Wow, Very Cool

Very good copy of the image available here. This may be lost on many younger folks, as I'm not sure what place, if any, Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan occupy in today's culture. But then, I find almost any photograph this old rather fascinating.

Researchers have uncovered a rare photograph of a young Helen Keller with her teacher Anne Sullivan, nearly 120 years after it was taken on Cape Cod and tucked inside a family album.

The photograph, shot in July 1888 in Brewster, shows an 8-year-old Helen sitting outside in a light-colored dress, holding Sullivan's hand and cradling one of her beloved dolls.

Experts on Keller's life believe it could be the earliest photo of the two women together and the only one showing the blind and deaf child with a doll _ the first word Sullivan spelled for Keller after they met in 1887 _ according to the New England Historic Genealogical Society, which now has the photo.

"It's really one of the best images I've seen in a long, long time," said Helen Selsdon, an archivist at the American Federation for the Blind, where Keller worked for more than 40 years. "This is just a huge visual addition to the history of Helen and Annie."

Caption:

This 1888 photo released by the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston shows Helen Keller when she was eight years old, left, holding hands with her teacher, Anne Sullivan, during a summer vacation to Brewster, Mass., on Cape Cod. A staff member at the society discovered the photograph in a large photography collection recently donated to the society. When Sullivan arrived at the Keller household to teach Helen, she gave her a doll as a present. Although Keller had many dolls throughout her childhood, this is believed to be the first known photograph of Helen Keller with one of her dolls. (AP Photo/Courtesy of the Thaxter P. Spencer Collection, R. Stanton Avery Special Collections, New England Historic Genealogical Society-Boston)

Comments

[jkatl]

pretty cool

[juandos]

Excuse my abysmal ignorance regarding Helen Keller here but so what?

I mean there were all those tasteless jokes years ago regarding Helen Keller but in the grand scheme of things what about this writer/educator makes this such a draw?

I've looked at a quotations page but does anyone have suggestion of something by Ms. Keller to read so I can see what the appreciation is all about?
(http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Helen_Keller)

[WAHOO WILLIE]

"Excuse my abysmal ignorance regarding Helen Keller here but so what?"

Well Juan, she was a socialist, a suffridgette (sp), activist and author. Not so bad for someone born w/o sight or speech. IN a time when most people like her were locked into insane asylums or the family attic, she learned to "communicate" by various means and became the first "deaf, dumb and blind" person to graduate college. So Juan, what makes HK "such a draw" is that she is role model material, someone with every excuse in the world to crawl under a rock but instead overcame adversity. But then, there's always Lindsey Lohan to teach your daughters about.

[joeb]

Here is wiki on Helen Keller. Scroll down to the wiki quote link and you will find all the HK quotes you need.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_keller

[templar knight]

Willie, in the older, duller days of our education system, this guy/gal would never have had to ask about the significance of Helen Keller. The original movie about Keller and Sullivan was quite good as well. Yes, Britney and Lindsey are quite the role models, aren't they? I think I'll go take a puke.

[WAHOO WILLIE]

"Willie, in the older, duller days of our education system."

Yeah TK, I wrote that post from memory and I've been out of Jr High longer than several of these posters have been alive. It really is kind of shocking what we AREN'T teaching kids anymore....thanks libs

[Pierson W. W. Dilliwithers-Mathers III, Major, Confederate States Army (Retired)]

Now there was a woman who was a credit to her nation and her gender.

I can hardly fault her for having lived in Yankeedom, as she is the daughter of a good friend and comrade-at-arms, one Captain Arthur H. Keller, and his wife, Kate Adams, who was a cousin of The General Robert E. Lee himself, and a daughter of General Charles W. Adams, commander of the 33rd Arkansas Infantry Regt. (may they rest in peace).

The only fault someone of my years might be inclined to find in her was with her support for the woman's suffrage, much less her socialism.

Indeed, ever since we gave the fairer gender her share of the franchise, it has been down the Hill from there.

Otherwise, she does stand head and shoulders above most folks as a role model women, and young folks in general, for what Americans can do in the face of adversity.

And I must note that women of that age knew how to properly dress as well... a fair shake better than the likes of Miss Lohan, who in my day might have been easily mistaken for a slattern gaining her ill-gotten wages in a gentleman's sporting house.

[Lala]

Miss Keller had wonderful parents, they didn't have a lobotomy performed on her.

[oldtimer]

Back in the dark ages, when I was in grammer school, we had to READ BOOKS and do book reports. Some of the books had to be bio's. Can you imagine that? I actually READ BOOKS and still rememeber many of them including Helen Keller.

[mojo]

"Holding hands"?

How about "talking"?...

[templar knight]

Hmm...that's some interesting history, Pierson, and has a connection to me as well. My great-great-great grandfather on my mother's side was Aquilla Brasher, a master sargeant in the 33rd Arkansas Infantry Regiment. Small world.

[juandos]

Thanks WAHOO WILLIE for the info...