Portrait of Noah Webster, 1823, after a Painting by Samuel F.B. Morse, Photographed in Henry Ford Museum, January 1964

Noah Webster was an influential American educator and patriot. He is most famous for his American Dictionary of the English Language. But shortly after the American Revolution, and before the dictionary, Webster created an American spelling textbook to replace British and European books. Known as the "Blue-Backed Speller," the book was popular in American schools for more than a century.