The character arc of Helen Keller
Born 27 June 1880 in Tuscumbia. Died 1 June 1968 in Easton. Between the two sit an illness at nineteen months that took sight and hearing at once, a word spelled into her palm at a water pump, a Radcliffe degree earned letter by letter, fourteen books, and fifty years of work for the blind on every continent. The line below draws that whole life in order.
Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who was Helen Keller?
From a dark, silent house she addressed the world.
An illness at nineteen months, probably scarlet fever or meningitis, took her sight and hearing before she had words to lose. For five years she lived by touch and improvised signs in a house that could not reach her. Then Anne Sullivan arrived, herself half blind, twenty years old, and stubborn, and within a month came the moment at the water pump: water running over one hand, the word spelled into the other, and the discovery that everything has a name.
She learned to read five languages in braille and to speak aloud, and she went through Radcliffe with every lecture spelled into her palm, graduating cum laude, the first deafblind person to earn a bachelor of arts. The Story of My Life, written while she was still a student, has never stopped being read.
The second half of the line is service: she helped found the organisation that became Helen Keller International in 1915, joined the American Foundation for the Blind in 1924, and visited thirty five countries on its behalf. Her line is worth reading for its first turn: the steepest climb on it begins at a single word, and everything afterwards is what a person does with a door once it opens.
The moments
Helen Keller's timeline.
The 1880s
Illness took sight and hearing
Setback, and it changed everything. Nineteen months old. For five years the house could not reach her, nor she it.
Anne Sullivan arrived
Milestone, and it changed her direction. She called it, ever after, her soul's birthday.
The word at the pump
Milestone, and it changed everything. Water over one hand, the word spelled into the other, and thirty more words by nightfall.
The 1890s
Learned to speak aloud
Milestone. Ten lessons with Sarah Fuller, begun with a single sentence: I am not dumb now.
The quiet life, or college
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: radcliffe, spelled letter by letter, taken, or the sheltered life on offer. She wrote that a worthy life meets obstacles the way water meets a stone.
The 1900s
Entered Radcliffe College
Milestone. Every lecture reached her letter by letter, spelled into her palm.
The Story of My Life
Milestone. Written while still a student. It has been in print ever since.
Graduated cum laude
Milestone, and it changed her direction. The first deafblind person to earn a bachelor of arts.
The 1910s
Helped found Helen Keller International
Milestone. Begun for soldiers blinded in the war, and still at work a century later.
The 1920s
Joined the Foundation
Milestone, and it changed her direction. The platform for the rest of her working life: funds, laws and doors, opened state by state.
The 1930s
Lost Annie
Setback. Half a century of two hands talking. Polly Thomson carried on at her side.
The 1940s
Visited the war wounded
Everyday. Military hospitals across the country; she called the work the crowning experience of her life.
The 1950s
An honorary degree from Harvard
Milestone. The first woman Harvard honoured with a degree in its history to that point.
The 1960s
The Medal of Freedom
Milestone. The country's highest civilian honour, for a lifetime of it.
The line ends 1 Jun 1968, in Easton. What it set moving has not ended: the foundations she built still reach the blind on every continent, and her first spelled word still stands for the moment any line turns: water.
Your turn
Every story draws a unique line.
Hers took eighty seven years and began with one word. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about three minutes.
Sources
- Helen Keller, The Story of My Life, 1903.
- Dorothy Herrmann, Helen Keller: A Life, 1998.
- The American Foundation for the Blind archive.
- The Radcliffe College records, 1900 and 1904.
- The White House Medal of Freedom record, 14 September 1964.