;
• Alexander Graham Bell Drive in Sydney, Nova Scotia, which intersects two other historically named streets associated with Bell: Douglas McCurdy Drive and Silver Dart Way, adjacent to J.A. Douglas McCurdy Sydney Airport;
• rue Graham-Bell (street), in the city of Boucherville; and in Sainte-Foy, Quebec City; plus also in St-Hubert, Quebec.

In France:

• rue Graham Bell (street), in the city of Metz, Lorraine; and in La Roche-sur-Yon in western France; and in the town of Mérignac, Gironde, Aquitaine; plus also in the community of Noisy-le-Grand, Marne-la-Vallée, Paris;
• avenue Alexander Graham Bell, in Parc Léonard de Vinci, Marne La Vallee, Paris.

In India:

• Alexander Graham Bell Road, in Malabar Hill, Mumbai.

In Germany:

• Alexander Graham Bell Street, in Bonn.

In New Zealand:

• Graham Bell Avenue, in Mount Roskill, Auckland.

In Russia:

• Graham Bell Island, in the Franz Josef Archipelago.

In South Africa:,

• Graham Bell Street, in Despatch, Eastern Cape, a small town near Port Elizabeth.

In Spain:

• Graham Bell Street, in Campanillas, Málaga.

In the United Kingdom (partial list):

• Alexander Graham Bell Birthplace, at a house on 14 South Charlotte Street in Edinburgh, Scotland, where there's an inscribed stone beside the doorway of his birth home;
• The Alexander Graham Bell Building, at the University of Edinburgh, which was named after him;
• The Alexander Graham Bell Apartment, an apartment-hotel also in Edinburgh.

In the United States (partial list):

• Two historic tablets plus a minor monument near Exeter Place in Boston, MA mark the location of the Alexander Graham Bell's first successful telephone and the words he first transmitted to his assistant, Thomas Augustus Watson. The monument's inscription reads: "• Birthplace of the Telephone • Here, on June 2, 1875, Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson first transmitted sound over wires. This successful experiment was completed in a fifth floor garret at what was 109 Court Street and marked the beginning of world-wide telephone service • The First Telephone •"'. The separate historic markers were erected by The Bostonian Society and the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1916, and by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers in 2006;
• Alexander Graham Bell School PS 205Q, a public (K-5) school in Bayside, Queens New York;
• Alexander Graham Bell School, a public grammar (K-8) school on the north side of Chicago, Illinois, providing programs to deaf, blind, mentally disabled, gifted as well as standard students;
• Alexander Graham Bell Elementary School Academy, a (PK-8) public school on Larchmere Blvd. in Cleveland, Ohio serving regular and hearing impaired students;
• Alexander Graham Bell School, a preschool and kindergarten center for the Columbus Public Schools Hearing Impaired Program (CHIP) in Columbus, Ohio;
• Alexander Graham Bell Elementary School, a (K-1) public school in Columbus, OH;
• Alexander Graham Bell Elementary School, a (PK-1) public school for regular, gifted and deaf students in Chicago, IL;
• Alexander Graham Bell Montessori School, in Wheeling, IL;
• Alexander Graham Bell Elementary School, in Detroit, MI;
• Alexander Graham Bell Elementary, a (K-6) public school in Kirkland, Washington;
• AG Bell Accelerated Academy, a school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin;
• Alexander Graham Bell Junior High School, in San Diego, California
• Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, headquartered in Washington, D.C., and with chapters across the United States, as well as internationally;
• AG Bell Academy for Listening and Spoken Language, at 3417 Volta Place, NW, Washington, D.C., an independently governed, subsidiary corporation of the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, which provides certification of listening, verbal and spoken language therapists, specialists and educators;
• Alexander Graham Bell Scholarship, awarded to Boston University College of Engineering students, of Boston, MA;
• Alexander Graham Bell Hall, one of the residences at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), adjacent to the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) building, was named in honor of Bell and dedicated in 1979 (Bell had spent significant amounts of his personal fortune creating institutions for the deaf). A brass plaque mounted at the entrance noted that Bell was "a brilliant and innovative teacher of the deaf who dedicated a great portion of his life to help deaf children develop the potential for listening, speaking and lipreading. Today, NTID emulates the ideals for which Alexander Graham Bell worked". However those opposed to Bell's sole reliance on oralism, as well as his advocacy in the prevention of deafness via eugenics, protested the use of his name for the institutes's residence. In July 2008, the RIT president and its board of trustees approved the removal of the "Alexander Graham Bell Hall" name, along with its plaque.^[52] The RIT action is apparently the only known instance of a removal of Bell's name for ideological reasons;
• Alexander Graham Bell Boulevard, in Lehigh Acres, Lee County, Florida;
• Alexander Graham Bell Drive, in Columbia, Maryland, and in Reston, Virginia;

Alexander Graham Bell in popular culture

In fiction

• Eric Walters' The Hydrofoil Mystery (1999) sets a novel in Alexander Graham Bell's workshops, casting the hydrofoil as a new weapon of war being readied for use against German U-boats during the First World War.^[53][54]

In music

• In the early 1970s, the UK rock group The Sweet recorded a tribute to Bell and the telephone, suitably titled "Alexander Graham Bell". The song gives a fictional account of the invention, in which Bell devises the telephone so he can talk to his girlfriend who lives on the other side of the United States. The song reached the top 40 in the UK and went on to sell over one million recordings worldwide.

