WASHINGTON — Before the days of Blackberries and instant messaging, lovers often sharpened their goose quills, dipped them into homemade ink, folded their letters into little oblongs and sealed ...

The quill pen that Admiral Lord Nelson wrote his last, unfinished letter on HMS Victory two days before the Battle of Trafalgar in southern Spain has sold for £10,000.

The quill pen was the writing instrument of Colonial America. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence on his famous lap desk using a quill. The Constitution of the United States wa… ...

The number of quill pens that were produced in the early 19th century were astounding. Germany used 50 million quill pens per year. In 1832, England was importing 36.6 million quills from abroad ...

Quill pens were generally made from the five outer feathers of a goose or swan’s wing. The end of the feather was shaped to a point, ... Connecticut, where their textiles, clothes, utensils, ceramics, ...

I started writing with a quill pen as part of the research for my new book, ... It wasn’t the only option, though. Swan quills, which are thicker, came in handy when writing big, bold letters.