Today in History: Helen Keller meets her miracle worker
Under Anne Sullivan’s tutelage, the previously uncontrollable Keller flourished, eventually graduating from college and becoming an international lecturer and activist.
On this day in 1887, Anne Sullivan began teaching six-year-old Helen Keller, who has lost her sight and hearing after a severe illness at the age of 19 months.
Anne, later dubbed ‘the miracle worker’, remained Helen’s interpreter and constant companion until the older woman’s death in 1936.
Born in Massachusetts in 1866, Anne 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, Anne had several operations that improved her weakened eyesight.
Helen Adams Keller was born on 27 June 1880, and as a baby, a brief illness, possibly scarlet fever, left her 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. Anne, aged 20, arrived at Ivy Green, the Keller family estate, in 1887 and began working to socialise her wild, stubborn student and teach her by spelling out words in Helen’s hand.
Initially, the finger spelling meant nothing to Helen. However, a breakthrough occurred one day when Anne held one of Helen’s hands under water from a pump and spelled out “w-a-t-e-r” in her palm. Helen went on to learn how to read, write and speak. With Anne’s assistance, she attended Radcliffe College and graduated with honours in 1904.
Helen eventually 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.
From 1920 to 1924, Anne and Helen went so far as to form a vaudeville act to educate the public and earn money.
Helen died on 1 June 1968, at her home in Westport, Connecticut, at the age of 87, leaving her mark on the world by helping to alter perceptions about the disabled.
Information courtesy of: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/helen-keller-meets-her-miracle-worker.
