Noah Webster, (sculpture).

Noah Webster, (sculpture).

Ziolkowski, Korczak, 1908-1982, sculptor.

Noah Webster, (sculpture).

1941-1943. Unveiled Oct. 17, 1941. Dedicated July 6, 1942.

Sculpture: ivory Vermont marble.

Sculpture: approx. 12 ft. x 4 ft. x 2 ft. 8 in.

(Over brick wall, raised script:) NOAH WEBSTER LLD (Proper left foot of gown, on facing pages of open book, incised:) For you I labored, not for my own day, that by the Word men should know brotherhood. My fellow men! You have not understood, since each of you would go his separate way unsigned

Portrait of Noah Webster standing on a raised podium, clothed in a long academic gown. His proper left hand is raised to his chest. A book is by his feet on the proper left side. The earth podium is a sarcophagus-shaped raised area 16 feet wide by 25 ft. 6 inches long, surrounded by a two-foot high brick wall.

Portrait male -- Webster, Noah -- Full length

Occupation -- Political -- Statesman

Occupation -- Writer

Object -- Written Matter -- Book

Outdoor Sculpture -- Connecticut -- West Hartford

Administered by Town of West Hartford, Board of Education, Plant Services, 28 South Main Street, West Hartford, Connecticut 06107

Located Former Town Hall, 28 South Main Street, West Hartford, Connecticut

The sculpture commemorates the life of West Hartford's most famous citizen Noah Webster (1758-1843), who published the two volume American Dictionary of the English Language in 1828. The idea for the monument was approved by the town council in Jan. 1941, but funding was not forthcoming. The artist agreed to donate his services. His original model for the piece called for a seated figure of Webster. The completed sculpture may have cost $22,000 and local legend says the inscription on the book reflects the artist's unhappiness with the town's involvement in the commission.

For further reading see: Hartford Courant, Oct. 16, 1978, pg. 1; March 31, 1982, pg. B1; New Britain Herald, March 31, 1982, pg. 14; and West Hartford News, Oct. 28, 1982, pg. 1. See also clippings and leaflets on file at reference desk, West Hartford Public Library.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Connecticut survey, 1993.

Index of American Sculpture, University of Delaware, 1985.

Wolanin, Barbara, 1992.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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