Webster's International Dictionary

"Webster's International Dictionary, 1905.
Revised edition ("with a supplement additional words and meening).
Publisher: Merriam Co.
Exhibits wear consistent with age and use.
Measurements: 31 x 24 x 12 cm.

Noah Webster (1758-1843), author of the reading and spelling books that dominated the American market at the time, devoted decades of research to compiling his dictionaries. His first dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, appeared in 1806. In it he popularized features that would become a hallmark of American English spelling (center instead of center, honor instead of honor, program instead of programme, etc.) and included technical terms from the arts and sciences rather than limiting his dictionary to literary words. Webster was a proponent of English spelling reform for both philological and nationalistic reasons.