The Context and History of Library Hand
Author's note: This article continues to be revised almost daily, and any lapses, missing information, or mistakes are solely my own. The end of the article, in particular, is under heavy revision. I humbly request that you please send your notes, manuscript material, and corrections to me at david@davidkaminski.org.
The history of library hand does not begin, nor end, with Melvil Dewey, though of course he is at the center of its development, and it is he who most deserves credit for it. The history of library hand by necessity must be told along with that of its predecessors in both cast type and its form once printed on paper, typewriters, and the long and misunderstood history of American penmanship in all of its varieties and complexities.
In this article, the focus is on the intertwining and related history of Thomas Edison and his writing style and inventions, the tale and truth of John Jackson and European writing trends, members of the American Library Association, Melvil Dewey, the emergence of vertical and upright writing in America, and manuscript writing.
UNDERSTANDING EDISON'S WRITING STYLE IN THE CONTEXT OF AMERICAN HANDWRITING
Born in 1847, Thomas Edison grew up at a time when writing was continuing to evolve and to change. There were thoughtful penman as well as some less gifted who were publishing their writing books and developing their own styles. And perhaps, therefore, it should not be surprising that as an inventor himself, Edison, too, developed his own writing style. Yet, one must also understand how unique his style was, and how useful it was as an idea and a model for Dewey and the other libraries. But before we explore that further, first, let us turn to the milieu at the time, and briefly, to the confusion existing in some of the written history and in our present time.
In these years of his childhood, much was occurring in the field of writing and penmanship. Many writing styles were being borrowed from earlier times or were introduced with variations; sometimes authors or penmen were stealing outright the work of each other. There were not only hundreds of different writing teachers, but more than a thousand--a reasonable number to arrive at, I believe, when one sees it noted in an 1849 business directory that there were 100 writing academies in New Hampshire and 272 in Rhode Island, as well as to understand that a teacher needed only to have completed a grade in order to teach it and that students themselves were often used as "ushers," as they were called, to help a master in an academy. There were writing classes held for the general public that were sometimes only lessons of a few hours; classes only for men, or only for ladies; writing taught in colleges and seminaries; public and private schools; and in classes where teachers who taught writing and penmanship were the same teachers who taught ciphering, arithmetic, drawing, book-keeping, vocal music, map drawing, ornamental needles work, and other courses. Also, authors and publishers were promoting and selling penmanship books, copy books, and writing books (some no longer in existence, and others preserved). Some teachers, penmen, and writing styles had broad appeal and influence, while some had almost none. And, for the most part, these writing styles had origins outside of the United States, though some Americans were creating styles that were either built upon these, or they created their own.
Platt Rogers Spencer (born in 1800 and guilty of borrowing and stealing the work of others, but also an innovator in his own right) was a seasoned teacher and a penman who here wrote out ladies epistolary, and published his first book, Spencer & Rice's System of Ladies' Epistolary and Ornamental Penmanship, in 1848, the year after Edison's birth. Spencer is the most widely known and celebrated American penman in the years that follow. For young men seeking to promote themselves, learning such a writing style was valuable and important. Writers such as Spencer cultivated the imagination and spirit of many young people seeking to impress with their careful and practiced writing. Edison's early writing shows some initial flair and a desire to impress others, but his later teenage penmanship evolves to accommodate his own needs and purposes: to be efficient and productive, in the manner of his other inventions.
And here, as a penultimate sample, is printed material of "Topics for Chicago Meeting" for the 1893 American Library Association conference in Chicago, in which one can see library hand and print together. (This too is from the Melvil Dewey papers, The Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Columbia University.) Of note, one can also see shorthand and blue colored pencil--Dewey used both in this period of time--and that suggests that this might be his library handwriting as well, though, as a counter-argument, it should be mentioned that items did circulate among the committees, and so he may have been only one of a few people whose manuscript work one sees.
John Jackson, the most prominent of the promoters of the vertical style in England writes a chapter on the "History of Vertical Writing and its Revival" on page 118 of his book Theory and Practice of Handwriting that “concurrent agitations dated from about the year 1870 to the year 1887 when the two forces combined (each being complementary to the other)” were responsible for the move to upright penmanship in England. This book provides considerable detail about the different people and countries in Europe studying the vertical style as a remedy to poor eyesight and bad posture among students. He also makes the argument in the beginning of this chapter on page 111 that "The History of Vertical Writing is the History of all Writing, as, up to about the middle of the 16th century such a thing as Sloping Writing was unknown." This idea we will have to set aside for a separate discussion.
Here, one can see an example to consider in contrast to Edison's style and library handwriting we will see later. Spencer celebrates the success of his style in 1856, though it is important to note that it is only one of many styles that he used and presented in books, as well as only one and that is promoted as Spencerian.
Also, one should note that "Spencerian" is a term often misapplied by those who conflate the many earlier styles of penmanship either provided in books by many authors or taught in the 19th century by a great number of penmen, penwomen, writing teachers, tutors, etc., as noted on a timeline that I have begun to construct, and as mentioned in my short article "The Study of American Penmanship and Handwriting." As Albert Sherman Osborn notes in his 1910 book Questioned Documents on page 174, “The various systems of modern writing came finally to be described as a whole as Spencerian. This no doubt was due to the superiority of the system and, in large measure, to its able and energetic authors and advocates.” This confusion is also due to the fact that Spencer's sons and publishers promoted his style and many others that are not his own, yet still under his name; therefore, authorship continues to be assigned by libraries to Platt Rogers Spencer for styles he did not use nor invent for such books as Spencerian Penmanship: Vertical Edition, though its publication is more than thirty years after his death. At best, one could concede that perhaps it is credited to his son by the same name; however, cynically, one could say that it is a convenient mistake that the publishers or sons allowed to be perpetuated for the sake of profit and further book sales. Regardless of any speculation, it is clear that both Platt Rogers Spencer and Platt Rogers Spencer, Jr. are conflated, and there is not proper disambiguation in catalog systems in libraries, as one can observe with the book Practical Writing, published in 1905, seen here in a link, and here in an image.
