Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: hand drawn

A postcard-sized example of ornamental penmanship featuring a flourished bird. The piece is unsigned and may date to as early as the 1880s or 1890s. "Compliments of Mr. and Mrs. J. S. Shoemaker, Dakota, Ill." Joseph Shellenberger Shoemaker (1854-1936) was a well-known bishop in the Mennonite Church. He and his wife, Elizabeth Sechrist Brubaker (1856-1931), were married in 1877, and they were members of the Freeport Mennonite Church in Freeport, Illinois. For additional examples of bird flourishes and other ornamental penmanship, see my Writing, Lettering, Flourishing album and the Clinton Clark Scrapbook , which was uploaded to the Internet Archive by IAMPETH (International Association of Master Penmen, Engrossers, and Teachers of Handwriting).

"Chas. H. Smith. Compliments." (I'm not sure that the middle initial is H, however.) An impressive example of ornamental penmanship on a hand-drawn and -lettered "flourished" calling card that likely dates to the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. Note how the bird appears to be eyeing an insect of some sort. Here are some other similarly ornate cards: Although it's not as ornate, this flourished card also features a bird chasing after an insect: This one's even simpler: The design on the following calling card is printed, but it imitates the hand-drawn and -lettered cards:

"What do you call a fake noodle? An impasta." Doodled drawing on a scrap of paper found at a store, Mechanicsburg, Pa., May 15, 2015.

"A Happy New Year. Haddocks. Come to your milk now." A Victorian-era New Year calling or greeting card with a hand-drawn sketch. "Come to your milk" seems to have had a specific meaning in the nineteenth century beyond pulling on a calf's tail to try to get it to drink out of a milk bucket. Besides a few hits on the phrase in Google Books, however, I haven't uncovered any source that reveals what that meaning might have been.

"Clara H. Watkins, Landlady, Hotel, Long Green, Md."