TRAVEL Pitman Short-hand Notetaking August 2021 The Sawtelle Archives at ANP contain a G.B. Dorr day diary from September 16, 1902 to September 25, 1902, including an entry for Oct. 2, 1902. Each page has Pitman shorthand content -which has not been translated- documenting his travels following time spent with Harvard geology professor William Davis and his field crew in Utah and Arizona. There is a clear reference to companions Chr. Kauffman and other mountaineers in locations in the Canadian Rockies prior to a return trip after a two months absence to Boston, departing from Seattle on 10/2/1904. CanadianRockies821 see Trovel: 1904 Candian Rockier for additional examples of shortboard. II Coffy Flianch 21 (18, is 421 U.Y. 1.P. V "Lod," & e / 90 31 ge a - / 'y III / t 1 Night s i r t . Tax k 1, 10 (... Signature Sal H. Worth Cast H. f T mm his. las, (? if their time SLG obligation - You Smould 8/11/2018 Xfinity Connect Re_pending Dorr donation Printout Ronald Epp 8/11/2018 12:39 PM Re: pending Dorr donation To Marie Yarborough Marie, Yes, this is good news! Thank you for your persistence, a quality that both you and Dorr share to a superlative degree. I am now redrafting my will. Within a month I should have an initial meeting scheduled with my attorney. Then some time until everything is finalized. I will send you a draft of the language before the Will is finalized SO that we can avoid any difficulties. On a separate matter, I have been surprised to learn that Dorr was mountaineering in the Canadian Rockies in late September 1902. A historian of Canadian mountaineering uncovered a testimonial letter handwritten by Dorr in a Swiss archive. Without getting into all the details, this new evidence of Dorr's exploration of several other Canadian national parks enlarges the wealth of information he brought to bear on the establishment of ANP. You have corroboration of this evidence in a series of 1902 diary entries that were originally contained in Box 1, folder 16 of the History of Park management records. My problem, is that I cannot find them list in the 2013 ANP Resource Management Records. Can you? They are written in Pitman shorthand and I did not have them transcribed before publication of CANP. But given their new significance, I have scanned them and sent them abroad to a transcriber who is currently working on them. And, she is also transcribing other Pitman notes by Dorr describing his 1902 Trip to North Carolina. When I get the transcriptions I will see that you get copies. But in the meantime, will you please see if you can locate both: the Canadian diary entries cover September 17-October 2, 1902 (though I have no entries for 8/11/2018 Xfinity Connect __pending Dorr donation Printout 9/26 to 10/1. Do you? The North Carolina trip has seven pages but only one is dated, November 24. By the way, Pitman shorthand was a technique that Dorr learned at Harvard and used throughout his careers, especially in dealings with president Charles William Eliot. Best, Ron Ronald H. Epp, Ph.D. 7 Peachtree Terrace Farmington, CT 06032 603-491-1760 eppster2@comcast.net On August 2, 2018 at 11:15 AM Yarborough, Marie wrote: Hi Ron, Hope you are bearing through this heat! Although I am unable to meet with you next week I do have a little more information. It does seem that the Deputy Supt and Supt have met and discussed the pending donation with the time delay. They have read the suggestions from the Regional Curator and looked over pertinent federal regulations regarding donations such as this, and do not think they need to contact the solicitor's office. So, they believe we can again move forward with working out the details for a pending donation, as we have been for a few years. To move forward to the next step I'll need from you: the draft language of your will relating to the donation. Also, on the Regional Curator's notes he says the following: we must accept only as an unconditional bequest and obtain applicable copyrights and releases with the acquisition. Send along the language when you can, hope all is well! Marie To: Court Reporters From: Ronald H. Epp, Ph.D. 7 Peachtree Terrace, Farmington CT. 717-272-0801 Re: Context for transcription Date: 15 August 2018 The two packets of shorthand travel diary entries were made by George B. Dorr in 1902, The first on a trip to the Rocky Mountains in Canada's British Columbia where he climbed Just west of the Continental Divide in the Selkirk Mountains with Christian Kaufmann, a Swiss alpinist guide. They are in Glacier National Park, staying in a place called Field. To the East is Banff National Park and Lake Louise. They ascended several peaks and mountain passes as is noted in Dorr's written comments later added to the shorthand. The trip record begins Sept. 17 and concludes October 2. The second diary entry recounts a trip made with two Harvard University professors, physician Henry P. Bowditch and his archaeologist brother, Charles P. Bowditch. They accompanied Mr. Dorr on a trip from Boston to Virginia where they visited sites where natural springs occurred, a particular interest of Mr. Dorr who would shortly accumulate land on Mount Desert Island, Maine, where Acadia National Park would be established under his guidance. The tri is prior to the Thanksgiving holiday, 1902. 