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The methods pursued in the education of Miss Helen A. Keller, and the results achieved, while eliciting innumerable enquiries, causing surprise and speculation, have also given rise to considerable skepticism. This is no doubt, in large measure, due to the many exaggerated and erroneous statements which from time to time have appeared in the public press. The undeniable fact, however, remains: that no phase of educational effort embodies more clearly evidence of the essentials requisite in the successful instruction of youth generally, than do the results attained in the case of Miss Keller. With a view to embody these in consecutive form for the benefit of educators and scientists, the Volta Bureau decided to issue the present publication, and to this end addressed the following letter to Miss Keller:

WASHINGTON, D.C., July I, 1899.

Miss HELEN A. KELLER, Wrentham, Mass.

MY DEAR MISS KELLER:

The manner in which your earliest instruction was conducted evolved features of such importance in pedagogical science that the Volta Bureau deemed the subject of sufficient note to issue an account thereof under the title of HELEN KELLER SOUVENIR, reciting the process of your education from March, 1887, to March, 1892.

Since then a period of seven years has elapsed, during which, under the wise guidance of your parents, and your teacher, Miss A. M. Sullivan, you have, by dint of perseverance, successfully arrived at the threshold of a University, qualified to enter upon a collegiate course of instruction.

In honor of this achievement the Volta Bureau would now issue Souvenir No. 2, giving an account of how this result has been accomplished. With a view to give the statement the full weight of indisputable authority, this Bureau would request of you kindly to furnish a simple chronological account of the studies you pursued during the above-indicated period. A presentation such as you and your teachers will be able to give cannot fail to prove of inestimable value to students especially, and to educators generally.

(Signed) JOHN HITZ,
Superintendent.

This elicited from Miss Keller the concise and clear statement which follows. Mr. Merton S. Keith, Miss Keller's last special instructor, likewise responded promptly to a similar request, in the able and pedagogically valuable exposition regarding the portion of her education entrusted to him. The remainder of the statements, by Dr. A. Graham Bell, Miss A. M. Sullivan, and Director Arthur Gilman, had already been published at separate periods, but they essentially contribute to render this monograph one of rare value.

The Volta Bureau takes special pleasure to express to all of the above-named contributors its sincere appreciation of their generous co-operation which enables the Bureau to present so helpful a pedagogical treatise to the world at the close of a century noted for its educational progress.

JOHN HITZ,
Superintendent of the Volta Bureau.
JANUARY I, 1900.