Prior to "Webster's Third" the "Unabridged" had been expanded with each new edition, with minimal deletion. To make room for 100,000 new words, Gove now made sweeping deletions, dropping 250,000 entries. He eliminated the "nonlexical matter" that more properly belongs to an encyclopedia, including all names of people and places (which had filled two appendices). There were no more mythological, biblical, and fictional names, nor the names of buildings, historical events, or art works. Thirty picture plates were dropped. The rationale was that, while useful, these are not strictly about language. Gove justified the change by the company's publication of "Webster's Biographical Dictionary" in 1943 and "Webster's Geographical Dictionary" in 1949, and the fact that the topics removed could be found in encyclopedias.