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Quick Facts
- NAME: Helen Keller
- OCCUPATION: Educator, Activist, Journalist
- BIRTH DATE: June 27, 1880
- DEATH DATE: June 01, 1968
- EDUCATION: Horace Mann School for the Deaf, Wright-Humason School for the Deaf, Cambridge School for Young Ladies, Radcliff College
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Tuscumbia, Alabama
- PLACE OF DEATH: Easton, Connecticut
- Full Name: Helen Keller
- Full Name: Helen Adams Keller
Best Known For
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.
Videos see all videos
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Mark Twain - Mini Biography (3:19)
Helen Keller - First Meeting the Miracle Worker
On March 3rd, 1887, Anne Sullivan arrived at the Keller's home in Alabama to work with their deaf and blind daughter, Helen. Through their work together, Helen Keller would go on to become one of the most influential people in history.
Helen Keller - Taught by Anne Sullivan
Helen Keller lost her sight and hearing when she was only 19 months old. With the help of her teacher, Anne Sullivan, she learned to read and speak.
Helen Keller - The World I See
An excerpt from the inspiring story of Helen Keller's, the famed deaf, blind, and mute woman who fought an incredibly courageous battle to communicate with the outside world and led a life of accomplishment.
Mark Twain - Mini Biography
Hannibal, Missouri native Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, was one of the premier writers of late 19th century America. He based his fictional works "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" on his hometown.
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Play NowHelen Adams Keller. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 12:17, May 24, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/helen-keller-9361967.
Helen Adams Keller. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/helen-keller-9361967 [Accessed 24 May 2013].
"Helen Adams Keller." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 24 2013, 12:17 http://www.biography.com/people/helen-keller-9361967.
"Helen Adams Keller," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/helen-keller-9361967 [accessed May 24, 2013].
"Helen Adams Keller," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/helen-keller-9361967 (accessed May 24, 2013).
Helen Adams Keller [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 24] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/helen-keller-9361967.
Helen Adams Keller, http://www.biography.com/people/helen-keller-9361967 (last visited May 24, 2013).
Helen Adams Keller. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/helen-keller-9361967. Accessed May 24, 2013.
Synopsis
Helen Adams Keller was born on June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. In 1882, she fell ill and was struck blind, deaf and mute. 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.
Contents
Quotes
"Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow."
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 18 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 Ann 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.
In March 1887, Sullivan went to Keller's home in Alabama and immediately went to work.
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