24″ x 30″
Anne Sullivan was born with an eye disease, was sent to Perkins Institute for the Blind and given several surgeries to try to improve her sight. Since Annie had impressed the school’s director, Michael Anagnos, she came to mind when Colonel Keller wrote to the school asking for someone to work with their daughter, Helen, who was deaf and blind due to a high fever at 19 months. Anne traveled to Ivy Green in Tuscumbia, Alabama. There she found an unkempt, unruly child who did as she wished and was in desperate need of teaching. Annie insisted that she and Helen be allowed to live in the pump house without any interference from Helen’s parents. Helen was forced to depend totally on Anne, Teacher. It was at the water pump at Ivy Green that the world opened for Helen through Annie’s fingerspelling “water” into Helen’s hand, using the manual alphabet. Suddenly Helen knew that things had names and she needed to know the names of everything. Following this awakening, Anne taught Helen to write, read Braille, and to speak. They were Teacher and Helen, friends and companions for life.
