Helen Keller Time Capsule Recordings

On this episode of Change Makers, learn more about the special discovery that features Helen Keller giving a radio address.

On this Episode

• Narrator
• Sara Brown, APH Public Relations Manager
• Justin Gardner, AFB Helen Keller Archivist at APH

Additional Links

• Echoes from the Past: Helen Keller and the Time Capsule Recordings
• Achieving A Dream: Helen Keller’s Legacy and The Dot Experience.

Transcript

Narrator: 0:00

<silence> Welcome to Change Makers , a podcast from APH. We're talking to people from around the world who are creating positive change in the lives of people who are blind or have low vision. Here's your host.

Sara Brown: 0:15

Hello and welcome to Change Makers. I'm APH's Public Relations Manager, Sara Brown . And on today's episode, we're learning more about the special Helen Kellen discovery and the event recently held in New York City. To tell us more is the man who made this discovery, AFB Helen Kellen Archivist at APH Justin Gardner. Hello Justin and welcome to Change Makers .

Justin Gardner: 0:39

Hello.

Sara Brown: 0:41

Alright , so before we get into this fascinating story, do you mind to share what it is that you do at APH and let our listeners know just a little bit about yourself?

Justin Gardner: 0:49

Yeah, sure, sure. Right now, I am the AFB Helen Keller Archivist. So , um, in 2020 , uh, we got both the AFB company archive and the Helen Keller Archive from the American Foundation for the Blind. And that was when in Jan , January of 2020 , uh, we actually went there to New York and packed the whole thing up and had it shipped here via a fine arts courier. Um, my supervisor at the time stayed in New York for another couple of days, but I came back here early to a completely empty but brand new archive that I'm , I'm sitting in , in right now. Um, you know, all the shelves were empty and they had just finished building it, but it was kind of nice. I got to see this empty, the archives caught up with me. Um, we got 'em on the shelves, but I couldn't really start the position until October of 2020, so about 10 months later because of Covid , you know, so we just barely got everything traveling to and from New York and got everything shipped here and covid hit, and then I couldn't even come back into the building for a while . So I really started back here about 10 months after we shipped everything here. So it was a , you know, it was a kind of a strange situation. I was really eager to get started back here, but luckily it's so secluded , um, that I could come in a little bit early when everybody else was still at home. And I got, I got started on my new job.

Sara Brown: 2:17

All right . And with those archives, so that, that's just boxes upon boxes of just stuff that you had to go through?

Justin Gardner: 2:25

Yeah. Well, the Helen Keller Archive was full of documents, photographs, and a lot of other artifacts, like physical artifacts, like her typewriter , her braille writer , even things like hats and some of the gifts she received. So we have something like, like a boomerang , um, you know, that you might not imagine being in the collection, but it was a gift when she went to Australia. Now, we also had the American Foundation for the Blind Archive, which really, I think was more of a company record set, but , um, that was 500 boxes of documents. And I have gotten through about 485 at this point. Um, and I cataloged them and put them in new folders, put them in new boxes, labeled them. So really kind of turned it into a modern archive of documents. And that's just as important because it really shows the whole history of the field of visual impairment in the United States.

Sara Brown: 3:26

Now going through all of that stuff, because I've been back there and you've shown me some things, and it is a lot of, of fascinating, fascinating pieces. Yeah . Is there a hierarchy when you're going through this?

Justin Gardner: 3:39

Yeah, and some of it, I , I guess you could say I'm lucky because I worked in the Miguel Library , um, here at APH for a little over 10 years before I started this. So we also, we , we purchased the Miguel Library from the American Foundation for the Blind in, I think it was 2009. And I started my job as the Miguel Librarian in 2011. So yeah, I had about 10 years of going through almost all of those books and becoming extremely familiar with the field. So I had a pretty good background , um, in the history of the field. So when there's something that I would come across , uh, sometimes memorable or prominent names or events or products that I would find something about in , in the archive sometimes was really kind of thrown off. I think in the AFB archive, for example, I found a handwritten manuscript of, of an autobiography of Sir Francis Joseph Campbell. And his work, and even this, this manuscript really predated AFB, it was from the 1800's. And I , I had no idea why, why this was in here, but the fun thing about the archives is that I was able to dig deeper and the entire story was documented, and it had to do with when he passed away, all of his documents were put into a barrel. That's the word that was used. And this barrel kind of passed ownership from , um, the college that he worked at in London at the time, coming back to his family in Michigan and going to the Library of Congress and then going back to AFB. So , um, you know, that's one of the, the things that I really enjoy doing in the archives in general, is finding connections like that, because it's all back here, but it's not all connected. And that's, that's really what I spend a lot of my time doing, is connecting the stories of the information, I guess you could say.

