Helen Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama on June 27, 1880. She had two older step brothers and was the first of two daughthers to be born to Arthur H. Keller and Katherine Adams Keller.

"Ivy Green" The house where Helen Keller was born.

For the first two years of her life she lived like any normal child, but in 1882 Helen got an illness and lost her ability to see and hear at just 19 months old.

Helen Keller

as baby with

her puppy.

Helen came up with a few signs to help communicate what she wanted. However, she often threw tantrums because her family could not understand what she was trying to communicate.

Photo of the Perkins Institute for the Blind

When Helen was 7 years old, her mother came a cross a travelogue by Charles Dickens about a successful education for another child who was both deaf and blind. Helen's parents learned about the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston where Helen could receive help.

On March 3, 1887 Anne Sullivan went to meet Helen Keller in her home in Alabama. Helen began to learn finger spelling by starting with the word "doll". Anne would give Helen an object and finger spell in her hand what the object was.

Helen with her teacher, Annie Sullivan.

Water Pump where Helen learned her first word.

Helen was frustrated because she was not able to make a connection between finger spelling and words until Anne took her to a water pump. Anne put Helen's hand under the water spout and flushed water onto her hand. In the other hand she spelled w-a-t-e-r. Helen was able to understand and make the connection. She then spelled w-a-t-e-r into Anne's hand.

Anne quickly became Helen's number one companion. With the help of Anne, Helen was able to go to speech classes at Horace Mann School for the Deaf in Boston, and attend classes to improve her communication as well as academic skills at the Wright Human School for the Deaf in New York City.

She studied for a total 25 years on improving her speech and communication skills.