EARLY LIFE | Helen Keller

Helen Adams Keller was born on June 27, 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. She died on June 1, 1968.

Helen Keller was born to Arthur H. Keller and Kate Adams Keller. She had two younger siblings, Mildred and Phillip Brooks. Growing up, her family was not the wealthiest and they earned their income through their cotton plantation.

Arthur H. Keller was a captain in the Confederate Army and served during the Civil War. He later became a newspaper editor for the North Alabamian.

Kate Adams Keller was twenty years younger than Arthur and was his second wife. She gave birth to three children, Helen, Mildred, and Phillip Brooks. Phillip was named after one of Helen's friends, Rev. Phillip Brooks who was Boston Clergyman.

Click the link above to view Keller's Home place

Helen Keller was born a normal, healthy baby; she was talking at six months old and even walking by the time she was a year old. However in 1882, when she was about twenty months old, she fell ill with what is now believed to be scarlet fever or polio. The illness left her both blind and deaf.

Her family immediately took action and they had to go through many different people before they were finaly able to get answers. First, they took her to see Dr. J. Julian Chisholm in Baltimore, Maryland who referred them to Alexander Graham Bell. Bell then referred them to Anne Sullivan, a twenty year old graduate from Perkins School for the Blind. Sullivan began her long term relationship with Keller on March 3, 1886.

For more information regarding Anne Sullivan and her relationship with Helen, visit the 'Anne and Helen' tab on the top of the page.

Growing Up

Birth & Death

Family

Diagnosis