Helen Keller, 1880-1968

Keller in 1907. Photo credit - LOC

A political activist, author, lecturer, and the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Helen Keller was born healthy in Ivy Green, her family homestead in Alabama. At 19 months old, she contracted an illness that left her deaf and blind. By the age of 7, she developed her own sign language to communicate with her family.

Her mother sought ways to improve her daughter’s life and contacted the director of the Perkins Institute for the Blind, who sent her Anne Sullivan, a young teacher who was a former student and visually impaired. Keller described Sullivan’s arrival as “my soul’s birthday.” It was the beginning of a relationship that lasted for 50 years.

As her governess, Sullivan taught Keller to communicate by spelling words into her hand. It took a month till Keller understood the concept, which happened when Sullivan taught her the word water, spelling it on one hand while pouring water on her other hand. This breakthrough opened Keller a door to a world of opportunities.

After several months of intensive training at home, Keller, with Sullivan by her side, started attending the Perkins Institute for the Blind. She moved between several schools, acquiring formal education and learning to live as a blind-deaf person. Keller learned to speak English, hear conversations by touching lips, hear music by touch and vibration, and the braille and sign languages.

At 16, she attended a preparatory school and later Radcliffe College, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts, becoming the first deaf and blind person to earn this degree.

After college, Keller became an author and worldwide lecturer and dedicated her life to improving the lives of disabled people. She advocated for women’s suffrage, labor rights, world peace, and equal rights. She traveled the world, gave lectures, promoted laws for people with disabilities, raised funds, wrote articles, and published 14 books, including her biography that got adapted into a movie, television drama, and Broadway play.

Keller died a few weeks before her 88th birthday.
In her lifetime, she changed the way society treated people with disabilities and proved that determination and willpower can enable one to overcome any obstacle.

 

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“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”

Fun Facts

  • By the age of 13, she already knew how to read braille in five languages – English, German, French, Greek, and Latin.
  • She loved and lived with dogs throughout her life. In her youth, she tried to teach her dog sign language by fingerspelling letters into its paw.
  • During her first visit to Japan in 1937, the Japanese government gave her an Akita puppy. It was the first Akita in the US.
  • In 1925, she addressed the Lions Club convention, asking them to help and support blind people. Since then, Lions Clubs from all over the globe have been helping blind people.
  • Anne Sullivan was Keller's companion till she got married in 1905, then Polly Thomson replaced her.
  • Her ashes were buried at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC, next to Anne Sullivan and Polly Thomson.
  • Clinics, libraries, and schools worldwide bear her name.
  • Her image is on the Alabama state quarter.
  • Helen Keller Day is observed annually on her birthday, June 27th.
  • There are several statues of her in Alabama, Massachusetts, Ohio, and in the US Capitol in DC (representing Alabama in the Statuary Hall Collection). One statue of her stands in Japan, and one in Canada.
  • Her childhood home, Ivy Green, became a museum commemorating her legacy.

Awards

  • Presidential Medal of Freedom
  • The Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal
  • Several honorary doctoral degrees

Creations By and About Her

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Category: Academy & Education, Activism & Feminism, and Literature & Poetry
Tags: Author, Educator, The Pioneering Women of the Capitol Hill Neighborhood, and WDC Metro Area Women

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Activism & Feminism

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A Founding Mother of the United States, a Women’s Rights Advocate, and the Second First Lady.

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Arts

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Activism & Feminism

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