Writing in the Colonial America era was a complex technical process that required an array of materials and techniques, many of which were often difficult or expensive to acquire. Formal writing instruction was deliberately limited to certain elite classes of the time of both sexes and men of business and trade. Letter writing manuals grew in popularity as correspondence became a fashionable hobby for the upwardly-mobile in the mid-eighteenth century. The forms for handwriting were conveyed through penmanship books, which were usually illustrated with costly copperplate engravings and almost exclusively imported into America before the 1790s. It is an interesting topic for sure!
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