Penman Art Journal - Signatures, Happy Faces, Romance

On Feb 19th I fell down a rabbit hole on the internet. Janna started it when she left a comment about the woman who had addressed invitations to JFKs inauguration.

I did a search for itinerant penman calling cards - which led me to The Encyclopedia of Ephemera.

And that lead me to the Penman's Art Journal. I'll post a link for anyone who wants to look at the kind of magazines that were available to the people who were making a living at penmanship - back in the day. 1898. I read the first page and it says that this is their 26th year publishing the monthly journal. Tempting to find out if all of the issues are online. I'll just label this *follow-up* and save it for later.

The top clip is just a random page with signatures. The bottom clip caught my eye because it is more whimsical than the rest of the publication.  There are articles on teaching children. You can flip forward and back - to see all the pages.

Penman's Art Journal Pg 114

If you need additional surfing - here is a link to a chunk of The Encyclopedia of Ephemera. It will open on the page that talks about itinerant penman. I have a couple calling cards from that era and next time they poke their little selves out of a pile, I will scan and post them.

Encyclopedia of Ephemera

From the Penman's Art Journal

Something made me surf just a bit longer and I found one more item that is adorable.

On the same page (88) there is an article about Platt Rogers Spencer who originated the Spencerian style of writing. It includes a long poem that he wrote about his struggles with alcohol. There is also a picture of him with his 5 sons and  mentions that he had 3 daughters as well.

At first I was kicking myself for surfing - but the poem on Platt's struggle with addiction made me feel so much better. My addiction is so harmless. And I am happy to report that my working space is getting so tidy I might have to post a photo of it.