Helen Adams Keller

Helen Adams Keller was an American author, political activist, and lecturer, born June 27 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. She was the first Deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. Helen was a prolific author; she was also well traveled and outspoken in her convictions. As a member of the Socialist Party of America and the Industrial Workers of the World, she campaigned for women’s suffrage, labor rights, socialism, and other radical left causes. In 1971 she was inducted into the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame.

Keller was born with the ability to see and hear. However, at nineteen months old, she contracted an illness described by doctors as “an acute congestion of the stomach and brain”, which was suspected to be scarlet fever or meningitis. Although the illness left her deaf and blind, she was somewhat communicate with Martha Washington, a six year old, who understood her signs. By the age of seven, Helen had more than sixty home signs that she used to communicate with her family.

In 1886, Helen’s mother was inspired by an account in Charles Dickens’ American Notes of the successful education of another deaf and blind woman named Laura Bridgman, dispatched Helen accompanied by her father, to advise that they seek out physician J. Julian Chisholm, an eye, ear and throat specialist in Baltimore, for help. Keller then met Anne Sullivan, who was also visually impaired, and she became her instructor.