Spanish educator Sandra Wolff has lived in West Hartford for over 30 years, but she is originally from South America. She remembers using the dictionary to learn a new language.
“I use the Noah Webster Dictionary back at home in Argentina to learn, to look up words in English and learn the translation,” Wolff said.
Now, she will be giving Spanish language tours of the Noah Webster House museum in West Hartford each month, starting Saturday, December 21.
“The things in life, right? How things happen and come back?” Wolff said with a smile.
The irony speaks to Noah Webster’s legacy as an educator. He wrote the popular Blue-Backed Speller, which taught generations of Americans to read for over a century.
This kind of learning is lost on children today because of the internet, Wolff said, but the tours could show how people learned to read and write before the age of computers.
“It will be wonderful for all children to know that this is the way that the history started,” she said. “Who was Noah Webster, how he spread public education and how important that was for him.”
The new service will help people who primarily speak Spanish feel comfortable, so they can enjoy Noah Webster’s birthplace, said Jeffrey Mainville, the Executive Director of the Noah Webster House and West Hartford Historical Society.
“We want to be a museum for everyone. And you know, I suspect that there may be folks in the community that feel that maybe this place isn’t for them because of, maybe, a language barrier, and we’re hoping that we can reduce those barriers,” he said.
Accessible, personalized tours
Not knowing the language can make this kind of in-person education inaccessible to people.
Wolff previously taught at the University of Connecticut for more than 26 years after completing her master’s in dental science there. Many of her patients were Hispanic.
“I had my whole population of patients that didn’t speak [English], and children are very challenging and very scared of the dentist. And when you don’t understand the language, it’s more difficult, right? It could be for anybody. So, this is an opportunity,” she said.
The museum offers tablets that provide self-guided tours available in English and Spanish, but Mainville said a live tour offers a far more engaging experience with back-and-forth discussion.
“You can ask questions and get answers in real-time. [With] a live tour, the conversation could go in different directions, and you just never know. Noah Webster’s life was so amazing and complicated, and he lived a very long life,” he said.
A place of learning
Though Noah Webster does not have any direct connections with Latino culture, Mainville said people of the Hispanic community can find an opportunity at the museum to dive deeper into issues such as equality.
Beyond his work as lexicographer, Webster advocated for universal education and the abolition of slavery.
“Webster recognized that things weren’t equal, but you know, he was a man of his times,” Mainville said.
While Webster acknowledged the injustice of slavery, he also recognized the rights owners had over their slaves. Webster sought a more gradual approach to emancipation because of this.
“We’d like to think that we can use that time period to sort of inform discussions about how far we’ve come and how much more we need to do here in this country to achieve equality,” Mainville said.
For Wolff, the hope is for the Hispanic community to learn a part of Connecticut’s history, she said.
The museum is a little jewel of West Hartford that’s “not very well known,” Wolff said. “So, we want to share that with the Hispanic population and whoever wants to come and share it. We are very eager to share this with everybody.”
Learn more
The museum plans to offer Spanish tours at least once a month on Saturdays. The first Spanish-guided tours are on Saturday, December 21 at 1:30 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. Tickets must be reserved in advance. Details about the tours can be found in Spanish on the Noah Webster House website.
This story was originally published by Connecticut Public. It was shared as part of the New England News Collaborative.
