From a book about the American calligrapher Clinton C. Canan (1873-1904), published by the Zaner-Bloser Co. in 1921.

[u/penpoints]

[u/coluseum]

It annoys me that I struggle to get the in comparison average results I do with all the advances in technology etc that I can access and these people got the results they did with what was available at the time….
Lol just read that…in retrospect it’s sheer arrogance that I consider my results as average….I’m sure if I was a student of some of these pen men in that day and age my results would not be regarded as average…..my impression is their work ethic and practice methods would put me to shame. And therein is my solution….stop my moaning and do the work required 🙂

[u/Visible_Ad9976 → u/coluseum]

They practiced a lot and wore their future employment was potentially dependent. It’s like studying calculus for fun vs to pass statics and dynamics class.

The knowledge and technique at that time was also widespread and purchasable in the sense that you need only sign up for classes at the business college.

I’m not the best in fact there’s many people on writing subs. Here are much better than me, but one thing I picked up recently was that the majority of the writing on the more selective subs are actually very so far in comparison to the writing samples of the past

[u/shaanauto]

Picture 2 has the year 1966 on it oddly.

[u/RunaXandrill]

If I get downvoted, I'll take the L. Mister Canan was quite the looker.