Sara Brown: 5:45

So before we get into further and additional stories and background, how did you get into this field? Were you always just like a history buff? Were , were you that person always looking to, you know, hanging in museums and learning about the curation and the archiving aspect? How did you get into this field mm-hmm <affirmative> . For anybody out there listening that, that loves this history and is interested?

Justin Gardner: 6:07

Yeah, it was always an interest of mine . And I , uh, I was kind of split when I went to college. I didn't know if I wanted to major in history. Well, I really wanted to major in history, just wasn't sure how I could use it. So I was thinking about majoring in education instead, and I took both, both class courses, but I just loved history and it was much easier for me since I enjoyed it. So I went ahead and, and got my history degree. And while I was in college, I realized that I was spending all of my time at the library and at Indiana University in Bloomington, the library school is connected to the library, and I saw a sign for the library school and thought, oh, that would be a good idea. So , um, yeah, I, I, once I got my history degree, I found a job working for Indiana University. So I got tuition reimbursement and , um, was able to go to grad school for extremely, extremely cheap. And , uh, it took me a little bit longer, but then I, I focused on special collections and archives when I went to library school. And, you know, at the time I was thinking about getting what was called a Museum Studies Degree, but I was already in , in, at Indiana University, and they, they didn't have that specific degree, but I, my favorite thing , um, I guess I should mention that in between my two degrees, I also had an internship at a museum and was then an assistant, a curator at a museum. And while I was doing that work, I found that my favorite thing to do was in the collections. I really liked documents, and I liked photographs because I felt like an artifact does have a story, you know, it was an object that was there, an important object. But so were letters and photographs, and I felt like they had an extra layer of information. So that my favorite thing to do was going through letters and photographs, and, you know, that's where I ended up luckily. So,

Sara Brown: 7:57

And it led you here and that's, yeah . And that's where you are today. Mm-hmm . Now talk about what you, what you found, you found these silver disks of the recording, right? Mm-hmm <affirmative> . That was you who found them. So can you go through, just share the story of, I don't know, what was it just going into work that day, going through, through some items, and how did you find that, talk about that process?