8/20/2018 Xfinity Connect Inbox Travel Diary Court Reporters 11:10 AM To Ronald Epp Hi Dr. Epps, I'm sorry to say our transcriptionist cannot transcribe these pages. She thought she could interpret the shorthand, but it is so old that she can't make out anything worthwhile. I checked around with our other reporters, but none know that type of shorthand. Again, my apologies. Wendy Bartlett A Plus Reporting Service, LLC 55 Whiting Street, Suite 1A Plainville, CT 06062 0(203)269.9976 F(860)846.0633 C(203)631.3578 From: Ronald Epp Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2018 10:32 AM To: Court Reporters Subject: Re: FW: Contact Form on A Plus Reporting Service & Video Conferencing Hi Wendy, Thank you for responding and your willingness to undertake this project. I will stop by your office on Wednesday afternoon, if possible, and drop off the pages to be transcribed. Ron 8/15/2018 Xfinity Connect RE_FW_Contact Form on A Plus Reporting Service Video Conferencing Printout - Court Reporters 8/15/2018 11:34 AM RE: FW: Contact Form on A Plus Reporting Service & Video Conferencing To Ronald Epp Hi Ron, Is it possible for you to copy the pages? We will be mailing it to one of our transcriptionists, so I'm concerned about the safe keeping of the diary. Wendy Bartlett A Plus Reporting Service, LLC 55 Whiting Street, Suite 1A Plainville, CT 06062 0(203)269.9976 F(860)846.0633 C(203)631.3578 From: Ronald Epp Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2018 10:32 AM To: Court Reporters Subject: Re: FW: Contact Form on A Plus Reporting Service & Video Conferencing Hi Wendy, Thank you for responding and your willingness to undertake this project. I will stop by your office on Wednesday afternoon, if possible, and drop off the pages to be transcribed. Ron Ronald H. Epp, Ph.D. 7 Peachtree Terrace Farmington, CT 06032 8/12/2018 Xfinity Connect Ref 664 George B_ Dorr Travel Notes Scan Printout tracey 8/12/2018 12:10 PM Ref 664 : George B. Dorr Travel Notes Scan To Ronald Epp Hi Rob, I have now had the chance to study the scans. Unfortunately, although it looks like Pitmans, I actually think this is Sloan Duployan (if you Google Sloan Duployan images you will see that the two systems look very similar). I also got my Mum to look at it and she is in agreement with me. More bad news, I do not know anyone who can do this version of shorthand so I cannot pass this onto anyone. I really am sorry but in this case I can't offer any further assistance, but I wish you luck with your search. Best regards, Tracey Harding From: tracey Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2018 7:03 AM To: Ronald Epp Subject: Rfe 664 : George B. Dorr Travel Notes Scan Morning Ron, Thank you for sending the scans. I really don't mind how we approach this project but I will transcribe a portion and send that to you with a price. It certainly looks like Pitmans, but I do need to study it in detail first so that I can get a handle on it. I hope that's OK. I will be back to you in due course, but if you have any queries in the meantime please let me know. Best regards, Tracey Harding From: Ronald Epp Sent: Friday, August 10, 2018 10:02 PM To: tracey@shorthandtranscription.co.uk Subject: George B. Dorr Travel Notes Scan Pitman shorthand - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 1 of 7 Pitman shorthand From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Pitman shorthand is a system of shorthand for the English language developed by Englishman Sir Pitman shorthand Isaac Pitman (1813-1897), who first presented it DATE TIMAN in 1837. [1] Like most systems of shorthand, it is a phonetic system; the symbols do not represent letters, but rather sounds, and words are, for the most part, written as they are spoken. [2] As of 1996, Pitman shorthand was the most popular Type heavy-line geometric abjadi shorthand system used in the United Kingdom and Stenography the second most popular in the United States. [3] Languages English One characteristic feature of Pitman shorthand is Creator Isaac Pitman that unvoiced and voiced pairs of sounds (such as /p/ and /b/ or /t/ and /d/) are represented by Published 1837 strokes which differ only in thickness; the thin stroke representing 'light' sounds such as /p/ Time period 1837-present and /t/; the thick stroke representing 'heavy' sounds Child Pitman's New Era such as /b/ and /d/. Doing this requires a writing systems Pitman's 2000 instrument which is responsive to the user's drawing pressure: specialist fountain pens (with Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols. fine, flexible nibs) were originally used, but pencils are now more commonly used. Pitman shorthand uses straight strokes and quarter-circle strokes, in various orientations, to represent consonant sounds. The predominant way of indicating vowels is to use light or heavy dots, dashes, or other special marks drawn close to the consonant. Vowels are drawn before the stroke (or over a horizontal stroke) if the vowel is pronounced ahead of the consonant, or drawn after the stroke (or under a horizontal stroke) if pronounced after. Each vowel, whether indicated by a dot for a short vowel, or by a dash or a longer, more drawn-out vowel, has its own position relative to its adjacent stroke (beginning, middle, or end) to indicate different vowel-sounds in an unambiguous system. However, to increase writing-speed, rules of "vowel indication" exist whereby the consonant stroke is raised, kept on the line, or lowered to match whether the first vowel of the word is written at the beginning, middle, or end of a consonant stroke-without actually writing the vowel. This is often enough to distinguish words with similar consonant-patterns. Another method of vowel-indication is to choose between a choice of different strokes for the same consonant. The sound "R" has two kinds of strokes: round, or straight-line, depending on whether there is a vowel-sound before or after the R. There have been several versions of Pitman's shorthand since 1837. The original Pitman's shorthand had an "alphabet" of consonants which was later modified. Additional modifications and rules were added to successive versions. Pitman New Era (1922-1975) had the most developed set of rules and abbreviation lists. Pitman 2000 (1975-present) introduced some simplifications and drastically reduced the list of abbreviations to reduce the memory-load, officially reduced to a list of 144 short forms. The later versions dropped certain symbols and introduced other simplifications to earlier versions. For example, strokes "rer" (heavy curved downstroke) and "kway", (hooked horizontal straight stroke) are present in Pitman's New Era, but not in Pitman's 2000. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitman_shorthand 9/19/2012 Pitman shorthand - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 2 of 7 Contents 1 History 2 Writing 2.1 Logograms (Short Forms) 2.2 Consonants 2.3 Vowels 2.4 Diphthongs 2.5 Other shapes 2.6 Halving and doubling 3 Cultural references 4 Footnotes 5 References 6 External links History Pitman was asked to create a shorthand system of his own in 1837. He had used Samuel Taylor's system for seven years, but his symbols bear greater similarity to the older Byrom system. The first phonetician to invent a system of shorthand, Pitman used similar-looking symbols for phonetically related sounds. He was the first to use thickness of a stroke to indicate voicing (voiced consonants such as /b/ and /d/ are written with heavier lines than unvoiced ones such as /p/ and /t/), and consonants with similar place of articulation were orientated in similar directions, with straight lines for plosives and arcs for fricatives. For example, the dental and alveolar consonants are upright: = /t/, = /d/, ¥) = /s/, = / 'z/, = /0/ (as in thigh), ( = /d/ (as in thy). Pitman's brother Benjamin Pitman settled in Cincinnati, Ohio in the United States, and introduced Pitman's system there. He used it in the 1865-67 trial of the conspirators behind the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. In Australia the system was introduced by another Pitman brother, Jacob. Jacob Pitman is buried in Sydney's Rookwood Necropolis, in Australia. The epitaph is written phonetically. [4] IN LUVING MEMERI OV JACOB PITMAN, BORN NOV. 28, 1810 TROWBRIDGE ENGLAND, SETELD IN ADELAIDE 1838 DEID 12TH MARCH 1890 ARKITEKT INTRODIUST FONETIK SHORTHAND AND WOZ THE FERST MINISTER IN THEEZ KOLONIZ OV THE DOKTRINZ OV THE SEKOND OR NIU KRISTIAN CHURCH WHICH AKNOLEJEZ THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IN HIZ DEVEIN HIUMANITI AZ THE KREATER OV THE YUNIVERS THE REDEEMER AND REJENERATER OV MEN GOD OVER AUL BLESED FOR EVER. At one time, Pitman was the most commonly used shorthand system in the entire English-speaking world. [5] Part of its popularity was due to the fact that it was the first subject taught by correspondence course. Today in many regions (especially the U.S.), it has been superseded by Gregg shorthand, developed by John Robert Gregg. Teeline has become more common in recent years, as it is based on spelling, rather than pronunciation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitman_shorthand 9/19/2012 Tracey's Shorthand Transcription Service Page 1 of 1 ShorthandTracey Shorthand Transcription Service HOME CONTACT LESSONS HISTORY OTHER STUFF Pitman's New Era Shorthand - Contact If you would like to know more, please contact me: tracey@shorthandtranscription.co.uk I would very much like to have feedback. Please let me know if you have any queries, do you like the site, what changes/additions would you like to see? All shorthand transcription work will be undertaken to the best of my ability but it is impossible to guarantee 100% accuracy. Documents transmitted in electronic format are preferred but all documents will remain the property of the owner and all copies will be destroyed after payment. A very rough estimate of cost would £20per halfpage(A5) plus 10p per wordand 100%payment prior to electronic transmission of completed work but please contact me for a firm quotation. At the time of quoting I will also provide you with a transcribed section of your document - so you can get an idea of