The efficient writing style once thrived in U.S. businesses and schools, but researchers fret that today’s lack of cursive literacy may have a surprising impact on history—and ourselves.

Just how long have humans been using cursive writing? Scholars credit Niccolo Niccoli, a 15th Century Italian, ... By the 1920s, the Palmer method was used in most American schools.

By the late 1800s, publisher and educator Austin Norman Palmer from Fort Jackson, N.Y., developed a new cursive style that was dubbed "The Palmer Method," according to the NMAH.

The cursive form was still the Palmer Method. “Reading teachers urged the use of handwriting styles that more closely resembled the type font in books,” says Yank.

Palmer method 1 Articles . ... I enjoy the act of writing by hand — but I’ve always ... which was designed to ease the transition from printing to cursive with its curly tails on every letter.

Their forte was teaching us the Palmer Penmanship Method, drilling into us the importance of forming big looping lines when we wrote the letter g, to make serpentine curlicues out of our s’s ...

The Palmer Method became the most popular style of cursive writing in the United States. A few schools in this area used a style of cursive known as the Peterson Directed Handwriting system.