Justin Gardner: 8:22

They had actually been found, I guess, before I got to them. So there was the time capsule, and in December 5, 1934, Helen Keller and Miguel from the American Foundation for the Blind , um, the foundation had moved into a new building on 16th Street in New York. So as they were finishing building that, building, that building , um, you know, there are pictures of it where they're still painting the walls and everything, pretty much, much. But as they were completing that building to be used, they had a ceremony where they put a time capsule into the building. So , um, I guess really the way I should just start the story is that when I started here, AFB still had the time capsule, and it hadn't been opened, but they did open it for a c kind of more of a fundraising event in, boy, that was in 2021. And they opened it up, and we're going to send it here to kind of put it back into the archive so it could rejoin everything else. I didn't know what was in it, didn't really find any coverage of the ceremony or anything. Um, but it took them just a little while to pack it up because it had to be done by an archivist. And it was packed very well, sent here very carefully. And it arrived here. And I, that's when I got to kind of dig through some of the things. So now I've, I've worked with time capsules before, and it's funny because there are always newspapers and always coins. So there were coins in it for , uh, you know, 1934 coins. There were newspapers in it. Um, there were some photographs that were signed by Helen Keller and Ann Sullivan , and the president of AFB Robert Irwin. And those were a little bit, they were special, but they were a little bit predictable. Um, I think the best things that were in the time capsule were one, there was a , a booklet were everyone who worked at AFB signed their names, and a lot of them actually wrote what they did. So it was the entire staff of AFB at the time. Uh, and, you know, it's, it's all in their own unique handwriting. And, you know, that really kind of made me feel close to it. Oh, in fact, one of the people who signed it was someone named Helga Linde , who was the Miguel librarian and then the archivist. So I , I've seen so many notes from her. I was just like, there she is. Wow. So , um, that's kind of like one of my predecessors. But then in the time, capsule were, was a set of things. Uh , really the first thing that struck my eye were the master discs for audio recordings. So these were silver master discs that are used to press a record. And I'm kind of familiar with those, 'cause I've seen them here at , at APH 'cause we have those as well, from from when we had the Talking Book studio. And when we made our own records here, there were these silver discs that had been covered in black wax, which I had never seen before. And it was kind of cracking off of the, the master discs . I thought, oh, wow, that's strange. They must have done that to preserve the master discs . And luckily, they also actually pressed records from those discs. So the masters were in there, but there were, I guess what you could call a regular record in, or there were three records as well in the time capsule. So those were what I actually ended up digitizing. But along with those was the arm from a record player and two packs of needles. So, you know, us future people of tomorrow can , could , could play the record if we didn't have record players anymore. And also there was a mirror, and I, I do understand this to a point, I still think it's a really interesting choice, but there was a small mirror and etched into the mirror were instructions on how to clean the master discs , which involved heating it to 80 degrees Celsius and pouring gasoline on them. So, of course, you know, that's the last thing I would ever want to do as an archivist, but I was like, wow, that is a really , um, I guess it struck me partially because it doesn't, you know, that's not a good way to preserve something by getting it hot and pouring gasoline on it, but also just because I thought it was such an interesting way to clean them , uh, because you , they came to me and , and the wax was already chipping off, but also just the fact that it was etched into a mirror. On one hand, I was thinking, that is a great idea because it , it doesn't just degrade like paper and it can't melt very easily. But then again, it's a mirror. So it is pretty fragile. You know, I think maybe I would've etched it into, oh , I don't know, copper or maybe etched it into the copper , uh, the copper time capsule. But anyway, so it was an interesting find. Um, what I actually did was I took the records and I digitized those, but I was scared, you know, it was clear that these were unique. There was handwriting on the sleeve on each one of them, and one of them said, ear view of 1934, the other one said, ceremony. And I think the third record was actually the annual report for, for the American Foundation for the Blind of that year. But these were clearly, you know, they didn't have , um, mass produced labels on them. And I could kind of tell and guess that these were probably one of a kind unique records. And even though I've digitized a lot of records before, I did not want to be responsible if I, you know, dropped, dropped the needle in the wrong place, or scratched a record, or I knew that I did not want to mess these up, but I also didn't want to send them off in the mail or anything because they're one of a kind records. So, did a little bit of research through , uh, the Society of American Archivists, and I found that there is an archival digitization service in Covington, Kentucky, so not too far from Louisville. So I thought that was a good, that was kind of a good , um, halfway point , uh, by which I mean, you know, I wouldn't have to send it off and I wouldn't have to do it myself. I found a nearby place, so I, I got the records and I hand-delivered them into Covington. I was still a little bit nervous to leave them there, but I knew that they got there safely, and I left them there, drove back to work. And I think about a month later, I drove back, picked up the records and a thumb drive with the audio on it. And I was really excited about this. And I even knew at the time, I was just thinking that nobody's really heard these, so I wanted to keep it that way. So once I got back, I saved the files. So I knew that there were multiple copies. There's a , uh, an old saying, and I guess it was an archivist training where they say lots , locks, lots of copies, keeps stuff safe. So I made sure that , uh, I had the files saved in a lot of different places, and I listened to them. But just at every five minute mark, you know, I wanted to make sure that the recording was clean and that the whole record went through. And I did. Uh, but I will say that I, I noticed at one spot that I heard Helen Keller's voice, because I was familiar with it. It's pretty distinct. And I had heard it before, and I was like, okay, she definitely speaks on these. And that's kind of when the ball started rolling for me. That year, at annual meeting, Eric Bridges, the president of the American Foundation for the Blind attended. So we started talking about, and that was about two years ago from this point. So we started talking about a project. Then something else, and this is, this has to do with, or this is related to what I said about making connections in the archive. As I was going through these boxes, I found a folder about this ceremony. So there was a folder with documentation about this time capsule and the cornerstone ceremony at AFB. And it had a list of everything that was in the time capsule. And that was good because I could go back and check to make sure nothing had been lost. It had a lot of newspaper articles and some photographs from the day, and it had Helen Keller's speech that she was going to give. So I looked at it, and it was a pretty long four or five paragraph speech, and I said, oh, okay, well, maybe I do know what's, what's, what's on this recording, and here's the original transcript. Once we listened to the recording, I found that she had completely, whether it was to save time, so it could fit onto a record, or I , I actually don't think that's the case. She had complete, completely changed what she spoke about , um, because the original transcript, it was very formal, and she really just spoke about important cornerstones in time and history. But what we eventually heard on the recording was much more emotional and personal.