As for Edison's early writing style, its roots are not clear, and it warrants further investigation. Though it is interesting to note that Edison's boyhood penmanship does not represent the norm of a forward slanted joined script promoted by Spencer and others. Instead, Edison, at the age of 15, had a somewhat unimpressive mixed style of a backhanded cursive with some lettering. Save for the forward slant of the first line, the rest of the missive is mostly backhand. For reference as to what backhand looked like in this time period, one can look at a left-handed writing sample from a Civil War veteran.
As a growing man with an evolving writing style of his own, Edison wrote more neatly and consistently with a script that has exuberance and flair, but of no discernible origin, a vertical style, as seen here in 1866.
Employed as a telegraph clerk trying to write faster and more legibly, he kept experimenting: writing smaller, removing the excessive flourishes, and timed himself writing until his speed could no longer be increased. The most important difference from the other writing of this time period, though, is that this style Edison developed had separated letters--not connected in a cursive manner. This style in which he writes each letter individually is one that he used in business writing, such as in this letter to John Clark Van Duzer in 1868, as well as for his job as a telegraph operator.
As noted on page 247 in The Medical Record, Vol. XV, No. 11, March 15, 1879, New York doctor George M. Beard, M.D., while examining writers for their ailments and style of writing, said of Edison:
When he writes slowly and with care--from fifteen to twenty-five words a minute--Mr. Edison's handwriting is phenomenally clear and beautiful, resembling copperplate printing; not in a flowing, but in a cramped hand, the letters often being separated as in print. When he rises to forty words a minute, the writing is still more cramped and less beautiful, though yet legible; with forty-nine words a minute, his writing is quite illegible.
As Edison told Theodore Dreiser for his article "A Photographic Talk with Edison" in the February 1898 journal Success, "I had perfected a style of handwriting which would allow me to take legibly from the wire, long hand, forty-seven and even fifty-four words a minute." This style he developed was perpetuated among and imitated by other telegraph clerks.
While Edison's style remains largely unacknowledged in books on the history of penmanship, it is a vertical style unlike the forward slanted style of the time. However, it is fair to say that he neither authored a book on penmanship nor taught it in any institutions, and so he cannot be recognized as among those who influenced the penmanship of the nation's youth nor the broader public.
As an inventor, Edison did create the Edison Electric Pen in 1875. It required the user to hold the pen itself perpendicular to the paper, in a vertical position because the mechanics of the device required it. But that was not a vertical writing style, nor did it produce vertical writing. Nor was the electric pen a pen, as it was used as a tool to perforate tissue, which was used as a stencil through which ink was pressed onto paper to make a print. But it was a device which allowed the writing style of an individual to be transferred and printed onto paper, and in that sense it did facilitate the use of handwriting and was a means to disseminate information in this way. As for its implementation in libraries, an enthusiastic advertisement for it was printed in October 1877 in The Library Journal, Vol. II., No. 2, on page 88 and a few months later in 1878 on page 242. This was but one of the technologies being tried by Melvil Dewey; librarians in the U.S., for example, by the San Francisco Free Library for its Catalog No. 1 in 1879); and even institutions abroad like the British Museum to reduce costs and speed the processes for creating catalogs.
While the Edison Electric Pen was offered as an alternative in quality to assorted other processes like the papyrograph, which also used handwriting as its medium, even the printing press was under consideration, as made apparent by the article "On the Use of the Printing Press in Libraries, appearing in The Library Journal, Vol. 4, No. 4, April 30, 1879. Every practicable method was part of the discussion of that time about how to most efficiently create a catalog. Perhaps of some minor note, the typeface Clarendon is mentioned a number of times in printing articles, and it also appears in other library articles. There does not seem to be any direct stylistic connection between library hand and this typeface, but it might serve as a reference for one or more styles the librarians preferred.
But even a few years later, in 1885 at Lake George, when discussing library handwriting, the librarians looked back on the invention of the papyrograph and the electric pen and found them lacking in some way, though they showed some enthusiasm for the cyclostyle, another means of manually creating a script, though the cyclostyle creates its own distinctive marks as a writing tool, seen here in Melvil Dewey's 1885 cyclostyle signature.
A MISUNDERSTOOD CONNECTION BETWEEN DEWEY AND EDISON
As for Edison's vertical writing manuscript style and its influences beyond the offices of telegraph clerks, one should pause to closely consider if Edison had an effect on the development of library hand, while looking first at what has been written recently as well as the historical material. There is confusion in these details, at the very least, in books in 2014 and 2015 and in websites such as Wikipedia, here as a link and as a captured image; also, at the wiki History of the card catalog, here as a link and as a captured image. These mistakes are not anomalies, but demonstrate part of a larger issue faced by researchers in American handwriting and penmanship now and in the past. There are too few people doing work in the field and the facts are difficult to check and to verify. At a time when the internet and Wikipedia are supposed to be reliable, it makes sense for writers to expect it to be a good source. Judging from the dates listed, the incorrect information appears to have remained on the wiki library site from at least 2011, and of course these postings still remain on the sites at the time of this article, in late 2015. These are but just two of the many mistakes or misinformation in this field, and I would propose that authors and researchers work together to create "A Corrected and Revised History of American Handwriting and Penmanship" as a way to eliminate some of the misinformation that continues to be perpetuated as well as to improve knowledge in the field .
EDISON MENTIONED AT THE A.L.A. MEETING IN 1885
The first preserved and printed discussion on library handwriting occurs at the American Library Association Lake George Conference, where Melvil Dewey, among others, attended. On September 9, 1885, he and the other librarians discussed both the speed and utility of the typewriter for cataloging, and then the librarians turned their attention to library handwriting and Edison.
In conversation, Mr. Nelson mentions an article in Science in which Edison "experimented to devise the best style of penmanship for telegraph operators, selecting finally a slight back-hand, with regular round letters apart from each other, and not shaded, attaining himself by its means a speed of forty-five words a minute." Nelson, suggests it might be "suitable to cards, by reason of its clearness, and the speed claimed for it." Dewey added that he was himself "conducting a series of experiments to find out what is really the most legible in catalogue drawers for the average reader in the average circumstances."
