"Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you."

On this date in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for his revolutionary invention - the telephone. Just a few days later the 29-year-old inventor and his assistant exchanged the first intelligible telephone message.

The Library of Congress's American Memory Project is a rich source of digitized material pertaining to Bell. The Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers features well over 4,000 items including, scientific notebooks, journals, blueprints, articles, and photographs. Thanks to http://www.history.com/ for fodder for today's post. The photo of Bell above comes from the Library of Congress.