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.
CAPTAIN JAMES KELLER
 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.)
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 BABY
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.
HELEN’S ILLNESS
 In February of 1882, Helen
 The Keller’s were ecstatic
suddenly became ill with a very
when Helen’s fever broke, but
high fever.
Kate knew within days that
 The doctor’s diagnosis was
Helen had lost her sight and
“acute congestion of the
hearing.
stomach and brain”
 Helen’s brain was
 The prognosis was death.
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 A T 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
 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 and Annie
Sullivan became friends while
attending the Perkins Institute.
 Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe
was famous for the work his did
with Bridgman.
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL
 The Kellers took Helen to
 Dr. Bell was a Scottish
Baltimore to see a famous
inventor.
oculist, Dr. Chisholm, in 1886.
 He was particularly interested
 Although Dr. Chisholm could
not help the Kellers, he
suggested that the go see Dr.
Alexander Graham Bell.
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.
PREPARING TO TEACH
 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.
IVY
GREEN
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
BRAILLEWRITER
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.
PERKINS
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
RESPONSE
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!)
W R I G H T- H U M A S O N O R A L S C H O O L
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.
RADCLIFFE
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 HOME
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.”