Helen Keller with Dog Poster

Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was a deafblind American author, activist and lecturer. Helen Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Her disabilities were caused by a fever in February, 1882 when she was 19 months old. Her loss of ability to communicate at such an early developmental age was very traumatic for her and her family. Helen went on to become a world-famous speaker and author. She is remembered as an advocate for the sensorially handicapped, but also supported progressive causes. She was a suffragist, a pacifist and a birth control supporter. In 1915 she founded Helen Keller International, a non-profit organization for preventing blindness. Helen and Anne Sullivan travelled all over the world to over 39 countries, and made several trips to Japan, becoming a favourite of the Japanese people. Helen Keller met every U.S. President from Grover Cleveland to Lyndon B. Johnson and was friends with many famous figures including Alexander Graham Bell, Charlie Chaplin and Mark Twain.