Script reference

Spencerian alphabet: reading American records of 1850–1920

Spencerian is the hand of American records from the 1850s to the 1920s — the federal census schedules of 1850 to 1920 above all, plus Civil War letters, county deed books and business ledgers. It is light, oval and fast, and its capitals are built from loops rather than stems, which is why an enumerator's W, M and N can look alike. This page shows the alphabet in an open-licensed Spencerian face, names the confusions, and links to a tool that reads a single cropped word.

When

Taught in American schools and business colleges from the 1850s until the plainer Palmer method replaced it in the 1920s.

Where it turns up

US letters, diaries, ledgers, county records, Civil War correspondence and the 1850–1920 federal census schedules; Canadian records of the same years.

How to recognise it

Light, oval and fast, with little shading and long connecting strokes. Capitals are built from ovals and loops rather than straight stems; the small letters are narrow and the t is often uncrossed.

Letters that fool readers

Looped ovals make capital letters hard to tell apart (I, J, S, T, F, L). Hurried census enumerators drop the dot on the i and the cross on the t, run n, m, u and w together, and write a that opens into u.

Alphabet

Letterforms rendered live from Mrs Saint Delafield, SIL Open Font License — a type designer's interpretation of the hand, not a scan of any manuscript.

The letters that cause trouble

• II — A tall oval loop; without a foot it is hard to tell from J, and in a census it is usually the start of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa or Ireland.
• JJ — The same loop as I but descending; look below the line.
• SS — An oval with a tail; reads as L or G when the top loop is large.
• LL — A loop on the line with a long flat foot that runs into the next letter.
• T FT F — A looped stem under a wavy bar; F adds a short second bar. Enumerators often omit the second bar and leave the word to decide.
• W M NW M N — All built from ovals and loops; W is usually wider and finishes with a loop, M and N have pointed valleys.
• aa — A small oval closed by a stroke; written fast it opens at the top and reads as u ("Annu" for "Anna").
• tt — Often uncrossed in a hurried hand, so it looks like an l without the loop or an i without the dot.
• ii — A short stroke; the dot drifts right or vanishes. Between m, n and u the undotted i is counted, not seen.
• rr — A small shoulder, often just a flattening of the stroke — "Farmer" can look like "Fanner".
• ss — A small pointed loop; in a fast hand the loop closes and reads as an o or an e.
• m n u wm n u w — Rows of identical humps. Count them against the expected word (a known surname, a known state).

Words to practise on

• Dwelling — the first column of every census page from 1850 — a looped D and a double l
• Farmer — the commonest occupation on the page; the capital F is a loop with a bar
• Pennsylvania — a birthplace with every trap: double n, y, l, v and a that opens into u

Questions

What is the difference between Spencerian and Palmer?

Palmer (taught from about 1900 and dominant by the 1920s) is a plainer, faster business hand with no shading and simpler capitals. Spencerian is lighter, more oval and more ornamented. A 1900 census page is usually Spencerian; a 1930 or 1940 page is usually Palmer.

Why are census names so hard to read?

The enumerator wrote hundreds of names a day in a column a finger wide, with a steel pen, often spelling foreign names by ear. The Spencerian capitals they were taught are loops that look alike, and the small letters are narrow. Read the whole page: the enumerator's own habits repeat, and a letter you cannot read in one name is usually clear in another.

What does a line through a census entry mean?

Usually nothing sinister: enumerators struck out a duplicated line, a person listed in the wrong household, or a page they re-copied. A single line through a whole page may mean the page was replaced.

How do I read a Civil War letter?

Soldiers wrote in the Spencerian they were taught, usually in pencil, with their own spelling. Read the salutation and closing first ("Dear Wife", "Your affectionate husband") to learn the hand, then the body. Cursive Lens's letter document type is tuned for exactly this.

Can Cursive Lens read Spencerian?

Yes. Set the era to 1870–1920 (or 1800–1870 for the earliest schedules) and the document type to census, and choose the census year as the record form so each line comes back as a row with its columns, ready to export as CSV.