In fact, handwriting’s changing form in the US was largely driven by the speed of commerce. Clerks on the docks, for instance, had to write bills of lading and ships’ manifests quickly and legibly; Italic cursive was too slow, so a simpler Copperplate style evolved that reflected a new social agenda (The Declaration of Independence is written in Copperplate, so named because a master engraver etched the text onto a copper plate before printing). As the older Gothic forms lost favour in England, the number of common scripts decreased, while industrialisation and immigration gave rise to a range of writing styles in both the US and Europe.

Form from function

Pens had everything to do with penmanship, of course. Gone were the feathered quills and ink blots of English Roundhand; these were replaced by fountain pens, which naturally lend themselves to joined-up letters. In the 1960s, mass produced ballpoints and fibre tips made the fountain pen a relic of the past – except in France, where young students are still required to write their lignes d’écriture with a blue fountain pen. This might explain why French handwriting retains its characteristic elegance: the classic writing instrument requires fewer lifts between letters and a more dexterous grip, resulting in a slanted cursive with looped letters.

By contrast, the upright penhold required by ballpoint pens results in a bolder, more vertical script – the kind typified by American handwriting. It seems the loud, bubbly letterforms of writers in the US has less to do with character than with the contents of their desk drawers. In Australia, young students must write in pencil until they are issued ‘pen licences’: diplomas that announce their mastery of “joined letters that are clearly formed and consistent in size,” according to the Australian National Curriculum Standards for English. Perhaps if we made penmanship that exciting, we might convince more students to take up letter writing on their own, especially now that the teaching of cursive is no longer required in most US public schools.