Editing Helen Keller (section)

==Early childhood and illness==
[[File:Helen Keller Birthplace House in Tuscumbia, Alabama.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Keller's birthplace in [[Tuscumbia, Alabama]]]]
[[File:Helen Keller with Anne Sullivan in July 1888.jpg|thumb|Keller (left) with [[Anne Sullivan Macy|Anne Sullivan]] vacationing on [[Cape Cod]] in July 1888]]

Keller was born on June 27, 1880, in [[Tuscumbia, Alabama]], the daughter of Arthur Henley Keller (1836–1896),<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Multimedia.jsp?id=m-2381| title=Arthur H. Keller| encyclopedia=[[Encyclopedia of Alabama]]| access-date=March 15, 2016| archive-date=July 26, 2011| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726031903/http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Multimedia.jsp?id=m-2381| url-status=dead}}</ref> and Catherine Everett (Adams) Keller (1856–1921), known as "Kate".<ref name=Kate>{{cite web|url=http://www.afb.org/braillebug/hkgallery.asp?frameid=4| title=Kate Adams Keller| publisher=American Foundation for the Blind| access-date=March 7, 2010| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100409151828/http://www.afb.org/braillebug/hkgallery.asp?frameid=4| archive-date=April 9, 2010| url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=perkinsFAQ/> The Keller family lived on a homestead, [[Ivy Green]],<ref name=birthplace/> which her paternal grandfather had built decades earlier.<ref name="Nielsen2007">{{cite journal| title=The Southern Ties of Helen Keller| year=2007| last=Nielsen| first=Kim E.| journal=Journal of Southern History| volume=73| issue=4| pages=783–806|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242408791| url-access=registration| doi=10.2307/27649568| jstor=27649568| access-date=March 15, 2016| archive-date=January 9, 2022| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220109211522/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242408791_The_Southern_Ties_of_Helen_Keller| url-status=live}}</ref> She had four siblings: two full siblings, Mildred Campbell (Keller) Tyson and Phillip Brooks Keller; and two older half-brothers from her father's first marriage, James McDonald Keller and William Simpson Keller.<ref name=Ask1006>{{cite web| title=Ask Keller| date=October 2006|url=http://braillebug.afb.org/askkeller.asp?issueid=200810| access-date=March 15, 2016| publisher=American Foundation for the Blind| archive-date=March 3, 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303220331/http://braillebug.afb.org/askkeller.asp?issueid=200810| url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://braillebug.afb.org/askkeller.asp?issueid=200511|title=Ask Keller|date=November 2005|access-date=June 13, 2017|publisher=American Foundation for the Blind|archive-date=January 24, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180124113341/http://braillebug.afb.org/askkeller.asp?issueid=200511|url-status=live}}</ref>

Keller's father worked for many years as an editor of the Tuscumbia ''North Alabamian''. He had served as a captain in the [[Confederate Army]].<ref name=perkinsFAQ/><ref name=Nielsen2007/> The family was part of the [[slavery in the United States|slaveholding]] elite before [[American Civil War|the American Civil War]], but lost status later.<ref name="Nielsen2007"/> Her mother was the daughter of [[Charles W. Adams (Confederate general)|Charles W. Adams]], a Confederate general.<ref name="Eicher587">{{Cite book |last1=Eicher |first1=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fs0Ajlnjl6AC&pg=PA969 |title=Civil War High Commands |last2=Eicher |first2=David |year=2002 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-8035-3}}</ref> Keller's paternal lineage was traced to Casper Keller, a native of Switzerland.<ref name="StoryofmyLife">{{cite book| title=The Story of my Life: The Restored Classic| publisher=W. W. Norton & Co.| last1=Herrmann| first1=Dorothy| last2=Keller| first2=Helen| last3=Shattuck| first3=Roger |url=https://archive.org/details/storyofmylife200hele| url-access=registration| year=2003| pages=[https://archive.org/details/storyofmylife200hele/page/12 12]–14| isbn=978-0-393-32568-3| access-date=May 14, 2010}}</ref><ref name="Ask1105">{{cite web|url=http://www.afb.org/braillebug/askkeller.asp?issueid=200511| publisher=American Foundation for the Blind| title=Ask Keller| date=November 2005| access-date=March 15, 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080409031821/http://www.afb.org/braillebug/askkeller.asp?issueid=200511| archive-date=April 9, 2008| url-status=dead}}</ref> One of Helen's Swiss ancestors was the first teacher for the deaf in [[Zürich]]. Keller reflected on this fact in her first autobiography, asserting that "there is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his".<ref name="StoryofmyLife" />