what I can do. Payment can be by BACS, PayPal or cheque. Payments by PayPal or foreign currency cheques will incur a small additional charge. © copyright 2010 Tracey Jennings website templates by styleshout Valid CSS XHTML http://shorthandtranscription.co.uk/contact.html 4/8/2018 8/11/2018 Xfinity Connect Inbox Rfe 664 : George B. Dorr Travel Notes Scan tracey 2:03 AM To Ronald Epp Morning Ron, Thank you for sending the scans. I really don't mind how we approach this project but I will transcribe a portion and send that to you with a price. It certainly looks like Pitmans, but I do need to study it in detail first so that I can get a handle on it. I hope that's OK. I will be back to you in due course, but if you have any queries in the meantime please let me know. Best regards, Tracey Harding From: Ronald Epp Sent: Friday, August 10, 2018 10:02 PM To: tracey@shorthandtranscription.co.uk Subject: George B. Dorr Travel Notes Scan Hi Tracey, Several hours ago I scanned the whole of the documents that I would like you to transcribe and sent them to you. I know this is at odds with your instructions, but since I wrote earlier I decided to have you also transcribe a second set of notes as well, identified as "Some Notes made in North Carolina, November 1902." They describe his travel with two friends,. brothers Charles and Henry Bowditch, as they traveled through Virginia to see a variety of natural springs. suspect you will be greatly challenged to decipher the copies received but they are the best that I can secure from the Acadia National Park archives. The Joy of Pitman Shorthand Page 1 of 4 THE JOY OF PITMAN SHORTHAND (The graphic shows Do you prefer Gregg how you write "The joy Shorthand? of Pitman Shorthand" in The "Shorthand Pitman shorthand. The Shorthand Shorthand" last squiggle combines Web-page by Marc Semler the sound-strokes for is for you. It also has "Pitman" along with the abbreviations for general advice on practicing "short" and "hand".) any shorthand system. (This page is best viewed in 800x600 screen resolution, medium fonts. If text appears to overlap, reduce your font size. The page title should be all one line.) How does Pitman Work? WHAT'S NEW: (April 4, 2007:) New Link for Forum: Chris Wright has set up a Web forum focussing on Pitman New Era shorthand. Everyone is encouraged to join and discuss Pitman over there. (August 12, 2005:) Merchandise! You can buy "I Love Pitman Shorthand!" merchandise here. In theory, it is possible for me to make you ANY Pitman phrase on a T-shirt or mug if I open another Cafepress "store." (May 10, 2005:) Pitman goes galactic! The science-fiction comedy movie THE HITCH-HIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY makes use of a stylized but readable Pitman 2000 shorthand to depict the Vogon language. A book describing the making of the movie reveals this Pitman use and offers movie stills. You can read Pitman phrases like "Demolition Order," "Presidential Release Form," "Information Deleted," and "Depressed? Try Destruction Therapy!" The Pitman Training institute in Britain takes the credit for creating Pitman text seen in the film. (Nov. 2004:) A business school in South India offers a 15-day Pitman Shorthand Course on the Web, with audio. Writing is an unbelievably useful tool to record and communicate ideas. It is cheap, the paper it is written on can travel large distances and is lightweight, printing allows a single book or tract to reach a large number of readers, and the written word can even survive to find generations of new readers across centuries of time. Writing and books survived even after the invention of film, radio and TV, which are much more expensive to produce for the same quantity of ideas. Only computer storage and the Internet have turned out to be faster, cheaper and easier to reproduce and spread than the printed word. However, written languages were not developed with the emphasis on speed. Writing was initially the craft of a distinct class of people, the scribes and the upper class, and they tended not to care how cumbersome their symbols were. Even the streamlined modern shapes of the Latin alphabet, developed for printing and a mass readership in the literate West, are not compact enough. With ordinary, cursive handwriting the best speed of writing is about 35 words per minute (wpm). People, however, speak at about 150 - 180 wpm, SO the scribes who needed to record important speech were faced with a physical problem of keeping up with what was said. As a result they developed alternative, quicker forms of writing, parallel to the usual full-blown form of writing (which is sometimes called longhand.) The scribes of the Roman Empire attempted to solve the problem by making heavy use of abbreviations in their notes together with special symbols, based on the method of Tiro, scribe to the orator Cicero. Even Julius Caesar knew this system himself. To this day we still use their most common abbreviations such as e.g. (Latin for "for example"), i.e. ("that is" or "in other words") and etc. (et cetera, Latin for "and so on". The & symbol also comes from the form of the word "Et"). They also used simplified strokes