Gardiner Greene Hubbard
Encyclopedia
Gardiner Greene Hubbard (August 25, 1822 – December 11, 1897) was a U.S.
lawyer
, financier
, and philanthropist
. He was one of the founders of the Bell Telephone Company
and the first president of the National Geographic Society
.
, Andover and graduated from Dartmouth
in 1841. Hubbard studied law at Harvard
, and was admitted to the bar
in 1843. He lived in the adjoining city of Cambridge
and joined a Boston law firm. He practiced his profession in Boston until 1873, when he relocated to Washington, D.C.
Gardiner Hubbard's father Samuel Hubbard was a Massachusetts Supreme Court justice. Gardiner Hubbard helped establish a city water works in Cambridge, was a founder of the Cambridge Gas Co. and later organized a Cambridge to Boston trolley system.
He was also a descendant of Lion Gardiner
, an early English settler and soldier in the New World
who founded the first English
settlement in what later became the State of New York
. His legacy includes Gardiners Island
which remains in the family. Hubbard was also a grandson of Boston merchant Gardiner Greene
.
Hubbard married and had at least three children: Mary Hubbard (1855-?); Bertha Hubbard (1857-?); and Mabel Gardiner Hubbard
(1859–1923). Gardiner Hubbard's daughter Mabel became deaf at the age of five from scarlet fever
. She later became a student of Alexander Graham Bell
, who taught deaf children, and they eventually married. Hubbard also played a pivotal role in the founding of Clarke School for the Deaf
, the first oral school for the deaf in the United States located in Northampton, Massachusetts
.
Hubbard argued for the nationalization of the telegraph system (then a monopoly of the Western Union Company
, as he explained) under the U.S. Postal Service
stating in an article: "The Proposed Changes in the Telegraphic System", "It is not contended that the postal system is free from defects, but that it removes many of the grave evils of the present system, without the introduction of new ones; and that the balance of benefits greatly preponderates in favor of the cheap rates, increased facilities, limited and divided powers of the postal system."
During the late 1860s, Gardiner Hubbard had lobbied Congress to pass the U.S. Postal Telegraph Bill that was known as the Hubbard Bill. The bill would have chartered the U.S. Postal Telegraph Company that would be connected to the U.S. Post Office
. The Hubbard bill did not pass.
To benefit from the Hubbard Bill, Hubbard needed patent
s which dominated essential aspects of telegraph technology such as sending multiple messages simultaneously on a single telegraph wire. This was called the "harmonic telegraph" or acoustic telegraphy
. To acquire such patents, Hubbard and his partner Thomas Sanders (whose son was also deaf) financed Alexander Graham Bell's experiments and the development of an acoustic, which serendipitously led to his invention of the telephone
.
Hubbard organized the Bell Telephone Company
on July 9, 1877, with himself as president, Thomas Sanders as treasurer and Bell as 'Chief Electrician'. Hubbard also became the father-in-law
of Bell when his daughter Mabel Hubbard
married Bell on July 11, 1877.
Gardiner Hubbard was intimately connected with the Bell Telephone Company, which subsequently evolved into the National Bell Telephone Company and then the American Bell Telephone Company, merging with smaller telephone companies during its growth. The American Bell Telephone Company would, at the very end of 1899, evolve into AT&T
, at times the world's largest telephone company
.
Hubbard also became a principal investor in the Edison Speaking Phonograph Company. When Edison neglected development of the phonograph, which at its inception was barely functional, Hubbard helped his son-in-law, Alexander Graham Bell, organize a competing company in 1881 that developed wax-coated cardboard cylinders and disks for used on a graphophone
. These improvements were invented by Alexander Bell's cousin Chester Bell
, a chemist, and Charles Sumner Tainter
, an optical instrument maker, at Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory in Washington, D.C. Hubbard and Chester Bell approached Edison about combining their interests, but Edison refused, resulting in the Volta Laboratory Association merging the shares of their Volta Graphophone Company with the company that later evolved into Columbia Records
in 1886.
Hubbard was also the founder and first president for many years of the National Geographic Society
, and created a large collection of etching
s and engraving
s, which were given by his widow to the Library of Congress
with a fund
for additions.
Hubbard devoted considerable donations and attention to the advancement of deaf education and was president of Clarke School for the Deaf for ten years. He died on December 11, 1897.