At 19 months old, Keller contracted an unknown illness described by doctors as "an acute congestion of the stomach and the brain".<ref name="askKellerIllness">{{cite web |url=http://braillebug.afb.org/askkeller.asp?issueid=20052 |title=Ask Keller |date=February 2005 |access-date=June 13, 2017 |publisher=[[American Foundation for the Blind]] |quote=Helen's illness was diagnosed by her doctor as 'acute congestion of the stomach and the brain' |archive-date=September 9, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160909212551/http://braillebug.afb.org/askkeller.asp?issueid=20052 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Contemporary doctors believe it may have been [[meningitis]], caused by the bacterium ''[[Neisseria meningitidis]]'' (meningococcus),<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.livescience.com/62711-helen-keller-deaf-blind-illness-cause.html |title=What Caused Helen Keller to Be Deaf and Blind? An Expert Has This Theory |website=[[Live Science]] |date=June 2018 |access-date=February 24, 2021 |archive-date=March 1, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301191742/https://www.livescience.com/62711-helen-keller-deaf-blind-illness-cause.html |url-status=live }}</ref> or possibly ''[[Haemophilus influenzae]]'', which can cause the same symptoms but is less likely because of its 97% juvenile mortality rate at that time.<ref name="perkinsFAQ">{{cite web| title=Helen Keller FAQ| publisher=[[Perkins School for the Blind]]|url=http://www.perkins.org/vision-loss/helen-keller| access-date=December 25, 2010| archive-date=August 16, 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140816170824/http://www.perkins.org/vision-loss/helen-keller/| url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.afb.org/info/about-us/helen-keller/biography-and-chronology/biography/1235| title=Helen Keller Biography| publisher=American Foundation for the Blind| access-date=February 21, 2015| archive-date=July 25, 2017| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170725182850/http://www.afb.org/info/about-us/helen-keller/biography-and-chronology/biography/1235| url-status=live}}</ref> She was able to recover from her illness, but was left permanently blind and deaf, as she recalled in her autobiography, "at sea in a dense fog".<ref name="Helen Keller's Moment">{{cite web|title=Helen Keller's Moment|url=https://www.theattic.space/home-page-blogs/2018/11/29/helen-kellers-moment|website=The Attic|date=November 29, 2018 |access-date=December 4, 2018|archive-date=December 5, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181205003625/https://www.theattic.space/home-page-blogs/2018/11/29/helen-kellers-moment|url-status=live}}</ref> At that time, Keller was able to communicate somewhat with Martha Washington, who was two years older and the daughter of the family cook, and understood the girl's signs;<ref name="mylife">{{cite web| location=New York| publisher=Doubleday, Page & Co.|url=http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/keller/life/life.html| title=The Story of My Life| first=Helen| last=Keller| year=1905| access-date=March 15, 2016| archive-date=January 14, 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160114165042/http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/keller/life/life.html| url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|11}}by the age of seven, Keller had more than 60 [[home sign]]s to communicate with her family, and could distinguish people by the vibration of their footsteps.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sDrSMbHwkiIC&pg=PR7|title=The World I Live In|last=Shattuck|first=Roger|date=1904|publisher=New York Review of Books |isbn=978-1590170670|access-date=October 13, 2018|archive-date=May 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200508080948/https://books.google.com/books?id=sDrSMbHwkiIC&pg=PR7|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1886, Keller's mother, inspired by an account in [[Charles Dickens]]' ''[[American Notes]]'' of the successful education of [[Laura Bridgman]], a deaf and blind woman, dispatched the young Keller and her father to consult physician J. Julian Chisholm, an eye, ear, nose and throat specialist in [[Baltimore]], for advice.<ref name=Worthington>{{cite book |last=Worthington |first=W. Curtis |year=1990 |title=A Family Album: Men Who Made the Medical Center |url=http://www.muschealth.com/about_us/history/chislom.htm |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121208160525/http://www.muschealth.com/about_us/history/chislom.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 8, 2012 |publisher=Reprint Co |isbn=978-0-87152-444-7 |access-date=March 8, 2008}}</ref><ref name="Nielsen2007"/> Chisholm referred the Kellers to [[Alexander Graham Bell]], who was working with deaf children at the time. Bell advised them to contact the [[Perkins Institute for the Blind]], the school where Bridgman had been educated. It was then located in [[South Boston, Boston, Massachusetts|South Boston]]. Michael Anagnos, the school's director, asked [[Anne Sullivan Macy|Anne Sullivan]], a 20-year-old alumna of the school who was visually impaired, to become Keller's instructor. It was the beginning of a nearly 50-year-long relationship Sullivan developed with Keller as her [[governess]] and later her [[lady's companion|companion]].<ref name="mylife"/>

Sullivan arrived at Keller's house on March 5, 1887, a day Keller would forever remember as "my soul's birthday".<ref name="Helen Keller's Moment"/> Sullivan immediately began to teach Helen to communicate by spelling words into her hand, beginning with "d-o-l-l" for the doll that she had brought Keller as a present. Keller initially struggled with lessons since she could not comprehend that every object had a word identifying it. When Sullivan was trying to teach Keller the word for "mug", Keller became so frustrated she broke the mug.<ref name="Wilkie">{{cite book| last=Wilkie| first=Katherine E.| title=Helen Keller: Handicapped Girl| publisher=Atheneum| year= 1969| isbn=978-0-672-50076-3}}</ref> Keller remembered how she soon began imitating Sullivan's hand gestures: "I did not know that I was spelling a word or even that words existed. I was simply making my fingers go in monkey-like imitation."<ref>{{cite web|title=Helen Keller's Moment|url=https://www.theattic.space/home-page-blogs/2018/11/29/helen-kellers-moment|website=The Attic|date=November 29, 2018 |access-date=February 1, 2019|archive-date=March 27, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327222654/https://www.theattic.space/home-page-blogs/2018/11/29/helen-kellers-moment|url-status=live}}</ref>

The next month, Keller made a breakthrough, when she realized that the motions her teacher was making on the palm of her hand, while running cool water over her other hand, symbolized the idea of "water". Writing in her autobiography, ''The Story of My Life'', Keller recalled the moment:

{{Blockquote|I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten—a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that w-a-t-e-r meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. The living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, set it free!<ref name="Helen Keller's Moment"/>}}

Keller quickly demanded that Sullivan sign the names of all the other familiar objects in her world.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Keller |first=Helen |title=The Story of My Life |publisher=Cosimo, Inc. |year=2009 |isbn=9781605206882 |pages=22 |language=English}}</ref>