Helen Keller Archive of 4 Awards From Keller's Estate, Including Society of the Protection of the Blind, 1936-1948

Helen Keller

Archive

Archive of Four Honorary Certificates Recognizing the International Disability Advocacy and Literary Contributions of Helen Keller, Including a Certificate Awarded toher teacher Anne Sullivan. 1936–1948. Four printed certificates with manuscript entries and applied seals, each mounted to period cardboard supports. Subjects: Disability rights; Deaf and Blind advocacy; Women reformers; International humanitarian organizations; Helen Keller Certificate Archive.

This archive comprises four formal certificates honoring Helen Keller’s lifelong service as a deaf-blind intellectual, disability rights advocate, political activist, lecturer, and author, spanning the 1930s–1940s, the mature phase of her international public life. Three certificates are awarded directly to Keller; a fourth recognizes her teacher and lifelong companion, Anne Sullivan, whose pedagogical work made Keller’s public career possible. Together, these documents materially document Keller’s global reputation and the institutional recognition she received across literary, scientific, humanitarian, and disability-advocacy organizations during the interwar and immediate postwar periods.

The first certificate, issued by the National Geographic Society, records that “through the Board of Trustees at a meeting held in Washington District of Columbia in the United States of America,” Helen Keller of Forest Hills, New York, “has elected … a member of that Society,” dated March 5, 1936, bearing the Society’s embossed seal and signed by the secretary. The second, from the Eugene Field Society National Association of Authors and Journalists, certifies Keller’s Honorary Membership, explicitly citing that “by her writings [she] made an outstanding contribution to contemporary literature,” dated February 1, 1939, with applied seal featuring a silhouette of Eugene Field and manuscript signatures in blue ink. A third certificate, richly illustrated with an allegorical female figure bearing wings and halo and surrounded by foliage, is a Diploma of Honor / Eerediploma / Diplôme d’Honneur issued by the Société Protectrice des Aveugles [Society of Protection ot the Blind] (Antwerp), recognizing Keller as an honorary member for her service on behalf of the blind; the multilingual presentation underscores the international scope of her advocacy. The fourth certificate, issued by the Adult Deaf and Dumb Society of Victoria (Australia), certifies that at a meeting of the Life Governors and Subscribers held on October 28, 1948, “Miss Helen Keller, L.H.D., L.L.D. was elected a Life Governor of the above Society,” whose stated objective was “the after school welfare of the whole of the deaf and dumb of the state,” and is signed by the Society’s president and honorary secretary, with Keller’s name and date entered in manuscript. Physically, the certificates are folio and range from approximately 8.5 × 10.5 inches to 19 × 10.5 inches, each mounted on period cardboard supports measuring between roughly 12 × 14 inches and 23 × 16 inches. All four documents are in good to very good condition, with light toning and handling wear consistent with age, and with seals, signatures, and printed elements intact and legible. Overall condition: Very Good.

Item #18073

Price: $1,800.00