The P. R. Spencer Papers at the Newberry Library

In September 2023, I visited the Newberry Library located in Chicago, IL for an afternoon with the Platt R. Spencer papers. The collection was the gift of Percy Hayden Sloan, P. R. Spencer’s grandson.

The papers are extensive and cover the life and work of P. R. Spencer and his children, many of whom went on to illustrious careers as penmen or owners of business colleges. I focused my limited time on the scrapbooks found in “Series 7: Penmanship Samples”.

Prior to the visit, I assumed that the scrapbooks were personal collections from the Spencer family. Much to my surprise, there were scrapbooks collected by several noted penmen such as F. S. Heath, Fielding Schofield, F. B. Davis and others.

I tried my best to take good photos in a challenging environment. After about 2 hours, I gave up and focused on quantity instead of quality. They are good for study, but many of them have the shadow of my hand and phone over them.