Rare Helen Keller Photograph Discovered

Posted by Chauncey Koziol on Sunday, September 1, 2024

A rare photograph of deaf and blind advocate Helen Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan, has surfaced — nearly 120 years after it was taken.

Captured in 1888 on Cape Cod, the image shows an eight-year-old Helen sitting outside in a chair holding Sullivan's hand and a doll. Experts say it could be the earliest photo of the two together, and the only one showing the child with a doll. "Doll" is the first word Sullivan ever spelled for Keller.

The image was discovered in an album belonging to a man whose mother was a childhood friend of Helen Keller's on Cape Cod.

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