A LETTER TO EDISON, ANSWERED BY HIS SECRETARY
In 1886, Dewey addresses a letter to Edison regarding his penmanship, but the response comes from Edison's secretary, Samuel Insull, in a typed note, with a sample of Edison's writing enclosed.
November 3rd. 6Melvil Dewey, Esq.,Columbia College, 29th Street & Madison Avenue, City.Dear Sir:-Referring to your favor of the 21st. ulto., which hasremained unanswered owing to Mr. Edison's absence from the City,I beg to enclose you what he considers the quickest method of writing.Mr. Edison used this method when he was a telegraph operatortaking Associated Press Reports, and he claims that he couldwrite more rapidly and with less fatigue than by any other means.You will notice every letter is written separately.Yours very truly,Enc. Private Secretary.
This is the only recorded communication regarding library hand, and it is not from Edison to Dewey. Judging from the careful records of both men, it seems probable that there was little if any communication of this subject beyond what is indicated in Insull's note. While Dewey does make use of an Edison Electric Pen and he does admire and enjoy Edison's electricity and electrical lighting, but it does not appear in any way that these men collaborated nor worked together at all on the development of library hand. Edison does later send letters to Dewey about maps and other such materials while Dewey is at the New York State Library in Albany, New York, but again, nothing on library hand. This letter and more about the similarities and differences between Edison's writing and library hand is also discussed later in this article.
TYPEWRITERS DISCUSSED AT THE ALA LAKE GEORGE CONFERENCE
To return to the topic of the American Library Association Lake George Conference, which was held on September 8-11, 1885, one should know that the conference covered a great many topics, among them the typewriter and library handwriting.
TYPE-WRITERS IN LIBRARIES.Mr. DEWEY. --I have been experimenting in type-writers, and have tried the Remington, the Caligraph, the Hall, the Columbia, the Sun, and the Hammond. Mr. Richardson has got some good results from the Hall. I did not get very satisfactory results on catalogue cards until I got the Hammond. I still have two Hall machines, --slow, but that is not a serious consideration ;in cataloguing, as it would be in commercial matters. The Hammond has an action somewhat like the Remington, but instead of working over a cylinder, it works against a flat surface, thus allowing the best of work on flat, stiff cards. Another peculiarity is, that the whole set of type can be changed in thirty seconds. You can have a special type cut for library purposes, and the manufacturers have now agreed to make for the Library Bureau a special form of machine, containing our special characters, etc., and called the Card Cataloguer. It is very perfect in its action, and gives excellent results. This is one of the library machines that we ought to utilize. The cost is the same as of the Remington.Mr. MAC. --I saw the proprietor the day before I left NewYork, and he said that he had perfected an attachment by which you could write a full card, i.e., could write clear& out to the margins on all four edges.Mr. CARR. --I was led to experiment with a type-writer,because my handwriting is very unsatisfactory. I commenced with the Remington. The first objection which arose is that you are limited to the space that the machine gives. It starts out with three methods of spacing. There are also three spaces in the Hammond. The Hall is slow, but in ordinary catalogue work, I think, will work as fast as ordinary penmanship. For correspondence the others are way ahead of it. Time is lost every time you insert a card, and to work correctly you have to figure to get each card in the place occupied by the previous one. I speak without having practical knowledge of the Hammond.Mr. DEWEY. --In the Special Library Hammond you can throw the card right in, and it is held in the exact place by special guides, so all time of adjustment is saved.Mr. CARR. --You cannot do that with the Remington. For good work the Hall is superior, and it will write on a continuous strip of paper, in which it has the advantage over other machines. The cost of the Hall is less than the others. I have found that from type-writers you cannot get the advantages you can from print--you get all your work in one set of type. You cannot get the smaller type. You are limited for emphasis to the caps and lower case, and must go through your work and mark it. All these machines, except the Hammond, are defective in not having the less usual points. We need, among others, the bracket.Mr. DEWEY. --In the Hammond Library machine all these points are supplied.Mr. CARR. --The Hall is unsatisfactory for other reasons: e.g., where it is desirable to make rapid impressions of the same character. I have seen the Caligraph, the Remington, the People's, but not the Columbia or Hammond. The Hall, so far, has answered the best of anything I have found, and I think its type is the best.Mr. DEWEY. --The Hammond aligns more perfectly than the Remington.Mr. CARR. --I think the Hall the best for indexing work. I think these slips show the best impression--that taken by the Hall. You do not lose any time in changing the work from one slip to another. I am purposing to try the Hammond. Perhaps that will answer better. Except in correspondence, very little type-writing comes into my hands, and never has a specimen of the Hammond come to my hands yet. I do not think it has been experimented with to any extent.Mr. RICHARDSON. -- I have used the Caligraph for three years. The Hall does very slow work, but it is better than nothing. After seeing it at Columbia College I made up my mind to have the Hammond at once for the simple card catalogue. If you write Russian or Roumanian or Syriac, as I often do [laughter], it can be done with the Hammond. The Hammond is decidedly better for a simple card catalogue. I like it better than the Caligraph.
LIBRARY HANDWRITING AT THE ALA LAKE GEORGE CONFERENCE
Most germane to this article is the talk on the second day, during which the group discusses handwriting for use in libraries. It is provided in full below.
