Yale University says Noah Webster's 250th birthday party -- marked with cupcakes and a serenade -- will celebrate a man overlooked in Connecticut history.

ADVERTISEMENT

The party Thursday and Friday is billed as the "most concentrated marshaling of thought and energy" ever applied to Webster's legacy and legend, The Hartford (Conn.) Courant reported Monday.

Celebratory events are to include lectures, exhibitions, a dictionary giveaway, visits to Webster's grave and cupcakes and singing.

Webster, an author and lexicographer born in 1758 in West Hartford, Conn., is best known for his "American Dictionary of the English Language." On display at Yale will be the writing table Webster used to compose part of that dictionary, said William Hosley of the New Haven Museum.

"It's like looking at the table in (Henry David) Thoreau's cabin at Walden Pond," Hosley said. "It gives you goose bumps."