and their daughters Elsie (left) and Marian (1885) Mabel Gardiner Hubbard was born on November 25, 1857, in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, to
Gardiner Greene Hubbard and Gertrude Mercer McCurdy. She was also, due in great part to her parents' efforts, one of the first deaf children in the nation to be taught to both lip-read and speak, which allowed her to integrate herself easily and almost completely within the hearing world, an event virtually unknown to those in the deaf community of that era. In support of her parents' efforts to increase funding for deaf education, Mabel testified before a congressional hearing at a young age. Her avoidance of the deaf community until her middle age when her parents died and left her to assume their roles as benefactor to the societies for the deaf, would later lead to criticisms that she was embarrassed by her impairment. Described as "strong and self-assured", Hubbard became one of Bell's pupils at his new school for the deaf, and later evolved into his confidant. and Marian Hubbard Bell (1880–1962), who was referred to as "Daisy", and who was nearly named
Photophone by Bell after her birth. Hubbard also bore two sons, Edward (1881) and Robert (1883), both of whom died shortly after birth leaving their parents bereft. From 1877, she and "Alec", as she preferred to call Bell, lived in Washington, D.C. at their home, the Brodhead-Bell Mansion, which they occupied for several years, and from 1888 onwards residing increasingly at their
Beinn Bhreagh (
Gaelic for "beautiful mountain") estate, in
Cape Breton,
Nova Scotia, Canada. After her husband, Bell's death on August 2, 1922, Hubbard slowly lost her sight and grew increasingly consigned to the care of her daughters, withdrawing into a world of silent darkness. She died of
pancreatic cancer at the home of her daughter Marian, in
Chevy Chase, Maryland, five months later, on January 3, 1923, both of whom are buried near their home on "The Point" at their estate of Beinn Bhreagh, originally their summer residence. Her ashes were interred with Alexander's grave exactly one year, to the hour, after his burial. Today, they rest together near the top of their "beautiful mountain" of their estate overlooking
Bras d'Or Lake, under a simple boulder of granite. == 1876 Centennial Exposition ==