Helen.

Helen had become a very unruly child and became very frustrated and began smashing dishes and breaking things. By the time Helen was six, her family was desperate for help. They called upon Alexander Graham Bell, who after inventing the telephone now was focused on the teaching of deaf children. He suggested that they should write to the director the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, Michael Anagnos and request a teacher for Helen. This man immediately tended to this case and appointed a former pupil of the school, Anne Sullivan.

Anne Sullivan had lost most of her sight when she was five. When she was ten, her mother died and her father left her. She and her brother were sent to the poorhouse in 1876. Her brother died in this house. In 1880, Anne left and went to earn her education at the Perkins Institution. At this institute, she had an operation on both of her eyes that helped her regain enough sight to read regular print for small amounts of time. When she graduated, it was very hard for her to find work because of her limited eyesight. When she heard of this offer that Michael Anagnos was saying, she accepted the opportunity with open arms.

(A picture of Anne Sullivan)


Anne arrived on March 3, 1887 to meet Helen for the first time. She taught her how to fingerspell. Helen was able to do this, but wasnt sure what it meant, which contributed to her anger. Anne and Helen moved into a small cottage on the Keller's land to try to get her behavior to improve. When Helen would have a temper tantrum, Anne would refuse to "talk" with Helen, which is just spelling words on her hands. A bond really began to be created between the two and Helen's behavior improved. After one month of her teaching, April 5, 1887, she led Helen to the water pump. Anne started pumping water on her hand and spelled out the word "water" on Helens hand. Anne saw that Helen actually understood the meaning of this word.

(This is the actual water fountain that Helen and Anne spent time)
Later, Helen wrote about this incident:
"We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of the honey-suckle with which it was covered. Someone was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten, a thrill of returning thought, and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me."
After this, Helen starting asking for other names of things and became very engaged. Within the next few hours, Helen had learned the spelling of at least thirty new words! After this, her progress was very astonishing. Not to long after this incident, Anne was teaching Helen how to read and to write with both ordinary and braille typewriters. Helen became a national sensation because of her progress. No other deaf and blind person had ever learned this fast.
There were many articles written about her which led to her meeting Alexander Graham Bell and President Cleveland. By 1890 she lived at the Perkins Institute still being taught by Anne.
Helen could understand what people were saying by touching their mouth and throat while they were talking, but she wanted to speak for herself. In March of 1890, Mary Swift Lamson came to try to teach Helen to speak. She failed at speaking at this stage in her education. Later, it was said that she had poor vocal cords that were not properly trained.

(This is an exerpt of a letter that Helen sent Anagnos.)
On November 4, 1891 Helen sent Anagnos a birthday gift of a short story she had written called "The Frost King". He was so impressed that he published it in a magazine saying that it was very important in literary history. Soon, the public discovered that the story was taken from one called "The Frost Fairies" by Margaret Canby. This ended Helen and Anne's friendship with Anagnos.
In 1894, Helen and Anne met John D Wright who wanted to open a school to teach speech to the deaf which she later joined. Sadly, her speech never improved.
She became the first deaf/blind person to ever be enrolled in a high learning school, because in 1896 she entered Radcliffe college.

(Radcliffe College)

Life was really hard for Anne and Helen at Radcliffe because there was very difficult work to be done. This led to the deterioration of Anne's eyesight. During this time, Helen began to write about her life. She wrote in braille and on the normal typewriter. This was published in 1903 and was called "The Story of My Life". It is a classic, although at the time it was a poor seller.
On June 28, 1904 Helen became the first Deafblind person to earn Bachelor of Arts Degree. She graduated!
In 1905, Anne married the editor of her book, John Macy. Anne's name was now Anne Sullivan Macy. Helen, Anne and John lived in Massachusetts and Helen wrote, "The World I Live In." which revealed her thoughts on her world.

Helen and Anne then gave lecture tours to speak of her experiences and beliefs to crowds. Anne interpreted what Helen was trying to say sentence by sentence. They made a good living from these lectures.
They were given the opportunity to make a film of her life and they jumped on this opportunity. Below is a clip from it.

In October, 1961, Helen suffered a series of strokes for the next few years. This ended her public life and she spent her years left being cared for at her house. In 1964, Helen was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedon, which is the nations highest civilian award, by Lyndon Johnson. A year after this award, she was elected to the Women's Hall of Fame at the New York World's Fair.

On June 1, 1968, at her house, Helen Died peacefullyin her sleep.