The "The Lost Art of Cursive Writing" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Walking around the Landis Run Intermediate School in the Manheim Township School District in Lancaster County, PA taking candid photos of the 5th and 6th graders that I can use in their school yearbook which I produce.  I carry a clipboard and pen with me so the students can give me their name which I will place under their photo.  Always thought it important to have a name with a photo, since 30 or 40 years from now, no one will recognize who the person might be.  Well, I snapped a photo of a young boy and handed him my clipboard and told him to print his name next to a specific number on the paper.  "Don't write it in cursive since I may not recognize your name," I told him.  

Learning to write in cursive.

"What's cursive?" he asked me.  "That's when you write your name with the letters flowing together to form your name," I responded.  "We never do that!" was his frank answer.  I've been taking photos for the Middle School and Landis Run yearbooks for 18 years now and this boy was the first to ever tell me he didn't know what cursive was.  More than likely most students didn't know what cursive was, but were afraid to ask me what that was.  It's been quite a few years now since students were taught to write in cursive.  I can remember learning cursive writing in the early 1950s, but technology wasn't what it is today.  We didn't have an iPhone when we were in elementary school or an iPad when we were a toddler.  Since this is the age of technology with iPads, cell phones and computers, the theory goes that there isn't a need to teach cursive writing.  

I taught a lesson in graphic arts in Calligraphy.  Now a lost art.

We need to focus more on helping the students use the tools presented to them for future success.  Cursive writing seems to be an outdated skill that's taking up valuable instruction time from learning  keyboarding skills and other computer-based communication and thus not needed in our current society.  How sad!  After telling the student what cursive writing was, he said, "Oh yeah, I have a cursive font on my iPad that I can use if I want, but I can't read what I typed if I use it."  Made me think, so it did.  My daughter recently asked me to write a letter to the son of a woman who lives in the apartment complex she manages in Maryland.  Said that he is in US Army basic training and gets no letters and is lonely.  But, don't write the letter in cursive, since he won't be able to read it.  Wow, really so sad!  

My wife's friend often sends hand-made cards
with her cursive writing on it.  Neat cards!

Writing a letter in one's own hand can be an artistic act.  Handwriting animates the paper you write upon.  At least to me it does.  The bold flairs and elegant flourishes are what set you apart from someone else when writing.  When I taught graphic arts in the same school district, I taught a month-long lesson in Calligraphy.  By the time students were finished with their final document many would tell me how much fun it was to use free-spirited letters to express themselves.  Calligraphy was bypassed when regular cursive writing became popular and now once again, cursive writing is being bypassed since everything is typed on a keyboard.  

How many of today's students in the United States can
read the cursive writing illustrated here?

Students of today can no longer read historical documents such as the Declaration of Indepen- dence or even letters written long ago by their their grandparents.  I'm here to tell you that cursive writing connects us with history, is faster than printing, and in many cases typing on a keyboard, and makes it harder to plagiarize since a student can't cut and paste at will.  And, to say that students need to be prepared for a competitive world in their near future and therefore don't need to learn cursive is a bunch of crap.  Just another reason for not teaching reading, writing and arithmetic as they should  be.  Amen!  So now you can probably guess how old I may be.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The "Lancaster's Historic Calligrapher" Story

It was an ordinary day. Looking at a copy of our Nations's Declaration of Indepen- dence and admiring the beautiful calligraphy of the document.  Since I taught Graphic Arts in high school and included a unit on calligraphy, I may appreciate the beautiful work more than most.  The person who was the calligrapher of the Declaration of Independence that was written on parchment and signed by important members of our government was indeed a talented scribe.  But, the document that we are used to viewing was not the first copy that was made.  

Timothy Matlack, calligrapher of the Declaration of Independence

The first draft was written on June 28, 1776 on Dutch hemp paper while the second draft on July 2, 1776 was also written on Dutch hemp paper.  The final copy, agreed to by Congress, was copied and engrossed on parchment or a prepared animal skin.  This was the famous document that was signed by the delegates on August 2, 1776.  The animal skin document was eventually treated with lime.  The treated parchment stretches out and has a long-lasting quality.  The Declaration of Independence is still in remarkable condition being it is almost 250 years old.  The ink used in the document is known as iron gall ink and was fairly common when the Declaration of Independence was penned.  It was made by combining ferrous sulfate with tannin extracted from oak galls.  

