Stories of America — Season 1, Episode 3: America is Named
Kids • 15 min • 1 season, 32 episodes
Episode synopsis
This episode explores how the name “America” came to be. Through simple narration and clear visuals, young viewers learn about the mapmaker Martin Waldseemüller, the influence of explorer Amerigo Vespucci, and how early European discoveries shaped the naming of a new continent. The program breaks down the historical confusion, the reasoning behind the name, and how it eventually became attached to the land that would form the United States. Designed for classroom use, it offers a straightforward introduction to the origins of one of the world’s most recognized names.
About Stories of America
The interconnectedness of all things is a fundamental part of reading motivation projects. Although GPN's Reading Rainbow claims to have invented that idea, Stories of America with host Ann McGregor got there first. It was 1976, America's bicentennial year, and WVIZ-TV of Cleveland wanted something more out of a series aimed at delivering American history, They decided to combine history with reading. The result was Stories of America. Hosting was the familiar face of Ann McGregor, who had enlivened Picture Book Park and Tilson's Bookshop some two years earlier. Stories of America resembled more of a story reading than a history lesson, but it also introduced other elements that became standard Reading Rainbow procedure. There were occasional film sequences, dramatizations, and even an animation. All told, the 32-part Stories of America series ran some 14 years on WVIZ-TV. The station brought the shows back in 1998, and it would be the only WVIZ instructional telev