On Reading as a Means of Teaching Language to the Deaf by Alexander Graham Bell ... 2d Edition
Washington DC: Gibson Bros., Printers and Bookbinders 1890. Second Edition. [1]-7 pages. Grey printed wrappers, string tied. Several stains on the covers, folding, and a short edge tear. Card "With the compliments of Alexander Graham Bell, 1336 Nineteenth Street, Washington, D. C." folded in. Good. Wraps. [27900]
Prints an Address delivered by Bell before the sixth National Conference of Superintendents and Principals of Institutions for the Deaf (Gallaudet Meeting) held at the Mississippi Institution, Jackson Miss. April 14-17, 1888. The first edition of the pamphlet was printed in 1889. OCLC notes a third edition printed in 1890, but does not record this second edition. The first and third are apparently scarce as well with less than a dozen physical copies between them in OCLC.
Alexander Graham Bell makes the case "I would have a deaf child read books in order to learn the language, instead of learning the language in order to read books" and he concludes his talk with "I believe that, in the acquisition of language by the deaf, reading will perform the function that hearing does for the ordinary child. I do not think that any more important habit can be formed by the pupil than the habit of reading, for, after all, the utmost that you can do for his education in his school life is to introduce him ot the wider literature of the world."
Bell's wife and mother were both deaf, and his extended family involved with elocution (the skill of clear and expressive speech) contributing to a lifelong connection with related matters - including the invention of the telephone.
ITEM SOLD