HELEN KELLER

Birth through Age 24

HELEN KELLER

Helen Keller and Annie

Sullivan

CAPTAIN JAMES KELLER

Captain Keller was a wealthy

landowner and newspaper

publisher.

He came from a distinguished

southern family.

Captain Keller served in the

Civil War and was quite

respected by the residents of

Tuscumbia.

Keller owned and edited

his own weekly newspaper,

the North Alabamian.

Captain Keller was an avid

hunter.

After the death of his first

wife, he married Kate

Adams (whom was 20 years

younger than Captain

Keller.)

CAPTAIN JAMES KELLER

KATE ADAMS KELLER

While Captain Keller

worked in his newspaper

office in town, Kate

tended the pigs, turkeys,

chickens, and sheep that

roamed their property.

Kate enjoyed

gardening and curing

country hams.

HELEN’S YOUNG LIFE

Helen Adams Keller

was born in Tuscumbia,

Alabama on June 27,

1880.

Helen was born with

both sight and hearing.

HELEN AS A BABYClick icon to add picture

Helen was a very intelligent

baby

Her parents insisted that at

the age of 6 months she

could say “wah-wah” for

water and “how do you do?”

She took her first steps on

her first birthday

She gleefully ran to her

father every evening to give

him a welcome home kiss.

In February of 1882,

Helen suddenly became

ill with a very high fever.

The doctor’s diagnosis

was “acute congestion of

the stomach and brain”

The prognosis was

death.

HELEN’S ILLNESS

The Keller’s were

ecstatic when Helen’s

fever broke, but Kate

knew within days that

Helen had lost her sight

and hearing.

Helen’s brain was

permanently damaged.

QUOTE FROM HELEN KELLER

“I was too young to realize what had

happened. When I awoke and found that all

was dark and still, I suppose I thought it was

night and I must have wondered why day was

so long in coming. Gradually, however, I got

used to the silence and darkness that

surrounded me, and forgot that it ever had

been day. Soon even my childish voice was

stilled because I had ceased to hear any

sound.”

H E L E N AT T E M P T E D T O.C O M M U N I C AT E W I T H H E R FA M I LY

If she desired a piece of cake, she developed a gesture for

beating the batter.

Bread was signaled by making the motions of spreading

butter and slicing.

If she wanted ice cream, she imitated the turning of the ice

cream’s freezer.

As Helen grew and her vocabulary of signs expanded, her

parents hoped something could be done to rehabilitate Helen.

Laura Bridgman, the first

known deaf and blind person to

be educated, went to study at

the Perkins Institute for the

Blind when she was seven

years old.

The Kellers first learned of

Bridgman after reading Charles

Dickens’s American notes.

LAURA BRIDGMAN

LAURA BRIDGMAN

Laura Bridgman and

Annie Sullivan became

friends while attending

the Perkins Institute.

Dr. Samuel Gridley

Howe was famous for

the work his did with

Bridgman.

The Kellers took Helen

to Baltimore to see a

famous oculist, Dr.

Chisholm, in 1886.

Although Dr. Chisholm

could not help the

Kellers, he suggested

that the go see Dr.

Alexander Graham Bell.

ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL

Dr. Bell was a Scottish

inventor.

He was particularly

interested in the deaf because

both his mother and his wife

were deaf.

Bell’s father was a pioneer

in deaf education, inventing

“visible speech”

DR. ANAGNOS

Dr. Bell suggested that the Kellers write Dr.

Howe’s successor at the Perkins Institute, Dr.

Michael Agagnos.

Dr. Anagnos immediately noticed the similarities

between Laura Bridgman and Helen Keller.

He felt that Anne Mansfield Sullivan would be just

the person to teach young Helen.

Annie Sullivan spent 6 months

studying Howe’s files on his

work with Laura Bridgman.

Sullivan was to be paid $25 a

week for her job to teach Helen.

In March of 1887 Annie took

the long train ride to become

Helen’s teacher.

PREPARING TO TEACH

IVY GREENClick icon to add picture

The Keller

Home

Tuscumbia

Alabama

IVY GREEN

The

Cottage

IVY GREEN DINING ROOM

HELEN AND ANNIE

After only 32 days

with Annie

Sullivan, Helen

could

communicate with

others, express

herself, ask

questions and

receive answers.