LIBRARY HANDWRITING.Mr. BORDEN. --I object to library handwriting made with a fine pen. If you are looking at a card catalogue where the lines are fine you have to get into an uncomfortable position in order to read the letters. The handwriting should be as near print as possible, and I have used lately the round writing pens. They are made in Germany, I think. They give a light up line but a very heavy down line, so that the resemblance to print is about as close as letters will admit of. I have some specimens of the writing. The usual form of letters is sufficient.Mr. NELSON. --I saw in a recent number of "Science," (Number for August 21 ; 6 : 46) [This original note is mistaken. The last numeral is a page number, which should be 146, as is seen in the image provided. Therefore, it is properly thus: Number for August 21 ; 6 : 146] in a sketch of T. A. Edison, the inventor, the statement that Edison had "experimented to devise the best style of penmanship for telegraph operators, selecting finally a slight back- hand, with regular round letters apart from each other, and not shaded, attaining himself by its means a speed of forty-five words a minute." He thought that this hand might prove suitable for cards, by reason of its clearness, and the speed claimed for it.Mr. DEWEY. --This question of library handwriting is an exceedingly practical one, and I am conducting a series of experiments to find out what is really most legible in catalogue drawers for the average reader in average circumstances. Some of the handwriting is very condensed, some very extended; some write too fine lines, and there is a lack of uniformity in some hands; so it becomes very hard reading. We ought to find out what is the most legible handwriting, and the Spencerian publishers have agreed to engrave such a hand if we will tell them which is best for library use.Dr. HOMES. --There was a magnificent well-known English hand, the round hand of forty to eighty years ago. In Paris the writing-masters advertised it as "Ecriture anglaise," and it was popular. The account-books of those days are full of specimens. Spencer and modern men have introduced a pointed hand, one which allows of constant confusion of several letters, i, m, w, n, u, r, s, t, and doubtless others. The modern final s of the writing-masters is constantly liable to be mistaken for a final r or t. Why should they intrude a change?Mr. DEWEY. --They print over one hundred different alphabets, and Dr. Homes refers to their fine and not very legible school writing-books.Prof. POLLENS. --We want a handwriting that approaches as near to type as possible, that will do away with individual characteristics, will be legible, and will allow of a fair amount of rapidity and uniformity.Mr. WHITNEY. --The trouble in handwriting is that there is apt to be too much flourishing, and that while the up stroke is made so light as not to be seen, the down one is apt to be as black as Erebus.Mr. FOSTER. -- I hope that if a system is recommended it will include numerals as well as letters.Mr. NELSON moved that the matter be referred to the Cooperation Committee. Carried.
In many ways, all of these comments that the participants make are incorporated into the final letterforms as one can see in the samples later in the article. As for the Cooperation Committee, this consisted of W. I. Fletcher, librarian at Amherst College; B. P. Mann, bibliographer, U.S. Department of Agriculture; W. S. Biscoe, catalog librarian, Columbia College; C. Alex Nelson, The Astor Library, New York; Miss E. M. Coe, librarian, New York Free Public Library.
To clarify a few points, there are a few details worth highlighting, though I will try not to belabor them.
Dewey's comment that "We ought to find out what is the most legible handwriting, and the Spencerian publishers have agreed to engrave such a hand if we will tell them which is best for library use." It is unclear whether this ever occurred, and more research needs to be done in this respect. One should note that the letterforms that are eventually used for library hand do not resemble any style published later by any Spencerian publishers.
Prof. Pollens states "We want a handwriting that approaches as near to type as possible, that will do away with individual characteristics, will be legible, and will allow of a fair amount of rapidity and uniformity." This is a comment that seems to have been largely overlooked. Rather than looking for any antecedents or influences in handwriting or other script styles, one should look to typefaces as the actual inspiration for library handwriting. Ironically, to suggest that writing should look like type, means that writing should return to its origins, since type was first modeled after script.
Because I have not seen any papers by Professor Pollens, I have turned to items in the Melvil Dewey papers for some possible relation of the typewritten and printed material of the time period to library handwriting. While this is of course an unsupported connection in some respects, it provides some contemporaneous evidence upon which one can reflect and draw some comparisons.
THE HISTORY OF HANDWRITING THAT LOOKS LIKE A TYPEFACE
In brief, let us remember that typefaces are in fact modeled on a style of hand-made script, whether in stone, papyrus, or paper. Therefore, to examine the origins chronologically, one must concede that script came first, and the wooden and metal type came afterwards. The tradition of writing in a style that is similar to "print" or "type" existed for millennia before Dewey and the others discuss it in 1885. Roman and many other styles of letters serve as examples of this phenomena.
The American Library Association meeting goal to create a style of writing that could be quickly and efficiently written while also being easy to read is also not a new idea and, again, is very old. "Humanist miniscule" and "book hand" are two such styles, as is "round hand," which is mentioned in the committee meeting. While the full history of these styles is deep and deserves more attention, it is does not appear, on the surface of the conversation, that the librarians were looking back to Roman or European examples for inspiration.
Nor does it seem that the librarians looked at the history of material created by Americans; however, to see some American samples of varied hands, as well as one that looks like "print," one can turn to the work of Abiah Holbrook, working in Boston, in 1770. Here, one sees a variety of writing styles, as well as one that looks like print. More contemporaneous with Dewey is a 1901 example by Harry Curtis Pye, from the opening of his manuscript book The Current of Mood.
TYPEFACES FROM TYPEWRITERS AND PRINTED MATTER AS POSSIBLE INSPIRATION
--TYPEWRITERS in 1885
In 1885, what typewritten material might Pollens or Dewey himself be comparing handwriting to? Are not there some similarities among the letterforms in this type and the disjoined hand in 1887 and 1898?
And here is yet another typewritten letter to Dewey with his shorthand. While fast and easy for him to write, it was of course not well suited to the public for card catalogs.
Image from the Melvil Dewey papers, The Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Columbia University
Here is another, closer view of the same letter and the typeface. The type is of course much different from the first sample, and this typeface shares some similarities to library handwriting, in particular the 1901 disjoined hand.
These typewritten samples, while only two of the period in Dewey's papers, demonstrate how important to it is to consider the existing typefaces in both typewriters and print as potential inspiration for the development of library handwriting.
--TYPEFACE SAMPLE FROM 1885
What typewriters, beyond those mentioned, might also have played a role in both typing cards as well as inspiring Dewey and others on the Cooperation Committee? Along with the Hammond, mention by Dewey and endorsed personally by him, there is also the The World Type Writer as advertised in Library Notes, Vol. 1, No. 4, March 1887 in the same issue as the first full library handwriting article that includes an alphabet. One might wonder, if, as a less robust piece of equipment, it typed few cards; however, true or not, the ad charmingly claims that "It writes on the stiffest and narrowest catalog cards as readily as on letter sheets, and is thus preeminently THE LIBRARY WRITING MACHINE."
