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Friday, June 27, 2014

Happy Birthday Helen Keller




Happy Birthday Helen Keller!






Born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, on June 27, 1880, Helen Keller was the first born child of Kate Adams Keller, and Captain Arthur Henley Keller.  It wasn’t until Helen was 19 months old that she came down with an illness, which the doctors at the time called acute congestion of the stomach and the brain. This illness left Helen blind and deaf.  In Helen Keller’s biography, The Story of My life, she mentions that one of her ancestors on her father’s side was a teacher for the deaf in Zurich, Switzerland. Keller states that this is no coincidence for “there is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who had not king among his.” (1)

                When Helen was 6 years old her mother became inspired by Dickens’s “American Notes,” where she read an account of Laura Bridgman, an educated woman who was also deaf and blind. This knowledge influenced Helen’s parents to contact Dr. Alexander Graham Bell who advised them to contact Mr. Anagnos, of the Perkins Institution in Boston.  This is how Annie Sullivan became Helen’s lifetime teacher and friend.

On March 3, 1887 Annie Sullivan arrived at the Keller household and met Helen sitting on the porch steps.  Annie began Helen’s education immediately by giving her a doll and spelling “d-o-l-l” into Helen’s hand.  However, Helen did not understand and became frustrated, which often resulted in violent tantrums.  About a month after Annie’s arrival, during a lesson in differentiating “water” and “mug” Annie spelled “w-a-t-e-r” into Helen’s palm while running water over her hands.  Here, Helen recalls this experience: suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten—a thrill of of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. (Keller, 16)  Annie continued to teach Helen new words and eventually Helen was learning to read, write, and speak. 


 Helen with Annie Sullivan in Tuscumbia, Alabama, 1887


Helen continued to flourish in life.  She would go on to become the first deaf-blind person to graduate with a bachelor of arts degree.  She published 12 books along with several articles.  Helen also was an advocate for people with disabilities.  She would become a permanent staff member for the American Foundation of the Blind as one of their most successful fundraisers.  Helen had a love for life and devoted much of it to helping others.  She remains, to this day, an extraordinary person who inspires us all.


“The human being is born with an incurable capacity for making the best of things.”
-Helen Keller 1919





Blind and Physically Handicapped Library Services
The Mississippi Library Commission serves as a free public library service for eligible Mississippi residents who are unable to read standard print due to visual, physical or organic reading disability.  The collection contains audio books, Braille books, books in large print, and descriptive videos.





For more information on American Foundation for the Blind and Perkins School for the Blind














Herrmann, Dorothy. Helen Keller: a life. New York: A. Knopf, 1998. Print.

Hess, Aimee. Helen Keller. San Francisco, Calif.: Pomegranate; 2006. Print.

Keller, Helen. The story of my life. New York: Bantam Books, 1990. Print.




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