Blind and deaf mute; born in
Tuscumbia, Ala.. June 27, 1880.
When eighteen months old she contracted an illness which left her blind, deaf, and dumb.
As she grew older it was found that she was possessed of a wonderful perceptive faculty, which she calls “the power of feeling with my soul.”
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When seven years old
Miss Sullivan, herself blind, who was a teacher in the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf and Dumb in New York City, became Helen's companion and teacher.
By 1891 Helen had made astonishing progress in English language and composition, had even learned to articulate, and had become quite a skilful pianist.
The method by which she learned to understand spoken words was by placing one of her fingers upon the lips and another upon the larynx of the speaker.
In 1897 she became a student in the Arthur Gilman School, in
Boston, where she intended to prepare for Radcliffe College, but remained a year only, then resuming her preparatory studies under private tutors, was ready by June, 1899, to take the entrance examination to Radcliffe.
The subjects of the examination were geometry, algebra, elementary
Greek, advanced
Greek, and advanced Latin.
No person had ever taken a college examination so heavily handicapped as was she. Her companion and private teacher,
Miss Sullivan, did not know
Greek, Latin, nor higher mathematics, and therefore could be of no assistance to her pupil.
A gentleman was found,
Mr. Vining, of the Perkins Institution, who had never met Helen, and was unable to speak to her. He was able to take the examination papers and write them out in Braille characters.
The questions thus written were handed to Helen in the examination room, in the presence of a proctor who could not talk with her. She wrote her answers on a typewriter.
But there was an additional difficulty confronting Helen.
There are two systems of Braille writing—the
American and the
English—and they differ in many ways.
Helen had been using the
English system, and
Mr. Vining the
American, so that Helen had to study out an unfamiliar method.
Her Swiss watch, made especially for the blind, had been left at home, and she was compelled to work without a knowledge of the time she could apportion to each subject.
Nevertheless, she passed in every study, taking a high mark in advanced
Greek, and a credit in advanced Latin.
The passing of these tests, even without the attending difficulties noted, would be considered a wonderful achievement.
After Helen entered Radcliffe she so distinguished herself in her English work that she was promoted in the middle of the year to a course open only to the brightest students.
It has been seldom that this course has been taken in Radcliffe by a girl so young as Helen.
At the lectures she is accompanied by
Miss Sullivan, who tells her in manual language whatever the instructor says, and instead of taking notes, as other students do, Helen readily retains all the facts in her mind.
