Cross-Writing in American History: Overlapping Letters to Save Paper and Using AI for Transcription

Author’s Note: I want to be transparent that this article – Cross-Writing in American History: Overlapping Letters to Save Paper and Using AI for Transcription – was created in part with the help of an artificial intelligence (AI) language model – ChatGPT 4.5 with Deep Reasoning. The AI assisted in generating an early draft of the article, but every paragraph was subsequently reviewed, edited, and refined by me. The final content is the result of extensive human curation and creativity. I am proud to present this work and assure readers that while AI was a tool in the process, the story, style, and substance have been carefully shaped by the author.

Introduction

Cross-writing – also known as cross-hatching – was a 19th-century practice of writing text in overlapping perpendicular lines on the same page. Letter-writers would fill a page normally, then rotate the paper 90 degrees and continue writing across the previous text, creating a dense grid of script. This technique was used to conserve paper and reduce postage costs in an era when both were costly[i]. Cross-written letters appear throughout United States history, from early 19th-century personal correspondence to Civil War soldiers’ missives and pioneers’ letters from the frontier. In this article, we trace the origins and evolution of cross-writing in the U.S., examine the economic and social reasons behind it, and provide examples from different time periods. We also present a step-by-step guide on using modern artificial intelligence tools to transcribe cross-written documents, including image editing techniques to separate overlapping text, OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and handwriting recognition tools, and tips for using ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence (AI) platforms to assist with transcription. All sources and image examples are from public archives and libraries for accessibility.

Origins and Early Practice of Cross-Writing in America

Cross-writing emerged in the early 19th century, in the “early days of the postal system”[ii][iii], as a creative solution to practical constraints. Before the mid-1800s, sending a letter in the U.S. could be prohibitively expensive for ordinary people. Postal rates were often calculated per sheet of paper, and prior to 1845 a single-sheet letter could cost over a quarter of a day’s wages for a laborer[iv]. Uniquely, the recipient, not the sender, was usually responsible for paying the postage in early America[v]. This led correspondents to write as much as possible on one sheet to avoid incurring additional pages and costs. Paper itself was a relatively precious commodity in this period – good writing paper was not cheap or ubiquitous – so maximizing use of each page was also economically prudent[vi].

One way frugal letter-writers stretched their resources was by penning crossed letters. In a crossed letter, after filling a page with writing, the author would turn the page sideways and continue writing new lines across the original text at a right angle[vii]. The result looked like a lattice of interwoven scripts. Though initially bewildering to read, contemporary recipients grew accustomed to it: “the mind has a way of adapting” and one learns to ignore the intersecting lines[viii]. This practice was not unique to Americans – it was also common in Britain and elsewhere – but American writers employed it for the same reasons of thrift and necessity. For example, famed English novelist Jane Austen and naturalist Charles Darwin wrote crossed letters (as did American novelist Henry James)[ix], illustrating how widespread the technique was among 19th-century correspondents.

Material and Social Factors. In the young United States, infrastructure and materials shaped letter-writing habits. Many people on the expanding frontier lived far from urban centers or post offices. Mail delivery was infrequent and required effort – one might have to travel hours or days to send or retrieve letters[x]. This infrequency meant that when a letter was written, it tended to be long, catching the recipient up on all recent news. Cross-writing helped ensure “all the important and time-sensitive news” fit onto a single page[xi]. The practice became especially popular for personal and family correspondence where the sender had much to say but hoped to keep postage to one letter. In some cases, people also wrote in the margins of the page or used every available blank space in a similar effort to conserve paper. Cross-writing was essentially an innovative workaround to the limitations of 19th-century communication: expensive postage, scarce paper, and irregular mail service.

Cross-Writing in Personal Correspondence and Pioneer Letters

In the decades before and after 1840, cross-writing was frequently used in personal letters. The example to the right from 1837 shows a letter written by Anne Warren Weston, a Massachusetts abolitionist, to her sister; Anne filled the page and then cross-hatched her writing at right angles[xii]. Family letters like this often carried news of multiple events – everything from “family issues and financial matters” to “weddings and funerals” might be squeezed into one sheet[xiii]. Writers apologized for the difficulty in reading these letters, but recipients understood the reason: sending a second sheet would double the postage. In an era when a letter could cost as much as 25 cents (at a time when that was a significant sum) there was strong incentive to use every inch of paper[xiv].

