Anyone who grew up in the 1960s, or earlier, was required to use a fountain pen in school. I remember how excited I was when I got to the fourth grade and was allowed to use a pen instead of a pencil, sort of a right of passage. In the 1960s we used Sheaffer cartridge fountain pens, never a ballpoint pen. The nuns insisted that the nib on a fountain pen taught you proper, flowing penmanship. I hadn’t seen a Sheaffer cartridge pen in years until my visit to the Sheaffer Pen Museum in Fort Madison, Iowa. Read more