Kathy's Website
I chose this example to illustrate the link to an article about an envelope addresser who was timed at 20 seconds per envelope.
If you do the math on the claim of doing 10,000 envelopes in 40 days at 18 hours per day -- that would allow 4 minutes per envelope - and she certainly went faster than that.
It comes to 250 envelopes per day - and I know I have done that many. I would not want to do it 40 days in a row. But, I can see how it is possible.
The envelopes were for JFK's inauguration.
Fascinating for those of you who address envelopes.
Spencerian envelopes
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So far I have 5 people who have responded to the survey - and the answers are very interesting. There are some strong similarities as well as some differences. I'll wait a bit to see if any more come in and then post all of them.
In case you missed it - the survey is here:
Survey
Interesting article. I love that her reputation spread "on the faces of Christmas card envelopes." And the reference to "the age of scribbles and scrawls" that early! If she did a 1945 inauguration as stated, her reputation already established, then those complaints about poor penmanship were early ones. I can only imagine what would be said by the people of that era about the handwriting of our time.
ReplyDeleteI was also caught by this line: "Her work has not been without verbal praise. Franklin Roosevelt and Henry Ford each called the inaugural committee to find out what steady-handed man was turning out such distinctive invitations." The implication of praise here rests mainly in their thinking her work was that of a man, though obviously "steady-handed" and "distinctive" would be complimentary as well.
Thanks so much for pointing this up!
I only know a few random tidbits about scribes and gender. Back in the day of handwritten books, the scribe guilds were one of the few who had women members. We all picture monks writing in the scriptorium - but apparently there were also nuns in convents who *wrote* books.
ReplyDeleteIn the days of Bob Cratchit - I don't know how many women were employed.
In the days of American penman who travelled around as itinerant scribes who would write calling cards by hand - I suspect it was mostly men. I have a couple calling cards which I will post in a new post.
I'll see if I can find anyone who can tell us more about the students in the many schools that were training people to sit and write business related writing - before the typewriter.