Palmer Method Palmer Method The Palmer Method of penmanship instruction was developed and promoted by Austin Palmer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was largely created as a simplified style of the "Spencerian Method", which had been the major standardized system of handwriting since the 1840s. The Palmer Method soon became the most popular handwriting system in the United States. Under the method, students were taught to adopt a uniform system of cursive writing with rhythmic motions. The method developed around 1888 and was introduced in the book "Palmer's Guide to Business Writing" (1894). Palmer's method involved "muscle motion"
James A. Palmer James A. Palmer James A. Palmer, who signed his work J. A. Palmer (1825–June 1896), was an Irish-American photographer who produced thousands of stereographs about life in Aiken, South Carolina and Georgia. Palmer was born in Ireland and he moved with his family and settled in Rochester, New York when he was young. Palmer and his wife, Mary E. Palmer, had two sons, Charles born in 1861 in Illinois and Thomas born October 1869 in Georgia. During the Civil War, he served in Company F of the 99th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment and his residence was Perry, Pike County, Illinois.