In 1890, Mount Hubbard
on the Alaska
-Yukon
border was named in his honour by an expedition co-sponsored by the National Geographic Society
while he was president.
The main school building at the Clarke School for the Deaf, Hubbard Hall, is named after him in his honor.
Hubbard's house on Brattle Street in Cambridge (on whose lawn, in 1877, Hubbard's daughter Mabel married Alexander Graham Bell) no longer stands. But a large beech tree from its garden still (in 2011) remains. After he moved to Washington, D.C. from Cambridge, Hubbard subdivided his large Cambridge estate. On Hubbard Park Road and Mercer Circle (Mercer was his wife's maiden name) he built large houses designed for Harvard faculty. On nearby Foster Street, he built smaller houses, still with modern amenities, for 'the better class of mechanic'. This neighborhood west of Harvard Square the choicest in Cambridge. For construction dates of individual houses, see http://hul.harvard.edu/huarc/refshelf/cba/h.html#hubbardpkrd and http://hul.harvard.edu/huarc/refshelf/cba/m.html#mercercir
To service his then-modern Cambridge house, Hubbard wanted gas lights, the then-new form of illumination. So he founded the Cambridge Gas Company, now part of NStar. While in Washington, he founded both the National Geographic Society and A.A.A.S, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, publisher of "Science" magazine.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, financier
Financier
Financier is a term for a person who handles typically large sums of money, usually involving money lending, financing projects, large-scale investing, or large-scale money management. The term is French, and derives from finance or payment...
, and philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
. He was one of the founders of the Bell Telephone Company
Bell Telephone Company
The Bell Telephone Company, a common law joint stock company, was organized in Boston, Massachusetts on July 9, 1877 by Alexander Graham Bell's father-in-law Gardiner Greene Hubbard, who also helped organize a sister company — the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company...
and the first president of the National Geographic Society
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...
.
Biography
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he attended Phillips AcademyPhillips Academy
Phillips Academy is a selective, co-educational independent boarding high school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, along with a post-graduate year...
, Andover and graduated from Dartmouth
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
in 1841. Hubbard studied law at Harvard
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
, and was admitted to the bar
Bar association
A bar association is a professional body of lawyers. Some bar associations are responsible for the regulation of the legal profession in their jurisdiction; others are professional organizations dedicated to serving their members; in many cases, they are both...
in 1843. He lived in the adjoining city of Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
and joined a Boston law firm. He practiced his profession in Boston until 1873, when he relocated to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
Gardiner Hubbard's father Samuel Hubbard was a Massachusetts Supreme Court justice. Gardiner Hubbard helped establish a city water works in Cambridge, was a founder of the Cambridge Gas Co. and later organized a Cambridge to Boston trolley system.
He was also a descendant of Lion Gardiner
Lion Gardiner
Lion Gardiner , an early English settler and soldier in the New World, founded the first English settlement in what became the state of New York on Long Island. His legacy includes Gardiners Island, which is held by his descendants.-Early life:...
, an early English settler and soldier in the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
who founded the first English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
settlement in what later became the State of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. His legacy includes Gardiners Island
Gardiners Island
Gardiners Island is a small island in the town of East Hampton, New York, in eastern Suffolk County; it is located in Gardiners Bay between the two peninsulas at the eastern end of Long Island. It is long, wide and has of coastline...
which remains in the family. Hubbard was also a grandson of Boston merchant Gardiner Greene
Gardiner Greene
Gardiner Greene was a merchant from Boston, Massachusetts who conducted business in Demerara in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Socially prominent in the town of Boston, he owned a house, greenhouse, and garden filled with fruit trees and peacocks on Cotton Hill, opposite Scollay Square...
.
Hubbard married and had at least three children: Mary Hubbard (1855-?); Bertha Hubbard (1857-?); and Mabel Gardiner Hubbard
Mabel Gardiner Hubbard
Mabel Gardiner Hubbard , was the daughter of Boston lawyer Gardiner Hubbard—the first president of the Bell Telephone Company...
(1859–1923). Gardiner Hubbard's daughter Mabel became deaf at the age of five from scarlet fever
Scarlet fever
Scarlet fever is a disease caused by exotoxin released by Streptococcus pyogenes. Once a major cause of death, it is now effectively treated with antibiotics...
. She later became a student of Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell was an eminent scientist, inventor, engineer and innovator who is credited with inventing the first practical telephone....
