Nella Braddy Henney Collection, Box 1

Box 1: Folder 1-6: Correspondence to NBH, 1926-1939

The Nella Braddy Henney Collection is comprised of correspondence, notes, photographs, articles, clippings, publications and other materials related to the lives of Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan Macy, Polly Thomson and Nella Braddy Henney. The extensive correspondence collection contains Keller correspondence with other people, including Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain; copies), Perkins Directors Edward E. Allen and Gabriel Farrell, Charles F. F. Campbell, actress Katherine Cornell, and other notable people forwarded to Nella Braddy Henney for use while working on her book Anne Sullivan Macy: The story behind Helen Keller (1933).

Nella Braddy Henney first met Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller, and Polly Thomson in 1924, when she came to the Sullivan-Keller-Thomson household to write Sullivan’s biography Anne Sullivan Macy: The story behind Helen Keller (1933). Quickly mastering the manual finger language, she kept Keller in touch with the political, literary, and scientific world around her. She remained in Keller’s life, as a friend, and also as Keller’s power of attorney, acting agent for all Keller’s literary matters, until 1963. She was married to Keith Henney, also a writer and editor, as well as a photographer who took many photographs of Helen Keller. She died in 1973.

For complete finding aid please visit: http://www.perkinsarchives.org/nbh.html