Helen Keller

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Helen Keller (1880-1968) was a political activist, lecturer and author. She was the first deaf-blind person to earn a bachelor’s degree in Arts after graduating from Radcliffe College, Harvard in 1904. On losing her sight and hearing at 19 months, Helen’s parents recruited the help of Anne Sullivan to help her communicate by spelling words on her hand. A member of the American Socialist Party and a founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, Keller was a keen advocate for the rights of women, labourers and the disabled. Four years before her death, President Lyndon Johnson awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The 15 cents stamp depicts a young Keller with her teacher and lifelong companion Anne Sullivan, and is derived from a photograph taken in 1895. Issued in 1980, the stamp marked the centennial of Helen Keller’s birth and was released as part of the ‘Women of Distinction’ series. It is printed in the lithography and engraving style. 153,975,000 copies of the stamp were printed in Keller’s hometown, Tuscumbia, Alabama. Special thanks to Museum Volunteer Isobel MacAuslan for helping with the research of Helen Keller.