For the tech-savvy youth of today, reading and writing cursive is a skill viewed as almost entirely obsolete.
Save for handwritten name cards adorning a wedding reception table, most don’t see the loss of cursive curriculum as a major deficit, though studies suggest it can improve cognitive development and fine motor skills.
But being able to read cursive could be the difference between remembering and forgetting the stories of the past.
A group of AmeriCorps volunteers at Bowling Green State University has taken up the mantle of deciphering cursive handwriting in old documents. Volunteers gather to translate handwritten cursive into typed text to preserve women’s history.
They call it “Cursive for a Cause.”
The documents are often written by women, and are letters, diaries, and journals that live in the university’s archives. Some are heartfelt correspondence between mothers and their children. Others might be recipes or financial documents.
All of them are worthy of remembrance, volunteers believe.
“That’s another aspect of history that shouldn’t be forgotten,” Cecilia Seibert of AmeriCorps told BG Independent News.
Many who work in these fields can read cursive with relative ease, but here, their efforts are focused on both the past and the future, ensuring historians will be able to understand archives in the future.
“I think it’s important to digitize these things to make them accessible to everyone,” Rob Snyder, a volunteer told BG Independent News.
It’s not always easy; some cursive is messy and lacks punctuation. But with laptops in hand — and reading glasses at the ready — volunteers are up to the task, one that seems small but plays a real role in preserving history.
“Many historical documents exist only in handwritten form, which limits their discoverability and use online. Many researchers find cursive to be challenging to read,” a summary of the event held at the university explained.
“By creating transcripts, volunteers help turn these materials into searchable digital resources that support accessibility, public history, and community research.”
A version of this article was originally published in The 2026 Storytelling Edition of the Goodnewspaper.
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