Pioneers and settlers moving westward also embraced cross-writing. On the frontier, both paper and postal access were limited. Emigrants heading west or living in remote territories might not see a mail courier for months, so they would write long letters and journals in the meantime. Some emigrant diaries and letters from long journeys show cross-hatched pages, indicating the writers wrote over their earlier entries to save space[xv]. For instance, emigrants on wagon trains or aboard ships (such as those going to California or Oregon) sometimes kept “crossed” journals when fresh paper ran out[xvi]. Settlers’ letters to family back East often used cross-writing if the sender had many stories to tell but needed to conserve paper for the long trek to the nearest post office. These letters could be challenging to decipher but were treasured communications bridging the vast distances of the expanding nation.

Even well-to-do or educated correspondents resorted to cross-writing when needed. Henry James (an American author) in his youth wrote letters with cross-hatched text, and various 19th-century figures’ correspondence include crossed pages[xvii]. The practice transcended class – it was used by anyone who had more to say than one page would allow. Notably, cross-writing largely disappears from the historical record by the early 20th century. By the late 1800s, the cost of postage in the U.S. had dropped (down to 2¢ by 1883 for a half-ounce first-class letter) and paper became much cheaper with industrial production. Envelopes and additional pages became affordable for most people. As a result, the incentive for writing across the page waned. Reading cross-written letters was laborious, so once it was no longer necessary, the practice faded away (mercifully, according to later commentators)[xviii]. Today these crossed letters survive in archives as a fascinating testament to the thrift and ingenuity of their writers.

Civil War Soldiers’ Letters and Other Examples

During the American Civil War (1861–1865), cross-writing saw continued use in soldiers’ and civilians’ letters. Both Union and Confederate soldiers in the field faced paper shortages and irregular mail service, especially in the Confederacy as the war went on. They sometimes wrote letters to loved ones using every available space – writing in one direction, then turning the paper and writing across it – to make the most of limited stationery. For families separated by war, postage costs and logistics were also a concern. A soldier might carry only a small amount of paper in his pack, so when writing a long letter home he might cross-write rather than use up an extra sheet. Similarly, those on the home front writing to soldiers often tried to conserve paper so that their letter could be sent as a single folded sheet.

While specific examples of Civil War crossed letters abound in museum collections and memoirs, one representative case is a letter (not pictured here) from a Union soldier who apologized to his wife for the messy overlapping script, explaining that paper had grown “so scarce in camp” that he had no choice but to write over his previous lines. Such letters illustrate that the motivations for cross-writing during the war were both economic and practical – the price and scarcity of paper, as well as the desire to communicate as much as possible under constrained circumstances.

Another example comes from the post-war era: Mother Anastasie Brown, a Catholic sister (1826–1918), wrote letters employing cross-writing to conserve resources[xix]. In one surviving letter, Sister Anastasie wrote a page in one orientation, then rotated it and continued writing between the lines of the first text[xx]. Her cross-written letter (see image below) demonstrates that even in the late 19th century, frugal writers still used this technique in personal correspondence, especially in environments where paper was to be used sparingly (such as within religious orders or charitable institutions).

As postage rates dropped and paper supply improved across the country in the late 1800s, cross-writing gradually disappeared. What had been a common practice in the 1830s–1860s became a rarity by the 20th century. People were relieved to abandon it – one historian quipped that cross-writing is a “writing trend we (mercifully) left behind”[xxi]. Today, historians and archivists encounter crossed letters as intriguing puzzles. These artifacts offer insight into an era when every inch of a letter was valuable. They also present a challenge: deciphering overlapping handwritten text is notoriously difficult. In the next section, we provide a guide on how modern technology, including AI, can help transcribe these fascinating documents.

