Penmanship

[cannonmn]

 

[CWdiaryPA]

Dahlgren's writing, it's like artwork

I think, from my research, that from the mid-1700s through the 1800s, the American handwriting (penmanship) style was called Copperplate, or English Round Hand. Capital letters had flourishes, & the letters S, W, M, Y, F, Q, G, as they started sentences, were more elaborate than the remainder of letters in sentences, generally. I write my "f" like his to start sentences. No idea where I got that from as a kid, & have never run into it in the wild other than in very old manuscripts.

 

[cannonmn]

To explain a bit about the reason this was created: During most of the Civil War, the Bureau of Naval Ordnance required all ships to submit "Circular returns" (my name) of which this is one for USS Gertrude. She ran out of printed forms so the Yeoman or their formal writing person, hand-wrote a copy of the printed form they lacked. 90% of the thousands of these circulars filed in NARG 74, ENTRY 111?? are on the printed form, 10% handwritten substitutes.

 

[John Winn]

That is a beautiful thing. I doubt there's anybody who can do that today. I have a copy of one of my great grandfather's will that is similar (not exactly the same fonts) and truly remarkable penmanship. Back then I'm sure clerks were required to have good penmanship.

I haven't written cursive since grade school. I was just never good at it so I print (except to sign my name which is mostly unreadable). But I can read cursive and have read many a nineteenth-century document.

 

[6thMichCav]

It does help when you have a fine writing instrument, high-quality paper and ink, and hours of daily practice.

I have pretty good penmanship when I write a lot, but having to use a keyboard for work has diminished my skills from lack of use.