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Creator
Healey, Horace Grant, 1867-1938
Call number
MssCol 1366
Physical description
8.5 linear feet (6 boxes, 4 v., 2 oversize folders)
Language
Materials in English
Preferred Citation

Horace Grant Healey penmanship collection, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library

Repository
Manuscripts and Archives Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.
Portions of this collection have been digitized and are available online.

Horace Grant Healey (1867-1938) was a practitioner of the art of penmanship. His career included teaching in New York City schools and affliation with the Penman's Art Journal and its successor, Business Journal. Collection consists of scrapbooks, notebooks and posters, all of which contain writing specimens. Scrapbooks include calling cards, letters, envelopes, flourishes, photographs, and various samples of penmanship sent to Healey. Other writing samples are penmanship exercises and assignments done by students. Also, some photographs of correspondents.

Biographical/historical information

Horace G. Healey (1867-1938) was a practitioner of the art of penmanship. During his career he taught at Evander Childs High School in New York City and served as the Chairman, Department of Writing at the High School of Commerce, also located in New York. His book, The Healey System of Free Arm Movement Writing, (New York: The American Book Co., 1909), serves as a practical manual to his particular style of penmanship. Healey and the other "penmen" of his time appreciated the artistic value of penmanship, but were also involved in promoting the practical aspects of their art for business and commercial education. These "penmen", who often worked as teachers, designers or engrosses, were served by a professional journal, the Penman's Art Journal (1877-1910) and its successor, the Business Journal (1910-). Many writing specimens in the Collection are addressed to Healey in care of the Journal, but his official position with the publication, if any, is unclear. Horace G. Healey died December 9, 1938 in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Scope and arrangement

The Collection consists of 15 scrapbooks, 4 notebooks and 15 posters, all of which contain samples of various styles of penmanship for the period 1878-1911. Included in the scrapbooks are calling cards, letters, envelopes, flourishes, photographs and various samples sent to Healey at Penman's Art Journal. The letters are not of interest for their content, which often concerned subscription information, book orders or words of praise for the publication, but for the penmanship skills of the writers. Other writing samples include penmanship exercises and assignments done by students, both in the United States and the United Kingdom. The scrapbooks are indexed by the names of the individual contributors or by the name of the school in the case of the student specimens.

Scrapbooks A & B contain many specimens and letters addressed to a Professor D. T. Ames, Esq. who was also affiliated with the Penman's Art Journal. These two volumes are notable in that they contain photographs of many of the correspondents.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

November 1937, Received from Horace G. Healey

Processing information

Accessioned by fp, 10/24/1985

Using the collection

Location

Manuscripts and Archives Division
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room, Third Floor, Room 328