Anne sullivan born
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We chose Anne Sullivan’s name to pay tribute to an Irish immigrant who came to prominence as a teacher of people who were deafblind in the United States.
Anne Sullivan’s parents Thomas and Alice Sullivan left Limerick during the famine and settled in Massachusetts, where Anne was born in 1866. At only five years old, Anne contracted an eye infection and began losing her sight. Three years later, Anne’s mother passed away and she and her younger brother were abandoned by their father and sent to an Alms house in Tewksbury.
Whilst there Anne persuaded an inspector with Massachusetts Board of State Charities to sponsor her education at the Perkins School for the Blind, where she became one of the most promising students and graduated as Valedictorian of her class, aged 20.
During her time at Perkins, Anne learned to communicate with friends who were deafblind, including Laura Bridgeman the first person who was deafblind to be educated. It was a skill that would come in handy when, in 1886, she was hired by the Keller’s to care for their daughter Helen in Alabama. Helen w
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Retrospect
Journal.
Written by Isabelle Shaw
Anne Sullivan is regarded as history’s most inspiring teacher—a ‘miracle worker’—since she devoted most of her life to teaching Helen Keller, who was blind and deaf, to read and converse. Her innovations in teaching blind individuals to communicate using braille and spelling out letters by touching the palm have had a significant impact on modern-day education.
Early Life
Sullivan was born in April 1866 in Massachusetts to Irish immigrant parents, who moved to the U.S. during the ‘Great Famine.’ Sullivan herself suffered from impaired vision due to contracting an eye disease, trachoma, when she was a child. This would be important in motivating her resilience to teach Keller later in life. She recognised the importance of education in her early life as a means to escape poverty. Her family fell into great poverty after being abandoned by her abusive father which forced her to move into a Poorhouse: Tewksbury Almshouse. Here she faced tragedy when her brother, her last living relative, died shortly after moving into the Almshou
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Anne Sullivan
Teacher and companion of Helen Keller (1866–1936)
This article is about the teacher and companion of Helen Keller. For other uses, see Anne Sullivan (disambiguation).
Anne Sullivan Macy (born as Johanna Mansfield Sullivan; April 14, 1866 – October 20, 1936) was an American teacher best known for being the instructor and lifelong companion of Helen Keller.[1] At the age of five, Sullivan contracted trachoma, an eye disease, which left her partially blind and without reading or writing skills.[2] She received her education as a student of the Perkins School for the Blind. Soon after graduation at age 20, she became a teacher to Keller.[2]
Childhood
On April 14, 1866, Sullivan was born in Feeding Hills, Agawam, Massachusetts, United States. The name on her baptismal certificate was Johanna Mansfield Sullivan but she was called "Anne" or "Annie" from birth.[3] She was the eldest child of Thomas and Alice (Cloesy) Sullivan, who had emigrated from Ireland to the United States during the Great Famine.[4]
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