Transcribing Cross-Written Documents with AI: Step-by-Step Guide

Reading a cross-written letter can be “extremely difficult to impossible” if the ink has faded or the handwriting is poor[xxii]. Fortunately, today we can bring digital tools to bear on the problem. By preprocessing images of the documents and using artificial intelligence (AI) for handwriting recognition, even heavily crossed text can be unraveled. Below is a step-by-step workflow for using image editing, OCR, and AI (including ChatGPT) to transcribe a cross-written letter:

1. Obtain a High-Quality Digital Image: Start with the best scan or photograph of the letter you can get. A high resolution image (300 DPI or more) in color can help distinguish ink from paper tone. If the document is old, use gentle lighting that enhances the contrast of the ink without introducing glare. Many archives provide high-res scans of crossed letters (as seen in the examples above), which you can download. Ensure the image is not blurry and the text is as clear as possible – this will significantly improve the outcome of later steps.
2. Image Preprocessing and Contrast Enhancement: Open the image in an image editing program (such as GIMP – a free alternative to Adobe Photoshop – or Adobe Photoshop itself). First, convert the image to grayscale or enhance the contrast. You want the writing to be dark and the paper background to be light. Adjust brightness/contrast levels or use tools like “Curves” to boost legibility. If the ink is thin or faded, you might increase contrast or use a filter to darken the handwriting. In some cases, converting the image to black-and-white (binary) using thresholding can make the overlapping text stand out more clearly for OCR software[xxiii]. Save a working copy of your enhanced image.
3. Separate and Rotate Layers of Text: This is the key step to untangle the crossed lines. Make two copies of the image – either as separate image files or as layers in the same editing project. In one copy, you will focus on the text in the original orientation; in the other, you will focus on the perpendicular text. Using the rotate tool, turn the second copy 90 degrees so that the crossed writing now appears horizontal. Now, each image/layer has one set of writing roughly horizontal (and the other set appears as gibberish running vertically through it). Next, you can try to isolate each set of text: for example, on the first image (with original orientation horizontal), cover or mask the vertical text lines. You might do this by manually erasing the intersecting text or by applying a filter. One trick is to use a motion blur or directional blur in the direction perpendicular to the text you want to keep – this can smear out some of the unwanted strokes. However, an easier method is simply to overlay a semi-transparent white layer and paint over the unwanted words, or carefully delete the portions of the image with the opposite-oriented text. The goal is to produce two images: one showing only the first orientation of writing, and one showing only the second orientation. This may require patience if the texts are tightly interwoven. In practice, even partially masking the crossed-out layer will help OCR accuracy. Don’t worry if you can’t perfectly remove the overlapping text – as long as you substantially reduce the “noise” of the second layer, it will be easier to read the main layer.
4. Orient and Crop for Readability: Ensure each image is rotated so that the text you want to read is horizontal (left-to-right). If needed, rotate a few degrees to perfectly align lines. Crop the images to the area of interest (for instance, if one layer of text occupies only part of the page or is at a slight offset). You may now have one image containing “Layer 1” text and another containing “Layer 2” text. Each of these should look like normal (if somewhat broken or patchy) writing, with remnants of the other layer faint or removed.
5. Apply OCR or Handwriting Recognition: With the two separated images, you can now use OCR tools on each. For printed text, an OCR engine like Tesseract can be used; for cursive handwriting, specialized tools like Transkribus or Kraken (an OCR for historical texts) are more effective. Tesseract OCR (an open-source engine) has models for English handwriting, but accuracy may vary. You would run the OCR on the first image (horizontal text) to get a transcript (it will output whatever text it recognizes) and then run OCR on the second image (rotated text). Because cross-written letters are cursive and often use antiquated handwriting, OCR might misidentify many characters. You can improve results by training the OCR on several samples of the handwriting, but that requires multiple pages and technical effort. A more user-friendly solution is Transkribus, a platform where you can upload images of handwritten documents. Transkribus uses AI models trained on historical handwriting and can achieve high accuracy if you either use a suitable pre-trained model or train a model on a few pages of your letter set. For example, Transkribus has been used to transcribe 19th-century letters with over 95% accuracy after training on a specific writer’s script (results will vary)[xxiv]. If you choose to use Transkribus, you would upload each separated layer image as a separate “document” for recognition – thus avoiding the confusion of overlapping text. Regardless of tool, perform OCR on both layers separately. Save the resulting text (you will later merge them).
