Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, received numerous honors and tributes throughout his lifetime and posthumously. Bell’s invention of the telephone in 1876 was a groundbreaking achievement that revolutionized communication, and his fame and legacy grew as the telephone became ubiquitous. He received dozens of major awards, medals, and honorary degrees from colleges and universities throughout his life. However, Bell received so many honorary degree requests that it almost became burdensome.
In addition to receiving honors and degrees, there are numerous monuments and sites dedicated to Bell, including statuary monuments to both him and the new form of communication his telephone created. One of the most notable monuments is the Bell Telephone Memorial, erected in his honor in Alexander Graham Bell Gardens in Brantford, Ontario, in 1917. There are also historic sites and other marks commemorating Bell in North America and Europe, including the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, and the Bell Homestead National Historic Site in Brantford, Ontario. Canada’s first telephone company building, the “Henderson Home,” is also preserved as a telephone museum.
Many of Bell’s writings, personal correspondence, notebooks, papers, and other documents are preserved at both the United States Library of Congress Manuscript Division, known as the Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers, and at the Alexander Graham Bell Institute, Cape Breton University, Nova Scotia. Major portions of these documents are available for online viewing.
Bell received the Volta Prize in 1880 with a purse of 50,000 francs (approximately US$250,000 in today’s dollars) for the invention of the telephone from the Académie française, representing the French government. Bell used his prize money to create endowment funds (the ‘Volta Fund’) and institutions in and around Washington, D.C., including the prestigious ‘Volta Laboratory Association’ (1880), also known as the Volta Laboratory and as the ‘Alexander Graham Bell Laboratory’, and which eventually led to the Volta Bureau (1887) as a center for studies on deafness that is still in operation in Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Bell was one of the founding members of the National Geographic Society and became its second president (1897–1904), and also became a Regent of the Smithsonian Institution (1898–1922). The French government conferred on him the decoration of the Légion d’honneur (Legion of Honor); the Royal Society of Arts in London awarded him the Albert Medal in 1902; the University of Würzburg, Bavaria, granted him a PhD, and he was awarded the Franklin Institute’s Elliott Cresson Medal in 1912. He was one of the founders of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1884, and served as its president from 1891–92. Bell was later awarded the AIEE’s Edison Medal in 1914 “For meritorious achievement in the invention of the telephone”.
Bell also made significant contributions to science and engineering, such as his development of an electrical bullet probe that could detect metal objects inside human bodies using electromagnetic induction. He offered this device to help locate a bullet lodged in President James A. Garfield’s back after an assassination attempt but failed to find it due to interference from metal springs in Garfield’s bed. The device later became known as an early metal detector.
Posthumously, Bell was awarded the John Fritz Medal in 1922 by the American Association of Engineering Societies for his contributions to science and engineering. Bell’s estate, Beinn Bhreagh near Baddeck, Nova Scotia, was donated by his widow Mabel Hubbard to Canada as a national historic site in 1936. The Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site museum, which displays many artifacts related to Bell’s life and inventions, is located on the estate.
In 1947, on the centennial anniversary of Bell’s birth, he was honored with a commemorative stamp issued by both the Canadian and US Postal Services. He was also featured on several other stamps issued by different countries over time. Bell’s image, and those of his many inventions, have graced paper money, coinage, and postal stamps in numerous countries worldwide for many decades.
Bell’s daughter-in-law, Marian Hubbard (Daisy) Bell, established the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (AG Bell) in 1954. A nonprofit organization that advocates for oral education and communication options for children with hearing loss, the organization administers several awards named after Bell, such as the Alexander Graham Bell Medal and the Volta Award.
In 1976, on the bicentennial anniversary of US independence, Bell was among the first group of recipients of The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor bestowed by the US government. He was recognized for his achievements in science, education, and humanitarianism.
Bell was ranked 57th among the 100 Greatest Britons (2002) in an official BBC nationwide poll, and among the Top Ten Greatest Canadians (2004) and the 100 Greatest Americans (2005). In 2006, Bell was also named one of the 10 greatest Scottish scientists in history after having been listed in the National Library of Scotland’s “Scottish Science Hall of Fame.” Bell’s name is still widely known and used as part of the names of dozens of educational institutes, corporate namesakes, street and place names around the world.
In addition to the numerous honors and tributes that Bell received during his lifetime and after his death, many historic sites and other marks commemorate Bell in North America and Europe. The Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site, maintained by Parks Canada, incorporates the Alexander Graham Bell Museum and is located in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, close to the Bell estate Beinn Bhreagh. The Bell Homestead National Historic Site, which includes the Bell family home, “Melville House,” and farm overlooking Brantford, Ontario and the Grand River, was their first home in North America.
Other notable sites include the Alexander Graham Bell Memorial Park, which features a broad neoclassical monument built in 1917 by public subscription. The monument graphically depicts mankind’s ability to span the globe through telecommunications. The Alexander Graham Bell Museum, part of the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site which was completed in 1978 in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, houses many of the museum’s artifacts that were donated by Bell’s daughters.
Bell’s legacy also lives on in the units of measurement of sound intensity that he invented, the bel (B) and the smaller decibel (dB), which are named after him. Since 1976, the IEEE’s Alexander Graham Bell Medal has been awarded to honor outstanding contributions in the field of telecommunications.
Alexander Graham Bell was an inventor, scientist, and educator who made significant contributions to many fields and disciplines throughout his life. His most famous invention, the telephone, changed communication forever and brought him widespread recognition and fame. Bell received numerous honors and tributes during his lifetime and after his death, and his legacy lives on today in the many historic sites, organizations, and units of measurement that bear his name.
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