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Accounting	Engineering Electrical	Livestock Rabbits and Cavies	Refrigeration
Aeroplanes	Engineering General	Livestock Sheep	Sanitation
Airships	Engineering Hydraulics	Livestock Swine	Sewage
Archery	Engraving and Woodcuts	Machine Tools	Sewing
Architecture	Ethics	Machinerys Reference	Shelter
Astronomy	Farming	Masterpieces of Eloquence	Shipbuilding
Baking	Farming Corn	Mathematics	Shoemaking
Banking	Farming Fish	Mechanical Drawing	Shorthand
Basketry	Farming Potato and Sweet Potato	Medical Anesthesia	Silk Culture
Bee Journal American	Firearms Books	Medical Courses US Army	Sliderules
Bee Journal British	Firearms Manuals	Medical Diagnostics	Smithing
Beekeeping	Fishing	Medical Emergency	Soap
Berries	Food	Medical Hypnotism	Steam Engines
Boilermaker	Forestry	Medical Medicine 1900-1922	Stone and Masonry
Bookbinding	Forging and Casting	Medical Microscopy	Sulphuric Acid
Books for Boys and Girls	Formulas	Medical Nursing	Surveying
Books for Young Children	Fuels	Medical Obstetrics 1900-1922	Survival Individual
Botany	Geodesy	Medical Surgery 1900-1922	Teaching
Boy Scout Manuals	Geography	Medical Surgery 2	Teaching Arithmetic
Brewing and Distilling	Glassmaking	Medical X Rays	Teaching Civics
Bridges and Dams	Grapes Wine Raisins	Meteorology	Teaching Penmanship
Butchering	Great Books	Mimeograph	Teaching Phonics
Canning	Gunpowder and Explosives	Miscellaneous	Teaching Readers
Cheese and Butter	Hatmaking	Monasticism	Teaching Readers McGuffey
Chemistry	Heating	Morality	Telegraph and Telephone
Christmas	Heavy Industrial Machinery	Mushrooms	Thanksgiving
Clockmaking	Hemp and Flax	Musical Instruments	Tobacco
Coal and Mining	Herbalism	Navigation	Toys
Coffee and Tea	History American	NBC	Trapping and Hunting
Concrete	History World	Opium	Turpentine Glue Solvents
Conduct of Life	Home Economics	Optometry	Veterinary
Construction	Horses	Painting	Wagons and Coaches
Cooking and Cookbooks	Journalism	Papermaking	Weaving
Cotton	Knitting Lace Needlepoint	Photography	Welding
Cycles Bi Tri Motor	Laundry	Pottery	Wind and Water
Dentistry	Law	Poultry	Wood Carpentry
Dogs	Leather	Primers	Wood Carving
Drilling	Leisure Games and Sports	Printing	Wood Furniture
Economics	Leisure Recreation Magazine	Radio	World Depression
Embalming	Leisure Whist	Radio 73 Magazine	Scientific American Series 1
Encyclopedias	Lithography	Railroads	Scientific American Series 2
Engineering Drainage	Livestock Cattle	Rat Control

Got an email from a friend in Guyana in South America who sent me the names of some books on Penmanship and asked why I didn’t have a Category for that.

After thinking about it for a minute or two I replied “Because I’m stupid and never thought about it.” or words to that effect. I took the titles he sent and started searching through some of the sources I use and without a lot of effort found about 50 of them. I collected them, did some cleanup work on them and got them posted.

We take for granted that we can shoot something to the printer, send a text or just email someone. In a world trying to rebuild at a pre-electrical level none of those, obviously, will be available. That means messages, notes, mail, documents and pretty much any written communication will be done by hand. Surprisingly a significant number of students these days cannot read or write cursive. I actually had an employee at the company where I used to work bring a note to me that I had left with some computer instructions and say she couldn’t read it. It was in cursive. Seriously.

Anyone who has ever done any writing using block letters knows that it is really slow compared to cursive and actually fatiguing after a bit. Someone practiced in cursive can write very rapidly and clearly (excluding Physicians of course) and with far less fatigue than block printing. Cursive has been in use for thousands of years and methods of writing where each letter flows into the next makes writing far more practical than any form of block writing. Cursive writing has been taught in U.S. schools almost since the country’s founding and I suspect most countries have taught it even longer.

Surprisingly cursive writing from a couple hundred years ago is still readable to most folks since alphabets have not changed significantly in quite a while. So while spelling changes and word meaning and grammar do change the actual process of cursive writing has not to any great degree.

A few of the books have sections on trimming quill pens since they have been in use for a long, long time and are still used by some hobbyists, calligraphers and artists. Making a quill pen and properly trimming one as it is used is a real lost art. Few if any people still know it. Fortunately there are several sections in these books that cover the subject.

So enjoy and Thanks you Damon for alerting me to this missing but vital Category.

The Librarian

Survivor Library

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2026-03-23TEACHING-PENMANSHIP CATEGORY ADDED