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.
