A calligrapher and artist, she started teaching handwriting at a local school, basing her letters on italic script—the elegant, quick form developed in early-16 th-century Italy.

Some letters are called long ladder letters because they have a long straight line in them.. For example: l, i, t, u, j and y. Watch the following clip to learn more about these letters.

The letters here, from the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art, show that an artist might put pen to paper just as he or she would apply a line to a drawing. For each artist, a leading authority ...