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Hello! I haven't been around FPN lately, but I do pop in and lurk on occasion. I'm hoping that you all can give me a hand here (pun intended!). I'm currently working on some fan fiction for _Alias Smith and Jones_, and I got curious as to what the fellows' handwriting might have looked like. Heyes and Curry were born roughly 1850 - 1852, so I'm assuming that they would have learned manuscript penmanship in school about 1860. Since this would have been in the Midwest/frontier, say Kansas, my thought is that the school script they were taught would have been from a somewhat earlier time as schools on the prairie would not have had "all the latest" materials to use. I don't really intend to learn to write that way, but I'd like an idea of what it would have looked like, or what copy books were used in that period, so that I can find a script font that looks similar to use for letters written by the guys in the story I'm working on. Many thanks to my fellow FPNers! Addendum: I did find the IAMPETH site, and have looked at the books and materials from the mid-19th century. What boggles my mind is the highly flourished and ornamental capitals that are characteristic of Spencerian script. Teachers really taught that style to dozens of seven- and eight-year-olds in a one-room schoolhouse on the frontier? Little children in those one-room schools had flexible dip nibs? Clearly they went to school on a different planet than I did. Was there a standard school script of that period that didn't have all the ruffles and flourishes, comparable, say to the Vere Foster script in England?

In the 16th century the angular Chancery hand which developed in Italy (often referred to today under the generic name of Italic) was, in Spain, made more rounded (under the influence of the Redondilla mercantile hand?) and so a new b=astard hand: the Spanish, was begotten. This hand continued to be used into the 20th century (I believe) alongside Inglesa/English Roundhand. I have scanned this set of plates, printed from steel engravings, of D. Juan Folguera y Plandolit's calligraphy, which I think accompanied a book written by him. They were published in 1853, according to the wrapper they came in. In plate 1, the slant is 60 or 61 degrees and the angle of the nib 35 degrees. The height of the minuscules is approx. 8mm and the caps. 16mm. When writing this hand, the paper is tilted to the left so that it is parallel with your arm as you may see below. This hand was written with a straight cut broad edged nib and today you could use a Wm. Mitchell Round-Hand pen, for example. Hi-res Scans are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21860485@N06/sets/ These are long out of copyright, so they are to free to use for whatever you want. They are copyright free. Some smaller images: http://i.imgur.com/JEdemXwh.jpg http://i.imgur.com/4EZx6UUh.jpg http://i.imgur.com/UPC78EIh.jpg http://i.imgur.com/RSu1Ak0h.jpg Here is an original example of this style of writing, written by the Spanish calligrapher Vicente Valliciergo http://i.imgur.com/chwyEVs.jpg That example is from this useful and interesting blog which has much on calligraphy and Spanish calligraphy: http://bibliotypes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/la-caligrafia-espanola-en-el-siglo-xix.html From the same blog, these images from other Spanish calligraphy books show posture and how to hold the pen for writing this hand (the hold on the left in the case of the 2nd image, the one on the right being for English Roundhand). http://i.imgur.com/b3Jpoqv.jpg http://i.imgur.com/iKVKc1R.jpg