The Handwriting Style of Abraham Lincoln

[RJNorton]

(02-26-2016 07:30 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Some more on Lincoln and spelling

Lincoln also enjoyed helping others with spelling if the opportunity arose. In an 1865 interview with William Herndon, Mrs. Allen Gentry said:

"I knew Mr L well — he and I went to school together — I was 15 ys old — Lincoln about the same age — we went to school to Crawford in 1822 or 3 I think — I used Websters Spelling book — Lincoln the same — One day Crawford put a word to us to Spell: the word to Spell was defied. Crawford said if we did not spell it he would keep us in school all day & night — we all missed the word — Couldn't Spell it. We spelled the word Every way but the right way — . I saw Lincoln at the window: he had his finger On his Eye and a smile on his face. I instantly took the hint that I must change the letter y into an I. Hence I Spelled the word — the class let out. I felt grateful to Lincoln for this Simple thing. Abe was a good — an Excellent boy."

[maharba]

That is fascinating. And thanks LVerge for the referral. So the handwriting analysis of Abraham Lincoln they did at that site oddly turns out to be for an item that Abraham Lincoln never wrote. I wonder if they have discovered yet at the site that their efforts were wasted, there. Thanks RJN for the link to the Lincoln font. It surely may be interesting to see how that works out on a printer.

[RJNorton]

(02-27-2016 09:20 PM)maharba Wrote:  Thanks RJN for the link to the Lincoln font. It surely may be interesting to see how that works out on a printer.

You are welcome. If you need help in installing it on your computer please PM me, and I will help. I use Microsoft Works, and when I installed the font on my computer the Abraham Lincoln font was automatically added to the list of available fonts in Works. Maharba, you will then be able to type letters to your friends using a font extremely similar to Abraham Lincoln's own handwriting! It's best to set the font size to 18 or 20.

[L Verge]

(02-27-2016 09:20 PM)maharba Wrote:  That is fascinating. And thanks LVerge for the referral. So the handwriting analysis of Abraham Lincoln they did at that site oddly turns out to be for an item that Abraham Lincoln never wrote. I wonder if they have discovered yet at the site that their efforts were wasted, there. Thanks RJN for the link to the Lincoln font. It surely may be interesting to see how that works out on a printer.

If you had read carefully, you would have noted that the author's sentence right before that wonderful, non-Lincoln letter was " It may have nothing to do with handwriting analysis, but I request everyone to read it once." I do hope you continued reading the rather extensive analysis of Lincoln's true work that followed that letter...?

And I do hope that you found the truth and beauty in that letter - no matter who wrote it.

[Mylye2222]

(02-26-2016 07:30 AM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:  Some more on Lincoln and spelling from M. Burlingame's "A Life":

"In school Lincoln was especially adept at spelling, a subject that interested him throughout life. He constantly sought to improve his skills in that department. At the White House in 1862, as he sat in a roomful of visitors 'writing a note on a card held on his knee,' he 'sung out ‘How d’ye spell missill’ – meaning ‘missile’ – ‘I don’t know how to spell it.' The next day a government official who was present asked, 'Is there another man in this whole Union who, being President, would have done that? It shows his perfect honesty and simplicity, & that he is truly a great man – for he is so, and the more I see of him the more I am convinced of the fact.'
At a reception in February 1865, Lincoln told Supreme Court Justice David Davis, 'I never knew until the other day how to spell the word ‘maintenance.’ I always thought it was ‘m-a-i-n, main, t-a-i-n, tain, a-n-c-e, ance – maintainance,’ but I find that it is ‘m-a-i-n, main, t-e, te, n-a-n-c-e, nance – maintenance.' (An observer called this scene 'a spectacle! The President of a great nation at a formal reception, surrounded by many eminent people, statesman, ministers, scholars, critics and ultrafashionable people – by all sorts – who honestly and unconcernedly, in the most unconventional way, speaks before all, as it were, of a personal thing illustrative of his own deficiency.') In 1864, Lincoln again confessed his weakness as a speller: 'When I write an official letter I want to be sure it is correct, and I find I am sometimes puzzled to know how to spell the most common word. . . .I found, about twenty years ago, that I had been spelling one word wrong all my life up to that time. . . . It is very. I used always to spell it with two r’s – v-e-r-r-y. And then there was another word which I found I had been spelling wrong until I came here to the White House. . . It is opportunity. I had always spelled it, op-per-tu-ni-ty.' Similarly, one day during the Civil War, Lincoln asked three young men, 'when do you use a semicolon?' Upon receiving an answer, the president replied: 'I never use it much, but when I am in doubt what to use, I generally employ the ‘little fellow.'' (He told the journalist Noah Brooks, 'With educated people, I suppose, punctuation is a matter of rule; with me it is a matter of feeling. But I must say that I have a great respect for the semicolon; it’s a very useful little chap.') These episodes lend credence to Joshua Speed’s assertion that Lincoln 'was never ashamed . . . to admit his ignorance upon any subject, or the meaning of any word no matter how ridiculous it might make him appear.' Leonard Swett, his close friend on the Illinois legal circuit, was impressed by Lincoln’s diligence. 'He is the only man I have ever
known,' said Swett, 'who bridged back from middle age to youth and learned to spell well.'"

As for the semicolon and punctuation, his thoroughly educated wife was certainly no helpful advisor either...

Lovely stories indeed. He wasn't ashamed as admit a flaw, as so few heads of state do.

[David Lockmiller]

Lincoln said: "I found, about twenty years ago, that I had been spelling one word wrong all my life up to that time. . . . It is very. I used always to spell it with two r’s – v-e-r-r-y."

Lincoln even remembered the time that he made the correction.

[RJNorton]

I remember a "Lincoln and spelling" story that dates to his Indiana years. He once helped a girl who was having trouble with the word "defied." In a spelling bee, Katy Roby began spelling the word...d-e-f and then was stuck on the next letter. Was it an "i" or a "y?" Lincoln was standing nearby and pointed to his eye when the teacher (Andrew Crawford, I think) was not looking. Katy took the hint, said "i" and completed the word correctly.

(I have seen other versions of this story; this is the one I see most frequently)