Reading an 18th-century document
| Link | Description |
|---|---|
| London Lives - How to Interpret an 18th Century Manuscript | Very useful links to sites concerned with eighteenth-century handwriting. |
| Heaving this Importunity: The survival of opening fomulas in letters in the 18th and 19th centuries | A good site for understanding, interpreting and analysing 18th century letters. This is a detailed walk through a typical letter, with commentary on minor details. Useful for teachers and students trying to make sense of past correspondence methods and styles. |
| DoHistory - Try Transcribing | This site is an excellent do-it-yourself page for transcribing 18th century handwriting. The page also has a checker to see if you’ve transcribed the lines correctly. It is a handy page for students trying to read and decipher 18th century primary source texts. |
| Great Writers Inspire (University of Oxford) | This site offers a range of sources related to literary topics, figures, and themes. The collection is intended for students of all ages, as well as teachers. The sources are free to access online and range from e-books to published lectures. The purpose of the site is to aid students in their academic research. A major highlight of this site is the recorded lectures which are free to listen to and the ability to search by author, literary theme, or historical and cultural themes. It also includes a library search engine for the materials on the site. |
| Letter Writing Style of 1775 | This site offers information to students and teachers interested in the mannerisms and writing styles of 18th century people. There are write-ups on how letters were addressed and written, the sort of style it was written in, as well as information on other cultural norms such as dancing, health knowledge, courtship, calling cards, general etiquette, etc. It is a good overview of how 18th century people lived and how they interacted in their society. It also includes lesson plan ideas for teachers. |
| DoHistory - How to Ready 18th Century British-American Writing | This site a how-to walkthough in reading and making sense of the epistolary style of that century. It alsooffers handwriting samples and explanations of calligraphy types |
| Jack Lynch - A Guide to Eighteenth-Century English Vocabulary [PDF] | This online article describes and analyses 18th century English vocabulary and its differences from today’s modern English. Useful for attempting to understand primary source readings. The long list of vocabulary and their modern definitions is particularly helpful. |
Our thanks to the Bodleian Library for the use of the image in our banner: "William Green Jr. (fl. 1732–1752), Scene at an Oxford Book Auction, oil on canvas, 1747; Bodleian Library. Portrait LP.701, 1F.”