Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Life of Helen Keller

Starting point is 00:00:00 As a young child, she lost both her sight and hearing and seemed cut off from the world around her. Then with the help of an extraordinary teacher, she learned to communicate and went on to become an author, lecturer, and one of the most famous women of the 20th century. Her story became a symbol of perseverance, but the life she lived afterward was far more complex than most people realize. Learn more about the remarkable life of Helen Keller on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. here with BetMGM Sportsbook. Sign up to unlock access to hundreds of prematch and live betting options for all your favorite sports. Download the BetMGM app.

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Starting point is 00:01:08 Standard message and data rates may apply. Welcome to the I can't sleep podcast with Benjamin Boster. If you're tired of sleepless nights, you'll love the I Can't Sleep podcast. I help quiet your mind by reading random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. Each episode provides enough interesting content to hold your attention, and then your mind lets you drift off.

Starting point is 00:01:48 Find it wherever you get your podcasts. That's I Can't Sleep with Benjamin Boster. Helen Adams Keller was born on June 27, 1880, in the city of Tuscumbia, Alabama. Her father, Arthur, was an editor for a local newspaper, and he had previously been a retired Confederate Army captain. Her mother, Kate, was Arthur's second wife and was known for being highly educated. Helen had four siblings. Two of them were full siblings, and two were half-brothers from her father's first marriage. When Helen was just 19 months old, she contracted an unknown illness that caused a buildup of blood in her stomach and brain. Though we're unsure of what the illness is, it's thought to have either been meningitis or scarlet fever.

Starting point is 00:02:43 And most contemporary doctors lean towards meningitis because scarlet fever had a mortality rate of 97% in juveniles at that time. Though Helen was able to recover from the illness, it did leave her with lasting side effects. She was permanently blind and deaf, something Keller later described as at sea in a dense fog. After Kellan lost her sight and hearing, she was able to communicate a little bit using signs. She created her own signs to communicate with her family and had to figure out who people were by the vibrations of their footsteps. Despite learning some ways to communicate with the outside world, Helen still felt isolated. She knew her family members spoke to each other with their mouths rather than using hand signs, and she wondered why she couldn't join the conversation.

Starting point is 00:03:32 In 1886, Kate Keller read a story in Charles Dickens' American notes about the education of a woman named Laura Bridgman. In this account, it was reported that a blind and deaf woman was successfully educated. This inspired the Kellers to search for solutions to help their daughter. The Kellers traveled to Baltimore to get advice from a physician. named J. Julian Chisholm, who was considered a specialist in the eyes, ears, nose, and throat. Chisholm referred the family to Alexander Graham Bell, who was working with Jeff Children, and then connected them with the Perkins Institute for the Blind. This was the same program where Laura Bridgman had been educated. The school director connected the family with Anne Sullivan,

Starting point is 00:04:15 a 20-year-old alumni of the school, and 14 years Helen Sr. Sullivan understood what it was like to be going through blindness as she also was visually impaired. When Sullivan first arrived, Helen was considered to be undisciplined and stubborn. However, this was likely because she had no way to communicate with the outside world. Sullivan became one of, if not the most important people in Helen Keller's life. The two worked together for nearly 50 years, and Keller referred to meeting Sullivan as her soul's birthday. She initially started as her governess and later became Helen's. companion. Once Sullivan arrived, she began to teach Helen how to communicate. One of her first lessons

Starting point is 00:04:57 was to spell words into Helen's hand. The first word she started with was Dahl, as she had brought one for Helen as a present. Helen initially struggled with the lessons because she had no way to understand each object had an identifying word. However, after about a month of working together, Helen had a breakthrough. This happened after Sullivan ran cold water over her hand. When this happened, Helen realized that the motions the teacher made in her palm symbolized an object. This helped her get the hang of associating hand gestures with the objects around her. In May 1888, Helen Keller started attending Perkins School for the Blind. This experience was life-changing for her. At the school, she could interact with other blind children,

Starting point is 00:05:44 many of whom knew how to spell with their fingers. She could communicate freely with the other children and finally fell like she had found her place. Following her first year, Keller spent the following Winter's learning at Perkins, and while there she learned geography, arithmetic, and other subjects. And around this time, she also developed a love of reading, spending hours in the library reading books in Braille. In 1891, Keller wrote a story called The Frost King, which was published in the Perkins Alumni magazine. But the story was accidentally plagiarized from one that had been shared with her several years earlier, but at the age of 11, she thought it was her own creation. The incident forced her to leave the Perkins School. After leaving Perkins, Keller and Sullivan

Starting point is 00:06:28 attended other schools until she was ready for college, where she was admitted to Radcliffe College at Harvard University in the year 1900. At Harvard, one of her admirers, Mark Twain, introduced her to standard oil industrialist Henry Huddleston Rogers, who paid for her full education. She graduated in 1904 as the first deaf and blind person ever to earn a Bachelor of Arts. While at school, Keller was determined to communicate with others in the most conventional way possible. She actually learned to speak and spent much of her life giving lectures and speeches about her experiences. Before she graduated, Keller published two books. The first was titled The Story of My Life, published in 1902, and the second was titled Optimism, published in 1902. The second was

Starting point is 00:07:12 titled Optimism, published in 1903. Both works describe how Keller drew on her experiences to overcome her struggles. In optimism, she specifically discusses her philosophy that joy comes from a deep mindset rather than physical ease. Therefore, she believes humanity can only move forward when individuals choose light over despair. Optimism is portrayed as a duty to oneself and society. She also developed her own way to hear people speak. She incorporated what was known as the Todoma method, where she felt a person's lips and throat to understand what the speaker was saying. In 1905, Anne Sullivan married John Macy, a Harvard instructor.

