# where-does-that-1492-ocean-blue-thing-about-columbus-come-from **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [February 19, 2012, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-that-1492-ocean-blue-thing-about-columbus-come-from/613289 "2012-02-19T00:44:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MetroPietro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@MetroPietro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MetroPietro)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2012, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-that-1492-ocean-blue-thing-about-columbus-come-from/613289/1 "2012-02-19T00:44:38Z")
Hi Cecil, I am commenting on a five-year-old post regarding the 1492 C. Columbus poem. This is just to add to what you already wrote there: 1. Washington Irving (author of _Sleepy Hollow_) helped promote the Columbus myth with the 1828 publication of _The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus_. 2. In a recent (Feb 2012) search via Google, the earliest text which included the opening lines of this poem already referred to it as common knowledge: The natives of the United States one and all are familiar with American history from the time when, as the rhyme runs, “In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus saild far o’er the ocean blue,” to the present moment. Every man knows what men dwelt here before his fathers came. Every town and almost every ancient family has its tales of savage warfare; and even the scholar who has grown up among books might add many pleasing and thrilling incidents to his stock of historical information, by listening for an evening to those unwritten traditions which are handed down from father to son in every village of New England… –“The knowledge of the people,” in _Yale Literary Magazine_, vol.6, p.137 (1841) My guess is that the original rhyme was probably published in a schoolbook before 1830, given the attitude of the writer in 1841. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2012, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-that-1492-ocean-blue-thing-about-columbus-come-from/613289/2 "2012-02-19T01:01:34Z")
> [@MetroPietro](#): > > Hi Cecil, I am commenting on a five-year-old post regarding the 1492 C. Columbus poem. This is just to add to what you already wrote there: > > 1. Washington Irving (author of _Sleepy Hollow_) helped promote the Columbus myth with the 1828 publication of _The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus_. > 2. In a recent (Feb 2012) search via Google, the earliest text which included the opening lines of this poem already referred to it as common knowledge: > The natives of the United States one and all are familiar with American history from the time when, as the rhyme runs, > “In fourteen hundred ninety-two, > Columbus saild far o’er the ocean blue,” > to the present moment. Every man knows what men dwelt here before his fathers came. Every town and almost every ancient family has its tales of savage warfare; and even the scholar who has grown up among books might add many pleasing and thrilling incidents to his stock of historical information, by listening for an evening to those unwritten traditions which are handed down from father to son in every village of New England… > –“The knowledge of the people,” in _Yale Literary Magazine_, vol.6, p.137 (1841) > > My guess is that the original rhyme was probably published in a schoolbook before 1830, given the attitude of the writer in 1841. Here’s a slightly older reference [The Tales of Peter Parley about America - Samuel Griswold Goodrich - Google Books](http://books.google.com/books?id=D28RAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA141&dq=%22In+Fourteen+Hundred%22+columbus+ocean+blue&hl=en&sa=X&ei=BklAT-CtK-Hx0gHsoMizBw&ved=0CEcQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22In%20Fourteen%20Hundred%22%20columbus%20ocean%20blue&f=false) From “The tales of Peter Parley about America By Samuel Griswold Goodrich” in 1830. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2012, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-that-1492-ocean-blue-thing-about-columbus-come-from/613289/3 "2012-02-19T10:45:37Z")
Here are three threads in which we discuss the idea that Washington Irving’s book was what populatized the notion that Columbus proved the Earth was round: > **[Report on Columbus](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=446632)** > > Where does that “1492/ocean blue” thing about Columbus come from? And what was Columbus’s deal, anyway? Once again, Gfactor writes a very well-researched report. Impressive. And, his writing doesn’t suck. Also impressive. > **[Did people pre-1492 really think the world was flat?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=142967)** > > As many times as we’ve all heard, “People used to think the world was flat, …” I’ve wondered if that was true. Not counting those Flat Earth Society nutjobs, did a majority of people at some point in recent history think the world was flat? Also,... > **[Was Andrew Jackson a flat-earther?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=593918)** > > OK, we know Andrew Jackson was the evil version of Cletus, the Slack-Jawed Yokel. But was he, as I’ve found some mention of, a flat-earther? He wasn’t well-educated but was he really that ignorant? There are various other threads in which we discuss the fact that before Columbus people knew perfectly well that the Earth was round. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2012, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-that-1492-ocean-blue-thing-about-columbus-come-from/613289/4 "2012-02-19T17:12:37Z")
> [@MetroPietro](#): > > 1. In a recent (Feb 2012) search via Google, the earliest text which included the opening lines of this poem already referred to it as common knowledge: > The natives of the United States one and all are familiar with American history from the time when, as the rhyme runs, > “In fourteen hundred ninety-two, > Columbus saild far o’er the ocean blue,” > to the present moment. That sentence reads to me that natives are familiar with American history since 1492, not that they are all familiar with the rhyme. The rhyme was pre-existing certainly, and probably something that his audience would be familiar with, but that statement doesn’t make any claims about its ubiquity. [Here’s the original column](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2274/where-does-that-1492-ocean-blue-thing-about-columbus-come-from). Your Google Books find is a great one, since it pushes back almost a century before Cecil’s claim. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2012, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-that-1492-ocean-blue-thing-about-columbus-come-from/613289/5 "2012-02-19T17:16:10Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > [Here’s the original column](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2274/where-does-that-1492-ocean-blue-thing-about-columbus-come-from). Your Google Books find is a great one, since it pushes back almost a century before Cecil’s claim. It was actually a column by **Gfactor**. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2012, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-that-1492-ocean-blue-thing-about-columbus-come-from/613289/6 "2012-02-19T17:55:35Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > It was actually a column by **Gfactor**. Darn. I was hoping that He Who Never Posts would have to do a revision. Did Archives used to bring up staff reports? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2012, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-does-that-1492-ocean-blue-thing-about-columbus-come-from/613289/7 "2012-02-19T18:33:12Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Darn. I was hoping that He Who Never Posts would have to do a revision. > > Did Archives used to bring up staff reports? Yes.