shaped like a feather

Last week's De Smet News included a photograph of a local fifth grader writing with a quill (feather) pen. The caption indicated that he was using "an old-fashioned quill and a bottle of ink... in honor of Laura Ingalls Wilder's birthday."

I am really hoping that teachers aren't telling students that Laura Ingalls wrote with a feather pen, or maybe they know something that I don't. Or possibly the confusion is that LIW described Ma's pen as having a handle "shaped like a feather" (see The Long Winter, Chapter 16, "Fair Weather").

While quill pens were common at the beginning of the nineteenth century, inventors were always trying to come up with a more reliable and permanent tool for writing. Nibs for quills or pen holders were made of tortoise shell, bone, gold, and even precious stones. While these lasted longer than quills, ink tended to dry upon them and handwriting suffered due to their lack of elasticity. The boy in the De Smet photograph seems to have been using a whole feather to write with, and his penmanship suffered accordingly.

The use of the steel pen didn't spring immediately from that of the quill pen; there were several intermediate stages before the steel pen was widely accepted in the mid-1800s, or perhaps a bit later by the more old-fashioned.

In 1830, a steel pen cost about $2.00; in 1832, $1.50, and by 1861, the cost was down to 12 cents, with a common variety selling for a penny or less. Note that "pen" refers to the nib itself; the holder was sold separately.

Ma's red mother-of-pearl pen with the handle in the shape of a feather is on display at the Laura Ingalls Wilder / Rose Wilder Lane Home & Museum in Mansfield, Missouri.
- posted by pioneergirl at 1:59 AM