Alexander Graham Bell ( letter to teacher of Hellen Keller about the Father of the Deaf)

TLS 2 pages signed dated November 14, 1899. Letter to Miss Sarah Fuller, Horace Mann School Boston. Sarah Fuller is best known for giving Helen Keller her first speech lessons. At the Horace Mann School, Sarah worked with Alexander Graham Bell to train the school staff to teach deaf children to speak. Sarah advocated for the practice of teaching deaf children to speak. She also promoted early childhood education for deaf children.

The letter is fascinating since it is about research they where doing on both The Abbé Charles-Michel de l'Épée (The Father of teaching the Deaf education) and John P. Arrowsmith another early practitioner of teaching deaf children who wrote important books o teaching by using de "'Epee's ideas. Arrowsmith was also one of the first to believe in the inclusion of the deaf to regular classes (Mainstreaming). It is rare to find a letter where Bell is talking about teaching the deaf and especially with the teacher who taught Keller how to speak, based on the teachings of Bell and early advocators for early education for the deaf. Letetr reads in full:

Victoria County

Cape Breton N.S.

December 14, 1899

Miss Sarah Fuller,

Horace Mann school, 178 NewBurry St. Boston. Mass.

Dear Miss Fuller,  

Your note is most timely I am glad the annals published a translation of De L’Epa’s  views upon oral teaching,  although it was made by Mr. Dudley George not Francis Green.

I was just working up the Arrowsmith matter when your letter came. According to Aerosmith the English translation of  De L’Epa’s  work published in 1801 had entirely disappeared by 1819 when Arrowsmith’s book was published, and he was inclined to think that the edition had been suppressed. The annals says he produced it and it said in the second part of his work with notes, though whether the same translation or a new one of his own we are not in formed. See animals for 1849 volume two page 50.

Will you kindly compare the translation of De L’Epa’s   work given by Aerosmith, with Francis Dean’s translation of 1801, which is re-printed in the annals of a four 1850 volume X11 page one through 132 I should like to know whether they are in the same or not I should also like to know what Aerosmith said about the addition of 1801 being suppressed. In the same envelope with your note came your note of December 8 concerning the census matter for all many thanks.

Sincerely yours,

Alexander Graham Bell

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