LEARNING TO READ

By the end of May Annie began to teach Helen to

read letters using the raised letter alphabet .

She then moved on to the simple raised letter

books.

Annie wrote to Perkins and requested personalized

word cards for Helen with the names of Helen’s

family and things in her environment.

LEARNING TO WRITE

By June Annie was teaching Helen to write.

A writing board enabled her to say within even horizontal

lines so that the worlds were uniform and legible to others.

By guiding her write hand with her left, she reproduced

the raised letters that she felt on the alphabet cards.

Known as square-hand script, this form of writing was

taught to students at Perkins.

BRAILLE

Soon after Helen’s 7th

birthday, Sullivan

began to teach her to

read braille.

Braille was invented by

the Frenchman, Louis

Braille , in the 1820’s.

HELEN’S BRAILLEWRITERClick icon to add picture

Helen first learned

to write using a

Braille stylus.

She later aquired a

six key device

known as a

Braillewriter,

making writing

much easier.

HELEN FIRST VISIT TO PERKINS

In May, 1888, Dr. Anagnos extended an invitation

for Helen and Annie to visit The Perkins Institute.

Mrs. Keller, Annie, and Helen took the trip

together.

Helen was visited with both Dr. Alexander Graham

Bell and President Grover Cleveland.

PERKINSClick icon to add picture

Although Helen was

never enrolled as a

student at Perkins.

She and Annie spent

four winters there.

Helen studied and had

the opportunity to

socialize with other

blind children.

PLAGARISM

On the occasion of his birthday in November of 1891, Helens sent

Anagnos a “little story which I wrote for your birthday gift.”

Anagnos had the story published. Reports soon surfaced that

claimed Helen’s story was not original.

Anagnos arranged for a “trail” to take place at Perkins.

Helen was questioned for two hours.

Anagnos was the last vote to determine Helen “not guilty,” but

later changed his vote to guilty.

MARK TWAIN’S RESPONSEClick icon to add picture

It was later determined that

the story had been read to

Helen three years earlier,

but she had not remembered

it.

Mark Twain commented on

the trial. “Oh, dear me, how

unspeakably funny and

owlishly idiotic and

grotesque was the

“plagarism farce!)

WRIGHT-HUMASON ORAL SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF

Dr. Alexander Graham Bell asked John Spaulding to pay for

Helen to attend the Wright-Humason Oral School for the Deaf

in New York City.

Helen began in October of 1894. Annie Sullivan remained

by her side.

Helen attended the school for two years.

Helen did very well in all of her studies, but was never able

to speak and lip-reading entire sentences was difficult for her.

Helen attended the Cambridge School for Young Ladies in

Cambridge, Massachusetts.

She began in September 1896. The school’s director,

Arthur Gillman, felt Helen should remain at Cambridge for a

third year.

Annie Sullivan was against it. Gillman wrote to Mrs. Keller

and told her Annie was working Helen too hard.

Mrs. Keller named Mr. Gillman as Helen’s legal guardian.

Gillman separated Helen and Annie.

Annie wrote a telegram to Mrs. Keller stating “We need

you.”

Mrs. Keller immediately went to them and was outraged to

find that Gillman had separated the two ladies.

She immediately withdrew Helen from the school.

Helen and Annie worked for two years with a tutor, Merton

Keith, to help prepare Helen for college.

In 1902 The Ladie’s Home Journal asked Helen to write the

story of her life.

The magazine paid Helen $3000.

John Macy, a Harvard professor, agreed to edit the work,

along with Sullivan’s help.

The first installment was published and four more followed.

1903 – The articles were turned into a book called The Story

of My Life.

RADCLIFFEClick icon to add picture

At the age of 20 Helen

entered Radcliffe

College.

Annie continued to work

with Helen and she

graduated from Radcliffe

at the age of 23.

HELEN’S HOMEClick icon to add picture

With money from the

sale of the book Helen

and Annie purchased

a 7 acre estate in

Wrentham,

Massachusetts.

Helen said, “ I shall

devote my life to

those who suffer from

loss of sight.”