Help Decipher Shorthand?

[eddieedd]

1860s-1940s

Recently I was given a notebook supposedly owned by my Great-Grandmother filled with shorthand and various newspaper articles varying from Ulysses S. Grant to the sinking of the titanic and all the way to the explosion of the Hindenburg...  She was local to Pittsburg and Philly and possibly other cities in PA.  This is a scanned page from the notebook, if anyone believes they are onto something or thinks it's possible to decipher a point in the right direction or some help would be very useful.  This is page 25 of the notebook.

[Sara2212]

Definitely Pitman shorthand. I can read a few words but it would take me ages to work it all out as my shorthand is so rusty not having done it for over twenty years. Hopefully someone with a better knowledge than me will have a go.  I'll keep looking at it and see if I can get the general drift of what it's about.

Sara

[Billyblue]

Can we get a more readable version please?
It looks like Pitman but then it may be Summerhayes which looks like Pitman but has different meanings.
Though not sure that Summerhayes would have been known in USA.  Did she originate there?
Dawn M

[KarenM]

Hi there,

To me, it looks like Gregg Shorthand, not Pittman 

http://gregg.angelfishy.net/

Karen

[eddieedd]

Definitely Pitman shorthand. I can read a few words but it would take me ages to work it all out as my shorthand is so rusty not having done it for over twenty years. Hopefully someone with a better knowledge than me will have a go.  I'll keep looking at it and see if I can get the general drift of what it's about.

Sara

What words can you make out? Also do you know of a website with a list of translations for pitman shorthand? Thanks.

[Sara2212]

The words I can make out don't give any meaning to the piece which makes me wonder whether the writer had their own style of Pitman.  I've done a comparison with Gregg shorthand and still think it is Pitman.  If you Google Pitman you'll get some websites which will show you the outlines.

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/shorthand.htm

This site will show you the two styles and may help you decide whether it's Pitman or not.  I'd be interested to know if any other Pitman readers can make anything out.

Sorry I'm not of much help,
Sara

[HeatherLynne]

It does look like Pitman to me too, but like Sara I can't make any sensible phrases.  I wondered if the newspaper clipping fixed to the bottom might give some clues as to the text - perhaps the writing was a transcription of the talk given on Pan-America but I can't see any outlines that would fit.  Hmm a bit of a conundrum!

[Billyblue]

I looked again and think it isn't Summerhayes (which incidentally is not mentioned on the website given by Sara) because although the strokes look alike, the vowels are different.

People often changed things to their own way, in Pitman, I'm told so maybe that's why the Pitman readers can't make any sense of it?

Dawn M

[asouthern]

I can make out some words in this but not enough to write a sensible draft of it.   There is no punctuation but perhaps the downward diagonal strokes could be intended to end the sentences or denote a new paragraph.  In Pitmans shorthand two diagonal strokes denote  a new para.