Hubbard, Gardiner Greene

Hubbard, Gardiner Greene

(1822–97) lawyer, businessman; born in Boston, Mass. The son of a Massachusetts judge, he was an 1841 Dartmouth graduate and practiced law in Boston and Washington, D.C. A civic leader, he helped introduce gaslight to Cambridge, Mass., took a leading role in building one of the country's first streetcar lines, and helped develop and expand telephone service. His daughter's deafness led to his interest in problems of the deaf and he was president of a school for the deaf in Northampton, Mass. He served 12 years on the Massachusetts Board of Education and, with his son-in-law Alexander Graham Bell, founded the journal Science. He was founder and first president (1888–97) of the National Geographic Society.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.