Episode 17: Oh Genie Who Directs The Hands Of Mortals!

Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant: A Women's History

Elizabeth Willing Powel to John Hare Powel, 6-17 April 1809 In which Elizabeth Powel and her nephew bicker through letters over just how unreadable his handwriting is. She argues that "to your mother, it is algebra." Come for the familial banter, stay for the discussion of 18th century epistolary education! I am delighted to be joined this week by the ever lovely and intelligent Samantha Snyder, reference librarian at the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon. Further Reading: For more on Elizabeth Willing Powel and Jon Hare Powel's correspondence, see this Finding Aid from the Philadelphia Historical Society: https://hsp.org/sites/default/files/legacy_files/migrated/findingaidlcppowel.pdf More on Elizabeth Willing Powel: https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/elizabeth-willing-powel/ Richard Dury, "Handwriting and the Linguistic Study of Letters," in Studies in Late Modern English Correspondence, ed. Marina Dossena and Ingrid Tieken Boon van Ostade (Berlin: Peter Lang, 2008), 113-136. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Studies_in_Late_Modern_English_Correspon/zKpBOhu00ggC?hl=en&gbpv=0 James Alderson, "Orthographical exercises: in a series of moral letters. To which is added, a selection of essays, &c. taken from the best English writers," London, 1793.