Wednesday, 20 February (Part II)
Custom RV (AKA Brannon Hutcheson — Vina, Alabama
Soon after we arrived in Red Bay, Marsha (of Where’s Weaver) 
We intended to go last Sunday, but luckily I checked the website first as they are only open Monday through Saturday. Since we had some free time before our dinner date with friends, we headed over to Ivy Green … Birthplace of Helen Keller this afternoon.
Built in 1820 by Helen’s grandfather, the white clapboard home was the second house to be built in Tuscumbia after Alabama joined the Union as the 22nd state. It is a Virginia style cottage, with four rooms downstairs.
To the right is the cottage where Helen Keller was born; and where Anne Sullivan later taught her.
(If you’d like to see the full-sized versions of the photos that make up the collages, and the photos I did not post here, feel free to visit my online gallery.)
First, I’m going to fess up to not knowing much about Helen Keller before our visit to Ivy Green. I knew her name, of course, and that she was a blind-deaf woman who had overcome great obstacles with the help of her teacher, Anne Sullivan. But that was about it. So I read up on her a bit before we headed out on today’s outing.
A replica of the statue that immortalizes the moment of Helen’s “breakthrough” with touch-signing
is the centerpiece of the memorabilias displayed in what used to be Aunt Evaline's room.
In her book, Helen Keller: Rebellious Spirit, author Laurie Lawlor writes:
Some relatives began to call Helen “a wild, destructive animal.” One uncle told her
mother that she was “mentally defective” and should be put out of sight in an institution.
Loyal Aunt evaline, Captain Keller’s sister, nicknamed Aunt Ev, disagreed. “This child
has more sense than all the kellers,” she said, "’if there’s a way to reach her mind.”
Although my insight into Helen Keller is sketchy at best, it didn’t take me long to realize that we weren’t getting the full picture from the docent who was walking us around the house. A lovely lady, mind you, but she seemed more concerned about pointing out Helen’s physical beauty, exclaiming at every opportunity, “Wasn’t she pretty!”
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The original statue is part of the National Statuary Hall Collection at the US Capitol.
It was unveiled in ; unfortunately we didn’t see it when we visited the Capitol in .
The docent briefly told us about the family history; about how, at just 19 months old, Helen Keller came down with a sickness that led to her becoming blind and deaf; about how her parents sought help from Alexander Graham Bell, who was working with hearing-impaired children at the time; about how she was considered a '”wild child” until Anne Sullivan, whom she met at the Perkins Institute for the Blind, took her in hand when she became Helen’s teacher; about how she had a breakthrough in learning Anne’s “touch-signing” at the well pump; about how she then quickly grasped the concept of touch-signing, and went on to speak well enough to be accepted and study at Radcliffe College with the help of her teacher Anne, who interpreted lectures for her.
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Two of the many pictures of Helen Keller that decorate the walls of Ivy Green.
Because she had a protruding left eye, she was almost always photographed in profile.
(Both eyes were replaced with glass ones later in life.)
Yes, there was mention of her success as both an author and a speaker; and her travels to many countries in her quest to help the deaf-blind around the world. But nowhere was there any mention of her activities as a suffragist, or the fact that she was a member of the Socialist Party … all experiences that helped to shape her into the woman that she was — America’s First Lady of Courage.
Maybe I just didn’t look close enough to see this side of Helen Keller represented at Ivy Green. Or perhaps, had we not been interrupted by a family arriving to visit the house, the docent would have answered the question I was about to pose about the oversight. (This article, which a friend linked me to, makes for an interesting read; perhaps you will find that to be the case as well.)
to show his appreciation of her efforts with war-blinded soldiers, President Eisenhower
invited Helen Keller to the White House. The photo captures the moment after Helen
expressed her desire to "see" Ike’s famous smile.
Polly Thomason, long-time companion and guide, is “signing” into Helen’s hand.
I don’t intend to turn this post into a thesis on Helen Keller. Those who wish to learn more about her can refer to the voluminous amounts of information on the web. In the meantime, let me give you a quick tour of the home in which this remarkable woman was born and raised.
Helen’s parents’ room is one of the four rooms on the ground floor of the two story house.
The docent opened the gate so we could get a closer look at the beautiful bedspread, and
explained that they allow the sight-impaired to touch it so that they can “see” the details.
The parlor, like the rest of the house, is decorated with mostly original furnishings of the
Keller Family and memorabilia from Helen’s life. The picture on the table is of Helen at age seven.
In the movie, the Miracle Worker, the dining room is the scene of one of Helen’s “wild-child” tantrums. The docent told us that Anne Sullivan asked Helen’s parents to leave the room,
locked the door, and spent the day teaching her how to behave at the table.
Helen shared this second floor bedroom with her teacher, Anne Sullivan.
The lengths I go to in order to take pictures!
Although the docent walked us behind the gates in the downstairs rooms,
there was no one to unlock the security gates upstairs.
This building, located in the back garden, houses the kitchen and the cook’s bedroom.
Glimpses into the kitchen …
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… and the cook’s bedroom.
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Originally the office where the plantation books were kept, this cottage was
converted into a bridal suite when Helen’s father married her mother;
this is where Helen was born, and later lived with her teacher, Anne Sullivan.
The Docent told us that when Annie realized that Helen’s parents were catering to
all of her whims, she decided she needed to move Helen away in order to control her
tantrums. The story goes that Helen was put into a carriage and taken for a long ride
before being brought back to this cabin, just yards away from the main house; she had
no idea how close she was to the house and her parents.
The two-room cottage consists of the playroom / schoolroom (left) and the bedroom
Helen and Annie shared; the shoes at the foot of the doll bed (top right) belonged to Helen.
Although it was rather chilly to be wandering around outside, we did take some time to check out the grounds. We peeked in at the outdoor stage where William Gibson’s The Miracle Worker, is performed during June and July, and wandered amongst the homages installed in tribute to Helen Keller. At this time of the year, the grounds are devoid of color, but come spring time, I bet the garden is a nice place to sit and contemplate what Helen Keller stood for.
These two totems are part of the “Gateway” from the Maori people of New Zealand.
Helen Keller challenged the Lions to help her “hasten the day when there shall be no preventable
blindness; no little deaf, blind child untaught; no blind man or woman unaided.” That challenge,
and the Lions’ response, are on the left; the Knights of the Blind exhibit is on the right.
[click the collage for a more legible version]
The docent who welcomed us to Ivy Green — and the brochures we picked up — all refer to Helen Keller’s birthplace house as …
… a permanent shrine to the “miracle” that occurred in a blind and deaf seven-year-old girl’s life.
And that’s what visitors will find when they come here. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit, even if, in our humble opinion, it is perhaps an incomplete shrine since it does not pay tribute to the “complete” woman that Helen Keller was. It was definitely worth the $6/person admission ($5/person with AAA or military ID).
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