Sara Brown: 17:53

Okay. So you, you're listening to these recordings every five minutes, and you hear Keller's distinct voice mm-hmm <affirmative> . Because it is very distinct. What went through your mind at that moment? Were you were like, "whoa, that's her voice," and you knew, you knew it was her voice?

Justin Gardner: 18:09

Well, for one thing, I, I knew that it really was a live personal recording of this event, because like I said, it said ceremony on the sleeve, but I just, I didn't know exactly what that was. Another thing that I had found in the folder was that NBC had come to broadcast the ceremony itself. So then I really knew that that was, this was a , a once, once in a lifetime recording. And I , I think that's important for several different reasons. I mean, for one thing, we have this time capsule that was placed at AFB, there was a ceremony for it, and we have a recording of the time capsule ceremony that came out of the time capsule. So that really is a moment that was frozen in time. The other thing about it was that, I mean, it's such a unique voice to have, have these people who put this time capsule speaking directly to us. And I mean, that's what this was for. It's not just like, it was a random, oh , a random broadcast from, from that era. It's from the day and the place where this time capsule was placed. And I've really been thinking about that a lot lately, especially when I got to speak to everyone at AFB. And I don't think that there was probably, there has really probably been anything like this anywhere else in the world, and especially before this moment, because AFB was pioneering the talking book at this time. And that's why there was a sound recording in the time capsule. You know, I , when I was a kid, I remember we used to sometimes make little recordings on a little cassette recorder and, you know, save it until we grew up or whatever. So I, I do think, like, say maybe in the seventies something, by that point, something similar would've been easy to do. But in 1934, nobody was just making recordings to save. And if they were that there's no way they would've been at the level of quality and professionalism that these records were made. In fact, we were kind of joking when we were talking about this in New York. I said, wow, this really sold me on the talking book. Which I, I say that as a joke. I , I , I've always thought the history of the talking book was incredibly important, but it was just such a well done couple of recordings that, like I said, it's not just like a group of people making a little tape. This was really well, well done and really special, I thought.

Sara Brown: 20:49

Talk about the, the event. So when, after you found these, these tapes and you listened to them, what did others say when you let them know what you found?

Justin Gardner: 20:59

Well, they , everybody was very excited about it, I think. And it's, it's, it's fun. And I think it's kind of special that we have this partnership because the folks at AFB were of course, excited about it. It's, it's their history. And really the history of AFB is, is, has a direct link to the history of APH. 'cause we've always worked together and we still work together. And, you know, we even kind of swap employees. So there are people here from, from AFB as well. So everybody that I spoke to was very excited about it. And of course, we've got the two us, the new, new to us, Helen Keller Archive had pretty much just been moved here to APH on a long-term loan. And we're going to have the dot experience opening up very soon to share a lot of the Helen Keller artifacts. And here was this, this recording, this very personal recording of Helen Keller that the world hadn't heard, which is, it's interesting when something like that, I don't wanna say appears, when something is found from a person who is important to history, who, you know, Helen Keller was born in 1880, and she passed away in 1968. And you really, sometimes, you know, you think you would've found everything that she left us. She did. This archive was started by Helen Keller and by AFB. So one of the reasons, or that's one of the reasons that it's such a great and inclusive archive, is because she was here to help build it. And because of that, you would think that, that everything would've been found, I guess you could say already. She, she wanted to share everything. Um, everything has been, all of the artifacts and the documents and everything were already digitized by AFB before, before the collection came here. But since that time capsule was sealed, that was the one last thing I guess, that we hadn't really found yet. So once those came out, and that was this completely unique, and, and like I said, it's, it's a unique never bef never before heard recording, but it's just so , uh, being a real message to us from that time. I think it was exciting to me as well. Um, and there were, like I said, there were three discs, and even at the first one has the ceremony, the time capsule ceremony, which happened, it was broadcast, and then the record was, you know, put into the time capsule. But another record that was in the time capsule was called an "Ear View of 1934." And that was some of the staff at AFB actually going out around the building and talking about what was going on in New York at the time. And you get to hear traffic, they, they talk about how, how loud and busy it is, but compared to modern New York, it did not not sound that way. Um, they go through a Subway, they, they come out in , in Times Square, and then they go back to the AFB building, and they go through the Talking Book studio, and they talk about how they record talking books. So that second disc was not a live broadcast, it was really a talking book. It was very well produced, and it had sound effects, and they speak to all of the , uh, the talking book narrators. So it was, that was the one that was really very well produced. And, and it was really meant as a message to us. And it feels that way when you listen to it, because they talk to you, they ask questions, and you can tell that they worked very hard Yeah. To , to showcase what they were , they were working so hard on in the thirties. They were just like they say , I think the term that they use is the children of our grandchildren or our grandchildren's children. We're, we're giving this to you today to tell what we've been working on, and, and we sit here and wonder what your world is like. So it's very personal. Yeah . And it's , it's , it's amazing to hear,

