Okla-homey
3/3/2008, 07:38 AM
March 3, 1887: Helen Keller meets her miracle worker
http://aycu40.webshots.com/image/44399/2004407046935044308_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004407046935044308)
Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan
121 years ago today, on this day in 1887, Anne Sullivan begins teaching six-year-old Helen Keller, who lost her sight and hearing after a severe illness at the age of 19 months.
Under Sullivan's tutelage, including her pioneering "touch teaching" techniques, the previously uncontrollable Keller flourished, eventually graduating from college and becoming an international lecturer and activist. Sullivan, later dubbed "the miracle worker," remained Keller's interpreter and constant companion until the older woman's death in 1936.
Sullivan, born in Massachusetts in 1866, had firsthand experience with being handicapped: As a child, an infection impaired her vision. She then attended the Perkins Institution for the Blind where she learned the manual alphabet in order to communicate with a classmate who was deaf and blind. Eventually, Sullivan had several operations that improved her weakened eyesight.
Helen Adams Keller was born on June 27, 1880, to Arthur Keller, a former Confederate army officer and newspaper publisher, and his wife Kate, of Tuscumbia, Alabama. Kate Adams Keller was a second cousin of Confederate icon Robert E. Lee and daughter of Charles W. Adams, a former Confederate general
As a baby, a brief illness, possibly scarlet fever, left Helen unable to see, hear or speak. She was considered a bright but spoiled and strong-willed child. Her parents eventually sought the advice of Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone and an authority on the deaf. He suggested the Kellers contact the Perkins Institution, which in turn recommended Anne Sullivan as a teacher.
Sullivan, age 20, arrived at Ivy Green, the Keller family estate, in 1887 and began working to socialize her wild, stubborn student and teach her by spelling out words in Keller's hand.
http://aycu11.webshots.com/image/46650/2004442605351373456_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004442605351373456)
Ivy Green, the Keller estate in Tuscumbia is open to the public
Initially, the finger spelling meant nothing to Keller. However, a breakthrough occurred one day when Sullivan held one of Keller's hands under water from a pump and spelled out "w-a-t-e-r" in Keller's palm. Keller went on to learn how to read, write and speak. With Sullivan's assistance, Keller attended Radcliffe College (now part of Harvard University.)
http://aycu10.webshots.com/image/44049/2004435001607993945_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004435001607993945)
Two Alabama girls inspect the water pump on the Keller property where Helen Keller first learned the word "water."
Her admirer Samuel Clemens (a/k/a Mark Twain) had introduced her to Standard Oil magnate Henry Huttleton Rogers, who, with his wife, paid for her education. In 1904, at the age of 24, Keller graduated from Radcliffe magna cum laude, becoming the first deafblind person in the world to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.
http://aycu26.webshots.com/image/44025/2004467679238495057_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004467679238495057)
Helen Keller became a public speaker and author; her first book, "The Story of My Life" was published in 1902. She was also a fundraiser for the American Foundation for the Blind and an advocate for racial and sexual equality, as well as socialism. Keller was a member of the Socialist Party and actively campaigned and wrote in support of the working classes from 1909 to 1921.
http://aycu18.webshots.com/image/46017/2004446400377706468_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004446400377706468)
Example of Keller's handwriting
She wrote for the IWW between 1916 and 1918. In "Why I Became an IWW" Keller explained that her motivation for activism came in part from her concern about blindness and other disabilities:
“ I was appointed on a commission to investigate the conditions of the blind. For the first time I, who had thought blindness a misfortune beyond human control, found that too much of it was traceable to wrong industrial conditions, often caused by the selfishness and greed of employers. And the social evil contributed its share. I found that poverty drove women to a life of shame that ended in blindness. ”
The last sentence refers to prostitution and syphilis, a leading cause of blindness.
She supported Socialist Party candidate Eugene V. Debs in each of his campaigns for the presidency. There is no question Keller was an avowed Socialist, and you can even Google up a pdf version of her FBI file.
http://aycu16.webshots.com/image/44815/2004426160981714526_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004426160981714526)
Keller wrote a documentary film on her life which won the Academy Award for the best documentary film in 1954
On September 14, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded Helen Keller the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the United States' highest two civilian honors. In 1965 she was elected to the Women's Hall of Fame at the New York World's Fair.
http://aycu17.webshots.com/image/44376/2004450213302342814_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004450213302342814)
Helen Keller meets President Eisenhower
http://aycu36.webshots.com/image/44515/2004422851270106700_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004422851270106700)
Keller and JFK
Helen Keller died on June 1, 1968, at her home in Westport, Connecticut, at age 87. A service was held in her honor at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC and her ashes were placed there next to her constant companion, Anne Sullivan whom she first encountered on this day in 1887.