• Another musical tribute to Bell, Alexander Graham Bell (2006) was written by the British songwriter and guitarist Richard Thompson. The chorus reminds the listener that "of course there was the telephone, he'd be famous for that alone, but there's 50 other things as well from Alexander Graham Bell".^[55]

In film and TV

• The Story of Alexander Graham Bell, (reformatted for VCR) Don Ameche playing Bell, ISBN 0-7939-1251-2 (1939);
• Biography - Alexander Graham Bell, A&E DVD biography based on historical footage and still pictures of Bell, (2005);
• The Sound and the Silence: The Story of Alexander Graham Bell (TV miniseries) with John Bach as Bell; Vanessa Vaughan and Elizabeth Quinn portrayed Bell's fiancé and wife respectively; Canada / New Zealand / Ireland ASIN B0009K7RUW (1992);
• Animated Hero Classics: Alexander Graham Bell (1995) at the Internet Movie Database.
• Bell has been honoured on numerous television programs, including: The 100 Greatest Britons (2002),^[56][57]. The Top Ten Greatest Canadians (2004), and The 100 Greatest Americans (2005). The nominees and rankings of these programs were determined by popular vote.

Other references to Bell's corporate namesakes

• From 1940 to 1968 the company sponsored The Bell Telephone Hour on NBC radio and (later) television. The program was devoted to concert performances by various singers and musicians.
• In Ball of Fire, a 1941 movie, Barbara Stanwyck asks Gary Cooper to "Give Her an 'Ameche'", a reference to the recent hit movie "the Story of Alexander Graham Bell" which starred Don Ameche in the title role.
• Steven Spielberg's 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial includes a scene where the title character watches a television commercial for the Bell System, prompting the famous line, "E.T. phone home!" Later that same year the E.T. character appeared in one of Bell's "Reach out and touch someone" ads.
• In the 1990 film Home Alone, after a tree branch falls on the McAlisters' telephone lines, a repair man reports to Mrs. McAlister, "We got the power lines up, but the phone lines are a real mess. It's gonna take Ma Bell a couple a' days to fix." This lead to the family being unable to call Kevin after they left him home alone.
• The Beastie Boys refer to the Bell System in identical lines from the songs "Get It Together" and "Sure Shot", on the Ill Communication album:

"Like Ma Bell, I got the ill communication"

• The Beastie Boys again reference the Bell System in the song "Root Down", also off the Ill Communication album, with the line:

"MCA grab the mic' and Ma Bell will connect you"

• Ray Stevens refers to the Bell System in the song "It's Me Again Margaret" on the "He Thinks He's Ray Stevens" album:

"Well, they called up Ma Bell and they traced him on down / to a funky old phone booth on the outskirts of town"

• In the book The Outcasts of 19 Schulyer Place, by E.L. Konigsburg, there are many references to the Ma Bell phone company, because phone towers are one of the main topics of the book.
• In the climax of the 1967 satirical film The President's Analyst, it is revealed that "The Phone Company" (TPC) - an obvious allusion to Bell Telephone - is planning a massive conspiracy to surgically implant communications devices into the brains of its customers. Also featured is a TPC-produced propaganda film that parodies the educational shorts that Frank Capra produced for Bell Laboratories in the 1950s.
• In the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, a pay phone (with video screen) aboard a space station has the Bell System logo.
• Jimmy Buffett mentions Bell in his song "Life Is Just a Tire Swing":

"I fell asleep at the wheel / But was quickly wakened up by a Ma Bell telephone pole"

• Jackie "The Jokeman" Martling makes several references to the phone company, specifically Ma Bell and AT&T, to which he is singing, in one of his early folk songs known as "The Road Song":

"Please Mama Bell ring it louder" and "I'll pay my fee to AT&T".

Corporate namesakes

Wikimedia Commons has more pictures of: institutions, buildings and places named in Bell's honour

The 'Bell' trademark has been used and is still in use with a variety of telephone companies in North America and around the world, including (partial list):

• Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell, which since 2009 is the new name of the former Alcatel Shanghai Bell (since 2001), which was originally created as the Shanghai Bell Manufacturing Co. in 1983;^[58]
• American Bell Telephone Company, the new name of the former National Bell Telephone Company. It obtained its new name in March 1880, and was then later absorbed into its own subsidiary American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) on December 30, 1899;
• Bell Atlantic Corporation, the former name of Verizon Communications Inc., which is still currently part of the Regional Bell Operating Companies;
• Bell Canada, the new name of the Bell Telephone Company of Canada;
• Bell Communications Research, or Bellcore, the name formerly used by today's Telcordia Technologies prior to 1997. The Bellcore lab was a consortium established by the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOC) upon their separation from AT&T in 1984;
• Bell Telephone Company founded in 1878 by Alexander Graham Bell's father-in-law Gardiner Greene Hubbard and a partner. It was renamed the National Bell Telephone Company in March 1879;
• Bell Telephone Company of Canada, the forerunner of today's Bell Canada which owns its 'Bell' trademark outright in Canada;
• Bell Telephone Company of Illinois;
• Bell Telephone Company of Michigan;
• Bell Telephone Company of New Jersey;
• Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania;
• Bell Telephone Laboratories, the former name of the Bell Laboratories, the research and development arm of the Bell System, and also formerly known as AT&T Bell Laboratories. Bell Laboratories is now the research organization of Alcatel-Lucent;
• Bell Telephone Manufacturing Co. of Belgium, which was sold to International Telephone & Telegraph (ITT) in 1925. ITT later divested all its international telecommunication assets to Alcatel-Lucent in 1989;
• Bell System, which referred to a popular name used to described the group of companies which operated initial telephone services in the United States and Canada;
• BellSouth Corporation, currently part of the Regional Bell Operating Companies;
• BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc. d/b/a AT&T Alabama/Florida/Georgia/Kentucky/Louisiana/Mississippi/North Carolina/South Carolina/Southeast/Tennessee
• Cincinnati Bell, Inc., a former independent Bell System franchise Cincinnati Bell, which was not part of the 1984 divestiture from AT&T;
• Edison Gower-Bell Telephone Company of Europe, Ltd., which held telephone patents for Edison’s and Gower in Europe, and was responsible for sales to all European countries outside Britain, France, Turkey and Greece;^[59]
• Gower Bell Telephone Company was a European company created by Frederic Allan Gower of the United States, who previously had a Bell franchise in New England in the early 1880s. In the UK he created a telephone of his own design, free of Bell's patents, that became the common British Post Office telephone; In 1881 Gower Bell joined with the United Telephone Company (an amalgamation of the London Edison and Bell companies) and created the Consolidated Telephone Construction and Maintenance Co. Ltd, to manufacture telephone;^[59]
• Illinois Bell Telephone Company d/b/a AT&T Illinois;
• Indiana Bell Telephone Company, Inc. d/b/a AT&T Indiana;
• International Bell Company, formed in 1880 to help promote Bell's business outside of North America;^[60]
• Japan Bell Telephone, as well as Japan Bell Telephone Laboratories;^[61]
• Malheur Bell, the common name of the Malheur Home Telephone Company, a rural telephone company operating in Oregon that is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Qwest Corporation;
• Michigan Bell Telephone Company d/b/a AT&T Michigan
• National Bell Telephone Company, the new name of the former Bell Telephone Company. It obtained its new name in March 1979, and was then later renamed to the American Bell Telephone Company in March 1880;
• New Jersey Bell Telephone Company, a currently existing regional LEC;
• Northwestern Bell Telephone Company, which provides services just north of the Southwestern Bell area, including: Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Nebraska;
• Nevada Bell Telephone Company d/b/a AT&T Nevada;
• Ohio Bell Telephone Company d/b/a AT&T Ohio
• Oriental Bell Telephone Company of New York, which later became the Oriental Telephone Company which itself was established on January 25, 1881, as the result of an agreement between Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and the Anglo-Indian Telephone Company, Ltd.. The company was licensed to sell telephones in Greece, Turkey, South Africa, India, Japan, China, and other Asian countries;
• Pacific Northwest Bell Telephone Company, which provides telephone service in the states of Oregon, Washington, and northern Idaho;
• Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOC), which after 1984 included Southwestern Bell Corporation, BellSouth Corporation, and Bell Atlantic Corporation (which later evolved into Verizon Communications Inc.), along with several other non-'Bell' companies;
• Shanghai Bell Telephone Equipment Mfg Co., in Shanghai, China, formed with ITT's Belgium subsidiary BTM in 1983.^[62] In 1987 Alcatel purchased BTM and subsequently changed the Shanghai Bell Telephone name to 'Alcatel Shanghai Bell in 2001, and then Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell in 2009;^[62]
• Southwestern Bell Corporation, currently part of the Regional Bell Operating Companies;
• The Telephone Company (Bell's Patents) Ltd was registered in London, England on 4 June, 1878. It opened in London 21 August, 1879, becoming Europe's first telephone exchange.^[4]
• Wisconsin Bell, Inc. d/b/a AT&T Wisconsin

References

External links

• Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Park, in Baddeck, Victoria County, Nova Scotia;
• The Bell Homestead Society which maintains two historic buildings in Brantford, Ontario related to the extended Bell family;
• Alexander Graham Bell Family Collection at the United States Library of Congress Manuscript Division, containing approximately 140,000 documents and photographs.

Further readings

• System of Moral Philosophy, In Three Books, Hutcheson, Francis & Leechman, William, Robert & Andreas Foulis, 1755.