July 9, 2013

Penmanship and the Founding Fathers’ names

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In Kitty Burns Florey‘s Script & Scribble, which we’ll publish in paperback this September, a few secrets of the Founding Fathers’ handwriting is revealed. Since it’s not so long after the 4th, we’ll share a short teaser with you:

Quill pens only lasted about a week; “for a compulsive scribbler, a mere day or two.” Thomas Jefferson supposedly raised a special flock of geese at Monticello for his writing needs, though Florey’s research shows that there’s no evidence of this.

Jay Lyon, an intern at Workman, has been breaking the etymology of the Founding Fathers’ names this week. George Washington’s last name translates to “estate of a man named Wassa.”

No word on who Wassa was, or what Wassa means (other than the presumably unrelated West African ethnic group of the same name), but the most important thing this tells us is that the capital of the United States is a town that’s named for a person that’s named for a town that’s named for a person.

This acrostic poem was inspired by Washington’s victories in Trenton and Princeton. Signed by “A Young Lady,” the poem ran in the Pennsylvania Evening Post on Jan. 7, 1777:

W itness, ye sons of tyrant’s black womb,
A nd see his Excellence victorious come!
S erene, majestic, see he gains the field!
H is heart is tender, while his arms are steel’d.
I ntent on virtue, and his cause so fair,
N ow treats his captive with a parent’s care!
G reatness of soul his ev’ry action shows,
T hus virtue from celestial bounty flows,
O ur GEORGE, by heaven destin’d to command,
N ow strikes the British yoke with prosp’rous hand.

According to Lyons, Patrick Henry‘s name can be interpreted in two ways: “either it’s incredibly ironic that the anti-monarchist’s name essentially means ‘nobleman king,’ or the Virginia governor is perfectly described as a ‘patriotic/fatherly leader of the home’.”

James Tate penned this poem in Henry’s honor:

My Great Great Etc. Uncle Patrick Henry

There’s a fortune to be made in just about everything

in this country, somebody’s father had to invent

everything—baby food, tractors, rat poisoning.
My family’s obviously done nothing since the beginning
of time. They invented poverty and bad taste
and getting by and taking it from the boss.
O my mother goes around chewing her nails and
spitting them in a jar: You shouldn’t be ashamed
of yourself she says, think of your family.
My family I say what have they ever done but
paint by numbers the most absurd and disgusting scenes
of plastic squalor and human degradation.
Well then think of your great great etc. Uncle
Patrick Henry.

Benjamin Franklin believed in the value of good penmanship, and when he founded the Academy of Philadelphia (now the University of Philadelphia), Florey notes that writing in “a legible hand” was a requirement for admission.

“Ben” means “son of,” and “Franklin” is, as you may have guessed, tied to the Franks—the Middle English referred to free landholders, so almost too appropriately, “freedom” is in the roots of his family name. Lyons adds, “Freedom has a concrete linguistic link with hot dogs, as the original term ‘frankfurter’ stems from the German city of Frankfurt, which literally means ‘Ford of the Franks.'”

To trace the history of the Founding Fathers’ historic signatures to the future of penmanship in a digital age, check out Florey’s Script & Scribble.

 

Kirsten Reach is an editor at Melville House.

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