In this sample, you will see the letterhead is itself a vertical typeface. Although not immediately resembling the library hand letters, they are of course vertical, and in a script-like design; some letters hold enough resemblance as to make one see that inspiration could have been drawn from them.
Image from the Melvil Dewey papers, The Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Columbia University
The forward looping top of the letter "L," with less of a flourish, shares some likeness to library hand. While drawing any strict parallels from such a small group of samples is not even a close to building a defensible argument or show any causation, it does suggest that an exhaustive review of the type of the period might reveal some useful information.
--TYPEFACE SAMPLE FROM 1887
Here, one sees a typeface from the postcard that Dewey used in 1887 and sent to the Astor Library in February 1887. Interestingly, this is a typeface that looks like handwriting--with squiggly lines and curved serif elements; it is as if Dewey is finding the middle ground between both print and type, much as he wants writing to look like print. Also of note, the capital "W" is very much like the lowercase "w" in the library hand printed in 1887.
Image from Astor Library records collection, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library
And here, as a penultimate sample, is printed material of "Topics for Chicago Meeting" for the 1893 American Library Association conference in Chicago, in which one can see library hand and print together. (This too is from the Melvil Dewey papers, The Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Columbia University.) Of note, one can also see shorthand and blue colored pencil--Dewey used both in this period of time--and that suggests that this might be his library handwriting as well, though, as a counter-argument, it should be mentioned that items did circulate among the committees, and so he may have been only one of a few people whose manuscript work one sees.
For examples of American vertical typefaces, one can see the Hansen Vertical Script and American Type Founders Company's Vertical Writing in 1897, as noted by the The Type Heritage Project.
JOHN JACKSON AND THE EUROPEAN TREND TOWARD VERTICAL WRITING
Aside from Edison, printing presses, typewriters, and earlier "print" writing styles, there is another strand of possible influence on Dewey and the library committee, and one could speculate that it is the real reason that they were experimenting with vertical writing themselves.
John Jackson, the most prominent of the promoters of the vertical style in England writes a chapter on the "History of Vertical Writing and its Revival" on page 118 of his book Theory and Practice of Handwriting that “concurrent agitations dated from about the year 1870 to the year 1887 when the two forces combined (each being complementary to the other)” were responsible for the move to upright penmanship in England. This book provides considerable detail about the different people and countries in Europe studying the vertical style as a remedy to poor eyesight and bad posture among students. He also makes the argument in the beginning of this chapter on page 111 that "The History of Vertical Writing is the History of all Writing, as, up to about the middle of the 16th century such a thing as Sloping Writing was unknown." This idea we will have to set aside for a separate discussion.
As for the origins of library hand, one might conjecture that this debate over writing styles may have been known by these widely read librarians. With voracious reading habits, staff to help, and access to a plentitude of material, the knowledge of the growing complaints of sloping writing and the momentum to change to vertical writing seems plausible.
Yet, it must be said that Dewey's absence of mention of England or Europe at the conference, taken at face value, seems to indicate that he did not know of others working in vertical writing. England adopted the style much later than the countries Jackson mentions, but perplexingly (and assumed not to be a typo, although perhaps it could be) it is written that "In 1883 this [vertical writing] system had been introduced in thirty places in England." The New Education, Vol. II, No. 5, September 1894, page 111. This may tie into another story Jackson writes about in The School Journal, Vol. XLVIII, No. 6, February 10, in which, as he says on page 146 that, "Nearly a half century ago a young English boy in one of the eastern countries saw a letter written by his uncle, who had adopted upright penmanship, and had practiced it for many years."
On page 147 Jackson relates that the same young man who learned to write upright and became a teacher, accepted "an engagement as writing and commercial master in a large boys' school" and wanted to create "a set of vertical writing copy-books," and "the outlines were sketched, the plan settled, the books written, a specimen plate engraved, and a publisher sought." And finally,
Messrs. Sampson, Low, Marston & Co. viewed the matter favorably from the first: the agreement was drawn out and signed, the books put in hand, and the first series of headline copy-books in upright penmanship ever produced appeared in the month of November, 1886.
Of note, these are the same publishers as those of John Jackson's books. He also does take on the story as his own, it seems, in a mention of October 1886 that is reprinted in a February 1887 advertisement for his own books, seen here below.
Too, he is described as the "originator of the system of upright penmanship" in other advertisements. So was it John Jackson who learned, perfected, and even taught upright penmanship decades before anyone else? He seems to suggest this, but one senses a hint of fiction in all these claims, too. Further research will be required to explore these origins and statements.
As a source separate from John Jackson, one can look to an article entitled "Vertical Writing" from March 3, 1895 in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, in which they state
Vertical handwriting is not new, for it has been used more or less by penmen for the last twenty years. It is not, however, as some suppose, a modification of the round hand which was at one time the accepted copy for school children by reason of the scope that it allowed for the practice of form. Vertical writing as a system of penmanship was first introduced in Germany, where so much interest has been taken in recent years in the hygienic conditions of school life.
This new writing method was widely promoted with great vigor and backed by what were seen as scientific studies. Writing teachers in Europe first adopted vertical writing, and it came to be popularized by John Jackson in England in the 1880s. While it is hard to find the exact date that Jackson's vertical style came to be known by those in the United States, advertisements were printed not later than 1887. Here, one can see an advertisement of it in The Educational Times from London.
The history of vertical writing for children and schools had its own, separate arc, quite apart from Edison's or Dewey's own efforts. The vertical writing that children used came first from the Europeans, then to John Jackson in England, then to Canada with Newlands and Row as early adopters, to Edwin Orlando Vaile in Chicago, who claims to be the first in the US to introduce a series of books employing this style; Joseph V. Witherbee, of Brooklyn, who also claims to be the first to introduce vertical writing in schools with the date of January 1893; and then Harison as a publisher in 1893 in New York City. All these men and their publishers were at the forefront of the movement in the United States, where the vertical writing style is identified by Charles Paxton Zaner as a "style taught in public schools from 1894 to 1904." The style lingered much, much later, but that will be addressed another time.
