Current Exhibits

Flora: An Intimate Celebration

May 1 – June 30, 2025

The Noah Webster House & West Hartford Historical Society is delighted to present an exhibit featuring the photography of local artist Jose Gaztambide. Flora: An Intimate Celebration will launch at the Noah Webster House on May 1, 2025. The exhibit showcases unique photographs that focus on the finer details found in nature.

Jose Gaztambide is a West Hartford artist who developed an interest in photography in the late 1960s. After studying in New York at The New School, Gaztambide returned to Puerto Rico in 1980 to teach Photography and Theory of Communication at the University of Puerto Rico (Rio Piedras campus), where he taught until 1997. In 1988, he returned to school to get his PhD in Communication.

Gaztambide’s creative passion was reignited upon his discovery of digital cell phone photography, which allowed him to be more creative and spontaneous with his photographs. Now, Gaztambide takes inspiration from the natural world. He explains, “Nature has its own rhythms and rules and demands respect and care. The more I learned, the hungrier I was for more of her beauty.” When Gaztambide concentrated this focus, his photographs began to represent his mission to further celebrate and understand nature.

Flora: An Intimate Celebration invites viewers to pay attention to nature’s finer details.  Gaztambide’s photographs celebrate nature’s emerging forms, colors, and textures that are often overlooked.  Enjoy his humble celebration!

Join us for an Opening Reception of this exhibit at the Noah Webster House & West Hartford Historical Society on Thursday, May 1 from 5:00pm-7:00pm. This exhibit will remain at the museum and can be seen by visitors through Monday, June 30th.

Flags of the Republic

June 14 – July 4, 2025

Discover the stories behind America’s evolving identity through rare and historic flags on display at the Noah Webster House!

This special exhibit will feature:

  • All 27 official versions of the American Flag
  • 5 full-size historic flags including the unique 15-star, 15-stripe design nicknamed, “Stars and Stripes”
  • Liberty’s Five Flags (flag designs which have rarely been displayed in Connecticut!)

FREE admission on June 14, 2025, in conjunction with Connecticut Open House Day! Don’t miss the chance to explore the story of America’s flags in the Webster Family home, where generations once shaped cloth by hand, and history was never far from the loom. This exhibit was generously loaned to the museum temporarily by Robert Rungee.

Noah Webster House

227 South Main St. West Hartford, CT, 06107

Contact events@noahwebsterhouse.org or call (860)-521-5362 for more info.

Defining the Dictionary:
The story behind the words

“Look it up in Webster’s.” A work with such brand recognition that it goes simply by the author’s last name, An American Dictionary of the English Language is the topic of a new exhibit at the Noah Webster House & West Hartford Historical Society. While Webster did not invent the dictionary, what he did do was no less important. He wrote the first American dictionary for the country he helped to shape. Webster sought to unite the people of the new nation by establishing a common American language. The exhibit looks at Webster’s early work and influences and also explores the relationship with Charles and George Merriam who, after Webster’s death, purchased the rights to An American Dictionary as well as the remaining unsold copies to sell in their shop. Today, Merriam-Webster Incorporated maintains the spirit of Noah Webster and the essence of his life’s work by chronicling the ever-evolving American English language.