Wow. How arcane.‘Tis a pity they burned (I assume burned) her letters! I’d like to have read them. And what a loss to history.The papers of George Washington are in excess of 135,000 pages of his letters, notes, diaries as well as those to him. (Martha Washington's letters were destroyed upon her death as she requested; one was found behind a drawer, so there were more from Washington to her that are lost.) One to not often write in his own books, there are over 900 pages of notes he made to just his books on farming and agriculture. All of this was done with a precisely-cut quill pen, paper, ink*, and some form of blotting material. He made is own ink from high quality ink powder which accounts for its longevity. Powdered ink is still available: https://shop.colonialwilliamsburg.com/powdered-ink/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_EMy8_wD6s https://www.galenleather.com/blogs/news ... cess%20ink.
One can imagine the thought going on as he wrote letters and mixed ink, blotted and so forth - here is one on marriage: https://founders.archives.gov/documents ... 16-02-0467
I write at least twice a week to a friend and he back. It's by email. We rapid shoot so many things, we forget what we have and have not responded to. A slower pace by pen and paper would yield perhaps more thought and depth.
I ran across this post on the fountain pen network a few years ago: Isaac Newton’s ink recipe: https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/foru ... ac-newton/
I've been on the FPN forum for a number of years and did not know there was a following for historic ink recipes.
There's been a lot of research into how handwriting, or typing, or perhaps anything else, that slows the pace of writing, engages more of one's "self" and thus more deliberate "thought and depth".
But, I think it's more a matter of "how" and "who" is using "any writing tool" including a computer keyboard.
That said, receiving a handwritten letter in the mail is very unique, though anything personal on "real paper" is nice as well.
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Statistics: Posted by Sandtrap — Sun May 05, 2024 7:59 am — Replies 32 — Views 2530