> Not surprisingly, the notion that America was named for Vespucci has long been universally accepted, so much so that a lineal descendant, America Vespucci, came to New Orleans in 1839 and asked for a land grant "in recognition of her name and parentage."
I found this little aside in the opening paragraph interesting. Who did she ask? And was she successful?
A quick google search didn’t turn up much about America Vespucci. I did find one article about her that makes her sound very interesting [1], but no mention of the above request. I’m guessing from the way she moved around after 1839 her request was not granted, though.
“Why Do We Call It 'America'?" [C]. American Heritage 68.7.”
That links to an essay at https://www.americanheritage.com/why-do-we-call-it-america which says in an editor’s note that “Portions of this essay originally appeared in The American Voice.” The americanheritage.com version looks very similar to this one.
I agree it seems unlikely. On the other hand there’s a reference to “ the current (fifth) edition of Webster's New World College Dictionary” and that seems to be from 2016 - so perhaps the article was mostly done in the late eighties / early nineties but got some updates here and there.
> Not surprisingly, the notion that America was named for Vespucci has long been universally accepted, so much so that a lineal descendant, America Vespucci, came to New Orleans in 1839 and asked for a land grant "in recognition of her name and parentage."
I found this little aside in the opening paragraph interesting. Who did she ask? And was she successful?
A quick google search didn’t turn up much about America Vespucci. I did find one article about her that makes her sound very interesting [1], but no mention of the above request. I’m guessing from the way she moved around after 1839 her request was not granted, though.
[1] https://jeffcowiki.miraheze.org/wiki/Marie_Helene_America_Ve...
A less rigorous but more entertaining treatment of this topic is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfXoUaeLcDU
Intersting. In Brazil we argue that the US isn't America. Great to know that Brazil was first called America, not the US :)
The USA, you mean?
Anybody know the year of this essay? I put 2001 above because it's the latest date I could find in the text.
Might be 2023. A look through the author’s list of publications (https://www.jonathancohenweb.com/jc-pubs.html) gives a citation under 2023:
“Why Do We Call It 'America'?" [C]. American Heritage 68.7.”
That links to an essay at https://www.americanheritage.com/why-do-we-call-it-america which says in an editor’s note that “Portions of this essay originally appeared in The American Voice.” The americanheritage.com version looks very similar to this one.
I guess that's the best evidence we have so I went with 2023 above. Thanks!
(Seems likely to me that it was written earlier, or the most recent reference wouldn't have been 2001, but that's only a hunch.)
I agree it seems unlikely. On the other hand there’s a reference to “ the current (fifth) edition of Webster's New World College Dictionary” and that seems to be from 2016 - so perhaps the article was mostly done in the late eighties / early nineties but got some updates here and there.
1988 according to Google Scholar.
https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?q=related:KEG9SnudRCsJ:...
At the bottom of the article it says “An early version of this essay appeared in The American Voice (1988) and a section in Encounters (1991).”
I think they know, but the problem is that they wouldn't be able to cite 2001 in 1991/1988.