Boston University - HUB Yearbook (Boston, MA)

Page 20 text:

SILAS PEIRCE

Page 19 text:

ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL LEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, who died August 2, 1922, was professor of the Mechanism of Speech in the School of Oratory of Boston Univer- sity from 1874 to 1879. Here he devoted all his energy to the teaching and study of science in all its forms and became especially interested in mul- tiple telegraphy and telephony. It was while he was connected with Boston University that all his work on the invention of the telephone was done. One of his pupils in vocal physiology, Mabel Hubbard of Cambridge, his fiancee, lost her speech and hearing in childhood. And Bell, in trying to arrange an electrical contrivance. discovered the secret of the transmitter. By the year 1878 Professor Bele work had become so widely known in the scientific world that Oxford University invited him to deliver a course of lectures in that institution. This application from Oxford to a Boston University professor marked the beginning of the system of international exchange professorships. While Dr. Bell was connected with Boston University other honors came to the institution through his brilliant work. At the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1877 he received a silver medal for his System of Visible Speech, and was awarded the Grand Prize of Honor for the telephone. Bell was given a reception by President Murlin and the trustees and faculty of Boston University at the Boston City Club, March 14, 1916. The inventor told some of his early experiments. itGentlemen, he said. 7these things which I have described are the by-products of my work in your institution, and were made possible because of the encouragement of your University?

Page 21 text:

SILAS PEIRCE ILAS PEIRCE, Treasurer of Boston University and since 1899 a member of the Board of Trustees, died suddenly at his residence, 175 Harvard Street, Brookline, on Sunday afternoon, December 10. Al- though for several months he had not been in good health, the announce- ment of his death was a distinct shock to the University community. BIL Peirce was born in Boston, August 16, 1860. NIr. Peirce graduated from the Boston English High School in 1878 and immediately entered the employ of the Wholesale grocery firm of Silas Peirce 8 Co., which was established in 1815 by his great-uncle, Silas Peirce. When the young man entered the employ of this ho'use in 1878 his father, Silas Peirce Qd, was a partner. NIr. Peirce later became in turn a partner in the firm, and upon the incorporation of the business as Silas Peirce dk C0,, Ltd., he became President and a director, holdng these offices until his death. Besides his business connection with this corporation, he was a director of the Northern Railroad and 0f the Old Corner Book Store. He was an ex-president 0f the Boston Wholesale Grocers, Association and. from 1904 un til its affairs were liquidated, he was a director and President of the North American Insurance Company of Boston. He was also a member of the Society of the Sons of the Revolution in the Commonwealth of Massa- chusetts, the Boston Chamber of Commerce. and the Seituate Historical Society. -Bostonia, January, 1923