Starting point is 00:07:57 Keller moved in with the couple and became more active politically. She became a popular speaker worldwide. She traveled to 25 countries where she advocated for people with disabilities and gave motivational speeches. Keller was also a staunch advocate for the women's suffrage movement. She famously remarked that being a female was a worse disability than being deaf or blind. And what a lot of people don't know is that Helen Keller was also a radical socialist. She joined the Socialist Party of America in 1909, where she campaigned for women's and workers' rights.

Starting point is 00:08:33 Her politics led many people who had previously viewed her as an inspirational figure, to turn against her. Critics of her politics claim that she was unable to understand economics properly due to her disability. She was also a pacifist and staunchly anti-militaristic, and this led her to advocate against the United States involvement in the First World War. In 1915, Keller and George A. Kessler founded the Helen Keller International Organization. Kessler was a wealthy merchant who had survived the sinking of the Lusitania. After this, he vowed to aid-blind soldiers. This led to a connection with Keller and the organization's founding. Established to support soldiers who had lost their sight during World War I,

Starting point is 00:09:17 the organization focused its efforts on vision, research, health, and nutrition. And today, it remains active and continues the work started by Helen Keller. Keller was also involved with the NAACP. She was reportedly ashamed of the unchristian treatment of people of color in the South and donated money to help their cause. In 1916, Keller met a journalist named Peter Fagan, who was also a devout socialist. The two kept their romance secret, but planned to marry. However, both Keller's family and Anne Sullivan disapproved of the match. Both Sullivan and Keller's family maintained that individuals with deaf blindness ought not to marry or bear children.

Starting point is 00:09:59 Ultimately, she yielded to their demands and chose not to marry. Helen Keller published 12 books during her life. These books range from autobiographies and her perspective on the world to essays about socialism, theories on Shakespeare, and her faith. In addition to her books, Keller also wrote articles to draw attention to blindness. She brought to the public's attention that many cases of childhood blindness were caused by not washing newborn's hands. With this campaign, the public became aware and started adopting the practice. Keller suffered a personal tragedy when Anne Sullivan died in 1936. After being together for almost 50 years, Keller was holding Sullivan's hand when she passed away.

Starting point is 00:10:44 After Sullivan's passing, Keller remained a public figure writing for the next three decades. Polly Thompson, who had been working for the Kellers, became Helen's primary aid and companion for the rest of her life. Together, the duo continued to travel across the world campaigning for rights, education, and support for the blind and death. Additionally, the two women met with important world leaders, including U.S. presidents, to advocate for disability legislation and world peace. Keller later experienced a series of strokes in 1951, and afterward she spent her last few years living at home. Despite her new situation, Keller continued to be recognized worldwide, receiving impressive titles and accolades. In 1964, she was named an honorary member of the Southern Dames of America.

Starting point is 00:11:30 The group is a non-profit heritage organization for women with Southern ancestry, which focuses on supporting vision research and assisting visually impaired people. President Lyndon Johnson also awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the highest civilian honors in the United States. The award was given for her lifelong advocacy on behalf of humanity's welfare. Helen Keller passed away in her sleep on June 1, 1968, at the age of 87. Following her passing, her body was cremated, and the ashes were placed next to her companions, Anne Sullivan, and Polly Thompson, inside the Washington National Cathedral.

Starting point is 00:12:09 Both during and after Helen Keller's life, her inspirational story was adapted into many documentaries and biographies over the years, the most famous of which was the 1962 film, The Miracle Worker. Anne Bancroft won the Oscar for Best Actress for her portrayal of Anne Sullivan, and Patty Duke won best supporting actress for her portrayal of Helen Keller. The miracle worker was first a play written by William Gibson, which appeared on Broadway. But the first film about Helen Keller was called Deliverance, and it was produced in 1919. She was also the subject of a postage stamp in 1980, and she was elected to the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2003. Helen Keller's life was about far more than overcoming blindness and deafness. After learning to communicate, she spent the next

Starting point is 00:12:57 six decades, writing, traveling, speaking, and advocating for causes ranging from disability's rights to civil liberties. The famous moment at the water pump opened the door to language, but it was what Helen Keller chose to do with that language that made her life story remarkable. She transformed herself from a child isolated from much of the world into an internationally recognized voice for people who were too often ignored, leaving a legacy that extended far beyond her own extraordinary accomplishments. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Otkin and Cameron Kiefer.

Starting point is 00:13:38 Research and writing for this episode was provided by Olivia Ash. My big thanks go to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon. Your support helps make this podcast possible. And I also want to remind everyone about the community groups on Facebook and Discord. This is where everything happens that's outside of the show. As always, if you leave a review on any message, major podcast app or in the above community groups, you two can have it read on the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Life of Helen Keller

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