Helen Keller

About Helen Keller

Helen Keller (1880–1968) remains a globally recognized figure due to her profound achievements as a social activist, author, and lecturer, cementing her #917 rank in historical importance. Afflicted by an illness at 19 months that left her deaf and blind, her success in learning to communicate through her teacher Anne Sullivan, and subsequently advocating for disability rights, labor rights, and women's suffrage, set her apart as an icon of perseverance.

In the digital age of 2025, Keller attracts 2.6 million annualized Wikipedia views, which places her in a category of internet "overattention," specifically an Attention Gap factor of +8x relative to her historical importance score. This suggests the general public maintains a higher curiosity about her life compared to many historically more influential contemporaries. For contrast, the significantly more important Bertolt Brecht (#587) garnered only 485K views in the same period.

Despite this overall high attention, the annual trend shows some waning interest: Keller's pageviews have declined by 19.6% year-over-year. However, her short-term engagement shows resilience, with a slight +5% momentum gain between Q1 and Q3 of 2025.