Biography

Helen Keller was born on June 27,1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. When she was two years old, a serious illness left her deaf and blind. She had no formal education until age seven, and since she could not speak, she developed a system for communicating with her family by feeling their facial expressions. Recognizing her daughter’s intelligence, Keller’s mother sought help from experts, and eventually she was referred to Anne Sullivan, a graduate of the Perkins School for the Blind, who became Keller’s lifelong teacher and mentor. She used touch to teach Keller the alphabet and to make words by spelling them with her finger on Keller’s palm. Within a few weeks, Keller caught on. A year later, Sullivan brought Keller to the Perkins School in Boston, where she learned to read Braille and write with a specially made typewriter. 

In 1904, Keller graduated from Radcliffe College and was the first deafblind person in the United States to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. Prior to her graduation, she had published two books, The Story of My Life (1902) and Optimism (1903), which launched her career as a writer and lecturer. She authored a dozen books and articles in major magazines, advocating for prevention of blindness in children and for other causes, including supporting the suffrage movement, and became a pacifist during World War I. She, along with other social activists, founded the American Civil Liberties Union in 1920. Keller met several US presidents and was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. She also received honorary doctorates from Glasgow, Harvard, and Temple Universities.

“Biography: Helen Keller.” National Women’s History Museum, https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/helen-keller. Accessed 7 Mar. 2024.