Sara Brown: 25:13

You know, I also enjoyed hearing , uh, the transatlantic accents too. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . You know, just you said the sounds of the city. Another thing I picked up on during the, the event I'm gonna ask you to talk about in a second mm-hmm <affirmative> . The trans , those accents that have morphed into today's accents. But those transatlantic accents are very, very fun to hear. Very interesting to hear. Um, now talk about the event that you just recently went to. You were just in New York earlier this week mm-hmm <affirmative> . Talk about what was done to celebrate this, this, these , these discs that you found the whole time capsule.

Justin Gardner: 25:50

Well, one of the things that was great about it was not only that AFB and APH were able to, to come together again and to coordinate this and collaborate, but we, we met at that original building where the time capsule was placed. And luckily the , that's now the Center for Jewish History in New York. So it's, it's really, you know, a museum and a library and an archive as well. So they were just as interested in this. I was so glad it didn't end up just becoming , uh, like a boutique or, you know, something like that, something more commercial. It was actually a center dedicated to history still. So they were just as excited as all of us, I think. And, you know, their , the history was important to them too. This time capsule was in their building. It was recorded right there in that building where we all got to meet together and listen to it. So , uh, yeah, for me, being from the printing house here in Louisville, Kentucky, sitting inside of this archive with all of these things, well, you know, these things and these histories at one point were in that building and being back in that same spot with both of our organizations and, you know, everyone from the, the Center for Jewish History where they inhabited the building, and we all, we all cared about this. That was a really nice feeling for someone who spends a lot of time alone in an archive. There was this big group of people, and we all cared about this just, just as much. And , um, one of the people who came , uh, was named Walter Decker. He was a , at least I believe, a vice president at AFB. And I spent quite a while talking to him about his part in the story, because, you know, we, a lot of us have had a little bit of a, you know, small parts in this big story about whether it's A-P-H-A-F-B or even just the time capsule itself. He , uh, he had found one of the newspaper articles that's in the archive that showed Helen Keller holding a brick and a trowel. And behind her was a hole in the wall. And this time capsule box was kind of hanging out of it, and it said that there was a time capsule in the building. So in the 1990s when they were going to move out of that building, he really wanted to find that time capsule, and I'm glad he did, or we probably would've been trying to dig it out, I don't know, in 10 years or so. But , uh, so he, he was part of the team that got together and tried to find the time capsule. And you can see in this picture that it's by a window. And then I guess what you could call a pillar kind of next to the window , uh, the room that we were in for this ceremony in New York this past weekend looked very similar. And I said, is, is , was it in this pillar over here? And he said, about 20 feet below us, but yes , uh, you know, it was on the, the first floor. And that picture helped them find it. They, they did kind of take it out of the wall, and he said that he got a call when it was found. They said , uh, we've got a problem. And he was worried that it might have been destroyed, but I don't know if this is, well, it's definitely better than it being destroyed, but the time capsule was completely wrapped in asbestos. Uh, they had to take it out, and it was in the nineties. So they, they knew how to deal with it and , uh, had to deal with asbestos mitigation for a little while. And then he kind of put it with all of the other , other artifacts. Eventually still didn't open it, of course, but once it was all cleaned up , uh, he, he had it placed with all of the other artifacts. But, you know, it's another, another story I didn't know about with, with the whole , whether it's the development of the archive or just the time capsule itself. We all have these little stories where we, we got to do certain things with it. And , uh, it was really cool to hear that story directly from him. You know, he was sitting right across me from the table and felt a real, again, a connection with the whole, the history and with, with him just talking about his part in the time capsule,

Sara Brown: 29:51

And before anybody out there is confused about the asbestos comment that was commonly used in buildings and houses mm-hmm <affirmative> . Pretty much not honestly up until what the last but 50, 60 years when they figured out that it was not good for, for humans.

