Just curious as to wether or not Tad was left handed. Or, if there is even a reference to this out there? My instincts tell me he was left handed!

In Germany, until the 1980s, left-handed children were forced by the teachers to use the right hand instead. (My parents, thanks God, protested, so I was left left-handed.) Was it the same in the US, especially in the 19the century?

If not, and Tad was indeed left-handed and allowed to be in the US, his Frankfurt school would have opposed this. Whether Mary would have agreed to such or not, I tend to think she would have mentioned the issue in a letter.

Well then, let me be more specific. Was he left brained or right brained? I believe right brained.

I've never seen any reference to Tad being right- or left-handed. I was educated in the U.S. beginning in the late-1940s, and I do recall teachers trying to get left-handers to switch to their right hand, but I don't believe it was mandatory. I do remember some classrooms having those half-desks, however, that were designed for right-handers. They made it very difficult to write with one's left hand. I suspect that all desks in the 19th century were full size, however.

I dont have access to it right now, but would not Julia Tafts diary/book make mention of it if Tad was left handed. She observed the Lincoln children closely and spend a lot of time with them.

@Eva: while the custom of "re training" left handed children in German schools existed, it was not practiced everywhere. I was never asked to use my right hand for writing and neither were any of my cousins or even my mother.

(01-26-2016 12:24 AM)Angela Wrote:  I dont have access to it right now, but would not Julia Tafts diary/book make mention of it if Tad was left handed. She observed the Lincoln children closely and spend a lot of time with them.

I think this is a good observation, Angela. As far as I know there is no mention of Tad being left-handed in that book.

Can one tell if a person is left-handed from their handwriting? I can think of at least two known examples of Tad's handwriting from the White House years, but are these really his writing? Or did someone else write them for him? I wonder because I have read in Ruth Painter Randall's Lincoln's Sons that Tad did not learn to write until after the assassination. So I am not sure specifically if Tad could/could not write during the 1861-1865 period.

Randall writes, "Mrs. Lincoln made several statements indicating he (Tad) did not know how to write when he was in the White House."

In Lincoln's Sons Randall gives one authentic example of Tad's signature from a document dated July 31, 1867. I scanned it - it is very small. Maybe someone can make it larger without making it blurry (I tried).

(01-26-2016 12:24 AM)Angela Wrote:  I dont have access to it right now, but would not Julia Tafts diary/book make mention of it if Tad was left handed. She observed the Lincoln children closely and spend a lot of time with them.

@Eva: while the custom of "re training" left handed children in German schools existed, it was not practiced everywhere. I was never asked to use my right hand for writing and neither were any of my cousins or even my mother.

That's interesting. Did you grow up in a Catholic area?

Here are the two samples I can think of regarding Tad's handwriting during the White House years. The first is an inscription Tad wrote to Robert on the back of a photo of Tad on a pony. The second is a telegram from Tad to Gus Gumpert. The web page here says that Tom Pendel wrote the first one. And if Ruth Painter Randall is correct on what Mary Lincoln said, then Tad didn't write the second one either.

(01-26-2016 06:22 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  

(01-26-2016 12:24 AM)Angela Wrote:  I dont have access to it right now, but would not Julia Tafts diary/book make mention of it if Tad was left handed. She observed the Lincoln children closely and spend a lot of time with them.

@Eva: while the custom of "re training" left handed children in German schools existed, it was not practiced everywhere. I was never asked to use my right hand for writing and neither were any of my cousins or even my mother.

That's interesting. Did you grow up in a Catholic area?

It has always been fairly balanced. However, three of my cousins of which two are left handed, as well as my mother grew up in rather catholic Mainz.

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(01-26-2016 05:35 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Can one tell if a person is left-handed from their handwriting?

I think it would be difficult today since, depending on how I hold my arm while writing, the letters lean either left or right.
However, I cannot imagine that this was possible in a time when ink would have been smudged heavily when one tried to drag his arm after the written words.
So what I am trying to say is that his letters would either lean left or be straight if he was left handed.

