Helen Keller met 13 presidents.

Famous Figures

T he more you learn about Helen Keller’s life, the more remarkable it seems. The first deaf and blind person in the U.S. to earn a college degree, she also co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union in 1920 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. What’s more, the activist met the same number of presidents as Britain’s famously long-reigning monarch Queen Elizabeth II. Here’s who they were.

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By the Numbers

Books written by Keller

Keller’s age (in months) when she lost her sight and hearing

Did you know?

Helen Keller and Mark Twain were close friends.

A lot of quotes attributed to Mark Twain weren’t actually spoken by him, but this one was: “Helen Keller is fellow to Caesar, Alexander, Napoleon, Homer, Shakespeare, and the rest of the immortals... She will be as famous a thousand years from now as she is today.” The feeling was mutual: “He [Mark Twain] has his own way of thinking, saying and doing everything,” Keller once wrote. “I can feel the twinkle of his eye in his handshake. Even while he utters his cynical wisdom in an indescribably droll voice, he makes you feel that his heart is a tender Iliad of human sympathy.” The two became close friends after meeting at a luncheon held in Keller’s honor in 1895, and remained so until Twain’s death 15 years later. Built on mutual admiration and respect, their relationship spanned Keller’s college years (which Twain persuaded a friend to sponsor after learning of her financial hardships) and the death of the writer’s wife.