Vintage matte-finish 9.75 x 13.75 portrait of the inventor in profile by Harris & Ewing, boldly signed and inscribed in the lower border in fountain pen, "To Mrs. Roland Granville Fortescue, with much love from her uncle, Alexander Graham Bell.” In very fine condition. An immaculate, neatly signed photo of the great inventor boasting an ideal familial association.
The recipient of this portrait, Grace Fortescue, was the daughter of Alexander Graham Bell's first cousin Charles John Bell. She married career soldier Granville Roland Fortescue, a Rough Rider and cousin of Theodore Roosevelt, in 1910. She came to national attention in the sensational 'Massie Trial' of 1932, when she was charged with murder and convicted by a jury of manslaughter for the death of Joseph Kahahawai, one of the defendants in the alleged rape of her daughter Thalia in Hawaii in 1931. She was defended by attorney Clarence Darrow, and her sentence was commuted one hour after the verdict by Hawaii's governor.
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