The introduction of vertical penmanship also was layered upon the previous efforts of teachers to instruct students in writing. The evidence surrounding the use of "printing," or manuscript print in the classroom is somewhat elusive. The exact relationship between the use of script and print in the classroom seems to vary, as it is not clear whether it was more likely for teachers to insist on script first, and then printing; or, printing, and then script. In The New Education, vol. 2, no. 5, September 1894, on page 100, Ellen E. Kenyon describes in her article "Primary Language Work" teaching script in the first month, and then print in the third month.
EARLY MANUSCRIPT EVIDENCE OF LIBRARY HANDWRITING
It is hard to know the many influences and the decision making process regarding the creation of library handwriting in between the September 1885 meeting and the March 1887 printing in Library Notes. What changes or decisions might have been made about each letterform? Were different sets of letterforms used and discarded? There is not enough evidence to outline this. However, some material does point to an early style that pre-dates the published version.
In February 1887, a month before the first printed article on library handwriting, a postcard is mailed from Columbia College Library with what is an early version of library handwriting, as one can see on its front and back. The writing conforms to some of the final rules and shares some of the final letterforms. Of note, the "r" and "s" are forms that are introduced later in 1887 in "disjoined hand," and on this card one sees script as well as a disjoined hand. Although Dewey’s signature is printed on the card, there is no reason to assume that it is his writing. Because his writing in general lacks basic regularity and control, it seems more likely that a person working under his direction wrote it. Could he have written it? Possibly. But it doesn’t seem likely. What does seem true is that Dewey did want to share the new style and to encourage its use. As an indefatigable self-promoter, it is not surprising that he wants this style not only on a card to be left in a drawer in his own library, but also on a postcard that others will look at, notice, and perhaps imitate.
LIBRARY HAND, FIRST AMERICAN VERTICAL STYLE
As for Dewey's relationships and timing, it is clear that Dewey was in communication with one or more librarians in England, and Dewey was far ahead of other Americans, yet Jackson with his publishers Messrs. Sampson, Low, Marston & Co. did make it to press their vertical writing advertisement, at least a month before Dewey's library handwriting was in print, though Dewey's attempts to move ahead earlier are clear.
Dewey had been in pursuit of completing the task of finalizing library hand after the 1885 meeting, and, as mentioned already, he followed up more than a year later with a letter to Thomas Edison to learn more about writing. Dewey's query, answered in a typed note by Samuel Insull on November 3, 1886, suggests a letter with a sample of Edison's writing was enclosed. Does the writing style of Edison affect the decisions Dewey and his committee make about library hand? It is hard to know, but it is fair to say that Edison's handwriting and library hand have many differences in letterforms; further, the first library hand that Dewey promoted was a joined script. True the separation of the script into individual letters by Edison also is evident in the revised version of library handwriting known as disjoined library hand, yet is this due to Edison's preference and influence, or to the fact that the typewriter also separates the letters? Isn't it a typeface, or printed form, that the librarians are trying to emulate?
No later than March 1887, and with a printed alphabet in Library Notes, vol. 1., no. 4, Dewey began to promote "library handwriting" or "library hand" as it was also called, a vertical style, though he did indicate that it should have a slight backwards slant. Like Edison, he was interested in speed, efficiency, and legibility.
In both the original and reprinted version of the March 1887 article, Dewey explains his reasoning on what is necessary for "library alphabets and figures."
It remains to discuss main question, the forms of letters which will give the greatest legibility. Of some letters the copy-books give as many as 20 different forms from which people select the style that suits their taste, as ladies choose ribbons for their bonnets.The rubric that all catalogers should write a uniform standard library hand, makes it necessary at once to throw out 19 of these 20 forms. At once all see that where the highest legibility is more important than all else together, we must prohibit peremptorily everything in the nature of ornament or flourish. The simpler and fewer the lines the better, as long as the distinctness of the letter is not impaired.
Looking back for a moment to Edison's own writing, one will see that a distinct difference between it and Dewey's library hand is that Edison employs what some might have considered lettering, in that each of the letters is distinct and not joined. It varies from "script" or "cursive" and is what some today call "printing." In this, too, Edison was far ahead of his time. In a paragraph from 1887, Dewey does indicate that disjoined hand is preferred.
The expanded and revised reprinted article from 1887 includes Dewey's first model of disjoined hand.
Dewey's version of disjoined hand seems much more like a typeface to be used by a typewriter or a printer than a style to be written by hand. While catalog cards are not commonly written in this fashion, one can find examples that are similar.
In this first example, from Columbia University, where Dewey was himself the Chief Librarian beginning in 1883 (and one can assume that others followed his rules), it is fair to assume that the writer of this card attempts to write in Dewey's recommended disjoined hand, though there are some puzzling variations in some letters.
Less convincingly an example of Dewey's disjoined hand is this example.
It is hard to know if the person doing the work on this example from Houghton was following the recommendations or not, because such lettering is ubiquitous. Yet is it possible that this is in fact a better copy of Dewey's example, excepting its slight right slope? Any empirical attempt to prove that this particular card can be traced back to Dewey's guiding principles is eroded by additional cards from the same collection. What does it tell us then, that neither of these other cards is in proper library hand? Are one or more from a time before the writing was regularized, or were these librarians untrained, or simply exhibiting the writing style of the time?
Regarding Dewey, and his own journey, one can look to the 1898 edition of Simplified library school rules; card catalog, accession, book numbers, shelf list, capitals, punctuation, abbreviations, library handwriting, and see there are other new letterforms and examples for librarians of both a joined hand and a disjoined hand, or, as he spelled it with simplified spelling, "joind hand" and "disjoind hand." (This simplified version and its examples was also reprinted in 1904 and 1912; in 1916, the same "simplified rules disjoind hand" is noted only as "disjoined hand" and it alone is printed, while the joined hand has a separate set of letterforms.) Dewey further divides writing into the regular and "alternativ" forms. Here, we see joind hand sentences with different letterforms.
