Saturday, November 22, 2008

Today's historical trivia - Noah Webster

What could be more exciting than my info about Robert in Robert's Rules? Well, my tour of the Noah Webster birthplace home today (in West Hartford, CT) ...

In addition to being the Webster in Webster's Dictionary, did you know Noah Webster ...

1. Wrote "Blue-Backed Speller" used to teach spelling for generations - and sold over 100 million copies;
2. Changed the spelling of words (such as color for colour, theater for theatre) and wanted to ensure American students had common pronunciation, spelling, interpretation;
3. Often added his religious beliefs into dictionary examples;
4. Championed creation of federal copyright laws due to unauthorized publishing of his works;
5. Founder of an academy that later became Amherst College;
6. Portions of his writings on Federalism were considerations in writing the Constitution.


Who says one person can't do a whole bunch of things?

In two weeks I'm touring the Mark Twain house. Stay tuned for what you may not know about Mark Twain ...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This takes me back--I grew up in West Hartford, and the NW house was a regular stop for us. And the Mark Twain house! You are going to love that one. One of my favorite memories as a kid was hunting for the perfect frog for the frog-jumping contest held there every year.