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Library's photo of Helen Keller Prompts Questions How did it get there?
by Anne Mattina July 22, 2008 — Hopkinton resident and library employee Linda Connelly, facing an assignment in a course on archival photography at Simmons College had a wealth of potential subjects. As many visitors to the Hopkinton Public Library know, the reference area is liberally decorated with many antique photos of townspeople from the past. Civil War vets are mixed in with hockey players from the 1940s along with distinguished people and homes from an earlier era. But one framed photo sitting on a shelf by the stained glass window, largely unnoticed by employees and visitors alike caught her eye. The subject, none other than Helen Keller.
Most people are familiar with the story of Keller, born in 1880 to a privileged family in Tuscumbia, Alabama. At nineteen months old Helen, struck by an illness 19th-century doctors referred to as “brain fever” was left deaf and blind. For several years her family struggled to deal with Helen’s frequent rages, her frustrated reaction to her inability to communicate. Contacting Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown for assistance, the school recommended a former pupil as a teacher for Helen. Annie Sullivan, born in Agawam, Massachusetts would become Helen’s beloved “Teacher” and conduit to the larger world. Keller went on graduate from Radcliffe College, the first deaf and blind person to do so, and gained world-wide fame as a humanitarian and social activist.
The framed photograph Ms. Connelly came across in the Hopkinton Library depicts a teen-aged Keller in profile. As she describes it, it is a “a lovely dreamy image” in what appears to be the original frame from the late 19th century. “How,” Ms. Connelly wondered, “did it come to be in the Hopkinton Public Library?” The first clue is found tucked into the corner of the frame, a small card reading “Helen Keller presented by Miss A. E. Poulsson.”
Like any good library student, Ms. Connelly’s first step in solving the mystery was to go to the stacks to view published biographies of Keller, scouring them for photos of her subject. Through her research, she determined there are thousands of published photographs of Keller. The American Federation for the Blind is in possession of 2,500 alone. Ms. Connelly quickly noted the vast majority of these images were of Keller as an adult, very few showing her in adolescence. One biography, however did show Helen on its cover, as a young girl. Ms. Connelly instantly noted that the published photo was taken at the same sitting as the one in Hopkinton’s library; Keller’s clothing, hairstyle and the photo’s qualities identical. However, the book’s photo included Annie Sullivan, while the library’s does not.
With permission from the library’s trustees, Ms. Connelly removed the photo from the original frame, discovering through additional research with the Library of Congress that the photo had been made by Washington, D.C. photographer Charles Milton Bell. As part of her coursework on archival methods of photography, Ms. Connelly surmised that the photo as taken in the 1890’s, substantiated through her contact with the LOC who had dated another picture from the series as being taken on May 10, 1893 when Keller was one month shy of her 14th birthday.
But, who was A.E. Poulsson and what was her connection to Hopkinton? Though she is not widely-known among current residents, Anne Emilie Poulsson was a distinguished children’s author and advocate for the kindergarten movement of the late 19th century. Poulsson lived with her sister for ten years on Hayden Rowe, moving to Hopkinton from Boston for health reasons, our rural town being famous for its fresh air. Ms. Connelly learned from previous children’s librarian Dinny Potenza that a former library patron, Dr. Cecile Mazzuco-Than is currently working on a biography of Poulsson, and that the library owns many copies of her published works. In addition, Poulsson founded a children’s reading club at the Hopkinton Public Library.
Emilie Poulsson, as she was known, had severely impaired eyesight and had, at one point, worked as a teacher at the Perkins School. She was a contemporary of Annie Sullivan’s at the school. The most direct connection Ms. Connelly discovered between Keller and the Hopkinton resident was a book, now archived with Keller’s materials at the American Federation for the Blind. It is a Poulsson “electrotype” book , (defined by Connelly as pre-Braille with raised letters of the alphabet), owned by Keller as a child. In 1893, the year the photo was taken, Poulsson published In the Child’s World, Morning Talks and Stories, and included several pieces by young Helen. Keller and Sullivan lived in Massachusetts for the next several decades, including a period of time in Wrentham. Both Poulsson and Keller provided tributes on the centenary celebration of the birthday of the founder of the Perkins School for the Blind Samuel Gridley Howe in 1901.
Further intrigued by the photo, Ms. Connelly delved deeper into its context in Keller’s life. She found that in 1891, 11 year-old Helen had a falling-out with her mentor Michael Anagnos of the Perkins School over an accusation of plagiarism by Helen regarding a story she had presented him. He started “whispering campaign” against her and her public image suffered. Keller and Sullivan left Massachusetts for a period and “hid out” at her home in Alabama. In 1893, they traveled to Washington, DC to attend the inaugural festivities of President Grover Cleveland. A later biography of Keller notes that during this period she and Sullivan had a series of studio portraits done. It was thought that distribution of the photos would help restore Helen’s reputation, a move orchestrated by Keller family friend, Alexander Graham Bell. Ms. Connelly concludes that the Hopkinton Public Library’s photo is, in fact, an original from that series. Her determined research has led Ms. Connelly to speculate that the picture may be a singular image of the much-photographed Keller, one unique to this series. Neither the American Federation for Blind nor the Library of Congress have it, and the AFB has expressed interest in obtaining a copy. The value of the photo, Ms. Connelly, asserts is to local town history and its connection to a famous resident of years gone by. She hopes to pursue the connection between Poulsson and Keller in future months and with the help of Dr. Muzzucco-Than and Dinny Potenza, flesh out exactly how the picture came into the library’s possession. She is also working to determine the best way to archive the 115-year-old treasure so that it can be enjoyed by patrons for years to come.
For the time being, residents can view a copy of the photo on display at the HPL.
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