In this engaging history, the author demonstrates handwriting in America from colonial times to the present. Exploring such subjects as penmanship, pedagogy, handwriting analysis, autograph collecting, and calligraphy revivals, Thornton investigates the shifting functions and meanings of handwriting. 57 illustrations.

This book is designed to teach you how to read and understand the handwriting found in documents commonly used in genealogical research. It explains techniques for reading early American documents, provides samples of alphabets and letter forms, and defines terms and abbreviations commonly used in early American documents such as wills, deeds, and church records.

The future of handwriting is anything but certain. Its history, however, shows how much it has affected culture and civilization for millennia. In the digital age of instant communication, handwriting is less necessary than ever before, and indeed fewer and fewer schoolchildren are being taught how to write in cursive. Signatures--far from John Hancock’s elegant model--have become scrawls. In her recent and widely discussed and debated essays, Anne Trubek argues that the decline and even elimination of handwriting from daily life does not signal a decline in civilization, but rather the next stage in the evolution of communication. Now, in The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting, Trubek uncovers the long and significant impact handwriting has had on culture and humanity--from the first recorded handwriting on the clay tablets of the Sumerians some four thousand years ago and the invention of the alphabet as we know it, to the rising value of handwritten manuscripts today. Each innovation over the millennia has threatened existing standards and entrenched interests: Indeed, in ancient Athens, Socrates and his followers decried the very use of handwriting, claiming memory would be destroyed; while Gutenberg’s printing press ultimately overturned the livelihood of the monks who created books in the pre-printing era. And yet new methods of writing and communication have always appeared. Establishing a novel link between our deep past and emerging future, Anne Trubek offers a colorful lens through which to view our shared social experience.

History Marked by Hand An extraordinary collection of handwritten documents Handwriting works magic: it transports us back to defining moments in history, creativity, and everyday life, and intimately connects us with the people who marked the page. For nearly half a century, Brazilian author and publisher Pedro Corrêa do Lago has been assembling one of the most comprehensive autograph collections of our age, acquiring thousands of handwritten letters, manuscripts, and musical compositions as well as inscribed photographs and drawings. From an 1153 document signed by four medieval popes to a 2006 thumbprint signature by physicist Stephen Hawking, the items illustrated here span nearly nine hundred years, and along the way bring us up close and personal with the writers, artists, composers, political figures, performers, explorers, scientists, philosophers, rebels, and more whose actions and creations have made an indelible mark on humankind. Rather than focusing on a single era or subject, Corrêa do Lago made the ambitious decision to divide his collection into nine areas of human endeavor_art, history, literature, science, music, the performing arts, philosophy, and exploration. On display for the very first time at the Morgan Library, some 140 extraordinary selections gathered in this book include letters by Lucrezia Borgia, Vincent van Gogh, and Emily Dickinson, annotated sketches by Michelangelo, Jean Cocteau, and Charlie Chaplin, and manuscripts by Giacomo Puccini, Jorge Luis Borges, and Marcel Proust. Handwriting is one of the most visceral means by which we leave tracks of our existence. At a time when information and communication have become utterly immaterial, this collection is a seed bank of humanity_s gifts, exploring its most eclectic nuances while transmitting its owner_s unbridled pleasure of being a member, a guardian, and an enthusiastic promoter of our collective story.

Introduce your child to reading and writing with our Verbal Skills Workbooks. Through fun activities such as tracing and color-by-letter, our workbooks gradually introduce new concepts. The eye-catching illustrations and captivating content reinforce lessons and help children stay motivated, encouraging them to be lifelong readers and writers. This book will help your child connect cursive letters and write short words. Your child will learn advanced cursive writing in a step-by-step manner by reviewing each cursive letter, then practicing with short words, and gradually progressing to longer, more difficult words. Your child will become proficient in cursive writing naturally by practicing linking letters