Dewey also provides a new set of letterforms for disjoind hand.
In the 1898 edition, Dewey also provides an example of what a card written in library hand should look like. This, like the other material from the Simplified library school rules book was also reprinted in 1904 and 1912.
This card, from the Providence Athenaeum in Providence, Rhode Island, has writing that appears to span the years before and after the introduction of library hand. One sees what looks like an accession date of April 9, 1888, a Spencerian script with varying width of stroke both up and down as well as the "ornament" and "flourish" Dewey mentioned as impediments to the public's ease of reading, erasure, and numerals added in the place of the erasure--interestingly, from the Dewey Decimal Classification System--that are in a library hand style.
And in this, another sample from Providence Athenaeum, one sees a card that appears to be written all at the same time. Without an accession date, it has both a library hand-like vertical style as well as the Dewey Decimal Classification System numbers. While there are many discrepancies in the letterforms between this sample and those prescribed by library hand, the capital, or majiscule letter "L" and the miniscules "d," "h," "l," and "s" stand out as good imitations of the sample provided to librarians. Interestingly, roughly half the letters are not joined, while the others are not. This kind of mixed style, while common in the later part of the twentieth century and in the twenty-first, was unusual at the time this was likely written. Here, one seems to see a mix of printing and script as a result of the two sets of letterforms. In keeping with the recommendations made to librarians, here one sees the use of a broader pen with an even stroke.
Of special note is the use of the majiscule form of the letter, but in miniscule, the large letter used in a small form. What does this mean? Likely, a third style of script mixed with the other two? Perhaps. The form of the letter "e" seems to begin many years before even Spencer; it can be found in Spencerian copy-books; one can find it in Riderian penmanship, though not well known, and probably many others; Bloser used it in a letter from 1885 after the miniscules "b," "v," "w," and he even uses it as a double "ee," as one can see; and strangely, it persists well past Palmer in the writing of some people. It is a bit of a wild card, but it is not part of the set of letterforms designated as library hand, though Dewey himself employed it in his personal writing.
Dewey was not alone in his efforts to create a better library system, for there was also Charles Ammi Cutter. His Cutter Expansive Classification system was used at a number of libraries, among them the Boston Athenaeum library and Forbes Library in Northampton, Massachusetts where he served as librarian. His system is also the basis for that of the Library of Congress.
Cutter's classification system was also employed in nearby Redwood Library and Athenaeum in Newport, Rhode Island. Interestingly, for this example seen below, one could say that the handwriting of the librarian, Sarah Bliss, who was born in 1839, likely learned Spencerian or another writing style first, and combined it an library hand with it. Was she unable to properly follow the guidelines of Dewey, if in fact she saw the letterforms? Was she writing in a vertical style of the 1890's, and not in library hand? One could say in general that the majiscules are more Spencerian and the miniscules are mostly library hand. (A letter by letter analysis may follow in a later version of this article.) As is the case with some other librarians, she seems to have, for the most part, blended the Spencerian style of her childhood and adulthood with library hand into what might be called a Spencerian-Dewey library hand. Interestingly, in what one might assume are cards written later, as seen on the Redwood Library's blog post, she uses a style more in keeping with Dewey's library handwriting.
These are but only a few of the variations of library cards of these years, for in a sample of a handful of cards the variations seem to only multiply.
To anyone who might reference the use of library hand, you could consider asking them, "To what year and to what style, joined or disjoined hand, do you refer?" Have you looked at a number of images of library cards, and do you think they are in library hand, or not? What letters are the same as library hand, and which differ? Which mix one of more style of writing together, and how do we describe these, as as being in what style?
Dewey is both part of the solution in creating a set of letterforms, but he is also part of the problem. As noted earlier, his first set of letterforms appears in 1887, only to have revisions in the same year. The simplified form and its variations is printed in 1898, 1904, and 1912 and 1916. And there are other printings in 1901, 1903, and 1916, some the same, some different.
Separate from Dewey's work with library hand and the dedication of librarians to its form, the larger, national trend of using vertical penmanship reversed itself after roughly 1904, though some states like Utah were using it as late as 1914. In general, though most school systems and people abandoned the vertical style and returned to a forward slanted script--either by employing the older Spencerian script or a newer Spencerian "practical penmanship," one of the many of the assorted "practical styles," the Palmer method, or another.
THIS SECTION OF THE ARTICLE IS STILL UNDER HEAVY REVISION.
PLEASE SEND ANY PERTINENT INFORMATION YOU HAVE TO AID THIS RESEARCH.
A HISTORY OF LIBRARY CATALOG CARDS
CASE STUDY #1
One way to understand how the principles of library handwriting were understood and applied over time is to look at a sample of cards from a variety of years, beyond the sample above. Here is a small set of images of New York Public Library catalog cards. These were written by a number of different people.
These help illustrate the use of library hand (as well as handwriting used on library cards) across a range of years.
This is the most recent handwritten card I have seen:
A HISTORY OF A SINGLE BOOK OR SET, IN LIBRARY CATALOG CARDS
CASE STUDY #1
Here is a set of cards that represent the changes from roughly 1940? -1951?
QUESTIONS UNANSWERED
To step aside from the logic of this article for a moment, let us introduce a few side arguments and curiosities that are more difficult.
Is there any reason to believe that Dewey or others on his committee might have been influenced by lettering, say, for example by the 1881 Payson, Dunton, and Scribner's marking letters, brush letter, or ladies' marking letters or by some other such hand?
Is there an influence inside the world of the librarians that is different than the script presented in Library Notes? How many versions of alphabets and samples might there be? Is "A Good Library Hand" from page 78 of the 1890 Library Journal with its very broad rule, "Seek to give every letter so distinct a shape that you could recognize it easily if it stood alone" a more accurate idea of the mission that librarians had while writing cards? Was this their goal, or were they trying to imitate the printed letterforms?