which were faster to write than conventional letters. A system which uses simple symbols for letters is usually referred to as a shorthand or stenography (a word which comes from the Greek words for "close writing" or "compact writing"). If the symbols are simplified but till-recognizable letters of the alphabet, the system is more properly referred to as a system of speed writing. http://pitmanshorthand.homestead.com/index.htm 5/18/2008 The Joy of Pitman Shorthand Page 2 of 4 Pitman Shorthand: Sir Isaac Pitman (1813-1897) of England developed a system of shorthand and first presented it in 1837, which was gradually perfected and later adapted for 15 languages. The system spread to the United States through the efforts of Isaac's brother Benn, who settled in Cincinnati, Ohio. Although it was not the only shorthand system in use, it did present a number of strengths which made it vastly popular and was learned by a wide audience of writers, office secretaries and newspaper, court and governmental reporters. It was an elegant system of taking rapid notes, but this skill faded away with the advent of pocket tape recorders which could faithfully record speech. Pitman's system has a number of useful features: It is phonetic. Using very simple strokes of the pen, sounds are written down and not the letters themselves. The sound of the letters f ("cliff"), ph ("graph") and gh ("rough") are written exactly the same way, even though they may be spelled differently in different longhand words. Vowel sounds are optional and are written with small dots, dashes or other shapes next to the main strokes. This saves time in writing when the consonants alone make clear what the word is. In the majority of cases, the consonants alone can clearly identify an English word. With experience, the writer recognizes when it is safe to omit the vowels. * The strokes used vary in sound depending on a number of rules. It matters whether the strokes are thick or thin and whether the first stroke of a word is above, on or through the line on the paper. Halving or doubling the length of a stroke is also significant (adding -T/D or -TR/DR/THR to the basic consonant, respectively). * The system developed a large number of "short forms". For example, the letters "th" can represent two sounds (called "unvoiced" and "voiced" th). In Pitman Shorthand they are represented by a curved stroke similar to an open bracket: (. The thin stroke represents the sound of "th" as in the words "thank" and "think", and in fact the single stroke is also used as a short form for these words. The thick stroke ( represents the sound of "th" as in the words "though" and "they"/"them" and is likewise used as the short form for those words as well. Pitman's system has a large number of rules and short-form tricks (and for the sake of shape clarity, many exceptions to these rules!). These are not difficult to learn; anybody can learn them. But practicing the system is difficult because you have to remember all the rules equally, and instantly write the correct symbol for the right sound or group of sounds. You are, in effect, learning a totally new way to write, just as difficult as your struggles to learn to read and write when you were a child struggles which you have probably forgotten now that it is all "second nature" to you. Building up speed can be difficult, but not impossible. At one time, shorthand was universally taught to people who wanted to be office personnel. Some went very far with it indeed -- the world record for fast writing was with the Pitman shorthand system: 350 wpm during a two-minute test by Nathan Behrin in 1922 (according to the Guinness Book of Records). Other Systems: Mention should be made that Pitman shorthand is not the only system of shorthand around. In the United States, Gregg shorthand had surpassed Pitman in popularity. Gregg works on a totally different plan: vowels have strokes of their own and vowels and consonants are written together in words which are continuous, cursive squiggles of lines, curves and loops. The thickness of a line is uniform, and the vertical position of a stroke doesn't matter SO Gregg does not need paper with printed lines for reference. The Gregg system uses a standard steno-notepad ruling of 3 lines to the inch, compared to the somewhat wider lines in Pitman of 3/8 of an inch each. In Gregg, short and long arcs represent different letters, which may cause confusion if the size is miswritten or misjudged. In Pitman, halving or doubling the size of a stroke has a more intricate meaning which cannot be confused for a different starting sound. HOWEVER, Pitman has a similar point of confusion about thick and thin strokes, which represent close but distinct consonant sounds. These can be confused if thick strokes are miswritten as thin and vice-versa. One system of speed writing is Forkner shorthand, in which the letters of cursive handwriting are written with simplified shapes. Vowels in most cases are dispensed with or shown by marks near the written consonants, and (like other systems) there is an extensive set of abbreviations in which single letters or symbols may represent entire words, all