(01-26-2016 10:00 AM)Angela Wrote:  

(01-26-2016 06:22 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  

(01-26-2016 12:24 AM)Angela Wrote:  I dont have access to it right now, but would not Julia Tafts diary/book make mention of it if Tad was left handed. She observed the Lincoln children closely and spend a lot of time with them.

@Eva: while the custom of "re training" left handed children in German schools existed, it was not practiced everywhere. I was never asked to use my right hand for writing and neither were any of my cousins or even my mother.

That's interesting. Did you grow up in a Catholic area?

It has always been fairly balanced. However, three of my cousins of which two are left handed, as well as my mother grew up in rather catholic Mainz.

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(01-26-2016 05:35 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Can one tell if a person is left-handed from their handwriting?

I think it would be difficult today since, depending on how I hold my arm while writing, the letters lean either left or right.
However, I cannot imagine that this was possible in a time when ink would have been smudged heavily when one tried to drag his arm after the written words.
So what I am trying to say is that his letters would either lean left or be straight if he was left handed.

Angela - I had two childhood friends who were left-handed and you described their formation of words exactly right, either slanted to the left (we called it backhand) or straight up.

When I was ten, I smashed my right shoulder and spent months in a body cast, traction, splints, etc. I had to learn to write with my left hand, and I went from slanting right as a right-hander to leaning left as a left-hander.

(01-26-2016 10:00 AM)Angela Wrote:  

(01-26-2016 06:22 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  

(01-26-2016 12:24 AM)Angela Wrote:  I dont have access to it right now, but would not Julia Tafts diary/book make mention of it if Tad was left handed. She observed the Lincoln children closely and spend a lot of time with them.

@Eva: while the custom of "re training" left handed children in German schools existed, it was not practiced everywhere. I was never asked to use my right hand for writing and neither were any of my cousins or even my mother.

That's interesting. Did you grow up in a Catholic area?

It has always been fairly balanced. However, three of my cousins of which two are left handed, as well as my mother grew up in rather catholic Mainz.

I just can say where I grew up it was (still) common to force students to use the right hand for writing, also for the neat-and-tidiness.*

(01-26-2016 05:35 AM)RJNorton Wrote:  Can one tell if a person is left-handed from their handwriting?

* When I use an ink pen (which I love to do) it is almost impossible to write an entire page without smearing and smudging somewhere.
I think a graphologist can tell and determine. Also left-handedness often occurs more than once in a family (although I think it hasn't yet been proven it's hereditary). In my father's family it did e.g.

(01-26-2016 12:19 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Angela - I had two childhood friends who were left-handed and you described their formation of words exactly right, either slanted to the left (we called it backhand) or straight up.

When I was ten, I smashed my right shoulder and spent months in a body cast, traction, splints, etc. I had to learn to write with my left hand, and I went from slanting right as a right-hander to leaning left as a left-hander.

Laurie - it has gotten easier since we use pens. The reason is that I, as a left hander, trying to write as a right hander, will lean my whole arm over the page I am writing on and write from "above", this will make the words lean right. As a left handed person I do this whenever I do not have enough room to accommodate my left hand but am forced to work around the limited space on the left side of a place - e.g. the desks that you mentioned...this makes perfect sense.

However, as soon as ink is in the play, this will not work as me dragging my arm behind my writing, it will smudge it. This would have been the effect back in the day and that is why the writing of Tad or your childhood friends would have looked like this.

I agree with Eva - a graphologist would probably be able to tell the difference.
And just to say, while I heard of the practice of forcing children to re-learn how to write, it shocks me to hear that it was done up until so recently. I never had to bother with it, but was told about it.
Since Tad was enrolled in a private school, I believe they would have allowed him to be left handed if he was naturally so. It would be interesting to find some of his work from that time in Frankfurt!
Did Mary not mention in her letters that be brought home things from school?

(01-26-2016 02:56 PM)Angela Wrote:  Did Mary not mention in her letters that be brought home things from school?

They accidently got left behind on the refrigerator when she moved.

If we can not determine his handedness from handwriting analysis, can we determine which side of his brain was dominate. His mannerism, curiosity, character, behavior, etc.?

Handedness certainly doesn't determine character.