Bell, who was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, moved to Washington, D.C., in 1879. He was part of the original faculty of Georgetown's Dental School, then the Dental Department of the Medical School.
The first Circular of Information for the Department which appeared in 1901 includes his name among the clinical staff. It lists his area of expertise as Articular Speech-cleft Plate. The Dental Department was created from the Washington Dental College. This independent school was founded in 1897 at 625 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., and was accredited by the National Association of Dental Faculties in 1899. In May 1901, the Medical School faculty voted to approve the assimilation of the college as the Dental Department of the Medical School. Classes began in the fall of 1901 with 29 students, including two from Turkey and one from Japan. The School was closed in 1990.
While looking into Bell’s connections with Georgetown, we also happened upon this pamphlet from our rare book collections. Privately
printed from a paper that Bell read before the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1882, it discusses “the electrical experiments to determine the location of the bullet in the body of the late President Garfield.” Although in no way related to his Georgetown faculty position, Bell’s description of his attempts to save the President’s life gives additional context to the materials in our manuscript collections on Charles Guiteau and the Garfield assassination.
Lynn Conway, University Archivist
May 23, 2016