Handwriting History collection:
Herman Melville wrote and revised the manuscript for Billy Budd from approximately 1884—1891. Melville had a wide range of handwriting styles, from carefully considered to hastily scribbled. His range of writing offers us a sterling opportunity to explore variations in personal handwriting styles and to test our abilities to read them.
The ink examples on the website are drawn from chapters 1—5; the pencil examples are from chapter 20.
The words and phrases have been checked for accuracy against the Melville Electronic Library edition.
Contact us for scholar or instructor access if you would like it.
Please send questions and requests for access to david@americanpaleography.org
David Kaminski
See an assortment of the exhibited words and other polygons here:
circa 1884*-1891
#5985 22395133_rot_p_4.jpg
their
circa 1884*-1891
#6030 22395139_rot_p_1.jpg
black
circa 1884*-1891
#6035 22395139_rot_p_4.jpg
much
circa 1884*-1891
#6089 22395141_rot_p_3.jpg
marched
circa 1884*-1891
#6292 22395155_rot_p_4.jpg
goldfinch
circa 1884*-1891
#6299 22395157_rot_p_1.jpg
say
circa 1884*-1891
#6326 22395159_rot_p_1.jpg
loved
circa 1884*-1891
#6553 22395171_rot_p_7.jpg
buffer
circa 1884*-1891
#7074 22395213_rot_p_5.jpg
shapely
circa 1884*-1891
#7388 22395251_rot_n_1.jpg
flag
circa 1884*-1891
#7498 22395267_rot_p_3.jpg
anon
circa 1884*-1891
#7521 22395269_rot_p_4.jpg
glad
circa 1884*-1891
#7694 22395287_rot_p_1.jpg
thus
circa 1884*-1891
#7730 22395289_rot_p_5.jpg
abeyance
circa 1884*-1891
#7896 22395689_rot_p_4.jpg
sanity