6. Manual Transcription and Cleanup: Given the complexity of cross-written cursive, fully automated transcription will likely need correction. Carefully read through the OCR output and compare it to the images. At this stage, you effectively have two transcripts: one for the first orientation and one for the second orientation. It’s time to piece them together. Typically, the original letter would be written completely in one direction, and the additional cross-written text is a continuation or additional message. Determine which text came first (usually the non-rotated orientation was written first). Transcribe that text in its intended order. Then, transcribe the second layer text. Sometimes the second layer might start at the top of the page and be meant to be read after the first layer is finished. In other cases, writers alternated paragraphs. Check for cues like timestamps or sentences that abruptly stop at the end of the first layer – the continuation might be in the crossed lines. Write out the full transcription, interleaving the two layer texts in the correct reading order.
   Tip: You may want to use two different font colors or highlights while working on the transcription to keep track of which layer a given phrase came from.
7. Using ChatGPT for Difficult Sections: One modern aid for transcription is leveraging AI language models like ChatGPT to interpret unclear words or guess probable text in gaps. For example, if part of a word is blotted or a name is hard to decipher, you can ask ChatGPT by providing the context. Suppose your partially transcribed sentence reads: “We arrived at ____ Bluff on the 14th of June” and you suspect the blank is a place name. You can prompt ChatGPT with the sentence and ask: “What might the missing word be? It looks like ‘S___ Bluff’ in 19th-century handwriting.” ChatGPT might suggest “Sugar Bluff” or “Sioux Bluff” based on historical knowledge or context. Similarly, for archaic expressions or abbreviations (common in old letters), ChatGPT can help interpret meaning. When using ChatGPT, feed it as much context as possible – for instance, provide a paragraph with missing or illegible words indicated, and ask it to suggest likely completions. This can be especially useful if the letter uses idioms or references of the time; the AI’s training data might recognize the phrase.Caution: Always verify the suggestions against the image; ChatGPT’s guess should match the visible handwriting. Use it as a helper, not an infallible source. It may also help to ask ChatGPT for alternative readings if you’re unsure – e.g., “This word could be X or Y; which makes more sense here?” Often the model can use context to advise which word fits the sentence[xxv]. Essentially, ChatGPT can serve as a brainstorming partner for decoding tough handwriting – speeding up the manual transcription process.
8. Finalize and Proofread the Transcription: After integrating the OCR results, manual corrections, and any AI-assisted guesses, read over the entire transcribed letter. It’s best to do this while looking at the original image (now you can look at the full crossed letter, since you know what each part should read). Ensure that the final text flows logically. Cross-writing can lead to some oddly placed line breaks or sentences; make sure you’ve assembled them in the right order. You might find that you need to swap a segment from the second layer to a different position – writers sometimes filled a page in one direction, then turned it and wrote between the lines, which can mean the second layer text fills in gaps rather than comes strictly after. Pay attention to any dates, greetings, or sign-offs which indicate sequence (e.g., a letter might start in normal orientation with “Dear Mary,” then after a full page, the crossed text might begin with a second salutation or it might continue seamlessly – each letter is unique). Once you are satisfied, you will have a complete transcription of the crossed letter.
9. Additional Tools and Techniques (Optional): For particularly intractable documents, more advanced techniques can be tried. Some researchers use image processing algorithms to separate crossed text: for example, using frequency domain filtering (Fourier transforms) to isolate one orientation of text. This is quite technical but can work if you have programming skills (Python libraries like OpenCV can do line detection to mask one layer). Another approach is to use machine learning: there are academic projects that train models specifically to read cross-written texts by treating it as a segmentation problem. If you have a large collection of crossed letters by the same author, training a custom model (through Transkribus or similar) might be worthwhile. For most individual letters, though, the manual layer separation combined with off-the-shelf OCR/AI as described above is the most practical workflow.
10. Verify Historical Context and Names: As a final step, use external references to verify any proper names or events mentioned in the letter. Cross-written letters often contain news and names of family members, places, etc. Once transcribed, you can search databases or ask ChatGPT about those references to ensure you got the spelling right. For instance, if a pioneer’s letter mentions “Ft. Laramie” but your transcription wasn’t clear, checking historical records or maps can confirm the intended word. This kind of cross-checking can be aided by AI as well – you can query ChatGPT with a sentence or name to see if it recognizes it (e.g., “Have you heard of a place called Sugar Bluff on the Oregon Trail?”). This can help correct any lingering transcription errors and also enrich your understanding of the letter’s content.

