She was just 14 years older than her pupil Helen, and she too suffered from serious vision problems. The daughter of poor Irish immigrants, she entered Perkins at 14 years of age after four horrific years as a ward of the state at the Tewksbury Almshouse in Massachusetts. Compared with Helen, Anne couldn't have had a more different childhood and upbringing.

On that day, Anne Mansfield Sullivan came to Tuscumbia to be her teacher.Īnne was a 20-year-old graduate of the Perkins School for the Blind. When Did Helen Keller Meet Anne Sullivan?Īs she so often remarked as an adult, her life changed on March 3, 1887. As Helen grew from infancy into childhood, she became wild and unruly. The family lost most of its wealth during the Civil War and lived modestly.Īfter the war, Captain Keller edited a local newspaper, the North Alabamian, and in 1885, under the Cleveland administration, he was appointed Marshal of North Alabama.Īt the age of 19 months, Helen became deaf and blind as a result of an unknown illness, perhaps rubella or scarlet fever. Helen's father, Arthur Keller, was a captain in the Confederate army. On her father's side she was descended from Colonel Alexander Spottswood, a colonial governor of Virginia, and on her mother's side, she was related to a number of prominent New England families. Her parents were Kate Adams Keller and Colonel Arthur Keller. Helen Adams Keller was born a healthy child in Tuscumbia, Alabama, on June 27, 1880. Portrait of Helen Keller as a young girl, with a white dog on her lap (August 1887)

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