Rare Photo of Helen Keller as a Young Girl

An 1888 photo ofwith her teacher,, has been released by the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston.

The photo, taken on a family vacation on Cape Cod, shows an eight-year-old Keller, with a doll cradled in her lap, holding hands with Sullivan. Experts believe this could be the oldest photo of the two women together, as well as the only one of Keller with one of her beloved dolls.

The photo was donated 87-year-old Thaxter Spencer, who's mother, Hope Thaxter Parks, played with Keller that summer in Massachusetts.



"I never thought much about it," Spencer said in a statement released by the society. "It just seemed like something no one would find very interesting." Spencer has recently been hospitalized and could not be reached for comment.

Though deaf and blind, Helen Keller became a world-famous author and humanitarian. Anne Sullivan stayed at her side until her death in 1936. Keller died in 1968 at age 87.