Jane Bragg Pitman (September 1, 1825 – February 11, 1877) was an English-born reporter known for her

shorthand Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to Cursive, longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Gr ...

in the United States. She was also active in the arts and crafts movement in the United States for her

wood engraving Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image into a block of wood. Functionally a variety of woodcut, it uses relief printing, where the artist applies ink to the face of the block and prints using relatively l ...

Biography

Jane Bragg was born in

Birmingham, England Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands region, in England. It is the largest local authority district in England by population and the second-largest cit ...

, in 1825. She was the second daughter of a family with four sisters, Mary Ann, Elizabeth, Caroline and Maria and five brothers, Thomas, John, William, Joseph and Robert Bragg. She received an education at a private school in England and soon became a tutor for the institution. In 1844, she took a phonography class led by Benjamin (Benn) and

Isaac Pitman Sir Isaac Pitman (4 January 1813 – 22 January 1897) was an English publisher and teacher of the :English language who developed the most widely used system of shorthand, known now as Pitman shorthand. He first proposed this in ''Stenogr ...

. In 1849, she married

Benjamin Pitman Benjamin Pitman (July 24, 1822 – December 28, 1910), also known as Benn Pitman, was an English-born author and popularizer in the United States of Pitman shorthand, a form of what was then called phonography (shorthand). He was also active ...

. In June 1850, Jane and Benjamin Pitman had their first daughter, Agnes Pitman. The couple had their first son, Arnold, in 1851 and their second son, Ellis, in 1853. While pregnant with her third child, Elis, the Pitman family moved to the United States in January 1853. They moved to the United States due to the influence of Benjamin Pitman's brother, Isaac, who wanted to establish and spread phonographic shorthand before it was popularized. Soon after the move, while transitioning in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, Jane gave birth to her second son, Ellis. Both Ellis and Arnold died during their brief stay in Pennsylvania. By 1855, the Pitman's settled in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

, where her husband established the Cincinnati Phonographic Institute. In Cincinnati, Bragg learned the publication of

phonographic A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding physic ...

and phonetic works, engraving and type setting, and typography. She revised the final proofs of D. S. Smalley's
American Phonetic Dictionary of the English Language
' published in 1855. Bragg was also noted to work with her husband in assisting his court case reports and dictating matter from testimonies. She improved court dictation by using a team of writers to dictate one sentence at a time and combine it together later. Bragg was the official reporter for the

New Orleans riot The New Orleans massacre of 1866 occurred on July 30, when a peaceful demonstration of mostly Black Freedmen was set upon by a mob of white rioters, many of whom had been soldiers of the recently defeated Confederate States of America, leading ...

of 1866. Bragg fell ill 1877, and was an invalid for the last year of her life. She died on February 11, 1878, in their residence in Hillside, Ohio, at 52 years old. In accordance with her wishes, her body was cremated at the recently opened crematorium in Washington, Pennsylvania, the first of its kind. She thus became the first woman to be cremated in the United States.

Wood engravings

Like her daughter, Agnes Pitman, and husband, Benn Pitman, Jane Bragg began

wood carving Wood carving (or woodcarving) is a form of woodworking by means of a cutting tool (knife) in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculpture, ...

. In 1872, Jane and her daughter, Agnes, carved several pieces of furniture, doors, and other architectural woodwork which was submitted to the Third Annual Cincinnati Industrial Exhibition. In 1876, Pitman carved a chest of drawers embellished with carved floral motifs representing the months of April through September which was shown in the Cincinnati Room of the Women's Pavilion at the

Philadelphia Centennial Exposition The Centennial International Exhibition, officially the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil and Mine, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876. It was the first official wo ...

Wildlife motif

In her wood carvings, wildlife is a common motif. Birds were carved into the mantle over the fireplace in her home. Bragg was known to love gardening and had

botanical Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

knowledge of the plants and flowers she cared for.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pittman, Jane Bragg 19th-century English writers 19th-century English women writers Stenographers English emigrants to the United States 1825 births 1877 deaths Writers from Birmingham, West Midlands English wood engravers Typesetters