Pen In Hand:  Ciphering and Deciphering the Handwritten Word

Exhibition Schedule | Exhibition Program | Exhibition Program Committee

Pen in Hand:  Ciphering and Deciphering the Handwritten Word
January 6 - June 15, 2006
Main Level, Milton S. Eisenhower Library
Monday - Thursday, 8 am - midnight; Friday and Saturday, 8 am - 10 pm; Sunday, 10 am - midnight

INTRODUCTION

Using objects from the Eisenhower Library's manuscripts collection, this display describes paleography (the investigation of historical handwriting), with close attention paid to 19th-century handwriting and the formation of letters.  Objects associated with writing, including manuscripts in a variety of sizes and materials, parchment and laid paper, pens, inkwells, and ink scrapers are among the items displayed.  Original copies of Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755) and Webster's A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language  (1806), the first dictionary to include American spellings, are also inlcuded.  

This display and As I write to you,  the current Homewood House exhibition, both complement the Intersession course on paleography taught by Margaret Burri, Curator of Manuscripts at the Eisenhower Library and Judith Proffitt, Program Coordinator for the Homewood House Museum.