Justin Gardner: 30:08

Yeah, I think so.

Sara Brown: 30:09

All old houses have all old houses. Yeah . Have the , have it , um, old buildings have it, and, you know, there you go. It's a fire retardant <laugh> . And that's why it was wrapped in, in asbestos. Yeah . So not the best, but I understood their intent. Yeah . They wanted to keep it safe, but that's super cool. And, you know, just the stories that are coming out about this that, like you say, that just had a small, a small part in this timeline, but it's, even though it's a small part, it's still pivotal, you know, that Yeah . That gentleman you mentioned, you know, he wanted to find it before they moved out of that building. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . It's integral. And you know, that and it's like you say , it is really interesting that the Center for Jewish History has moved in there. It's just crazy how everybody has a little bit of peace in this story. Talk about the AFB Helen Keller Archives and how it's gonna have a role in the DOT experience.

Justin Gardner: 31:04

A big reason why the Helen Keller Archives are here is because we can share them <affirmative> . We had made plans quite a while ago to not just share them in the museum that we previously had here, but this was such a big deal to APH that there was at one point a booklet that I found in our archives eyes about a proposal for a Helen Keller Museum at the American Printing House for the Blind. So we've been in this building here since 1888, and we're still here. And we really have not only the facilities to, to store and take care of all of these things, but to exhibit them and share them with other people. And it, it hasn't just been with the AFB and Helen Keller archives. We've had a lot of organizations, and I think this is probably a very common thing right now, where groups just don't have a physical space anymore . And as that happens, since we have have this long time physical space in Louisville, and we've built this wonderful archive in the back that at one point had a ton of room, a lot of organizations are giving us their, their artifacts and their archives. So we are really becoming the place for the history of the entire field. And that's one of the things that worked out so well about, about the Helen Keller Archive. Uh, there is a big difference between real estate and owning a building in Louisville and Manhattan. So I think we, we know that this, we own our own building, and we're going to be here for a long time, and we are continually improving this building, and we're going to be building a new, a new attraction in the dot experience where it's going to be just, you know, a brand new public space to exhibit all of these things. Uh , and that was one of the things when Helen Keller and AFB first developed this collection in the 1930s, it said in the wording of the proposal that they were hoping that these items could be shared with the public. And they even said, you know, in an exhibit or in a museum, and AFB was able to do that to a certain point, but it wasn't as public. Um, they had, and in fact, this is one of the things that Walter was telling me about in that building that I got to go to in New York on 16th Street. He said that it was really kind of a , a big boardroom. It was very nice, but it was a big boardroom, and it had a few small cases that had some of Helen Keller's things exhibited. So, you know, just small, smaller things that were out for people to see, but only people who came to a meeting at the American Foundation for the Blind. So you , it really wasn't shared as widely with the public in that environment as we're going to be able to share it at the dot experience,

Sara Brown: 34:25

What will be seen from the archive in the dot experiences , uh, you know , might not have to know a hundred percent, but can you share some of the things, you know? Oh,

