The Bell Institute Holdings:
The Bell Institute has access to a wide variety of personal notes, lab notes, and professional papers compiled over the years by Alexander Graham Bell, his family and his associates. Most of this material is in the form of Xerox copies of materials held by the Library of Congress in the United States, and kindly passed on by the Bell family to the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Park.

The Bell Institute developed a comprehensive index of these materials, and this stands as the only complete index to these papers. The complete description of these materials reads as an exciting history of the times, moving from the telephone to ground breaking work in scientific and personal development areas. This collection of data offers a broad range of opportunities for study, from delving into little known perspectives on research done by Bell and his associates to re-visiting ideas expressed in those days in the light of current knowledge and technology. The Bell Institute Index offers a gateway into these studies. It consists of:
  • References contained on 75, 000 index cards;
  • 2.4 Mbytes of index references in three forms: WordPerfect, Microsoft Word and HTML (Internet) format;
  • Database format
A comprehensive description of these materials is available at the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck. A short summary is given here in order to illustrate the scope of the information contained therein.

Click below to view the holdings.
  1. Alexander Graham Bell Family Letterbooks and Biographical Material
  2. Alexander Graham Bell Notebooks, Bulletins and Beinn Bhreagh Recorder
  3. John Hamilton Parkin Papers
  4. Phillip L. Rhodes Collection
  5. Material Relating to Aviation from the Fairchild Papers
  6. Research Material assembled by Research Division
  7. Blueprints of Aircraft and Boats
  8. Blueprints and Drawings - Bell Museum
  9. Alexander Graham Bell Institute: Collection of Photographs
  10. Microfilms: Lab Notes
  11. Microfilms: Beinn Bhreagh Recorder
D1. Alexander Graham Bell Family Letterbooks and Biographical Material
This collection of 180 loose-leaf binders was assembled under the direction of Dr. Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor. This forms a part of the Alexander Graham Bell Family papers at the Library of Congress, and a copy was deposited by the Bell family on long-term loan at the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Park in March of 1977.
  1. Dr. Bell’s Contributions to Knowledge (23 Volumes)
  2. Miscellaneous Telephone Materials (10 Volumes)
  3. Excerpts from Dr. Bell’s Home Notes (5 Volumes)
  4. Family Letters and Biographical Material (132 Volumes)
  5. Tributes and Memorials to Alexander Graham Bell (8 Volumes)
  6. Honors Conferred on Alexander Graham Bell (2 Volumes)

D2. Alexander Graham Bell Notebooks, Bulletins and Beinn Bhreagh Recorder
This is a collection of 211 bound volumes that incorporate 248 manuscripts and typescript notebooks. The original material is held by the Library of Congress. A copy was transferred to the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Park in June of 1978.
  1. Dr. Bell’s “Home Notes” (135 Volumes)
  2. Dr. Bell’s “Lab Notes” (75 Volumes)
  3. Dr. Bell’s “Dictated Notes” and “Additional Thoughts and Experiments” (4 Volumes)
  4. Early Telephone Experiments (1 Volume)
  5. Experimental Notes, Beinn Bhreagh Laboratory (1 Volume)
  6. Bulletins of the Aerial Experiment Association (6 Volumes)
  7. AEA Meetings, Articles on Aeronautics, Kite Experiments (1 Volume)
  8. AEA Minutes (1 Volume)
  9. Beinn Bhreagh Recorder 1909 - 1923 (25 Volumes)

D3. John Hamilton Parkin Papers
There are 12 loose-leaf binders containing copies of material from the John Hamilton Parkin Papers housed in the Aero Library of the National Research Council of Canada. This material, which consists of parts of the Parkin Papers that pertains to Alexander Graham Bell and Frederick Walker Baldwin and their work on aircraft and hydrofoil craft, was transferred to the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site in June of 1978.
  1. Hydrofoil experiments and patents (3 Volumes)
  2. Beinn Bhreagh Lab notes and correspondence (2 Volumes)
  3. Baldwin manuscript notebooks (4 Volumes)
  4. Material from Dr. Bell’s notebooks (1 Volume)
  5. Notes and correspondence of J. H. Parkin (2 Volumes)

D4. Phillip L. Rhodes Collection
Phillip L. Rhodes was a naval architect associated with Mr. Baldwin. These papers were transferred to the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site in June of 1978. It consists of two boxes of material and one roll of blueprints and drawings.
  1. Boat and Hydrofoil material - Photographs, Technical reports. (Box 1)
  2. Magazines and newspaper articles, Correspondence (Box 2)
  3. Drawings of the Hydrofoil and other craft.

D5. Material Relating to Aviation from the Fairchild Papers
This is part of a collection of papers assembled by Dr. Bell’s son-in-law, David Fairchild that relate to the Bell family. It is assembled in chronological order in three 3-ring binders.



D6. Research Material assembled by Research Division
This consists of 15 boxes of materials assembled by the Research Division of National Historic Parks over the period 1975 to 1978 focusing on research activities of Dr. Bell.
  1. Biographical material (1 Box)
  2. US Patents (1 Box)
  3. Bell as a Scientist (1 Box)
  4. Telephone materials (3 Boxes)
  5. The photophone (1 Box)
  6. The Deaf (1 Box)
  7. Communications experiments other than telephone (1 Box)
  8. Medical and Surgical experiments (1 Box)
  9. Eugenics, sheepbreeding (1 Box)
  10. Aviation experiments (3 Boxes)
  11. HD-4 (1 Box)

D7. Blueprints of Aircraft and Boats
  1. AEA (7 Mailing Tubes)
  2. CAC. (3 Mailing Tubes)
  3. Hydrodrome “HD” - December 1911 (1 Mailing Tube)
  4. 18 foot Hydrofoil Test Boat (1 Mailing Tube)

D8. Blueprints and Drawings - Bell Museum
This collection consists of plans, drawings and blueprints relating to the original construction of the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Park, subsequent renovations, landscaping, outbuildings and the extension of the Complex.



D9. Alexander Graham Bell Institute: Collection of Photographs
There are approximately 5,000 black and white photographs and negatives, with handwritten notations describing the contents of individual images currently held by the Bell Institute.
  1. Dr. Bell and family photographs
  2. Portraits of Dr. Bell’s associates
  3. Landscapes, buildings and room interiors
  4. Deaf and Volta Bureau
  5. Communications experiments
  6. Medical experiments
  7. Tetrahedral construction
  8. Aeronautics
  9. Boats: non-Hydrofoil
  10. Boats: Hydrofoil before and after the HD-4

D10. Microfilms: Lab Notes
This is a partial collection (60 notebooks) of the Alexander Graham Bell Lab Notes. This material is contained on 4 reels of 35 mm positive microfilm. Two notebooks contained here are not included in the Xerox copies of the Lab Notes listed earlier:
  1. Beinn Bhreagh Lab Notes: Sept. 7, 1896 - October 30, 1896 (Reel 1)
  2. Rough Notes of Beinn Bhreagh Lab - June 12 1904 ... (Reel 3)

D11. Microfilms: Beinn Bhreagh Recorder
There are 9 reels (reel 3 missing) of 16 mm positive microfilm containing the publications of the Beinn Bhreagh Recorder from July 24, 1909 to July 4, 1922.



Films, videotapes, audio recordings and other artifacts are also available at the Bell Museum in Baddeck.