Quill Pens Scribed American History

Exactly how did the Pilgrims draft the Mayflower Compact? With care, thought and a quill pen. In fact, quill pens were used for more than 1,000 years, longer than any other writing instrument.

They have scripted major turning points in American history, like the Mayflower Compact, the United States Constitution and the famous Lewis and Clark Exhibition of 1804.

Meriwether Lewis, for example, used a quill pen to scribe his famous trek from St. Louis, Missouri to Oregon. When his supply of powdered ink ran out, he combined egg whites, ashes and honey to make his own liquid ink.

The quill pen, meanwhile, was made from the feathers of any available large bird, like goose or turkey. The strongest feathers on the bird’s left wing were considered the most desirable because they would curve away from a right-handed writer, instead of tickling his nose.

The pen was made by dipping the stem of a feather in hot water, then cutting the tip at an angle to form a point. The point was then split with a knife. (The term penknife came from the knife that was used to cut the end of a feather).

The life of a single quill pen was short. Like the pencil, the tip had to be resharpened often to keep it sharp. Thus, a quill pen generally lasted only a week, before a new one was needed. But that wasn’t a problem. Feathers were easy to acquire because most users lived on farms or plantations.

Today, any small feather from a songbird or a chicken can be used to write or draw, since both have naturally fine tips. Try writing with this feather – and then think about the good penmanship that our ancestors had, even while they crossing the Atlantic to draft the Mayflower Compact.