Celebrate National Handwriting Day

January 23, 2011

The way we make our letters – handwritten, stamped, typed, printed, graffiti – on any kind of surface, from rice paper to a brick wall, has created pattern designs of continuing interest to consumers. One particular way of making our letters – written with pen and ink on paper – is being celebrated today on National Handwriting Day. And the ultimate in handwriting was the Spencerian script practiced in America during the 19th Century. The writing system established by Platt Rogers Spencer became the gold standard of penmanship in an era when a fine, elegant hand was a true sign of social standing, education, refinement, moral rectitude – and professionalism in business.

Many of Spencer’s disciples established their own schools and courses in “the calligraphic art,” among them Oliver Goldsmith of New York. Mr. Goldsmith’s specialty was a system of mercantile penmanship,” directed particularly toward young men who wished to get on in the business world where an essential requirement was good penmanship. In 1845 he published “Goldsmith’s Gems of Penmanship .. in Ten Lessons of One Hour Each, with Ample Instructions.” And we have a copy in the Springs Creative Archives. Some of the particularly beautiful pages are the exercises that students were meant to use for practicing their flawless flourishes – which today are not only appreciated as works of art in themselves, but have contributed many a motif and grace note for textile print designs in the century and more since.

Pictured above are several pages from Goldsmith’s books as well as examples of script designs as applied to fabric swatches found in the Springs Creative Archives.

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