The Life of Helen Keller | A Kick Of History

 Hello everyone! Welcome to A Kick Of History! In today's post we will  talk about a very inspiring and monumental female figure! We will learn about the life of Helen Keller. But before we get into I would really appreciate it if you follow or subscribe to the blog! This way you get notified whenever I post and you won't miss anything! Also, if you want you can post a comment on something that you are very interested in and would like to learn about it history! I will check the comment and might do my next post on it! Now without any more interruptions, let's get onto it! All my info is from this site: https://www.afb.org/about-afb/history/helen-keller/biography-and-chronology/biography

Helen Adams Keller was born as a very healthy child in Tuscumbia, Alabama on the day of June 27, 1880. She was born to Kate Adams Keller and Colonel Arthur Keller. At the age of merely 19 months, Helen unexpectedly became deaf and blind due to an unidentified illness. This illness is thought to be rubella or scarlet fever. And because Helen could not hear or understand anything, she became a very unruly and wild child. She was actually extremely hard to manage, as she would constantly have temper tantrums and disobey her parents. 

But on the day of March 3, 1887 Helen's life was changed completely. This was the day that Anne Mansfield Sullivan travelled to Tuscumbia to become her teacher and lifelong friend. 

At the time Anne was only 20 years old and a graduate of Perkins Institute for the Blind. Compared to Helen, Anne couldn't have had a more different upbringing. Anne was the daughter of poor Irish immigrants and started attending Perkins at the age of 14. This was after four whole horrific years as ward of the state in Massachusetts at the Tewksbury Almshouse. 

Anne was just 14 years older than he little pupil Anne. And she too had serious problems with her vision. Anne went through many surgeries at a young age until her sight was somewhat restored. 

Anne always believed that the key to finally reaching Helen was to teach her obedience and love. Anne saw that she needed to discipline, but not crush the spirit of her young student. So, on the first week of her arrival, Anne got permission from her parents to move Helen out of the family house and into a small cottage nearby where they would live together. This lasted for about two weeks.

Anne started teaching Helen by signing into her hand. She even took a doll that the children had made for her at the Perkins Institute to show to Helen. Then, she signed the word "doll" into Helen's hands. She had hoped that Anne would learn to connect words with letters. Helen did learn to form the letters correctly and put them in the correct order, but she did not know that she was actually spelling a word. She did not even know or understand that words had existed. In the days that followed she learned a lot more words in this way. 

On the day of April 5, 1887, Anne sought out to fix the confusion Helen was having with the words "mug" and "milk" which Helen often confused with the word "drink". So to fix this problem Anne took Helen outside to a water pump, and put Helen's hands underneath the water. As the water rushed onto her hands Anne spelt the word "water" into Helens hands. Suddenly it clicked. The signals suddenly had meaning in Helen's mind. She finally understood that water was the cool liquid hat was flowing over her hand.

Helen then pointed at the ground and demanded to know what that was called. In that day alone Helen learn 30 words with Anne. It was a moment of great satisfaction and pleasure. 

After this great epiphany Helen went on to master the alphabet, in both manual and raised print made for the blind. She also gained much facility in reading and writing. When you looked at Helen's handwriting, some of the letters actually looked square, but it was very legible all in all. 

In the year 1890, Helen suddenly had a craving to learn to speak. So, Anne had taken Helen to see a woman named Sarah Fuller at the Horace Mann School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Boston. Sarah gave Helen a total 11 lessons on how to speak, these were then followed with lessons with Anne. Although, she learned to speak and could do it very well, she found it very dissatisfying and extremely hard to understand. 

Helen's talents even caught the attention of two American greats,  Alexander Graham Bell and Mark Twain. Mark Twain even said, "The two most interesting characters of the 19th century are Napoleon and Helen Keller."

Since a very young age, Helen was determined to go to college. In the year of 1898, she got into the Cambridge School for Young Ladies. She went here for a short period of time to prepare herself to go to Radcliffe College. She ended up entering Radcliffe in the year of 1900. She ended up getting a Bachelors of Arts degree in 1904. She was actually the first person to do so. 

 This major achievement was as much Anne's as it was Helen's. Anne continued to have immense vision problems. It got so bad from reading everything that eventually she had to sign into her pupil's hands. She did continuous labor for her pupil whom she loved so much. She worked hard until her death in 1936, at which her secretary Polly Thomson took her place with Helen.  

Helen went on to write more and more. She made many achievements and her writing especially is amazing. During her time she wrote over 147 speeches. She also wrote many essays on topics like faith, blindness prevention, birth control, the rise of fascism in Europe, and atomic energy. She wrote these amazing things using a braille typewriter for her manuscripts and then went on with a normal typewriter for the final copy. 

Helen Keller was also an advocate for worker's rights and help for blind peoples. This gave her much publicity and made her an inspiration to many. She even became the counselor for the  American Foundation of Overseas Bind. She made education and recreation available for blind people as well during her time as an activist. She always strives for the best and always for he right causes. 

In 1960, Helen suffered a stroke and from 1961 onwards she lives a quiet and peaceful life in her home in Arcan Ridge, Westport, Connecticut. This was one of the four places she mainly lived during her lifetime. 

She made her final public appearance in 1961 at Washington, D.C. It was at the Lions Clubs Foundational meeting. During that meeting, she had received the Lions Humanitarian Award for the lifetime of service she had put into service for humanity. Also for giving the inspiration to adopt the Lions Clubs International Foundation to aid  blind programs. 

While at that visit, she called in the then President, John F. Kennedy. President Kennedy was one in the long line of Presidents Helen had met in her lifetime. She had actually met all of the Presidents since President Grover Cleveland.

Sadly on June 1, 1968 Helen Keller passed away. This was a few short week after her 81st birthday. Her ashes were placed right night to her teachers Anne Sullivan and Polly Thomson. She worked hard for humanity until her death. And like it is said in an eulogy at her funeral, "She will live on, one of the few, the immortal names not born to die. Her spirit will endure as long as man can read and stories can be told of the woman who showed the world there are no boundaries to courage and faith"

Thank you for listening! That is the story of Helen Keller! A phenomenal woman and blind person's advocate. I hope you enjoyed this post and I will see you all next time!