Page "Helen Keller" Paragraph 7

In 1886, her mother, inspired by an account in Charles Dickens ' American Notes of the successful education of another deaf and blind woman, Laura Bridgman, dispatched young Helen, accompanied by her father, to seek out Dr. J. Julian Chisolm, an eye, ear, nose, and throat specialist in Baltimore, for advice.

He subsequently put them in touch with Alexander Graham Bell, who was working with deaf children at the time.

Bell advised the couple to contact the Perkins Institute for the Blind, the school where Bridgman had been educated, which was then located in South Boston.

Michael Anaganos, the school's director, asked former student Anne Sullivan, herself visually impaired and only 20 years old, to become Keller's instructor.

It was the beginning of a 49-year-long relationship, Sullivan evolving into governess and then eventual companion.