[Athen] FW: Today, June 27 marks the birth of an extraordinary woman.....

[Lissner, Scott]

Happy Birthday Helen Keller: June 27, 1880
[This 1955 black and white photograph shows Helen Keller, on her 75th birthday, assisted by Polly Thomson (secretary and companion) serving birthday cake.        Image description courtesy of Jane Ehrenfeld     In this black and white photograph, two older women stand shoulder to shoulder behind a lace covered table.  On the table is a three-tiered cake decorated with icing flowers and swags and a single small slender lit candle.  A stack of small plates with dark patterned rims sits to the left of the cake.     The woman on the left, Helen Keller, is a few inches taller than the woman on the right.  Her face is cast slightly downwards.  Her eyes are open yet her gaze is not fixed upon anything within the picture frame.  Her is mouth opened in a smile.  Helen’s dark wavy hair is parted on the left and pulled back from her face.  Short waves of whiter hair flanking the part frame her face. Her light-colored damask, short-sleeved dress has a V-shaped neckline that is both wide and deep.  It covers her shoulders and dips down to just above her breasts.  She wears a triple strand of round white pearls around the base of her neck.  Her right arm, bent at the elbow, reaches forward slightly as the broad bladed cake knife in her right hand poises between icing flowers atop the cake, its tip just behind the lone birthday candle.  The knife obscures the writing on the far side of the candle but two words, one above the other, are visible on the near side:  Birthday Helen.       The woman on the right, Polly Thomson, is wearing a darker dress of the same style and similar fabricexcept for the sleeves on which are fuller and pouf out at the banded cuff just above the elbow.  Her hair is darker than Helen’s and is also worn in waves pulled off the face and parted on the left.  With her chin tucked in, Polly’s head tips down toward the cake.  Her downcast eyes direct our attention to the cake and the four hands of the women.      Both of Polly’s arms are held in towards her body and are bent at the elbows.  Her right arm crosses in front of Helen’s left arm, seen just between the two women’s bodies and below Polly’s right elbow.  Polly’s right hand reaches across Helen’s waist as she holds, her fingers gently grasping, the top of Helen’s right hand as Helen cuts the cake.  Polly’s lower left arm crosses her body as she loosely holds Helen’s left hand in hers.     The touching right hands and forearms of the women create a V shape at Helen’s waistline, above and to the left of the cake.  Their touching left hands and forearms create a smaller V shape, echoing the first, at Polly’s waistline.  The downturned heads and points of the V that are created by the hands direct our attention to the cake.       In the background on the left, behind Helen’s right shoulder, is a candle in a wall sconce.  To the right of the sconce, we see the top left corner of the narrow black frame of a picture or document, the glare from the flash bulb obscuring its contents.  In the lower left, below Helen’s right elbow the upper left of the dark wooden frame of a shield-backed chair is seen.  Between the women and behind Polly on the right, are indistinct dark shadowy shapes resulting from the photographer’s flash.]
Photo courtesy of the American Foundation for the Blind Hellen Keller Archives <http://www.afb.org/default.aspx>

This 1955 black and white photograph shows Helen Keller, on her 75th birthday, assisted by Polly Thomson (secretary and companion) serving birthday cake.



Image description courtesy of Jane Ehrenfeld <https://eyedescribe.wordpress.com/>



In this black and white photograph, two older women stand shoulder to shoulder behind a lace covered table.  On the table is a three-tiered cake decorated with icing flowers and swags and a single small slender lit candle.  A stack of small plates with dark patterned rims sits to the left of the cake.



The woman on the left, Helen Keller, is a few inches taller than the woman on the right.  Her face is cast slightly downwards.  Her eyes are open yet her gaze is not fixed upon anything within the picture frame.  Her is mouth opened in a smile.  Helen’s dark wavy hair is parted on the left and pulled back from her face.  Short waves of whiter hair flanking the part frame her face. Her light-colored damask, short-sleeved dress has a V-shaped neckline that is both wide and deep.  It covers her shoulders and dips down to just above her breasts.  She wears a triple strand of round white pearls around the base of her neck.  Her right arm, bent at the elbow, reaches forward slightly as the broad bladed cake knife in her right hand poises between icing flowers atop the cake, its tip just behind the lone birthday candle.  The knife obscures the writing on the far side of the candle but two words, one above the other, are visible on the near side:  Birthday Helen.



The woman on the right, Polly Thomson, is wearing a darker dress of the same style and similar fabricexcept for the sleeves on which are fuller and pouf out at the banded cuff just above the elbow.  Her hair is darker than Helen’s and is also worn in waves pulled off the face and parted on the left.  With her chin tucked in, Polly’s head tips down toward the cake.  Her downcast eyes direct our attention to the cake and the four hands of the women.



Both of Polly’s arms are held in towards her body and are bent at the elbows.  Her right arm crosses in front of Helen’s left arm, seen just between the two women’s bodies and below Polly’s right elbow.  Polly’s right hand reaches across Helen’s waist as she holds, her fingers gently grasping, the top of Helen’s right hand as Helen cuts the cake.  Polly’s lower left arm crosses her body as she loosely holds Helen’s left hand in hers.



The touching right hands and forearms of the women create a V shape at Helen’s waistline, above and to the left of the cake.  Their touching left hands and forearms create a smaller V shape, echoing the first, at Polly’s waistline.  The downturned heads and points of the V that are created by the hands direct our attention to the cake.



In the background on the left, behind Helen’s right shoulder, is a candle in a wall sconce.  To the right of the sconce, we see the top left corner of the narrow black frame of a picture or document, the glare from the flash bulb obscuring its contents.  In the lower left, below Helen’s right elbow the upper left of the dark wooden frame of a shield-backed chair is seen.  Between the women and behind Polly on the right, are indistinct dark shadowy shapes resulting from the photographer’s flash.
















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