Is this chronology in fact correct, and are all these terms enough to categorize writing? How do we describe a vertical writing that comes before library hand, is somewhat Spencerian, and yet not? How does one identify this script, page one of a letter, penned at the Boston Athenaeum by an assistant to C. A. Cutter? We can say of it that it highlights the use of color by Cutter and Dewey (one will remember his blue pencil) to create clarity in letters. But is this an actual style of writing? And what of the last page, page six, in which Cutter seems to indicate that he has hired and trained girls to help in the library, and that this letter may itself be a sample of writing by such a girl? Was she trained in Spencerian, an early vertical hand that is not known, or some version that Cutter had introduced, an earlier form of library hand that is not documented? Is it some round handed, vertical version of Payson, Dunton, and Scribner's script, or some kind of round hand mentioned below as a style for children or those learning letterforms? At the very least, it is best to say that these are questions to pursue.
DISENTANGLING LIBRARY HAND AND VERTICAL HANDWRITING
The general public seems not to understand or to perceive library hand as a separate style with unique origins, and this confusion seems to begin at a time near its introduction. As indicated by the March 3, 1895 article "Vertical Writing," it was assumed by some to be a modification of round hand. The same paper, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, also publishes a week later on March 10, 1895 "Vertical Writing, Has It Come to Stay or Is It a Fad" in which they conflate library hand and the vertical style.
The teacher in the department of commerce of Pratt Institute prefers the slant letters, but the vertical system is taught in the department of libraries, as that writing is universally accepted as the best style for cars, labels, indexing, etc. It is done with such care that hose engaged in it appear to be drawing rather than writing.
This confusion is made much worse, of course, by the teaching of library hand and vertical hand in the same span of time to students and librarians, so disentangling these styles is a challenge that remains.
THE DECLINE AND CHANGES
It is likely that neither Edison, Jackson, nor Dewey would have probably approved of the evolution of their vertical script ideals in the years after their innovations. For many writers, vertical script evolves into an awkward and difficult to read backhand style. One of the greatest penmen ever to explore with devilish humor the limits of legibility of backhand was Francis B. Courtney.
Below is a library card written in approximately 1909. This particular script is less legible since it is somewhat ornate; it is also not in Dewey's prescribed style. Is this a librarian who did not follow the rules? A person who learned vertical penmanship in the era from 1894 -1904, and whose writing had simply deteriorated like that of others? While not overly poor, it is not what any of these earlier promoters of vertical writing had identified as ideal.
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Through these examples, the evolution of writing appears somewhat regressive or circuitous. One must contemplate how a forward slanted script's angle could be nullified by the vertical and then reversed into a backhand. And how is it that such efforts for efficiency and legibility and reform could have brought about these unintended results? Is the librarian writing this script the problem, or is library hand itself poorly designed and therefore prone to become harder to write as one gets older?
Here, one can see a comparison of library handwriting in the years 1887 - 1916. (Additional samples including 1901 and 1903 will be included shortly.)
DEWEY'S LEGACY OF LIBRARY HANDWRITING
Dewey's reputation and legacy were in flux throughout the latter part of his career, and it expressed itself in the way library handwriting was discussed and promoted by later librarians.
Although more details are needed to bring the details to full light, it is important to mention that John Cotton Dana's book A Library Primer, was first published in 1899; a second edition appeared in 1909; and, last, there was a third note from the author and an "edition of 1920." Of note, many people are thank and mentioned, yet Mevil Dewey is not among them. The book uses some of the original library handwriting letterforms from the Library Bureau and material but with some slight variations that will need further time to trace. But for now, here is a link to the John Cotton Dana's A Library Primer, 1920.
By contrast, in 1922, Dorcas Fellows, instructor in advanced cataloging at the New York State Library School publishes his Cataloging Rules, second edition revised and enlarged, with a dedication to Dr. Melvil Dewey, “founder of the first library school and the leader to whom all library workers are under infinite obligation.” And Dorcas includes a half page section that discusses handwritten cards that indicates that “All library cards should be written as neatly and legibly as possible, the disjoined hand being preferable, since that most resembles print.” One can see a manuscript card on page 46 as well as call numbers added in manuscript throughout the book. Also interesting is that this particular digital copy has marginalia, notes, corrections, and its own pencil version of library hand.
HANDWRITING AND PENMANSHIP SEPARATE FROM LIBRARY HAND
Separate from the library handwriting, there was an effort to find a rapid form of writing that was easy to read and that served both businesses and schools. This gave rise to Palmer and even what was branded as Spencerian "practical writing," which emerged from the end of the 1800s and into the early 1900s. In these decades, many different penman and their publishers printed copybooks and manuals with new writing styles.
MANUSCRIPT WRITING: DISJOINED HAND REINVENTED FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN
There is also a movement that emerges, first in England and then the United States, to replace almost entirely the use of script in favor of a print style, especially in the younger grades of schools. (Perhaps Edison and Dewey would both be happy to know this came to pass?) This historical shift is addressed by Frank N. Freeman in "An Evaluation of Manuscript Writing" which appears in The Educator in 1936.
This page references:
- Historical Society of Pennsylvania, library catalog card, circa 1909
- Providence Athenaeum, Music theory
- Providence Athenaeum, Music history, April 9, 1888
- Library hand, 1887
- Chester W Merrill to Melvil Dewey_August 18, 1885, close up
- Platt Rogers Spencer, 1856: "Many writers write like me"
- Example of Thomas Edison's writing while working as a Morse telegrapher in 1868
- Joind hand, sentences; alternativ forms
- Library hand catalog card sample, 1898
- Houghton Library, Harvard University. Catalog card, Boston Theatre, disjoined hand
- C R Van Benthuysen to Melvil Dewey, August 25, 1885
- Melvil Dewey postcard February 7 1887_back, close-up
- Library handwriting, disjoined hand, 1887
- Dewey note, dictated and typed, 1885
- Jackson New Style Vertical Copy Books_Advertising, Feb 1, 1887
- Library handwriting, disjoind hand, 1898
- Comparison of library handwriting 1887 - 1916, Melvil Dewey and the NY State Library School
- Columbia University, Catalog card Lee
- Redwood Library and Athenaeum, Newport, Rhode Island.
- C R Van Benthuysen to Melvil Dewey_August 25 1885_close up
