The story of Anne Sullivan’s life once it became linked to Helen Keller’s life is known. Less familiar is Sullivan’s life before she arrived in Alabama in 1887. Johanna Mansfield “Anne” Sullivan was born on April 15, 1866.
Her parents had immigrated to Massachusetts from Ireland, but they were uneducated and did not have a skill or trade that allowed them to support their family. Life was hard, and the Sullivans struggled to get by. By the time Anne was five years old, her vision was severely impacted by trachoma. Then, her mother died in 1874. Her father abandoned Anne and her younger brother, Jimmie, two years later.
With no one to take care of them, Anne and Jimmie were sent to an almshouse. Anne was almost completely blind, and Jimmie was not in good health. Conditions in the almshouse were brutal for children, and within a few months, Jimmie died. Ten-year-old Anne was left without friends or family.
During an inspection of the facility in 1880, Anne gathered her courage to ask one of the officials to be allowed to live and attend classes at the Perkins Institution, a school in Boston for children who were blind. It was arranged for her to start school that fall, but 14-year-old
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Eye in the Sky
An interview with Joe Piotrowski
Airborne Animals
Humans have taken to the skies in balloons, gliders, and airplanes-but we're not alone among the clouds. Animals of all sorts have evolved to harness wind power.
TAKING OFF
The Wright brothers expected airplanes to “take off,” but even they might be amazed at the way the airline industry has become big business. In the past, it was expensive to send something by plane.
GROWTH OF AN INDUSTRY
After their historic flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright returned to Dayton, Ohio. They spent the next few years making adjustments and building additional versions of their powered aircraft in their bicycle shop.
WHY KITTY HAWK?
The Wright brothers searched carefully for the best place to test their gliders and flying machines. Their main concern was for good, steady winds. But they also hoped to find a remote location to allow them to perform tests away from the public eye.
Two Brothers From Ohio
Most people do not realize that the Wright brothers—Wilbur, born in 1867, and Orville, born in 1871—performed various scientific experiments before inventing their aircraft. For as long as anyone in their hometown of Dayton, Ohio, could remember, the Wright boys had worked on mechanical projects.
A Helping Hand
May 6, 1896. A group of people who had gathered beside the Potomac River, just south of the U.S. capital, grew quiet. Then, it erupted in cheers as a small, unmanned aircraft took to the skies and flew for more than half a mile. The flight came seven years before the Wright brothers’ first manned, powered flight. The inventor of the aircraft was Dr. Samuel Pierpont Langley.
THE IDEA MEN
People dreamed of flying thousands of years before the Wright brothers found success near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. These dreamers, such as Leonardo da Vinci, studied birds flying and imagined how humans might do the same—if only they had wings. Other men developed a more hands-on approach to the topic. Early inventors made wings of cloth, glue, and feathers and tied these creations to their arms in an attempt to imitate nature.
Da Vinci's 4 Designs
Have you ever wondered how a bird flies? Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) did. He thought that understanding how a bird flies would provide the key to human flight. So, what did da Vinci learn from birds?
Silken Wings
Seven hundred years before the Wright brothers began experimenting with human flight, the Chinese had already mastered its secrets—with kites.
