Bell-Grosvenor Families
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The Bell and Grosvenor families have a long and distinguished relationship with George Washington University. Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1942), famous inventor of the telephone, served on the Board of Trustees from 1904-1908. In 1967, the university named Bell Hall in his honor.
Alexander Graham Bell's daughters, Elsie Bell Grosvenor (class of 1897) and Marian Bell Fairchild (class of 1895), as well as nieces Grace Bell Fortescue (class of 1899) and Helen Bell Ripley (class of 1899), all graduated from Mount Vernon Seminary, which merged with GW in 1996.
Elsie Bell Grosvenor (1878-1964) lived a long life full of adventure. She was born in London while her father was there demonstrating the telephone to Queen Victoria. As a child, one of her playmates was Helen Keller. She was a civic worker, serving as vice-chairman of the National American Women's Suffrage Association, vice-president of the Twentieth Century Club (which campaigned to purify milk supplies), and as a member of the George Washington University Hospital’s Women’s Board.
In 1900, Elsie Bell married Gilbert Hovey Grosvenor (1875-1966), a professor of European history at Amherst. In 1903, Grosvenor became the first editor of National Geographic Magazine, a post which he held until his retirement in 1954. From 1916-1958, he simultaneously served on George Washington University's Board of Trustees, and the university bestowed upon him an honorary Doctor of Science degree in 1952. Together, Elsie Bell and Gilbert H. Grovsenor traveled all over the world, earning the nicknames of "Mr. and Mrs. Geography."
Their son, Melville Bell Grosvenor (1901-1982), succeeded him as the editor of National Geographic in 1957. In 1959, George Washington University awarded him an honorary LL.D. After a ten-year stint as editor-in-chief, he became a Trustee at GW, serving on the Committee on Academic Affairs, Committee on Personnel, and the Committee on Extracurricular Activities. In 1977 he was made an honorary member. In addition to his positions at the university, he coterminously directed the Riggs National Bank, as his father had before him. (These Riggs Bank records now reside in the Gelman Library's Department of Special Collections.)
Elsie Bell Grosvenor's daughters, Gertrude Hubbard Grosvenor (class of 1920), Mabel Harlakenden Grosvenor (class of 1923), and Lilian Waters Grosvenor (class of 1922), and daughter-in-law Helen Rowland Grosvenor (1921) also graduated from Mount Vernon Seminary. The George Washington University thus has strong ties not only to Gilbert and Elsie Grosvenor, but to the Mount Vernon Seminary, which was founded in 1875.
Document Information
Images: 3
Photographic Credit: Library of Congress; RG0044/Public Relations biography and photo files
Author or Source: RG0044/Public Relations files; Washington Post, Dec. 27, 1964; Dear Daughters: A History of Mount Vernon Seminary and College
Document Location: University Archives
Date Added to Encyclopedia: March 23, 2007
Prepared by: Evan Laney, Graduate Student Assistant
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