Anne Sullivan looks just as mean as every actress who has ever played her in The Miracle Worker. Well, maybe stern would be a better word. A passive and blank looking Helen Keller sits in a wicker chair with a doll in her lap. It seems that she may be talking to her teacher Anne with her hand. But since all I know about this king of sign language is what I have seen in the movies, it is only a guess. But if I were the photographer taking a portrait of these two, I’d tell them to talk to each as I took the photo.
Found in a pile of pictures belonging to 87-year-old Thaxter Spencer, who donated his photos and other heirlooms to the New England Historic Genealogical Society, this is oldest know photo of Helen Keller.
Spencer’s mother vacationed at the home where the photo was taken at the same time as the Keller family. His late mother, who was four years younger than Helen Keller, often recalled how the blind-deaf child would feel her face with her hand-a means she used to identify people.
“I never thought much about it,” Spencer relates about the photo. “It just seemed like something no one would find very interesting.”
There is something about these images from the late 1800s, the lack of formal posing as we know it today and the use of natural light as the main source. There were not a lot of smiles in these old photos-even in wedding portraits everyone looks like they are at a wake. This had something to do with the long exposure times and it being easier to look blank than happy. This photo of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan seems to be in very good shape for a 120 year image. But then, they used to make these things to last. Thick papers and thick cardboard covers.
Makes me want to get some quality archival papers for my printer-just in case anyone ever wants one of my images. Or will the story in a hundred years be about a rare file found on an old hard drive? It doesn’t seem quite as likely, does it?
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