Early Helen Keller Photo

It could be the earliest photograph of Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan. The newly discovered image was taken in 1888, a year after Sullivan was hired to teach Keller. It shows 8-year-old Helen Keller holding Sullivan’s hand and a doll during a summer vacation in Brewster, Massachusetts. The New England Historic Genealogical Society now has the photo that was tucked inside an album of a friend of her family for more than century. Keller was left blind and deaf after an illness as a toddler. Sullivan later taught her to spell into her hand.