American
educator Helen Keller overcame the adversity of being blind and deaf to become
one of the 20th century's leading humanitarians, as well as co-founder of the
ACLU.
Synopsis
Helen
Adams Keller was born on June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. In 1882, she was stricken
by an illness that left her blind and deaf. Beginning in 1887, Keller's
teacher, Anne Sullivan, helped her make tremendous progress with her ability to
communicate, and Keller went on to college, graduating in 1904. In 1920, Keller
helped found the ACLU. During her lifetime, she received many honors in
recognition of her accomplishments.
Early
Life
Helen
Keller was the first of two daughters born to Arthur H. Keller and Katherine
Adams Keller. She also had two older stepbrothers. Keller's father had proudly
served as an officer in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. The family
was not particularly wealthy and earned income from their cotton plantation.
Later, Arthur became the editor of a weekly local newspaper, the North
Alabamian. Keller was born with her senses of sight and hearing, and started
speaking when she was just 6 months old. She started walking at the age of 1.
Loss
of Sight and Hearing
In
1882, however, Keller contracted an illness—called "brain fever" by
the family doctor that produced a high body temperature. The true nature of the
illness remains a mystery today, though some experts believe it might have been
scarlet fever or meningitis. Within a few days after the fever broke, Keller's
mother noticed that her daughter didn't show any reaction when the dinner bell
was rung, or when a hand was waved in front of her face. Keller had lost both
her sight and hearing. She was just 19 months old.
As
Keller grew into childhood, she developed a limited method of communication with
her companion, Martha Washington, the young daughter of the family cook. The
two had created a type of sign language, and by the time Keller was 7, they had
invented more than 60 signs to communicate with each other. But Keller had
become very wild and unruly during this time. She would kick and scream when
angry, and giggle uncontrollably when happy. She tormented Martha and inflicted
raging tantrums on her parents. Many family relatives felt she should be
institutionalized.
Educator Anne Sullivan
Looking for answers and inspiration, in 1886, Keller's
mother came across a travelogue by Charles Dickens, American Notes. She read of
the successful education of another deaf and blind child, Laura Bridgman, and
soon dispatched Keller and her father to Baltimore, Maryland to see specialist
Dr. J. Julian Chisolm. After examining Keller, Chisolm recommended that she see
Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, who was working with deaf
children at the time. Bell met with Keller and her parents, and suggested that
they travel to the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston, Massachusetts.
There, the family met with the school's director, Michael Anaganos. He
suggested Helen work with one of the institute's most recent graduates, Anne
Sullivan. And so began a 49-year relationship between teacher and pupil.
On
March 3, 1887, Sullivan went to Keller's home in Alabama and immediately went
to work. She began by teaching six year-old Helen finger spelling, starting
with the word "doll," to help Keller understand the gift of a doll
she had brought along. Other words would follow. At first, Keller was curious,
then defiant, refusing to cooperate with Sullivan's instruction. When Keller
did cooperate, Sullivan could tell that she wasn't making the connection
between the objects and the letters spelled out in her hand. Sullivan kept
working at it, forcing Helen to go through the regimen. As
Keller's frustration grew, the tantrums increased. Finally, Sullivan demanded
that she and Keller be isolated from the rest of the family for a time, so that
Keller could concentrate only on Sullivan's instruction. They moved to a
cottage on the plantation.
In
a dramatic struggle, Sullivan taught Keller the word "water"; she
helped her make the connection between the object and the letters by taking
Keller out to the water pump, and placing Keller's hand under the spout. While
Sullivan moved the lever to flush cool water over Keller's hand, she spelled
out the word w-a-t-e-r on Helen's other hand. Keller understood and repeated
the word in Sullivan's hand. She then pounded the ground, demanding to know its
"letter name." Sullivan followed her, spelling out the word into her
hand. Keller moved to other objects with Sullivan in tow. By nightfall, she had
learned 30 words.
A
Formal Education
In
1890, Keller began speech classes at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in
Boston. She would toil for 25 years to learn to speak so that others could
understand her. From 1894 to 1896, she attended the Wright-Humason School for
the Deaf in New York City. There, she worked on improving her communication
skills and studied regular academic subjects.
Around
this time, Keller became determined to attend college. In 1896, she attended
the Cambridge School for Young Ladies, a preparatory school for women. As her
story became known to the general public, Keller began to meet famous and
influential people. One of them was the writer Mark Twain, who was very
impressed with her. They became friends. Twain introduced her to his friend
Henry H. Rogers, a Standard Oil executive. Rogers was so impressed with
Keller's talent, drive and determination that he agreed to pay for her to
attend Radcliffe College. There, she was accompanied by Sullivan, who sat by
her side to interpret lectures and texts.
By
this time, Keller had mastered several methods of communication, including
touch-lip reading, Braille, speech, typing and finger-spelling. With the help
of Sullivan and Sullivan's future husband, John Macy, Keller wrote her first
book, The Story of My Life. It covered her transformation from childhood to
21-year-old college student. Keller graduated, cum laude, from Radcliffe in
1904, at the age of 24.
In
1905, Sullivan married John Macy, an instructor at Harvard University, a social
critic and a prominent socialist. After the marriage, Sullivan continued to be
Keller's guide and mentor. When Keller went to live with the Macys, they both
initially gave Keller their undivided attention. Gradually, however, Anne and
John became distant to each other, as Anne's devotion to Keller continued
unabated. After several years, they separated, though were never divorced.
Helen
Keller's Later Life
Head
and shoulder portrait of a beaming Helen on her 80th birthday, June 1960. Helen
suffered a stroke in 1960, and from 1961 onwards, she lived quietly at Arcan
Ridge, her home in Westport, Connecticut, one of the four main places she lived
during her lifetime. (The others were Tuscumbia, Alabama; Wrentham,
Massachusetts; and Forest Hills, New York).
She
made her last major public appearance in 1961 at a Washington, D.C., Lions
Clubs International Foundation meeting. At that meeting, she received the Lions
Humanitarian Award for her lifetime of service to humanity and for providing
the inspiration for the adoption by Lions Clubs International Foundation of
their sight conservation and aid to blind programs. During that visit to
Washington, she also called on President John F. Kennedy at the White House.
President Kennedy was just one in a long line of presidents Helen had met. In
her lifetime, she had met all of the presidents since Grover Cleveland.
Helen
Keller died on June 1, 1968, at Arcan Ridge, a few weeks short of her 88th
birthday. Her ashes were placed next to her companions, Anne Sullivan Macy and
Polly Thomson, in St. Joseph's Chapel of Washington Cathedral. Senator Lister
Hill of Alabama gave a eulogy during the public memorial service. He said,
"She will live on, one of the few, the immortal names not born to die. Her
spirit will endure as long as man can read and stories can be told of the woman
who showed the world there are no boundaries to courage and faith."
Source
:
https://www.biography.com/people/helen-keller-9361967
http://www.afb.org/info/about-us/helen-keller/biography-and-chronology/biography/1235
