In the midst of the digital age, the teaching of formal cursive handwriting has declined (most states, for example, no longer require public schools to teach cursive proficiency<\/a>). However, the practice of handwriting remains useful for helping people develop fine motor skills, read primary historical documents, and send thank-you notes with a personal touch, among other benefits.<\/p>\n To show our appreciation for scribes and their tools of the trade, we dug into our special collections and news archives to bring you a sampling of hand lettering, from ancient hieroglyphs to modern scripts.<\/p>\n Part of the University of Rochester Memorial Art Gallery<\/a>\u2019s encyclopedic collection<\/a>, this ink-and-papyrus manuscript dates to 2049 BCE. The sheet features hieratic writing, an abridged form of hieroglyphics used for record keeping because it could be written faster. The ancient Egyptians made sheets and scrolls from the stem of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus<\/em>, from which we get the English word \u201cpaper.\u201d<\/p>\n This early 13th-century parchment manuscript was written by the scribe Grigor of Tarsos. The fragile manuscript traded hands during the Armenian Genocide in 1915, and came into the Memorial Art Gallery\u2019s collections in 1950, where conservators have treated it in hopes of preserving it for generations to come.\u00a0In a related effort to preserve cultural heritage objects, Rochester researchers are using multispectral imaging<\/a> to digitally restore such ancient manuscripts.<\/p>\n Former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass was a gifted orator (his 1852 speech delivered in Rochester is considered one of the \u201cbest Fourth of July speech(es) in American history\u201d<\/a>). He was also a <\/span>skilled and prolific writer<\/a> who published <\/span>The North Star<\/em>, an anti-slavery newspaper.<\/span><\/p>\n In this personal letter<\/a> written in 1850 to fellow activist Amy Post, Douglass writes about his recent anti-slavery lectures: \u201cI am happy to state that my\u00a0health is good and my spirit is Right\u2013 I spoke in this\u00a0city last night at Brinley Hall before the audience\u00a0assembled at antislavery fair, held for the benefit of\u00a0the American Antislavery Society. The audience\u00a0was large\u2013and listened with earnest attention.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The letter in full reads:<\/p>\n My Dear Friend, The William Henry Seward Papers is one of the most extensive collections<\/a> of 19th-century American family letters known to exist. It includes 230 linear feet of materials, 150,000 items, and 375,000\u00a0pages, many of which are available digitally<\/a> thanks to an intergenerational team of \u201ccitizen archivists\u201d working together to decipher and transcribe the handwriting<\/a>.<\/p>\n President Abraham Lincoln appointed Seward as his secretary of state in 1861. In a correspondence from that same year, Lincoln seeks Seward\u2019s advice about sending aid to the Federal garrison in Fort Sumter in the Confederate-held Charleston Harbor.<\/p>\n The full transcript of the letter reads:<\/p>\n Executive Mansion <\/strong><\/p>\n This letter from Susan B. Anthony to fellow suffragist Isabella Beecher Hooker is one of a trove of documents discovered last year<\/a> that also includes missives written by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Unlike other Anthony letters already in the University\u2019s holdings, this collection is thoroughly political\u2014rarely personal\u2014as it showcases the methods and machinations of those leading the early women\u2019s rights movement.<\/p>\n Anthony concludes this 1874 communiqu\u00e9 by reflecting about the work that women could do on behalf of the poor, criminal, and insane if they had the power to vote. She writes: \u201cnow wouldn\u2019t it be splendid for us to be free & equal citizens\u2014with the power of the ballot to back our hearts, heads & hands.\u201d<\/p>\n The handwriting reads:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Wouldn\u2019t we be happy Walt Whitman is one of the most influential voices in American literature<\/a>. The \u201cSong of Myself\u201d poet wrote this postcard to William Sloane Kennedy, one of his avid supporters, in January 1888.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s enlightening for students and researchers to see and experience these hand-written documents, connecting with their authors through these intimate exchanges, decades or sometimes centuries after they were written,\u201d says\u00a0Jessica Lacher-Feldman, assistant dean and the Joseph N. Lambert and Harold B. Schleifer Director of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, which now houses the postcard.<\/p>\n The full handwritten text is as follows:<\/p>\n Camden PM [?] Jan 18 \u201888 Claude Fayette Bragdon was a Rochester-area architect, author, and theater designer whose second wife, Eugenie, engaged in automatic writing<\/a>: she would go into a trance or altered state, then write in handwriting that was not her own. All of Eugenie\u2019s automatic writing began with \u201cEugenie\u201d and ended with the \u201csquiggles\u201d that resemble SSSS or loose ampersands. She would then add her \u201cconscious\u201d caption below the message.<\/p>\n In 1921, Claude published the psychic communications Eugenie received from an \u201cOracle.\u201d Today, the River Campus Libraries house the Bragdon Family Papers<\/a>.<\/p>\n The entirety of this particular letter reads as follows:<\/p>\n Eugenie let him go the new path is to 22 Feb 1919<\/p>\n answer to Walter Hampden telegram Reading personal letters and diaries can \u201cbreathe new life into some of history\u2019s most interesting personalities,\u201d writes Lacher-Feldman<\/a>. Case in point: Alfred Steiglitz, the photographer, art promoter, and husband of artist Georgia O\u2019Keeffe. Steiglitz corresponded regularly with Claude Bragdon, whose personal papers<\/a> are housed in the Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation.<\/p>\n In this 1937 letter, Stieglitz writes to Bragdon, \u201cIt is 22 days since your letter came\u201d and begs the latter to \u201cforgive my procrastination.\u201d Stieglitz also mentions that O\u2019Keeffe recently visited Frieda Kahlo, and that he has been spending time with Swami Vivekenanda.<\/p>\n The letter from Stieglitz conveys the following:<\/p>\n I do hope the