, who taught deaf children, and they eventually married. Hubbard also played a pivotal role in the founding of Clarke School for the Deaf
Clarke School for the Deaf
Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech, formerly Clarke School for the Deaf, is a private school located in Northampton, Massachusetts that specializes in educating deaf children using the oral method through the assistance of hearing aids and cochlear implants...
, the first oral school for the deaf in the United States located in Northampton, Massachusetts
Northampton, Massachusetts
The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of Northampton's central neighborhoods, was 28,549...
.
Hubbard argued for the nationalization of the telegraph system (then a monopoly of the Western Union Company
Western Union
The Western Union Company is a financial services and communications company based in the United States. Its North American headquarters is in Englewood, Colorado. Up until 2006, Western Union was the best-known U.S...
, as he explained) under the U.S. Postal Service
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
stating in an article: "The Proposed Changes in the Telegraphic System", "It is not contended that the postal system is free from defects, but that it removes many of the grave evils of the present system, without the introduction of new ones; and that the balance of benefits greatly preponderates in favor of the cheap rates, increased facilities, limited and divided powers of the postal system."
During the late 1860s, Gardiner Hubbard had lobbied Congress to pass the U.S. Postal Telegraph Bill that was known as the Hubbard Bill. The bill would have chartered the U.S. Postal Telegraph Company that would be connected to the U.S. Post Office
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
. The Hubbard bill did not pass.
To benefit from the Hubbard Bill, Hubbard needed patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
s which dominated essential aspects of telegraph technology such as sending multiple messages simultaneously on a single telegraph wire. This was called the "harmonic telegraph" or acoustic telegraphy
Acoustic telegraphy
Acoustic telegraphy was also known as harmonic telegraphy. During the late 19th century, inventors developed methods of multiplexing telegraph messages simultaneously over a single telegraph wire by using different audio frequencies or channels, for each message. A telegrapher used a conventional...
. To acquire such patents, Hubbard and his partner Thomas Sanders (whose son was also deaf) financed Alexander Graham Bell's experiments and the development of an acoustic, which serendipitously led to his invention of the telephone
Invention of the telephone
The invention of the telephone is the culmination of work done by many individuals, the history of which involves a collection of claims and counterclaims. The development of the modern telephone involved an array of lawsuits founded upon the patent claims of several individuals...
.
Hubbard organized the Bell Telephone Company
Bell Telephone Company
The Bell Telephone Company, a common law joint stock company, was organized in Boston, Massachusetts on July 9, 1877 by Alexander Graham Bell's father-in-law Gardiner Greene Hubbard, who also helped organize a sister company — the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company...
on July 9, 1877, with himself as president, Thomas Sanders as treasurer and Bell as 'Chief Electrician'. Hubbard also became the father-in-law
Father-in-law
A parent-in-law is a person who has a legal affinity with another by being the parent of the other's spouse. Many cultures and legal systems impose duties and responsibilities on persons connected by this relationship...
of Bell when his daughter Mabel Hubbard
Mabel Gardiner Hubbard
Mabel Gardiner Hubbard , was the daughter of Boston lawyer Gardiner Hubbard—the first president of the Bell Telephone Company...
married Bell on July 11, 1877.
Gardiner Hubbard was intimately connected with the Bell Telephone Company, which subsequently evolved into the National Bell Telephone Company and then the American Bell Telephone Company, merging with smaller telephone companies during its growth. The American Bell Telephone Company would, at the very end of 1899, evolve into AT&T
American Telephone & Telegraph
AT&T Corp., originally American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American telecommunications company that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agencies. AT&T is the oldest telecommunications company...
, at times the world's largest telephone company
Telephone company
A telephone company is a service provider of telecommunications services such as telephony and data communications access. Many were at one time nationalized or state-regulated monopolies...
.
Hubbard also became a principal investor in the Edison Speaking Phonograph Company. When Edison neglected development of the phonograph, which at its inception was barely functional, Hubbard helped his son-in-law, Alexander Graham Bell, organize a competing company in 1881 that developed wax-coated cardboard cylinders and disks for used on a graphophone
Graphophone
The Graphophone was the name and trademark of an improved version of the phonograph invented at the Volta Laboratory established by Alexander Graham Bell in Washington, D.C....