Mr. Matlack's home at 220 E. Orange Street in Lancaster.

A oak gall is described as a blister or bud of the tree. It was a purple or brown black and has some acidity.  A binder, such as gum arabic, might have been added which can make the ink unstable and create problems with conservation.  The calligrapher more than likely used a goose quill and wrote in English roundhand script known as "copperplate."  But, my story today is more than just the document; it is about the calligrapher who penned the document.  Timothy Matlack lived at 220 East Orange Street in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania for about a dozen years.  I naturally had to make a visit to see for myself where he lived.  He was born in Haddonfield, NJ in 1736 and moved as a child to Philadelphia where he attended a Quaker Friends' School.  He got in with the wrong crowd and fell into gambling, horse racing and cockfighting.  While in debtors prison he learned to write in the fine, clear hand needed for official doucments and became a merchant's apprentice.  

The house on the right is 220 E. Orange St.

He eventually became a clerk to Charles Thomson, the secretary of the Second Continental Congress and then served as a delegate to the Pennsyl- vania provincial convention that wrote the 1776 state constitution.  During this time he was also a Philadelphia brewer which is how he ended up with the Declaration job after he sold a bottle of wine to his neighbor, Benjamin Franklin, who hired Matlack as a scrivener. 

Street marker telling about Timothy Matlack

Then Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Indepen- dence and shared it with John Adams and Benjamin Franklin and after revisions, on July 4, 1776, the church bells rang in Philadel- phia announcing the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.  

Photo showing the front of 220 E. Orange St.

The document was taken to the printing shop of John Dunlap, where copies were distributed by members of Congress.  Then on July 19 Congress ordered the Declaration be "fairly engrossed on parchment.  Matlack created the official document over the next few weeks, correcting a few errors from the first two documents.  And the rest is history!  As far as Matlack's time in Lancaster, living on Orange Street; he spent most of his time in Lancaster when the city was the capital of Pennsylvania from 1799 to 1812.  Mr. Matlack died in 1829 and was buried in Philadelphia.  Matlack's penmanship inspired a number of modern typefaces, or fonts, such as American Scribe, Declaration Script, Declaration Blackletter and National Archive. If only I had practiced my calligraphy more, maybe I could have been a famous American calligrapher!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. 

The "Remembering John Hancock" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Reflecting back on my teaching days when I taught Graphic Arts in high school.  One of my favorite areas of the arts, as well as one of my student's favorites, was the unit in penmanship or calligraphy ….  or just plain handwriting.  I had printed 11"x17" paper with guide lines for the students to practice and many of them filled page after page with a variety of different styles of letters or fonts.  They were so used to pushing keys on a typewriter and then in later years on a computer keyboard and yet later on a phone that they had forgotten the fun and skill that it took to write a letter by using plain old handwriting.  

We also printed greeting cards that required them to use their handwriting skills to letter the inside of the card that would carry an etched or block print front to the card.  To suggest to them to pick up a pencil or pen or even a crayon and write or even print a few words was a struggle for me, but after a week of trying different fonts and different instruments, most seemed to enjoy the lost art of penmanship and handwriting.  I began the unit telling them about the many historical documents for which calligraphy had been used …. the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and even letters to mom and dad from camp when my generation was very young.  For years handwriting was the main means of communication.  It really wasn't until Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type in the mid-1400's that printing with the use of type came into use.  On or near January 23 of each year we would celebrate National Handwriting Day in my class.  

Note handwritten by Marg.

I tried to save that unit until that time of the year if possible, but if not, we would still take time out, get out the pens and ink and make a handwriting note or letter to celebrate the day.  Printing or writing in cursive actually activates different parts of the brain that usually are not exercised otherwise.   My wife's friend Marg still sends us cards from time to time that will carry handwriting, either in printing or cursive form, on the front or the inside of the card.  Her penmanship is beautiful and a card such as this means so much more than one that is purchased.  So, today, being that it is National Handwriting Day, how about writing a handwritten letter or note to someone you love or may be a good friend with and show them just how much you appreciate them.  Doesn't matter if it is with a ballpoint pen, liquid ink pen or just a pencil.  Just do it!