Terrific ALS signed “A. Graham Bell,” four pages on two adjoining sheets, 5.25 x 8.25, January 9, 1874. Written from Salem, Mass., and addressed to Professor Abel S. Clarke at the American Asylum for Deaf Mutes in Hartford, Connecticut. In full: "I have just returned from Canada and have seen the 'Annals.’ Let me thank you most sincerely for the very excellent way in which you have defended Visible Speech. It gave me great pleasure to see your article. I had intended to pay you a visit on my way here but the Fates intervened. On New Year's Day, our horse, who has always been very quiet inoffensive animal, took a new departure and rushed off on his own account, leaving me on my back in the middle of the road, while he went off with the carriage, and my sister. My sister jumped into a snow drift and escaped with a sprained ankle. I received some slight injuries about the back which delayed me so long in Canada that I had to go directly to Boston without calling anywhere on the way. A few days more will, I hope, set me all to rights again. I am trying to arrange for a Convention of Teachers of Visible Speech, for the purpose of comparing notes and discussing plans for the advancement of the system. All the teachers of the Clarke Instit., and all the teachers of the Boston School have agreed to meet me at Worchester on Saturday the 24th of January. Will you and Miss Sweet join us? Miss Rogers will secure a room for us to meet in—and I shall inform you of the place of meeting in a few days. I think that Periodical Conventions of Teachers of Visible Speech to discuss practical points connected with the teaching of articulation—will do much for the advancement of the cause. If you and Miss Sweet can come—I can calculate upon at least 15 teachers of the system being present. Please let me hear from you as soon as possible. If you were to leave Hartford by an early train on Saturday we could have a session of about five hours—and all of us return to our respective towns the same day. With kind regards to Mrs. Clarke and yourself.” The original mailing envelope, addressed in Bell’s own hand, is lightly tape-affixed to reverse of second integral page. In fine condition. Professor Abel Clarke taught at the American Asylum for the Deaf, and also authored the book ‘A Primer of English and American Literature,’ published by The American Asylum. Visible Speech is a system of written symbols that represent sounds capable of being made by the human voice. This system, which can be used with not only English, but also with foreign and obscure languages, was developed by Alexander Melville Bell, father of Alexander Graham Bell, and became popular with the publication of the latter's book ‘Visible Speech’ in 1867. A. Melville Bell developed the Visible Speech system with the intent that it could aid deaf students in learning to speak through teachers trained in this system. He was invited to provide training to teachers at the Boston School for Deaf Mutes, but declined and offered his son's services instead, who had begun assisting his father with research and during various tours. Alexander Graham Bell began teaching his father's system upon his arrival in Boston in April 1871, and by March-June 1872, he was providing the same training to teachers at the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Mass., and the American Asylum for the Deaf in Hartford, Conn. In 1874, the year of this letter, Bell began printing the ‘Visible Speech Pioneer,’ a periodic publication that provided helpful information to various institutes for the deaf.Format: ALS