. These improvements were invented by Alexander Bell's cousin Chester Bell
Chichester Bell
Chichester A. Bell was a chemist, cousin to Alexander Graham Bell, and instrumental in developing improved versions of the phonograph.- Life :...
, a chemist, and Charles Sumner Tainter
Charles Sumner Tainter
Charles Sumner Tainter was an American scientific instrument maker, engineer and inventor, best known for his collaborations with Alexander Graham Bell, Chichester Bell, Alexander's father-in-law Gardiner Hubbard, and for his significant improvements to Thomas Edison's phonograph, resulting in the...
, an optical instrument maker, at Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory in Washington, D.C. Hubbard and Chester Bell approached Edison about combining their interests, but Edison refused, resulting in the Volta Laboratory Association merging the shares of their Volta Graphophone Company with the company that later evolved into Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
in 1886.
Hubbard was also the founder and first president for many years of the National Geographic Society
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...
, and created a large collection of etching
Etching
Etching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...
s and engraving
Engraving
Engraving is the practice of incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an intaglio printing plate, of copper or another metal, for printing...
s, which were given by his widow to the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
with a fund
Funding
Funding is the act of providing resources, usually in form of money , or other values such as effort or time , for a project, a person, a business or any other private or public institutions...
for additions.
Hubbard devoted considerable donations and attention to the advancement of deaf education and was president of Clarke School for the Deaf for ten years. He died on December 11, 1897.
Legacy
Gardiner Hubbard's life is detailed in the book 'One Thousand Years of Hubbard History', by Edward Warren Day.In 1890, Mount Hubbard
Mount Hubbard
Mount Hubbard is one of the major mountains of the Saint Elias Range. It is located on the Alaska/Yukon border; the Canadian side is within Kluane National Park and Reserve, and the American side is part of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park...
on the Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
-Yukon
Yukon
Yukon is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River. The word Yukon means "Great River" in Gwich’in....
border was named in his honour by an expedition co-sponsored by the National Geographic Society
National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...
while he was president.
The main school building at the Clarke School for the Deaf, Hubbard Hall, is named after him in his honor.
Hubbard's house on Brattle Street in Cambridge (on whose lawn, in 1877, Hubbard's daughter Mabel married Alexander Graham Bell) no longer stands. But a large beech tree from its garden still (in 2011) remains. After he moved to Washington, D.C. from Cambridge, Hubbard subdivided his large Cambridge estate. On Hubbard Park Road and Mercer Circle (Mercer was his wife's maiden name) he built large houses designed for Harvard faculty. On nearby Foster Street, he built smaller houses, still with modern amenities, for 'the better class of mechanic'. This neighborhood west of Harvard Square the choicest in Cambridge. For construction dates of individual houses, see http://hul.harvard.edu/huarc/refshelf/cba/h.html#hubbardpkrd and http://hul.harvard.edu/huarc/refshelf/cba/m.html#mercercir
To service his then-modern Cambridge house, Hubbard wanted gas lights, the then-new form of illumination. So he founded the Cambridge Gas Company, now part of NStar. While in Washington, he founded both the National Geographic Society and A.A.A.S, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, publisher of "Science" magazine.
See also
- Bell Telephone CompanyBell Telephone CompanyThe Bell Telephone Company, a common law joint stock company, was organized in Boston, Massachusetts on July 9, 1877 by Alexander Graham Bell's father-in-law Gardiner Greene Hubbard, who also helped organize a sister company — the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company...
- Clarke Schools for Hearing and Speech, which includes an image of Hubbard Hall
- Massie Case, a manslaughter trial involving Hubbard's granddaughter
- Hubbard MedalHubbard MedalThe Hubbard Medal is awarded by the National Geographic Society for distinction in exploration, discovery, and research. The medal is named for Gardiner Greene Hubbard, first National Geographic Society president.-Recipients:...
, of the National Geographic Society
Further reading
- Poole, Robert M. Explorers House: National Geographic and the World it Made. New York: Penguin, 2004. ISBN 1-59420032-7
- Gray, Charlotte, Alexander Graham Bell and the Passion for Invention, New York, Arcade Publishing, 2006. ISBN 1-55970-809-3
- Bruce, Robert V., Bell: Alexander Graham Bell and the Conquest of Solitude, Cornell University Press, 1973. ISBN 0-8014-9691-8
- Israel, Paul, Edison: A Life of Invention, Wiley, 1998. ISBN 0-471-36270-0