Gardiner G. (Gardiner Greene) Hubbard

Born in Boston in 1822, Gardiner Greene Hubbard was a lawyer, businessman, and civic leader with a strong interest in public improvement. He studied at Phillips Academy, Dartmouth College, and Harvard Law School, then built his career in Cambridge, where he worked on projects including water, gas, and street railway development.

Hubbard is best remembered for backing Alexander Graham Bell’s early telephone work and becoming the first president of the Bell Telephone Company. He was also a founder and first president of the National Geographic Society, helped found the journal Science, and played an important role in supporting oral education for deaf students through the Clarke School for the Deaf.

His family life was closely tied to Bell’s story: his daughter Mabel Gardiner Hubbard married Alexander Graham Bell. By the time of his death in 1897, Hubbard had left a wide mark on American business, science, and public life.