designed to avoid ambiguity. Court reporters use stenotype machines, quickly recording sounds on a mechanical device operated by http://pitmanshorthand.homestead.com/index.htm 5/18/2008 The Joy of Pitman Shorthand Page 3 of 4 pressing several keys at a time. I will not get into a war of words over which is the "better" system, but I will merely talk about the system I know. I will willingly link to Web-pages about any alternatives to Pitman. Moi Basics of Pitman Shorthand (with diagrams) PitmanSongs Writing Samples Books and Links on Shorthand More details on the system Downloads The Pitman Gallery Thank you for reading. I wrote this page because I could find no other Web-page that explained Pitman Shorthand, just the odd business course offered here and there in the British Commonwealth. What do you think of this skill? You have two ways of giving me feedback, by signing in in the "guestbook" (which can be read by anyone) or by e-mail ("Send me a message") which is private. Caution: leaving your E-mail address on a Web-page may mean that it will be picked up by "robot" E-mail harvesting programs. These give your E-mail to people who send "spam" E-mail advertising. You may wish to disguise your E-mail and explain to people how you are disguising it, such as substituting letters or adding "REMOVETHISPART" on the right side of the @. One way to confuse these robots is to make a link to this page on your Web-page. SEND ME GUEST BOOK designed with Homestead Sign In View Entries MESSA The obligatory hit counter: You are reader number 363167 This page was last updated on: April 4, 2007 Click on this banner to order "I Love Pitman Shorthand" merchandise: Get unique gifts here cafepressi http://pitmanshorthand.homestead.com/index.html 5/18/2008 The Joy of Pitman Shorthand Page 4 of 4 .com Here is a cool comic-strip (mature readers Here is a personality test to match you to a only). The humour is similar to BLOOM famous personality: COUNTY: SINFEST You are a detached intellectual whose ideas saved/will destroy the world. You are Einstein. You lead with your mind exploring the unknown and helping to invent the future of mankind. What Famous Leader Are You? http://pitmanshorthand.homestead.com/index.htm 5/18/2008 American Family Educator Page 1 of 3 A COMPLETE SCHOOL OF SHORT HAND AT HOME Shorthand in the United States. Shorthand has been used to some extent in the United States since its earliest publication in England. During the early days of the republic a considerable number of works based on Gurney's and Taylor's systems was brought out. After the publication of Pitman's phonography numerous imitators of it appeared in America. In 1854 the first of the Graham publications by Andrew J. Graham appeared, "The Reporters' Manual, a Complete Reporting Style," which was but the beginning of the prolific promulgation of phonographic literature of the Graham system. To Mr. Graham belongs the credit for having SO perfected the Pitman system as to make it an adequate instrument for reporting purposes. The success of Graham's phonography was the cause of its being widely imitated, and at present text- books by a large number of different authors are published. In 1867 "The Complete Phonographer," by James E. Munson, official stenographer of the New York Superior Court, appeared. Mr. Munson adopted the vowel scale used in the "tenth edition" of Isaac Pitman's Phonography, as well as nearly all the consonantal characters. Both Graham's and Munson's shorthand have attained great popularity, and probably are the best known of the American Pitmanic systems. Some of the well-known systems based on the original Pitmanic alphabet are: Graham, Benn Pitman, Munson, Lindsley, Osgoodby, Scott-Browne, Day, Barnes, and Dement. Of another school of authors using an entirely different basis for their systems are: Pernin, Cross, Sloan (Sloan-Duployan), McKee, and others. Up to 1893 nearly all the work of American phonographic authors, with the possible exception of Cross, was done along the line of developing the Pitmanic system. So it may be said that these systems reached the acme of their development many years ago. As Mr. Pitman had said, "all the stenographic material had been used," thereby implying that if there was to be further development along the line of phonographic research and invention, it would have to be accomplished by different means than that adopted in the Pitmanic system and its numerous modifications. The Most Popular System of To-day. In 1893 there was introduced into this country a system by Mr. John R. Gregg, of Liverpool, England, entitled "Light Line Phonography," based on longhand. The invention of this may be said to have marked the beginning of the third and most important era in the evolution of shorthand writing. Phonographers had realized that the possibilities of a system based on the geometrical foundation had long since been exhausted, and that improvements in that direction could not be made, but there was also as full a realization that the limit of phonographic perfection had not by any means been reached. Therefore with the advent of Gregg Shorthand (the title Mr. Gregg later gave to