Shown in the background are the hand-written minutes from an Ohio University Board of Trustees meeting from 1804.
As computers and technology rolled onto the scene, cursive and penmanship became seemingly obsolete. Much like computers advanced past being able to read floppy disks and USB flash drives...
We are now left with a generation of tech-savvy individuals who cannot read or write in cursive
YES!
As of 2012, only 37% of adults wrote in cursive (New York Times 2013).
We are losing parts of history due to our inability to carefully read and analyze primary sources.
Did you recognize this as the U.S. Constitution?
Yes, the script is small and faint and we luckily have accurate transcriptions of the document; still, the inability to read the original handwritten documents of a time period creates a massive disconnect from our history.
Black History at Ohio University
Here is a correspondence between Blackburn and Michel Perdreau (who also once worked at the Mahn Center!) in which Blackburn reminisces about a party recounted in a clipping from The Green and White, the predecessor student newspaper to The Post.
This letter was written less than 45 years ago and is still tricky to read for those untrained in cursive.
Pictured above is a pressed flower from the Herabarium and Plant Analysis Notebook
Below is a continuation of the letter written during the Civil War from Edwin Brown to Almyra Brown.
Learn to read and write in cursive!!!
While it may feel scary to watch history slip between our fingers as we lose the ability to read cursive, we have the power to reclaim that history.
Hi everyone! My name is Judinya Thwaites-Brevik (but you can call me Nya). I am a sociology major in the Honors Tutorial College. I am also minoring in psychology and political science with a certificate in Law, Justice and Culture. Currently, I am the OhioLINK Luminaries intern for libraries at Ohio University.
In my time working in the Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections, I found it interesting how I simply could not read many of the old documents because they are written in cursive. I realized that in generationally phasing-out learning how to read and write in cursive, we lose our ability to connect with written history. We can typically trust the transcriptions of major historical documents such as the Declaration of Independence, but who is there to translate the journal of a Black teen from Ohio in the 1800s? That history has value and it's a shame to watch it become inaccessible to the average person. I hope you enjoyed this virtual exhibit and take the time to learn more about cursive and ways we can connect with our history.
Refrences
Bergland, Christopher. “4 Reasons Writing Things Down on Paper Still Reigns Supreme.” Psychology Today, 19 March 2021, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-athletes-way/202103/4-reasons-writing-things-down-paper-still-reigns-supreme. Accessed 15 February 2022.
Consistent Cursive: Learn to write Cursive, https://consistentcursive.com/. Accessed 15 February 2022.
Civil War Correspondence, Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections, Ohio University Libraries.
Cohen, Jennie. “A Brief History of Penmanship on National Handwriting Day.” History.com, 22 August 2018, https://www.history.com/news/a-brief-history-of-penmanship-on-national-handwriting-day. Accessed 12 February 2022.
E.W. Scripps Papers, Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections, Ohio University Libraries.
Gayo, Jessica. “Is Cursive Writing Gone Forever? | Everything to Know.” INQUIRER.net USA, 17 August 2021, https://usa.inquirer.net/80442/is-cursive-writing-gone-forever. Accessed 11 February 2022.
“Handwriting Matters; Cursive Doesn't - NYTimes.com.” The New York Times, 30 April 2013, https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/04/30/should-schools-require-children-to-learn-cursive/handwriting-matters-cursive-doesnt. Accessed 15 February 2022.
Ohio University Archives-General: Board of Trustees minutes, Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections, Ohio University Libraries.
Ohio University Archives-General: Margaret Boyd Diary, Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections, Ohio University Libraries.
Special Collections-General: Herbarium and plant analysis notebook, Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections, Ohio University Libraries.
“The Twisted History of Cursive Writing.” Word Genius, 5 September 2019, https://www.wordgenius.com/the-twisty-history-of-cursive-writing/Xr0yWBPAJQAG8w-1. Accessed 10 February 2022.