Helen Keller's Watch
date: label: Date made
content: ca 1865
name: label: associated person
content: Keller, Helen
label: maker
content: Rossel & Fils
notes: label: Description
content: This unusual watch, originally made to tell time in the dark, made the perfect present for Helen Keller. Deaf and blind from the age of nineteen months, Keller (1880-1968) grew up to become an accomplished writer and renowned champion for human rights.
label: Description
content: In 1892, when she was twelve, Keller met John Hitz, the superintendent of Alexander Graham Bell's Washington, D.C. establishment for the deaf, the Volta Bureau. Hitz, a retired diplomat, was the proud owner of a Swiss-made "touch watch." This uncommon watch has a case studded around the edge with pins that correspond to the hours on the watch dial. A revolving hand stops at a point between the pins that corresponds to the hour and approximate minute. With the hand and pins as locators, it was possible to feel the approximate time in the dark or, in the case of a diplomat like Hitz, discreetly. Hitz presented the watch to Keller, who prized it and used it her entire life.
label: Description
content: Once, in 1952, Keller accidentally left the watch behind in a New York City taxi. She feared it was lost forever. With ads in newspaper lost-and-found columns and the help of the head of the city's pawnbrokers, she recovered her prized possession from a hock shop.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: Switzerland
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanisms
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content: Health & Medicine
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content: Clothing & Accessories
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content: Family & Social Life
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content: National Treasures exhibit
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Kendrick, Kathleen M. and Peter C. Liebhold. Smithsonian Treasures of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Phillips Brooks Keller & Mrs. Gordon Erwin
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: ME.335239
label: catalog number
content: 335239
label: accession number
content: 314555
objectType: label: Object Name
content: watch
label: Other Terms
content: watch; Mechanical, Spring-Driven; Pocket Watch
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: gold (watch case material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (watch movement material)
label: Physical Description
content: gold-plated, copper alloy, porcelain-enamel, glass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall, watch: 2 5/8 in x 1 7/8 in x 1/2 in; 6.6675 cm x 4.7625 cm x 1.27 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall, case: 2 1/2 in x 2 1/2 in x 3/4 in; 6.35 cm x 6.35 cm x 1.905 cm