Older Handwriting Samples

[UkuleleClaire]

I work in the archives department of a library, and I get to see a lot of neat samples of older handwriting. The following photo inspired me to share:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8525/8633104024_46af74f72c_b.jpg

 

If there is interest I can scan more of these.

[WaskiSquirrel]

Interesting! I've been working on a history of my church (we just celebrated our centennial), so I've been going through old documents. It has been interesting to see the handwriting styles. Also, there were people way back then who had messy handwriting and who had bad spelling!

 

Another interesting discovery: I recognized Spencerian writing.

 

Over the past year, I've learned a lot more about fountain pens, including dip pens, flex nibs, etc. I've been able to recognize some of this in the writing as well.

 

One final note: do not use pencil to write things meant to be kept. Some of the documents are illegible because they are in pencil.

[The Good Captain]

I really like that hand. It has individuality and character: nothing that I would call a recognised 'style' at all. Wonderful to see.

[smk]

I work in the archives department of a library, and I get to see a lot of neat samples of older handwriting. The following photo inspired me to share:

 

If there is interest I can scan more of these.

 

What a lovely hand - thank you for sharing this.

 

And yes - I'd say it would go down well if we can see some more examples :-)

 

Salman

[pen2paper]

There is interest : )Thank you for sharing this Claire.

[N2theBreach]

Thanks for taking the time to post this. I enjoy seeing how people wrote in days gone by. I also enjoy the content--it gives glimpses into how people thought, expressed themselves, and so on.

 

Would enjoy seeing more. Thanks.

[UkuleleClaire]

I'm glad to see others appreciated this sample, and I will keep an eye out for good ephemera to scan and post here! For reference, I'm currently refoldering documents from a newspaper called the "Daily People's World", and these clippings and ephemera mostly discuss labor issues and communism. The majority of the files are from the 1930's through the 1970's, and this particular scan was from a rough draft of an article. I believe it was from the mid 50's.

[beak]

...................

If there is interest I can scan more of these.

 

I, for one, would like more. Good too, since you would know, would be the date of the samples.

 

Thanks for this.

[Epistler]

...................

If there is interest I can scan more of these.

 

I, for one, would like more. Good too, since you would know, would be the date of the samples.

 

Thanks for this.

 

Yes.

I would also be pleased to see more, and, like beak, would be interested in the dates.

Edited April 10, 2013 by Epistler

[dcrosier76]

One of my favorite things about this forum is getting to see examples of different styles of handwriting.

Seeing something old like this really gets me in the mood to practice.

 

Thank you so much for sharing this!

 

If you have anymore, please share!!!!

[HDoug]

Would love seeing more. Thanks for posting!

 

Doug

[UkuleleClaire]

Here's one I saw today at work: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8535/8637426727_4e87ce9c66_b.jpg

 

This document was from 1952.

[Stompie]

These are great, thank you!

[Carrie]

That's quite an unusual handwriting. I posted a topic a few years ago of an archival letter from my old workplace. A crossed Grand Tour letter dating to 1817. We had some which were then crossed again on the diagonal.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v30/carrieh/work/page1.jpg

 

[Carrie]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v30/carrieh/work/page2.jpg

 

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v30/carrieh/work/page3.jpg

 

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v30/carrieh/work/page4.jpg

 

[ljkd13]

In the first example, the m's have a line over them. Does anyone know the purpose or significance of this? I presume it is to differentiate between u's/n's, but I've never seen that before.

[Anne-Sophie]

Thank you for sharing all the letters each one of them is an inspiration!

[recluse]

In the first example, the m's have a line over them. Does anyone know the purpose or significance of this? I presume it is to differentiate between u's/n's, but I've never seen that before.

 

My guess is that the author was either Russian or was heavily influenced by Russian _casual_ cursive. There, while traditionally regarded in schools as a non-welcome habit, it does serve a purpose: it differentiates minuscules 'm' and 't' in a somewhat careless writing. For some reasons, while Russian majuscules are identical to M and T (in some models of cursive T is written differently, though), the minuscule of T is written (in cursive) as "m".

 

Somehow I almost never overline m's in English texts, while I do very often overline t's in Russian. Go figure.

 

PS For me one more indication that the author was originally trained in Russian cursive is the manner in which 't' is written. This is so-o-o familiar.

Edited April 16, 2013 by recluse

[UkuleleClaire]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v30/carrieh/work/page2.jpg

 

Those examples are beautiful, thank you for sharing them Carrie! Wednesday is the day I get the most time working with collections, so I'm hoping to find another neat example tomorrow.

[a_m]

I work in the archives department of a library, and I get to see a lot of neat samples of older handwriting. The following photo inspired me to share:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8525/8633104024_46af74f72c_b.jpg

 

If there is interest I can scan more of these.

 

 

Beautiful fast handwriting. Nice upper strokes.

Thanks for sharing