Alexander Graham Bell and Helen Keller, 29 August 1901

Bell was, above all, a teacher of the deaf, and it was this very subject and the professional expertise he developed on the nature of sound that enabled him to invent the telephone. His friendship with the deaf and blind Helen Keller, a frequent guest with the Bell family, spilled over into science. Bell described what Annie Sullivan had done in teaching the young Helen to communicate by means of finger spelling as "not a miracle but a brilliantly successful experiment." Here Bell is "talking" to Helen Keller surrounded by family and friends. Gilbert H. Grosvenor Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Higher Quality JPEG - 149K