Robert B. Irwin, AFB Executive Director, demonstrates the Talking Book machine to Helen Keller in the Helen Keller Room at AFB. Irwin is seated while Keller is standing. Keller wears a long-sleeve, ankle-length shiny dress and a string of pearls. She is touching the lid of the Talking Book machine, which has a built-in speaker. Keller and Irwin are to the right of a large fireplace above which is a view of the bottom portion of Munsell's large portrait of Helen Keller. The room is carpeted and has wood paneling and a built-in wooden bookshelf. Formal chairs and drapes complete the picture of an elegant office, circa December 1935. Talking Book Archives, American Foundation for the Blind.
On May 6, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
Seeing in the WPA an opportunity to fund the manufacture of Talking Book machines, M. C. Migel, AFB's President, enlisted Helen Keller's help to lobby Congress and persuade the President to approve funding. Migel sought to capitalize on the warm relationship and mutual admiration that had existed between Keller and Roosevelt since 1929 when Roosevelt was governor of New York State and Keller had asked him to become an honorary member of AFB.
