The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1911-04-14
GOOD PENMANSH|P
IS NOW A LOST ART
Century Ago Legible Long
hand Was an Ordinary
Accomplishment.

New York, April 1.-THE exhibit or
penmanship now at the educational
museum of teachers college, Columbia
university, is of unusual interest. The
thousand or more pieces taken from
the library of George A. Plimpton H.
lustrate the historical development of
penmanship. A glance around the
big exhibition room amazes the ordin-
airy visitor Handwriting takes on a
new importance. That the art is of
long lineage is oxemplified where the
early stages of writing are illustrated
by Babylonian cylinders and disks,
scarabs and seals dating from about
$500 -. C., to 500 Is. C., by pieces OF
early Egyptian papyrus and by bono
styluses for use on wax tablets.
The first English book on writing
was printed on wooden blocks in 1870
by John dc Beau Chesne and John
Balloon, OF London. The first book
on penmanship printed in Venice, It.
ally. Is dated 1914. The manuscript en-
titled "Caligraphia autore Girlado Fer
nandez de Prado, Lisbao, 1900" and
Antonion Schiratti's original unpub-
lished manuscript with its set OF elab.
Oratcly drawn figured initials are
among the manuscripts illustrative of
early work. A beautifully written Lat
In grammar in the original Italian
binding, of about 1880: "A manuscript
COPY of the Koran of the seventeenth
century. written in Persian and or
nately bound i'm lavender and gold, a
French manuscript of about 1900; cx-
amples of monastic and scholastic
writing on parchment and vellum of
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
on some of which the accurate ruling
off and careful calculation for the let
tiers can still be distinguished, are
shown.
In this division of old works is
shown an interesting American book.
the ninth edition of George Fishers
The American lstructor for the
Young Mans Best Companion" which
was printed on Benjamin Franklins
press In Philadelphia in 174S. The
first horn book sold in this country
Mr.. Plympton recently bought in Bos-
ton.
The examples of the so-called legal
hand OF the seventeenth century en-
tirely used by law clerks and so COM
plicated as to contain now fewer than
six set forms for the letter 3. Is lille
gible to the modern eye. In this di-
vision Mr.. Plimpton has placed the
copy and copy book used by his moth
or. on the title page of which is the
Inscription deliberately and painstak-
ingly lettered. priscilla G. Lewis,
1895"
In separate cases the chronological
development of the art in various
countries Is shown. The English ex.
amples go back as far as 1922. when
William Comley published his "A New
Copy Book of All the Most Usual En-.
glish Hands," and includes the work
of all the best known renmen of En-.
gland during the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. Some OF the IT,
book printed in London in 1856. which
IL intended to set forth for the ben
eft of poore schollare where the mas
ter hath not time to set copies" sup
plemented with quaint pictures of the
scholars" busily at work.
The American collection contains
examples of practically all the writing
and copy books published in the Unit
cd States. Among the early books
may be mentioned manuscript copy
by Benjamin Webb 1S00. copy
book OF William Peabody, son of the
founder OF the Boston banking house
of Kidder. Peabody 4 Co, dated 1911.
Bingham's Round Text Copy" uSO3).
Towards Large and Small Copies
uS03). Perkin' and Fairman's Cop
les" (1SO3). Allison Grifford's "A New
Joseph Champions "Penmanship
Plan OF Writing Copies" (Boston 1870