It’s still July, when we celebrate the United States’ independence, so I’ll squeeze in a little news on a past patriotic project of mine. About 15 years ago, Ryan Thelen came to me with a very different type of calligraphy project. A history teacher, Ryan had looked everywhere for life sized, genuine calfskin versions of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Only finding miniature copies on brown crinkly paper, Ryan approached me with the intent of reproducing all of the docs himself. He wanted to get these in front of classrooms, law offices, libraries and many other types of people and places. They were originally all engrossed on very large calfskins. Although I mainly hand letter creative projects, this technical project (I had to recreate the letter forms just as they were back in the 1770’s), intrigued me, so I took it on.
I would love to explain it all, but this is a teaser for an article that is coming out in Scripsit, in the Fall. Scripsit is a newsletter put out by the awesome Washington Calligraphers Guild. You can find this calligraphy publication on their website. Lorraine Swerdhoff has done a thorough job of diving into our project, as well as the history of all three Engrossers. An Engrosser is “a person who meticulously copies official documents in a large, clear hand.” I will add that as engrossers developed their art, they added decorative borders, illuminated letters (gold leaf) and small illustrations to the documents. In addition, many docs were not always government focused, such as these, but often retirement and recognition awards. Not so on these early government documents. They were straightforward official documents. Iron gall ink on calfskin. Lettering styles included Romans, Scripts and Old English.
Although the calfskin pictured above has brown markings on it, the originals were not as wild and more off-white. I buy many of my calfskins (and leathers for book covers from a family business called Pergamena. Jesse Meyer was my original contact – I met him at a calligraphy conference years ago.
You can take a sneak peek at the calligraphy and reproduction end of the project on Ryan’s website Patrigraphica.com. Ryan sells the calfskin version at Monticello. On my website, you will find letterpress editions for purchase of both the Declaration of Independence and the original Bill of Rights. They are less expensive than the versions on calfskin. Still very high quality.
Back on July 3, 2014, Ryan, Jesse and I were featured in an interview with Steve Dusey and Elizabeth Hasselbeck, on Fox & Friends News in NYC. It was a memorable trip. Ryan explained the project, I stood at my drawing board with quill and parchment. Jesse came down to the city and stretched a skin on a rack so that people could see part of the preparation process. This is our ‘after the interview’ picture.
Yes, that’s me with dark hair. I’m 11 years older now….
All of my former Blog post from the past 10+ years (previous to this one) were lost in the transition from one website to another. I will be recreating some of them as I have time.