his system), there sprang into existence a new interest in shorthand, and a revolutionary movement began that has reached every part of the civilized globe. There began at once an appalling defection in the ranks of Pitmanic writers; schools that for years had taught one or the other of the Pitmanic modifications, began to investigate and adopt the new system. http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/preservation/educator/book9/pg658.htm 5/19/2008 American Family Educator Page 2 of 3 Pitmanic Shorthand once 196 Mr. Gregg struck out boldly on new lines. The characters of his system are taken from ordinary longhand, which, as the author says, "in the adaptability to the hand embodies all the wisdom of the ages." He uses neither position nor shading, but joins vowels and consonants in their logical sequence and in the order of their delivery in spoken language. Studying closely the causes for the failure of Pitmanic phonography to meet the exacting requirements of a modern civilization, the author of Gregg shorthand, through scientific research, became convinced that shading, position writing, the innumerable exceptions to rules, and the arbitrary characters that abound in the Pitmanic system and its modifications, would have to be abolished in a system that would endure. After exhaustive experiments an alphabet was evolved based on the fundamental phonographic truth, that the value of a letter or shorthand character is determined by its combination with other letters or characters. By the wise selection of the characters for the alphabet, the frequent syllables or combinations of sounds in the language, could be expressed by one stroke of the pen, and with the further great advantage of securing a full phonographic representation. The following brief synopsis will suffice to show the closeness with which the author adhered to great natural principles that govern ordinary longhand, and the resultant legibility: 1. No compulsory thickening; may be written either light or heavy. 2. Written on the slope of longhand, thus securing a uniform manual movement. As in Ordinary 3. Position writing abolished; may be written on unruled paper and in one Writing straight line. 4. Vowels and consonants are joined and follow each other in their natural order. 5. Angles are rare; curves predominate. Gregg shorthand has received the highest scientific endorsement ever given to a system of shorthand, as will appear from the following taken from "Researches on Movements Used in writings," by Cloyd N. McAllister, Ph.D., of the Yale Psychological Laboratory: "For the student of stenography the question of speed is of the greatest importance. The older systems contain many characters that must be made in the direction of the radii of quadrant IV. (the most difficult). These movements are very slow, requiring twenty-seven per cent more time on the average than the movements of quadrant III. (the least difficult). "One system of shorthand introduced into this country in 1893, Gregg shorthand, contains no characters that must be made in either quadrant II. or IV., and the slope of the characters is such that they lie very near the middle of the quadrants I. and III. In this respect, then, this system of shorthand is the most rapid yet devised." http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/preservation/educator/book9/pg658.htm 5/19/2008 American Family Educator Page 3 of 3 In spite of the fact that Mr. Gregg brought his system to the United States at a time when the country was in the throes of a financial panic, and that it was met by the most violent opposition by the ultra-conservative element of the profession, the system sprang almost instantly into popularity. It is in use at present in a larger number of commercial and high schools than any other. Its writers are engaged in every branch of stenographic work from amanuensis to the most difficult reporting, where speed and legibility are indispensable. Future Prospects of the Shorthand System. The field for shorthand is ever widening and with this extension of its usefulness, there comes a constantly increasing demand for greater proficiency. The business men of the United States SO quickly realized the value of shorthand that almost anyone who called himself a stenographer could obtain a situation. But of late years the business has steadied down to a good basis and the demand for really first-class stenographers is greater than ever before. The unparalleled business expansion of the last few years has given an impetus to shorthand that it has never known before. In New York last year one of the large typewriting concerns placed over 5,000 stenographers in positions, the salaries averaging about $50 a month. In Chicago the same concern placed almost as many with only a slight decrease in the average salary. The same was true of all the large cities. Typewriting. Another innovation in the shorthand business that has given it greater prominence, has been the introduction of what is known as touch typewriting, by which is meant the operation of the typewriter without looking at the keys. By this method fully fifty per cent in efficiency is