\nWrite like an Egyptian<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"scan](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/handwriting-MAG-papyrus.jpg\")
\nMedieval manuscripts on the move<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"detail](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/handwriting-MAG-gospels.jpg\")
\n\u201cMy Dear Friend\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"long](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/handwriting-douglass-post.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nyou are now, doubtless enjoying the
\nsociety of our little circle at our Sunday meeting
\nI am at the House of a member of the society of
\nFriends\u2013 Effingham Capron. They have gone to meeting
\nJ.C. Hathaway has also gone\u2013 I am here alone
\nand in this moment of repose- I wish to breathe
\na word to you\u2013 a word of friendship\u2013 a word which
\nI know you well enough to know, that you will be
\npleased to receive. I am happy to state that my
\nhealth is good and my spirit is Right\u2013 I spoke in this
\ncity last night at Brinley Hall before the audience
\nassembled at antislavery fair, held for the benefit of
\nthe American Antislavery Society.. The audience
\nwas large\u2013 and listened with earnest attention. The
\nF. Slave Bill has made a deep sensation here\u2013 and it is
\nuniversally determined that no slave shall be taken
\nfrom Worcester\u2013. I have been to New Bedford
\nand Nantucket since I spoke in Faneuil
\nHall. We have collected in these places\u2013 about
\none hundred and thirty dollars\u2013 we are
\nto lecture here this Evening and hope to
\ndo more for our imprisoned Brother.\u00a0I sa
\nSaw Mr. Garrison yesterday, \u2013 had a long and
\nfriendly talk with him\u2013we said nothing about the
\n\u201cStar-\u201d but about matters and things in general
\nand about George Thompson in particular.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n\u201cYour Obedient Servant, A. Lincoln\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"handwritten](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/handwriting-seward.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nMarch 15, 1861
\nThe Honorable Secretary of State
\nMy dear sir,
\nAssuming it to be possible to now provision Fort Sumter, under all the circumstances, is it wise to attempt it?
\nPlease give me your opinion in writing on this question
\nYour obedient servant
\nA. Lincoln<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nSuffragists show their work<\/h3>\n
![\"handwritten](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/handwriting-beecher-hooker.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nmortals thus to work with
\npower\u00a0too\u00a0\u2014 I can hardly
\nwait\u00a0\u2014 The good fates
\nthough are working together
\nto bring us into this
\nfreedom and that rapidly.
\n[Sincere?] affectionately
\nSusan B. Anthony<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nA poet and his pen<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"small,](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/handwriting-whitman.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nSuppose Rhys got his parcel
\nof letters yesterday, as I sent them.
\nThanks for the Harvard Monthly
\nI have read it and sent it on\u2014
\nCold, stormy, snowy weather here
\n\u2014have had my dinner & am sitting
\ncomfortably by the fire \u2014have just
\nwritten to OC [?] & to Morse\u2014
\n\u2013(card rec\u2019d) Walt Whitman<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nGhostwriter<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"handwritten](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/handwriting-eugenie-bragdon-letter.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nbe followed he is to create
\ntemples of beauty not with stone
\nbut by touching in men the chord
\nthat answers to the call of beauty
\n[SSSS]<\/p>\n
\nasking Claude to come to N.Y. for
\nseveral weeks to arrange the Lighting
\n& staging of Hamlet.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nPen pals<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"small](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/handwriting-Stiglitz-letters.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nbook will be published soon. The world
\nneeds books of that type. Whether it
\nwill prove to be a \u201cseller\u201d I don\u2019t
\nknow. It should have a good sale.
\nMy kindest [?] greetings
\nStieglitz<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nConlang creations and Rochester research<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"illustration](\"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/handwriting-conlang.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n