Endowments; Spelling reform--Societies, etc.; Spelling reform; New York (N.Y.); Simplified Spelling Board
Format
correspondence
Genre
Business correspondence
Date
[between 1886 and 1919?]
Physical Description
microfilm, 16 mm, b&w
Note (Reel no.)
Reel 80
Note
PDF may contain multiple grant documents.
The Simplified Spelling Board was an American organization created in 1906 to reform the spelling of the English language, making it simpler and easier to learn, and eliminating many of what were considered to be its inconsistencies. The board operate d until 1920, the year after the death of its founding benefactor, who had come to criticize the progress and approach of the organization. The Simplified Spelling Board was announced on March 11, 1906, with Andrew Carnegie funding the organization, to be headquartered in New York City. The New York Times noted that Carnegie was convinced that 'English might be made the world language of the future' and an influence leading to universal peace, but that this role was obstructed by its 'contradictory and difficult spelling'. Carnegie committed $15,000 per year for five years to get the organization off the ground. The initial 30 members of the Board consisted of authors, professors, and dictionary editors, among them Supreme Court Justice David Josiah Brewer, President Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia University, Dr. Melvil Dewey (inventor of the Dewey Decimal Classification), Dr. Isaac K. Funk (editor of The Standard Dictionary), former United States Secretary of the Treasury Lyman J. Gage, United States Commissioner of Education William Torrey Harris (and editor-in-chief of the 1909 Webster's New International Dictionary), publishing magnate Henry Holt, professor Calvin Thomas, and author Mark Twain. Offices were obtained at the Metropolitan Life Building at 1 Madison Avenue, and Brander Matthews was selected as the board's chairman... In June 1906, the New York City Board of Education received a report from the Board of Superintendents recommending adoption of the 300-word list, and would pass on the recommendation to the Committee on Studies and Textbooks for approval. In August 1906, President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt had supported the plan, signing an executive order at his home in Oyster Bay, New York, mandating the use of reformed spelling in his official communications and messages to Congress. Prof. Matthews stated that he had received no advance notice of the President's order and had been taken by surprise when it was issued. Roosevelt tried to force the federal government to adopt the system, sending an order to the Public Printer to use the system in all public federal documents. The order was obeyed; among the many documents printed using the system was the President's special message regarding the Panama Canal. The New York Times noted that the New York State Commissioner of Education thought the state would not support the board's proposal as 'he did not believe that the State educational department should tell the people how they must spell'. By August 1906, The board reported that over 5,000 individuals had pledged to use the words on the initial list, with another 500 to 600 agreeing to use some of the words, but objecting to others... In response to mounting criticism from British newspapers, the board announced the additions of James Murray, the Scottish lexicographer and primary editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, along with Joseph Wright, an Oxford University professor of comparative philology and editor of the English Dialect Dictionary. Combined with the earlier naming of Walter William Skeat, editor of the Etymological English Dictionary, the board could claim it had the three top English language dictionaries from both the United States and United Kingdom on its side. The Supreme Court entered the fray and directed that its opinions should be printed in the old style. Finally, Congress had the last word when Representative Charles B. Landis of Indiana, Chairman of the House Committee on Printing, introduced a resolution on December 13, 1906: 'Resolved, That it is the sense of the House that hereafter in the printing of House documents or other publications used by law or ordered by Congress, or either branch thereof, or emanating from any executive department or bureau of the Government, the House printer should observe and adhere to the standard of orthography prescribed in generally accepted dictionaries of the English language.' The motion passed unanimously. The President let the Public Printer and the Nation know that the old style was reinstated... ...Andrew Carnegie, the founding and major benefactor of the board, disagreed with its chosen approach of prescribing recommended changes. Rather, Carnegie believed that the board would be more productive by encouraging grass-roots changes. His beliefs are contained in a statement given to an editor of The Times: 'Amended spellings can only be submitted for general acceptance. It is the people who decide what is to be adopted or rejected.' For their part, some members of the board believed that Carnegie was too meddlesome in its business. Signs of a break with the board were apparent as early as January 16, 1915. Carnegie received a letter from Matthews, which included a list of daily newspapers that had adopted the reformed spellings. Carnegie was not impressed. In reply, Carnegie wrote, 'Please note, not one Eastern paper. I see no change in New York and I am getting very tired indeed, of sinking twenty-five thousand dollars a year for nothing here in the East.' Carnegie was further irritated to learn that his own trusts' annual financial reports were seen to be taking 'a step backwards in reference to spelling.' One month later, on February 25, 1915, Carnegie penned a letter to Holt, the president of the board. In this letter, Carnegie wrote that 'A more useless body of men never came into association, judging from the effects they produce. [...] Instead of taking twelve words and urging their adoption, they undertook radical changes from the start and these they can never make....' Using spelling that demonstrated his own continuing attachment to certain reforms, Carnegie added, 'I think I hav been patient long enuf... I hav much better use for twenty thousand dollars a year.' It was always a condition that Carnegie's dollars had to be matched by results, and at his death in August 1919, his will contained no provision for the Simplified Spelling Board. Without that source of funds (a total of $283,000 over the 14 years), the board's operations ceased in 1920, in which year it had published its Handbook of Simplified Spelling." [SOURCE: "Simplified Spelling Board." Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_Spelling_Board. Accessed 12 Oct. 2018.]