The Palmer method: the school hand, 1900–1950

3 min read•1900 — 1950

The plain, unshaded hand of American business colleges and schools, written with the whole arm for speed.

Palmer method, from Palmer's Guide to Business Writing: a specimen letter by C. D. Brown, "written with pure Muscular Movement", 1894
From Palmer's Guide to Business Writing: a specimen letter by C. D. Brown, "written with pure Muscular Movement", 1894 — p. 47Source ↗
Taught
Business colleges, then schools, into the 1960s
Pen
Medium coarse pen, straight holder
Look
About 55° slant, even strokes, no shading
Where you meet it
School exercises and business writing

How to read it: the tells

O AA capital O should close with an upward stroke. Pulled downward, it looks like an A.
a oToo deep a curve in the joining stroke turns an o into something closer to an a.
r xWhen the joining strokes dip toward the base line, an r can look like an x.
1 7A figure one started with an upward stroke looks like a seven. Check columns of figures twice.

History

Austin Norman Palmer was born on a farm at Fort Jackson, New York, on 22 December 1860.[1] In 1884 he started a penmanship journal, the Western Penman,[2] and a year later he became a partner in a business college, which he bought three years after that.[3] His Guide to Business Writing was published at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1894,[4] a book of 48 pages.[5] Its preface says what it means by practical: a plain and rapid style, adapted to business purposes.[6]

The method moved the pen with the muscles of the arm, from the shoulder to the wrist.[7] Writing with the fingers, Palmer held, would slow the writer down and leave the page heavy and uneven.[8] What he promised in return was a hand with four essentials: legibility, rapidity, ease and endurance.[9]

A New York schools superintendent took the method up at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis.[10] Palmer once estimated that 25 million people had learned it,[11] and it was still used in schools well into the 1960s.[12] He died in 1927, at 67, still president of the Cedar Rapids Business College.[13]

Spencerian vs Palmer

Spencerian

Palmer method

Sources

  1. [1]A. N. Palmer (Zanerian, after Michael Sull)
  2. [2]Austin N. Palmer (The Gazette, history)
  3. [3]Cedar Rapids man created Palmer Method of handwriting (The Gazette)
  4. [4]Palmer's Guide to Business Writing (1894), Library of Congress item 11026563
  5. [5]Palmer's Guide to Business Writing (1894), Library of Congress item 11026563
  6. [6]Palmer's Guide to Business Writing (1894), preface, full text (Library of Congress)
  7. [7]The Palmer Method of Business Writing (1915), p. 12, full text
  8. [8]Palmer's Guide to Business Writing (1894), p. 9, full text (Library of Congress)
  9. [9]The Palmer Method of Business Writing (1915), p. 2, full text
  10. [10]Cedar Rapids man created Palmer Method of handwriting (The Gazette)
  11. [11]Cedar Rapids man created Palmer Method of handwriting (The Gazette)
  12. [12]Austin N. Palmer (The Gazette, history)
  13. [13]Cedar Rapids man created Palmer Method of handwriting (The Gazette)
  14. The Palmer Method of Business Writing (1915), p. 26 — the reading tells
  15. The Palmer Method of Business Writing (1915), p. 28 — the reading tells
  16. The Palmer Method of Business Writing (1915), p. 44 — the reading tells
  17. Palmer's Guide to Business Writing (1894), p. 35 — the reading tells
  18. The Palmer Method of Business Writing (1915), p. 5 — the fact table
  19. The Palmer Method of Business Writing (1915), p. 5 (paper and pen) — the fact table
  20. Freeman, Classification of handwriting systems (1912) — the fact table