Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Stenographic Notes

I stumbled on this phrase while researching the railroads and while I thought I knew what the writer was saying, I wanted to double check. What I found was an interesting tidbit.

First the quote from the article I was reading:
My friends of the Railroad Gazette informed me that in such event they would have stenographic notes taken for a report that would appear in their paper.

Naturally I presumed shorthand. Which the writer was intending. Wikipedia shows there were several varieties of short hand in the 19th Century. Here's a link to view the Lord's Prayer in several of those forms.

A basic timeline of shorthand in the 19th century.
Pitman shorthand introduced in 1837
Graham shorthand introduced in 1854 (credited with perfecting Pitman's shorthand)
Munson shorthand introduced in 1867
Gregg Shorthand introduced in 1888

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