Legacy Matters

Helen Keller as a young girl with Anne Sullivan

Look what was in the attic of the family home of Thaxter Spencer in Waltham, Mass, for more than a hundred years until he donated the photo albums, letters and diaries to the New England Historic Genealogical Society last June

       
The earliest photo, taken in 1888, of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan.

Jan Seymour-Ford, a research librarian at the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, which both Sullivan and Keller attended, said she was moved to see how deeply connected the women were, even in 1888.
"The way Anne is gazing so intently at Helen, I think it's a beautiful portrait of the devotion that lasted between these two women all of Anne's life," Seymour-Ford said.