Justin Gardner: 34:34

Sure, sure. One of, I think the most impressive things is going to be that we're going to have Helen Keller's work desk out for people to actually sit behind and it will be touchable, and they can take pictures behind it. And that's one of those things that it is a very important and personal and well used artifact. Uh, you know, Helen Keller sat at that for hours and did all kinds of work at that desk. You know, who knows what, what passed over it and what came from Helen Keller, you know, through her hands, through her, her braille writer and typewriter out to the world from that desk. But it's something that, you know, wood is, is not only durable, but it, it can be touched. So you know, it, it's going to be something that people will be able to experience and they'll be right there. You know, they'll really be there in Helen Keller's office, even though she didn't work in Louisville originally. They'll be able to basically go to Helen Keller's office in Louisville, so the desk will be there, and we'll have a lot of unique touchable reproductions of the artifacts that are in the archive and in the collection. So I will say my absolute favorite thing is that Helen and Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan made castings of their hands. And in a way that's not an uncommon thing. Uh, I know I've, I was able in , in school to see castings of Abraham Lincoln's hands, so it's not a completely unheard of thing, but I think it's really, really significant in this case, because Helen communicated through her hands, whether it was typing or reading braille or using a typewriter or, you know, hand spelling, or I guess you could say hearing communication through her hands, whether it was someone hand spilling into her hands, or whether she was feeling someone's face and throat, or whether she was listening to music by putting her hand on a speaker. So her hands were incredibly important to her. So we have these castings of her hands that we can reproduce, and they're incredibly detailed, you know, all of the wrinkles and everything, and people will be able to feel bad . So, you know, you can really feel Helen Keller's hands, which again, I think in Helen's case, that's especially important because that's, in a way, that's, that's kind of where all that information traveled through, you know, everything that she ever thought, everything that she ever said, it all came through those hands. So that I think is probably one of the most , uh, to me, one of the most just touching, moving things that we're going to have. But of course, we have a ton of artifacts in here, so we're gonna have a lot of other things as well. So, you know, some of the gifts that she received in her travels, because that's a really interesting way to show her travels across the world. She went to 36 different countries and got gifts in just about all of those. So a lot of those will be exhibited along with tactile representations, so people can kind of go on, travels with her, and really her whole office around that desk is going to be reproduced as well. So there'll be shelves that have some of her artifacts on them. And one of the things that I think that we're working on now is that Helen Keller as gifts, she had a very large print and braille library and her print library, which is in the archive here , um, I think some of them were books that she purchased that she wanted to read, and that, that weren't available on Braille. And Polly would actually often read them to her, but a lot of them were gifts from the authors. So if there were authors that admired her as much as she admired them, they often sent her an inscribed version of the book. So I think that we're going to try to get some of these most, some of the most interesting inscriptions from authors from these books and exhibit the books, but also make tactile representations of those inscription pages. So, and I think mine, I won't say exactly what it says, 'cause I guess maybe I should, I should make it a kind of a special surprise when you're here. But , um, there's one from WB, W. E. B. Du Bois, that is really very personal and touching, I think. And there's another one from the author of Taha Hussein that I think is kind of funny because it's, it's not, so, it is personal in a way, but it's not so formal. There's a note in the book that said, I'm sorry for the condition of this book, but it was the only version I could find here in Cairo. And it's a version of her book that she wrote. So I thought that was really interesting that she was living in Cairo and , and couldn't find a good copy of her own book. So I think she found a used copy and put that inscription in it very informally, you know, apologizing for the condition of this book and then sent it to Helen Keller. But I think, again, not so formal, but another very personal , um, personal moment in history.

Sara Brown: 39:54

So it sounds like a lot of cool things, a lot of fun things, a lot of interesting things. And , and most importantly, a lot of historical artifacts are coming to the Helen Kellen archive at the dot experience. Mm-hmm <affirmative> . And before I let you go, is there anything else you would like to share?

Justin Gardner: 40:14

I guess just that, as I said, one of, one of my favorite things about working in here is connecting, connecting stories and information and people. And this event I think was a really good illustration of that, because sometimes it's hard for me to put into words why I can get so emotional about these things. When you come back here, it's a room full of boxes on shelves, you don't really see what's in here. And even if you do open one of those boxes up, it looks like about a thousand pieces of typewritten paper. And sometimes that's not as exciting as say, maybe Helen Keller's braille writer is. So, it's, it's hard for me to share or to explain how significant some of these things are. But, you know , this time capsule event was, I think, a very good illustration of how three different organizations and 12 people, all of us from different places and to , to a certain point, even different times, came together in the same place where the original event happened, where the original folks that we research did all of this work. And here I am in the same spot where all of the names that I see in these documents did the work. Uh, you know, it, it was a good way for someone who, you know, I'm not exactly a writer. I'm not exactly a researcher. So using this event as an example was really a great way for me to be able to, to see the fruits of my labors and to show everyone why it's so important to me.

Sara Brown: 41:58

Absolutely. It's the fruit of your labor and you put in that time, celebrate it. Congratulations. And Justin, thank you so much for everything that you do. Your work is, is your work is awesome, and everything that you find that you let us know about so we could celebrate it and shout it from the rooftops, that's, you're the driving force behind it. So thank you so much for, for doing what you do and for coming on here and talking to me on Change Makers .

Justin Gardner: 42:26

Oh , it's a privilege to be here. So thank you for having me.

Sara Brown: 42:29

In the show notes, I've put links to AFBs YouTube page where you can watch the event and hear those recordings. I've also put links to a video about the dot experience. Do you have a show suggestion? Send me an email@changemakersataph.org. And as always, be sure to look for ways you can be a change maker this week.