Where Helen Keller's family lived, there were no resources for the blind and the deaf. Where did Helen's parents take her to see a famous eye doctor?

Helen reveals these details in Chapter 3 of The Story of My Life. Her mother had read Charles Dickens’ book American Notes. She had absorbed the author’s description of a visit to the Perkins Institution in Boston, where he met a blind and deaf woman named Laura Bridgman. Unfortunately, Samuel Gridley Howe, who had been the head of Perkins when Laura Bridgman was there, had since died. But Helen’s parents knew that specialized...

Helen reveals these details in Chapter 3 of The Story of My Life. Her mother had read Charles Dickens’ book American Notes. She had absorbed the author’s description of a visit to the Perkins Institution in Boston, where he met a blind and deaf woman named Laura Bridgman. Unfortunately, Samuel Gridley Howe, who had been the head of Perkins when Laura Bridgman was there, had since died. But Helen’s parents knew that specialized help was indeed possible. When she was about six years old, they took Helen to see Dr. Chisholm in Baltimore. He recommended Alexander Graham Bell in Washington, D.C. Bell in turn told them to write a letter to Mr. Anagnos at the Perkins Institution. By the summer of 1886, Anagnos said a teacher had been found. He would send Anne Mansfield Sullivan to Helen’s house in March 1887. The Kellers had finally tapped into the right assistive network.