Webster Campaigned for an American Identity

In September the Mortensen Library board of visitors presented a symposium, “Defining Moments—Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster: Dictionaries, Words, Language, and Culture.” On display was the University’s first-edition copy of Johnson’s 1755 A Dictionary of the English Language, along with a first edition of Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language. The Webster dictionary was on loan from the collection of Shepherd Holcombe Sr., a member of the library’s board. Wilde Auditorium was standing room only by the time the presentation began.

Experts on hand for the discussion were Christopher Dobbs, executive director of the Noah Webster House and West Hartford Historical Society; Humphrey Tonkin, president emeritus and University professor of humanities; Jennifer Brown, assistant professor of English; and Mark Blackwell, associate professor and chair of the departments of English and of Rhetoric, Language, and Culture.

Much of the discussion concerned how the two dictionaries reflected their authors’ religious, political, and moral viewpoints.