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When Keller died in 1968, thousands of pictures had been taken of her. However, the most well-known are not in color, and often portray her seriously, working with Sullivan, reading books in Braille, or meeting with well-known figures. But the colorized photo above shows an almost wistful Keller in an elaborately detailed shirt, and light yellow pleated skirt, watering a frothy green plant in front of her, and it tells a story few know: her love of plants. 

Keller was an avid gardener, and her garden at her home became her sanctuary. In an article in 1930 for Better Homes and Gardens, Keller stated, "My garden is my greatest joy. I feel that I am in the seventh heaven when among my plants (via the American Foundation for the Blind). Partly it was because of their scent, but it was more than that. 

"I really like no flowers without fragrance, as fragrance is their soul, to me. As color is to the eye, so is fragrance to me my way of recognizing them. Also, I feel them, their form, shape, stem, even their pistils." 

For Keller, her garden was her way of connecting to both the outside world and to a higher power. As she wrote in her book "Light in Darkness," "And I believe that God is in me as the sun is in the color and fragrance of the flower, the Light in my darkness, the Voice in my silence."

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