January Dinner Meeting

Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Speaker: Robert Williams
Topic: “Teaching America to Write: Early American Penmanship Books and Pedagogical Theory”
Location: Cliff Dwellers

The use of printed books to teach handwriting goes back to the sixteenth century. It may come as a surprise to some that printing has always been a friend of penmanship, spreading examples of different writing styles and teaching methods beyond local borders through printed exemplars and instruction manuals. Writing masters in the newly formed United States joined in this tradition and introduced some surprisingly novel and unique approaches to this basic skill. Caxtonian Robert Williams will share some of his discoveries about how Americans learned to write, illustrated with materials from his collection and that of the Newberry Library.

Cliff Dwellers Club, 200 S. Michigan. Timing: spirits at 5 pm, dinner at 6 pm, program at 7:30 pm. Dinner is $48.