H416/0186 Rights Managed
530 pixels on longest edge, watermarked
Credit: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
Caption: Isaac Pitman. Portrait of Sir Isaac Pitman (1813- 97), British inventor of a widely-used shorthand system. Pitman's system was the first to be based on an interpretation of the sound of a language rather than how it was written. In this phonetic system, two words which sounded alike but which were normally spelt differently would be written in the same way. Pitman first published his system in his Stenographic Sound Hand in 1837. It became widespread, especially with the spread of typing, and it has been adapted to over 15 languages. Pitman produced many pamphlets on spelling reform, including Phonotypy (1844), in which he argued for the removal of irregular word spellings.
Release details: Model and property releases are not available
Keywords: communication, inventor, isaac, pitman, portraits, shorthand, surname p, writing
High-resolution files: Approved customers can download high-resolution files directly from the site. A licence fee will be charged for the images used in your project.