"We went to Niagara in March, 1893. It is difficult to describe my emotions when I stood on the point which overhangs the American Falls and felt the air vibrate and the Earth tremble.
"It seems strange to many people that I should be impressed by the wonders and beauties of Niagara. They are always asking: 'What does this beauty or that music mean to you? You cannot see the waves rolling up the beach or hear their roar. What do they mean to you?' In the most evident sense they mean everything. I cannot fathom or define their meaning any more than I can fathom or define love or religion or goodness."
-- Helen Keller, from her autobiography, The Story of My Life, written in 1903, when she was 23 years old.
Photograph of Helen Keller (seated, center), Anne Sullivan (left), Edmund Lyon, and Polly Prate in front of Niagara Falls, circa 1893
(HK980116)