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Ivy
Green The
Helen Keller Birthplace
Helen
Keller was born into this world as a healthy child, but at the age of
nineteen months she became very ill, and though she recovered, the
ordeal left her both deaf and blind. Helen was the daughter of a well to
do family and her father, who had served as a Confederate officer during
the Civil War and was
forever after known as Captain Keller, refused to accept the fact that
somewhere he could not find
someone to help his daughter escape her dark and silent world. By
the age of six, Helen was almost untouchable, described by many as
“half-wild.” Her father took her to visit noted inventor Alexander
Graham Bell, who helped arrange for a remarkable young woman named Anne
Sullivan to come to Ivy Green, the family home in Tuscumbia, as
Helen’s teacher. Anne
Sullivan was a dedicated and stubborn teacher, one more than capable of
dealing with this undisciplined child. She was also immediately filled
with love for her new charge, and dedicated the rest of her life to
caring for seven year old Helen. Anne
Sullivan’s methods were unorthodox, and there could have been a power
struggle between parents and teacher that might have hampered Helen’s
education. Fortunately, Helen’s family were willing to allow the
teacher to do what she thought necessary to break through the walls
imprisoning their child. Anne’s
first step was to remove Helen from the family home and move herself and
the young girl into a smaller building next door that Helen’s parents
had lived in when she was born. Anne pushed Helen in a stroller for
hours before finally taking her into the house, convincing the child she
was far away from her family and home, and forcing her to rely on her
teacher for everything. Then Anne Sullivan set to work to break through
the silence.
Working
day and night with Helen, Anne tried one method after another to reach
the child. The miracle breakthrough came at a well in the back yard,
when Anne pumped cool water over one of Helen’s hands, while
repeatedly tapping out an alphabet code of five letters in the palm of
her other hand. The scene was repeated over and over again as the young
girl struggled to escape her world of silence.
From
that point on, there was no stopping Helen Keller. She quickly learned
the fingertip alphabet, and within six months she knew 625 words. By the
time she was ten years old she had mastered Braille, as well as the
manual alphabet, and even learned to use the typewriter. By age sixteen
Helen could speak well enough to attend preparatory school and college.
She graduated ‘cum laude’ from Once
locked in a prison of silence and darkness, Helen Keller dedicated her
life to improving conditions for the blind and deaf around the world.
She wrote numerous books and became an accomplished public speaker. She
lectured in more than 25 countries on five continents, and wherever she
appeared she brought new hope and courage to millions of blind people. Anne
Sullivan, the teacher who would not give up on Helen became known as the
“Miracle Worker” and spent the rest of her life working with her
student and friend. Today
Ivy Green, the Helen Keller home and birthplace, is a museum to the
brave young girl who grew up to inspire so many. The simple white
clapboard home was built in 1820 by Helen’s grandparents, David and
Mary Keller, and originally sat on a 640 acre tract of land. Untouched
by the ravages of the Civil War, today the home is maintained to the
smallest detail in its original state, and though the grounds have
shrunk considerably, several outbuildings still remain, including a
cooking shack, the separate small cottage where Anne Sullivan took young
Helen to begin working with her, and the famous well pump where child
and teacher finally managed to make a connection.
The
grounds at Ivy Green include outbuildings and the During
June and July, William Gibson’s famous play The Miracle Worker,
based on Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan’s lives, is presented on the
grounds on Friday and Saturday evenings. Tuscumbia also holds a Helen
Keller Festival in June of every year to celebrate Helen Keller’s
accomplishments, with children’s activities, a parade, art and craft
shows, an antique show, car show, vendors and other special events. A
visit to Ivy Green is a wonderful opportunity to learn more about Helen
Keller, her teacher Anne Sullivan, and about the accomplishments Helen
made for the benefit of the blind and deaf.
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When
Helen Keller was born in 
Suddenly
the signals connected, and Helen understood that the tapped code letters
w-a-t-e-r meant the cool liquid flowing over her hand, and remembered
water from her first days, before illness had struck. “Waa waa” she
uttered excitedly. Communication was established, and by the end of the
day Helen had learned an astonishing thirty words!
Inside,
the house is furnished with many Keller family furnishings and items.
Each room holds hundreds of Helen Keller’s personal mementos, books,
gifts from admirers, photos of Helen at different stages of her life,
and her clothing. One museum room contains books written by Helen
Keller, her Braille typewriter, a handsome bust of Helen, and toys she
played with as a child.