Helen Keller

North Alabamians are invited to celebrate the 125th birthday of the Helen Keller Public Library in Tuscumbia, according to a press release.

The celebration is 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday at the library at 511 N. Main St. The event has an Alabama 200 Bicentennial designation because of the historic significance of the library.

Librarian Tammie Collins said she hopes the public will help the library pay tribute to the “civic-minded women” whose love of reading inspired the facility.

“The love and support of this community is what keeps our library alive and thriving,” she said. “We want the community to join us in celebrating the history of our library — the first in the state of Alabama.”

According to the library’s historians, Keller wrote to her mother from Boston in 1892 and asked her why her home town of Tuscumbia didn’t have a place where people could gather among books, to read and check them out. Acting upon Helen’s question, Kate Keller and other women in the community formed the Tuscumbia Library and Literary Club.

By October 1893, the new library had its charter and was set up in a room in the Deshler Female Institute, with books and fixtures donated by townspeople. Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan, arranged to have more books donated. As demand grew, the library eventually received financial support from the city of Tuscumbia in 1947. In 1965, it moved into a new building at its present location on North Main Street in downtown Tuscumbia.

“Helen loved art, books, reading, and all great literature,” Collins said. “It is fitting that we celebrate the library she encouraged into being and that artwork and poems inspired by her life are part of the celebration.”

About the event

Sunday’s celebration will recognize groups that were instrumental in moving the library forward, including the Board and Friends of the Helen Keller Public Library. An original portrait of Keller and Sullivan by world-renowned portrait artist Martha Carpenter will be unveiled, and Tuscumbia Mayor Kerry Underwood will greet the crowd.

Other guest speakers include Dave Power, chief executive officer and president of the Perkins School of the Blind; Keller Johnson Thompson, descendant of Helen Keller and vice president for education of the Helen Keller Eye Foundation; Jeanie Thompson, poet and executive director of the Alabama Writer’s Forum; and Wayne Sides, photographer, retired University of North Alabama professor, and creator of the library’s current exhibit, “I Wake from a Dream.”

Following the presentations, refreshments will be served and people will be allowed to tour the exhibit and library.