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Helen Keller

The name of Helen Keller is known world wide as a symbol of courage.

Helen was a woman that was intelligent, with high ambition, and had great accomplishment.

She also devoted her life to helping others.

PARENTS:

Arthur H. Keller

Katherine Adams Keller

Birthplace

Was born on June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama

Way of living :

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, Keller contracted an illness— "an acute congestion of the stomach and the brain"which 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.

Early Childhood

she developed a limited method of communication with her companion, Martha Washington.

The two had created a type of sign language.

and by the time Keller was 7, they had invented more than 60 signs

Her parents contacted the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston.

Perkins Provided Keller with a teacher. Her name was Anne Sullivan.

Education:

1887, Sullivan went to Keller's home in Alabama and immediately went to work. She began by teaching Helen finger spelling, starting with the word "doll," to help Keller understand the gift of a doll she had brought along.

Formal education: In 1890, Keller began speech classes

at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf in Boston

From 1894 to 1896, she attended the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf in New York City. There, she worked on improving her communication skills and studied regular academic subjects

In 1896, she attended the Cambridge School for Young Ladies

Henry H. Rogers

Rogers was so impressed with Keller's talent, drive and determination that he agreed to pay for her to attend Radcliff College. There, she was accompanied by Sullivan, who sat by her side to interpret lectures and texts.

Graduation

When Helen graduated from Radcliffe College in 1904 she had mastered 5 different languages.

On Helen’s 50th anniversary of graduating from Radcliffe College, She was awarded the Alumnac Achievement Award.

Work:The Story of My Life

While at college Helen had wrote the 1st volume of her autobiography.

In 1902 it became a book.

The Miracle Worker

Helen Keller’s childhood education became a film called The Miracle Worker.

First it as a play by William Gibson and it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1960

The film won an Oscar in 1962.

Died in Westport,

Connecticut

June 1, 1968