https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/the-human-alphabet/ * Home * Essays * Collections * Explore * Shop * Support PDR * About * Blog Search Search The Public Domain Review [ ][View All Results] The Public Domain Review The Public Domain Review PDRSupport PDR * Essays * Collections * Explore * Shop * About * Blog * * * * * * Grid of images from the PDIA Visit Our New Project, The Public Domain Image ArchiveA Curated Collection of 10,000+ Images, Free for All to Explore, Download, and Reuse Collections / Images The Human Alphabet alhpabetbanner In Louisa May Alcott's Little Women (1868-69), we are told how "Demi learned his letters with his grandfather, who invented a new mode of teaching the alphabet by forming letters with his arms and legs, thus uniting gymnastics for head and heels." Composed across more than half a millennium, the images gathered below also unite contortion and composition, and seem to celebrate the innate humanness of writing, which tops the list of qualities that distinguish our dear species most distinctly from our fellow animals. Typographical characters have long had an affinity with the character and shape of the human body. As Peter John Brownlee has discussed, geometer Luca Pacioli, engraver Geoffroy Tory, and other late Renaissance figures "utilized the human anatomy as scaffolding on which to form properly proportioned letters". We find such scaffolding in Peter Flotner's woodcut Menschenalphabet (1534), where the artist's own body is often reworked into elegantly balanced letters. Later instances of the embodied alphabet depart from Renaissance celebrations of humanism toward subtle commentary on the character-forming qualities of pedagogy. The Comical Hotch Potch, or the Alphabet Turn'd Posture Master (published in Britain in 1782 and later reproduced in 1812 by Philadelphia printer James Webster), for instance, features obsequious men striving to affect the alphabet: "He first finds a way, To form a great A", "L sits him down easy, And hopes for to please ye", "To please every sex, I am forming an X". With the advent of photography, the conceit gained new life. A photo series of human letters appeared in an 1897 article by William G. FitzGerald for The Strand Magazine. "The idea of building up each letter of the alphabet and each figure from 1 to 0 out of the bodies of human beings is an absolutely unique 'notion.'", he writes, and takes a page from Alcott's book: "Our human alphabet may also suggest to hard-worked teachers of infants a novel way of imparting to little ones their letters". As the image gallery below demonstrates, the claim of being an absolutely unique notion is certifiably untrue, but this "real" human alphabet is indeed bulkier, for there are living bodies at play. FitzGerald bemoans the clunkiness of E: "It is rather a pity that Mr. Harry Delevine's body is so prominent, thereby making the upper part of the letter unduly thick. But what would you [do]? It was quite unavoidable." Medium * Images Theme * Design & Typography Style * Painting & Drawing * Manuscript Illumination * Book Illustration * Design * Engraving Epoch * Pre-16th Century * 16th Century * 17th Century * 18th Century * 19th Century Tags alphabet18best of design52best of language and communication25 typography8best of images86design31alphabet books15 Indexed under... A * Alphabetmade of humans Source Source Various Rights Underlying Work PD Worldwide Rights Digital Copy Various - see source links. Rights Download Download Right click on image or see source for higher res versions Found Found Via Zoe Typelark / Io9 / Spamula.net / Sotirios Via Raptis Bourbonnoise Alphabet, unknown artist (1789)Scroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Buy as a Print Bourbonnoise Alphabet, unknown artist, 1789 -- Source. The Comical Hotch Potch, or The Alphabet turn'd Posture-Master (1782) Scroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. The Comical Hotch Potch, or The Alphabet turn'd Posture-Master, 1782 -- Source. The Man of Letters, or Pierrot's Alphabet (1794)Scroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. The Man of Letters, or Pierrot's Alphabet, 1794 -- Source. Page from a Tudor pattern book, (ca. 1520) human alphabetScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Page from a Tudor pattern book (ca. 1520) -- Source. Peter Flotner's Human AlphabetScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Peter Flotner's "Human Alphabet", 1534 -- Source. Pages from The Funny Alphabet (ca. 1850)Scroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Pages from The Funny Alphabet (ca. 1850) -- Source. Honore Daumier's comic alphabet (1836)Scroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Honore Daumier's comic alphabet, 1836 -- Source. Page from the Horae ad usum Parisiensem, 1475-1500Scroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Page from the Horae ad usum Parisiensem (1475-1500) -- Source. Attributed to Lampridio Giovanardi (1811-1878), Anthropomorphic or Posture Master Alphabet (ca. 1860)Scroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Attributed to Lampridio Giovanardi, 1811-1878, Anthropomorphic or Posture Master Alphabet, ca. 1860 -- Source. Detail from above.Scroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Detail from above. Part of the painted alphabet of Giovannino de' Grassi (d. 1398)Scroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Part of the painted alphabet of Giovannino de' Grassi (d. 1398) -- Source. Pages from *Alfabeto in sogno* (1683) by Giuseppe Maria MitelliScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Page from Alfabeto in sogno (1683) by Giuseppe Maria Mitelli. The title translates as Dream Alphabet -- Source. *Alfabeto in sogno* (1683) by Giuseppe Maria MitelliScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Page from Alfabeto in sogno (1683) by Giuseppe Maria Mitelli. The title translates as Dream Alphabet -- Source. *Alfabeto in sogno* (1683) by Giuseppe Maria MitelliScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Page from Alfabeto in sogno (1683) by Giuseppe Maria Mitelli. The title translates as Dream Alphabet -- Source. Pages from Alfabeto in sogno (1683) by Giuseppe Maria MitelliScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Page from Alfabeto in sogno (1683) by Giuseppe Maria Mitelli. The title translates as Dream Alphabet -- Source. Choreographic interpretation of the letter "K", photographed from the book Abeceda (1926)Scroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Choreographic interpretation of the letter "K", photographed from the book Abeceda (1926) -- Source. Word TYPES made from letters looking like human bodiesScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Cover illustration (detail) from Chicago Times Portfolio of Midway Types (1895) -- Source. Photograph of humans arranged as lettersScroll through the whole page to download all images before printing. Illustration from The Strand Magazine, 1897 -- Source. Want this image on your wall? 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