Spencerian Saga: Mike and his Capital Stems

Platt Rogers Spencer

SPENCER, Platt Rogers c.1800-1864 Spencer was an American calligrapher who published the Spencerian Method of penmanship in 1848. It became the standard of writing in every school in the USA. He was one of ten children and after his father died when he was five, his mother moved the family from NY to Ohio. His mother tried to provide an education for the children but she could barely provide sustenance to them. She taught and encouraged Spencer to write but could not provide paper for him until he was seven years of age. When he was twelve, he enrolled in his first school. Spencer became a clerk in several local businesses and practiced his penmanship at work. By 1860, schools had adopted his style of lettering and it soon became the style adopted by clerks working for the US government. He soon operated schools to teach the Spencerian style of lettering in Geneva and Cleveland, Ohio, and later, in Pennsylvania. When he died, his sons continued teaching their father's technique.