In 1999, Keller was listed in Gallup's Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century. In 2003, Alabama honored its native daughter on its state quarter.
http://aycu30.webshots.com/image/44789/2004410316159747138_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004410316159747138)
The Braille on the Alabama quarter was the first use of Braille on American coinage
http://aycu01.webshots.com/image/45800/2004412086297923058_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004412086297923058)
http://aycu40.webshots.com/image/44399/2004407046935044308_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004407046935044308)
Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan
121 years ago today, on this day in 1887, Anne Sullivan begins teaching six-year-old Helen Keller, who lost her sight and hearing after a severe illness at the age of 19 months.
Under Sullivan's tutelage, including her pioneering "touch teaching" techniques, the previously uncontrollable Keller flourished, eventually graduating from college and becoming an international lecturer and activist. Sullivan, later dubbed "the miracle worker," remained Keller's interpreter and constant companion until the older woman's death in 1936.
Sullivan, born in Massachusetts in 1866, had firsthand experience with being handicapped: As a child, an infection impaired her vision. She then attended the Perkins Institution for the Blind where she learned the manual alphabet in order to communicate with a classmate who was deaf and blind. Eventually, Sullivan had several operations that improved her weakened eyesight.
Helen Adams Keller was born on June 27, 1880, to Arthur Keller, a former Confederate army officer and newspaper publisher, and his wife Kate, of Tuscumbia, Alabama. Kate Adams Keller was a second cousin of Confederate icon Robert E. Lee and daughter of Charles W. Adams, a former Confederate general
As a baby, a brief illness, possibly scarlet fever, left Helen unable to see, hear or speak. She was considered a bright but spoiled and strong-willed child. Her parents eventually sought the advice of Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone and an authority on the deaf. He suggested the Kellers contact the Perkins Institution, which in turn recommended Anne Sullivan as a teacher.
Sullivan, age 20, arrived at Ivy Green, the Keller family estate, in 1887 and began working to socialize her wild, stubborn student and teach her by spelling out words in Keller's hand.
http://aycu11.webshots.com/image/46650/2004442605351373456_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004442605351373456)
Ivy Green, the Keller estate in Tuscumbia is open to the public
Initially, the finger spelling meant nothing to Keller. However, a breakthrough occurred one day when Sullivan held one of Keller's hands under water from a pump and spelled out "w-a-t-e-r" in Keller's palm. Keller went on to learn how to read, write and speak. With Sullivan's assistance, Keller attended Radcliffe College (now part of Harvard University.)
http://aycu10.webshots.com/image/44049/2004435001607993945_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004435001607993945)
Two Alabama girls inspect the water pump on the Keller property where Helen Keller first learned the word "water."
Her admirer Samuel Clemens (a/k/a Mark Twain) had introduced her to Standard Oil magnate Henry Huttleton Rogers, who, with his wife, paid for her education. In 1904, at the age of 24, Keller graduated from Radcliffe magna cum laude, becoming the first deafblind person in the world to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.
http://aycu26.webshots.com/image/44025/2004467679238495057_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004467679238495057)
Helen Keller became a public speaker and author; her first book, "The Story of My Life" was published in 1902. She was also a fundraiser for the American Foundation for the Blind and an advocate for racial and sexual equality, as well as socialism. Keller was a member of the Socialist Party and actively campaigned and wrote in support of the working classes from 1909 to 1921.
http://aycu18.webshots.com/image/46017/2004446400377706468_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004446400377706468)
Example of Keller's handwriting
She wrote for the IWW between 1916 and 1918. In "Why I Became an IWW" Keller explained that her motivation for activism came in part from her concern about blindness and other disabilities:
“ I was appointed on a commission to investigate the conditions of the blind. For the first time I, who had thought blindness a misfortune beyond human control, found that too much of it was traceable to wrong industrial conditions, often caused by the selfishness and greed of employers. And the social evil contributed its share. I found that poverty drove women to a life of shame that ended in blindness. ”
The last sentence refers to prostitution and syphilis, a leading cause of blindness.
She supported Socialist Party candidate Eugene V. Debs in each of his campaigns for the presidency. There is no question Keller was an avowed Socialist, and you can even Google up a pdf version of her FBI file.
http://aycu16.webshots.com/image/44815/2004426160981714526_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004426160981714526)
Keller wrote a documentary film on her life which won the Academy Award for the best documentary film in 1954
On September 14, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded Helen Keller the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the United States' highest two civilian honors. In 1965 she was elected to the Women's Hall of Fame at the New York World's Fair.
http://aycu17.webshots.com/image/44376/2004450213302342814_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004450213302342814)
Helen Keller meets President Eisenhower
http://aycu36.webshots.com/image/44515/2004422851270106700_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004422851270106700)
Keller and JFK
Helen Keller died on June 1, 1968, at her home in Westport, Connecticut, at age 87. A service was held in her honor at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC and her ashes were placed there next to her constant companion, Anne Sullivan whom she first encountered on this day in 1887.
In 1999, Keller was listed in Gallup's Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century. In 2003, Alabama honored its native daughter on its state quarter.
http://aycu30.webshots.com/image/44789/2004410316159747138_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004410316159747138)
The Braille on the Alabama quarter was the first use of Braille on American coinage
http://aycu01.webshots.com/image/45800/2004412086297923058_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2004412086297923058)