Writing By Hand: Early Modern Handwriting Tools and Techniques

Join us for this special pop-up display of items from the Folger collection showing how words were written by hand, using pen and ink, and the ways those words made their way to readers via sealed letters and manuscript books.

Greg Prickman, Eric Weinmann Librarian and Director of Collections and Exhibitions, will share about calligraphy manuals, wax seal fobs, handwritten plays and correspondence, along with pens and inkwells.

The shapes our letters take were formed by the materials that made them, from the tips of quills made from feathers to the flow of the ink that they guided.

Participants will learn about how they can recreate these effects today using sealing kits, fountain pens, and historical recreations of quills and inks.