gained, and with it greater accuracy. Besides adding to the efficiency of the typewriter operator, touch typewriting has had the effect of forcing shorthand writers to become proficient in order that the shorthand notes might be read more rapidly to keep pace with the additional speed on the typewriter. Touch typewriting is now taught in all the leading commercial schools, and there are many text-books on the subject. During the last five or six years, the question of teaching shorthand and typewriting in the public schools has been much agitated, and in the larger cities, the high schools and especially the evening schools are taking up this work, and the demand for it seems to be constantly increasing. RULES FOR JOINING CIRCLES SELF INSTRUCTION IN SHORT-HAND WRITING Table of Contents Return to Main Page © 1998, 2002 by Lynn Waterman http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/preservation/educator/book9/pg658.htm 5/19/2008 11/2/2016 Shorthand systems - Vita Brevis Vita Brevis A resource for family history from AmericanAncestors.org Shorthand systems 1 October 3, 2016 Genealogical Writing, Research Methods, Technology Critical Analysis, Object Lessons, Research tips, Spotlight, The Well-Stocked Genealogical Library Zachary Garceau One day, when searching through the town records of THE ALPHABET New Haven, Connecticut, I was struck by one of the entries. The writing appeared like nothing I had ever If 11 seen before. After asking others for their thoughts, we found that none of us had ever seen this form of H ; writing before. After some research, I discovered that in 1. what I had found was notation written in Taylor M 3. ag. Shorthand, a system of writing developed by Samuel N T Taylor in 1786, the first system of shorthand writing to 0 be widely used across the English-speaking world.[1] 7 W X except exercise, that 2. Shorthand has long been used as a method of Y yrs you 2. yet notation, often when time or efficiency is imperative, CH charge 1. much SH. ZH shadow 3 and as a result, it often appears in court documents TH TION tillion premium 3 NC long 2. 3 and meeting minutes. The first known shorthand system was developed by Roman Marcus Tillius Tiro C. From Alfred Janes, Standard 60 B.C. Tiro's shorthand employed abbreviations which are still in use today including 'et' for the word and as Stenography: Being Taylor's well as 'viz,' meaning namely.[2] Shorthand (1882), courtesy of Google Books. Other systems of shorthand gained popularity starting in the eighteenth century. One such system was Universal English Shorthand, developed by John Byrom.[3] The purpose of shorthand systems was made clear in the preface to The Universal English Shorthand (published in 1767), presenting Byrom's system. This work stated that "Mr. Byrom's method of short-hand may be termed, the art of expressing all the words and phrases of the English tongue by a character, which is perfectly regular and beautiful, and, as we conceive, the shortest possible." '[4] http://vita-brevis.org/2016/10/shorthand-systems/ 1/6 11/2/2016 Shorthand systems - Vita Brevis The system developed by Samuel Taylor utilizes characters as shortened forms of letters and words, and was applied in the recording of many records and court documents upon its development in the late eighteenth century. In Taylor Shorthand, vowels are omitted from words except when they begin or end a word, in which case they are represented by a single dot.[5] In many cases, symbols which represent a single letter are also used as an abbreviation for common words in stenography (see table above).[6] The style of writing also contains other unique methods which were generally used to save time. For example, when two consonants come together with the removal of a vowel, the symbol for that consonant is written once in a larger size.[7] Since the publication of Taylor's shorthand method in 1786, other forms of shorthand have also come into popular usage, including Pitman's Shorthand, which was developed and published by Sir Isaac Pitman in 1837. Pitman's Shorthand was unique in that silent and voiced sounds were represented by lines differing in thickness, requiring the writer to use a proper writing implement to successfully convey the correct sounds or syllables.[8] The rise of typewriters, and more recently, personal computers, has led to a significant drop in the importance of shorthand notation. Despite this, a knowledge of these writing systems and their application in the transcription of records in past centuries remains important to genealogists. Notes [1] Sir Isaac Pitman, A History of Shorthand (1891), 48-55. [2] David A. King, The Ciphers of the Monks: A Forgotten Number-Notation of the Middle Ages (2001), 61- 63. [3] John Byrom, The Universal English Short-Hand (1767). [4] Ibid., i. [5] Alfred Janes, Standard Stenography: Being Taylor's Shorthand (1882), 18. [6] Ibid., 6. [7] Ibid., 10. [8] Sir Isaac Pitman, Brief Course in Isaac Pitman Shorthand: An Exposition of the Author's System of Phonography, Arranged in Twenty-seven Lessons (1914), 3. Share this: F P More 116 4 About Zachary Garceau http://vita-brevis.org/2016/10/shorthand-systems/ 2/6