Object Details
- Artist
- James Herring, 12 Jan 1794 - 8 Oct 1867
- Sitter
- Noah Webster, 16 Oct 1758 - 28 May 1843
- Exhibition Label
- Born West Hartford, Connecticut
- Noah Webster is justly considered a polymath for his contributions to a staggering range of fields, including educational reform, antislavery advocacy, epidemiology, journalism, and copyright law. Yet he is primarily remembered as the lexicographer of the American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), whose legacy lives on in today’s Merriam-Webster dictionaries. Webster’s American Dictionary surpassed Samuel Johnson’s groundbreaking Dictionary of the English Language (1755) by documenting words, idioms, and pronunciations that were unique to the United States. He standardized the simplified spellings that still differentiate American English from British English, dropping the “u” from “colour,” for example.
- Webster considered the founding of the United States an opportunity for reinvention. “Now is the time and this the country in which we may expect success in attempting changes to language, science, and government,” he wrote in 1789. “Let us then seize the present moment and establish a national language as well as a national government.”
- Nacido en West Hartford, Connecticut
- Noah Webster tiene merecida fama de erudite por sus aportaciones a una asombrosa variedad de disciplinas, entre ellas la reforma docente, el antiesclavismo, la epidemiología, el periodismo y la ley de derechos de autor. Sin embargo, se le recuerda sobre todo como el lexicógrafo del American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), cuyo legado perdura hoy en los diccionarios MerriamWebster. El diccionario americano de Webster sobrepasó al paradigmático diccionario de la lengua inglesa (1755) de Samuel Johnson al recoger palabras, modismos y pronunciaciones específicas de EE.UU. Webster estandarizó la ortografía simplificada que aún distingue al inglés americano del británico, por ejemplo, omitiendo la “u” de “colour”.
- Webster vio en la fundación de Estados Unidos una oportunidad para la reinvención. En 1789 escribió: “Ahora es el momento y este es el país en que podemos aspirar a cambiar con éxito el lenguaje, la ciencia y el gobierno. Aprovechemos la hora presente y establezcamos un lenguaje nacional así como un gobierno nacional”.
- Provenance
- William A. Ellis, Bloomfield, New Jersey[ d. 1966]; gift 1967 of his estate to NPG.
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of William A. Ellis
- 1833
- Object number
- NPG.67.31
- Restrictions & Rights
- CC0
- Type
- Painting
- Medium
- Oil on wood
- Dimensions
- Panel: 81.3 x 69.9 x 1.3cm (32 x 27 1/2 x 1/2")
- Frame: 94 x 83.5 x 5.1cm (37 x 32 7/8 x 2")
- See more items in
- National Portrait Gallery Collection
- Exhibition
- Out of Many: Portraits from 1600 to 1900
- On View
- NPG, East Gallery 124
- National Portrait Gallery
- Topic
- Equipment\Drafting & Writing Implements\Writing implement\Pen\Quill
- Noah Webster: Male
- Noah Webster: Law and Crime\Lawyer
- Noah Webster: Military and Intelligence\Soldier\Revolutionary War
- Noah Webster: Arts and Culture\Education and Scholarship\Educator\Teacher
- Noah Webster: Arts and Culture\Education and Scholarship\Founder\College
- Noah Webster: Arts and Culture\Literature\Editor\Lexicographer
- Noah Webster: Arts and Culture\Literature\Writer\Textbook writer
- Noah Webster: Politics and Government\Government official\State Legislator\Massachusetts
- Portrait
- Record ID
- npg_NPG.67.31
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/sm4d4a30ef4-4168-42d2-aade-d2004efd70da
