The Trail to the Founding Fathers

Recently I have found myself trying to explain to my son why good penmanship was important. I used all of the regular arguments like, handwritten letters are more personal, they show you care. Handwritten letters are becoming rare in today's world. When you handwrite a letter it carries more importance than an e-mail or computer generated letter, etc..

I think I started to get through to him, until he pointed out my own shortcomings in penmanship! I realized my past 8 years working in the computer industry has really impacted my own ability to write with clear, easy to read, cursive writing. This really opened my eyes, I realized I needed to "walk the walk". To this end I started to research for better methods to assist my son in learning to write in cursive. My research on the Internet led me to many interesting sites, many of them had examples of cursive writing from the early to late 1800's. I quickly found the method of cursive writing was very different from what I was taught in the 3rd grade (1965). I was taught the "Palmer" method which was officially adopted in the late 1920's as the official method of teaching cursive writing.

A site with letters written by and to Edgar Allen Poe was my first examples of mid-1800 cursive writing. With a little careful searching I came across these letters from and to Thomas Jefferson. As you can see, the cursive writing displayed in these letters is of a better quality and adds much to the aesthetic appeal of the written words. A similar method of cursive writing is found in the Spencerian method. This was a method of cursive writing popular from 1850-1925 before the Palmer method became the official method adopted for use in public education.

It was often said in those times, that to be successful in business, one had to write well in an expressive hand. The Spencerian period of writing has been considered by many to be "America's Golden Age of Writing". I have resolved myself to learn the Spencerian method during 2006. Many of the old school books for learning this method can be found at Barnes and Noble online bookstore. Search for Spencerian from the Barnes and Noble homepage.

The major differences of these 2 methods lies in the use of the whole arm versus the hand and wrist when writing. Spencer taught writing started at the shoulder and brought the whole arm into the act of writing. Palmer didn't subscribe to this method and developed his own method where the arm is relatively at rest while all the action is carried out by the wrist and hand. The primary difference is apparent in the flowing beautiful curves and loops obtained with a whole arm movement versus the tight ovals and slanting curves found in the relaxed arm.

But I did mention the founding fathers didn't I? My research in letters as an example of cursive script, led me to many writing examples of the founding fathers and to the Declaration of Independence. A fantastic example of early American writing. When discussing my plans with a co-worker, he suggested I read "Undaunted Courage" by Stephen Ambrose. My local library has it as an audio book on CD's so I am now listening to it in the car on the way to and from work. President Jefferson plays such a major role in sending Lewis and Clark on their historic journey, I also checked out the book "American Sphinx" by Joseph J. Ellis, in an attempt to gain a better understanding of the times in which I find the writing style so appealing. This book has really put American history into perspective for me.

I have read nothing new about these times or events in American history, but I never put them together in the right chronological order before. I hadn't realized Jefferson was the Ambassador to France during the drafting of the American Constitution and the outbreak of the French Revolution. I didn't know the first foreign loan America received was from the Dutch and that floating bond rates and variable interest schemes were a concern in the late 1700's. It just goes to show you that what we think are inventions of the 20th Century have been around for a lot longer...

Another interesting fact I came across was while Jefferson was the Ambassador to France, America and other European nations were being plagued by pirates from the Barbary states (Several Muslim countries along the north African coast). The pirates would capture trading ships in the Atlantic ocean and western Mediterranean, they then held the ship and crew for ransom from the parent country. Jefferson had occasion to speak to the Ambassador from Tripoli about how they could possible justify these "outrageous acts". "The Ambassador answered us that it was founded on the Laws of the Prophet, that it was written in the Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners..." (Jefferson and John Adams to American Commissioners, March 28, 1786. Boyd, IX, 357-59) So even today we see these same beliefs being claimed and violent acts being carried out against Americans "wherever they can be found".

And to think, if it wasn't for my son's complaining about learning cursive writing I would not have learned of everything I discovered in the past few months. The learning of the Spencerian method fits well with my new approach to data permanence while opening up a new area of knowledge for me to pursue in the coming months and years.

So, while I have found a new interest in writing, early American history and fountain pens, oh I haven't said anything about fountain pens, have I? As we are rapidly approaching my self imposed limit of 1000 words, I'll have to save that for another article in the near future. But suffice it to say, I really enjoy writing with a fountain pen!

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