Life story
Helen Adams Keller was born on 27 June 1880 in West Tuscumbia, Alabama. When she was nineteen months old, an illness left her without sight and without hearing, closing off the ordinary paths by which a child comes to know the world. For her first years she reached toward others through home signs of her own making.
At the age of seven she met Anne Sullivan, the teacher who would become her lifelong companion. Sullivan patiently opened the doors of language to her, teaching her to read and to write. Through this bond, a silent and unseeing girl gradually found her way into the world of words and ideas.
After studying at both specialist and mainstream schools, Keller attended Radcliffe College of Harvard University, becoming the first deafblind person in the United States to earn a college diploma. She went on to work as an author, lecturer, disability rights advocate and political activist, giving voice to those whose lives were too often unseen.
Helen Keller died on 1 June 1968 near Easton. She rests at Washington National Cathedral. Her life remains a quiet testament to the reach of the human mind and the difference one patient teacher can make.
Životopisné údaje z verejných zdrojov. Portrét: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).
Constellation of Life
Important milestones that shaped their journey.