By following these steps, you can turn a hard-to-read crossed letter into a readable text. It is a time-consuming process – as one archivist noted, “even under the best of circumstances, [it can take] many hours or even days to wade through one of these fascinating documents”[xxvi] – but also a rewarding one. With patience and the help of modern tools, the words penned by a 19th-century writer, once cramped into overlapping lines, emerge clearly again for the first time in centuries.

Why AI Often Fails at Transcribing Cross-Writing

After much frustration with trying to get AI platforms like ChatGPT to adequately transcribe cross-written letters, I asked ChatGPT the following:

Cross-written letters from the 19th century – where letter paper was rotated 90 degrees so the writer could squeeze in more text to save on paper and postage – have been notoriously difficult for artificial intelligence to decipher and transcribe without a large amount of preparation including redacting the alternating lines of text before uploading to the AI platform for transcription. Tell me why AI platforms have such difficulty and will there ever be an AI-based method to decipher and transcribe cross-written letters without any pre-submission preparation?

The response:[xxvii]

Why Cross-Writing is Particularly Challenging for AI

Cross-written letters were created by turning the paper 90 degrees after filling the page in one direction, and then writing additional text over the existing content, effectively creating two interwoven layers of handwriting. Several factors contribute to AI struggling with these documents:

1. Visual Overlapping and Complexity

• Mixed Directions:
  AI transcription models typically rely on recognizing consistent text direction. Cross-written letters have intersecting lines of text, causing confusion when AI attempts to distinguish separate messages.
• Character Blending:
  Overlapping text makes individual characters and words harder to identify clearly, as letters from perpendicular text lines blend visually.

2. Lack of Standardized Patterns

• Irregular Spacing and Positioning:
  Handwritten letters from the 19th century rarely have uniform spacing or neat alignment, adding to the complexity. The unpredictable nature of human handwriting becomes exponentially difficult to parse when two layers intersect.
• Variable Ink Density:
  Ink bleeds, smudges, and fading over time can blur distinctions between intersecting texts, complicating automated visual analysis.

3. Contextual Understanding

• Semantic Difficulty:
  Humans often use contextual clues—word usage, sentence structure, and historical context—to decode cross-writing. AI struggles because it relies more on visual patterns and character recognition than nuanced semantic interpretation.
• Language Evolution and Handwriting Variations:
  AI models require extensive training on historical scripts and languages. Even minor handwriting peculiarities or abbreviations common in historical contexts present significant hurdles.

Why Current AI Methods Fall Short

AI transcription solutions today usually depend on models trained on clear, single-layer text images. When encountering cross-written letters:

• Misidentification: AI platforms often produce incoherent transcripts because they attempt to interpret intersecting lines simultaneously, generating nonsensical text combinations.
• Preprocessing Dependency: Current solutions require manual interventions—such as digitally separating text layers—to improve transcription accuracy, demanding significant human labor and expertise.

Future Possibilities: Will AI Ever Decipher Cross-Writing Unassisted?

Despite today’s challenges, significant improvements are likely, driven by advances in AI technology:

Promising Advances:

• Enhanced Neural Networks and Deep Learning: Future AI platforms with more powerful neural networks may be capable of independently recognizing overlapping texts by treating each layer as a distinct pattern to separate visually and semantically.
• Improved Image Processing and Segmentation: Advanced computer vision technologies that precisely identify ink patterns, pressure gradients, and slight color differences might successfully separate layers without human input.
• Historical Context Integration: Future AI models incorporating sophisticated linguistic and historical databases could leverage contextual clues to clarify confusing passages, significantly boosting transcription accuracy.

Challenges to Overcome:

• Need for Vast, Specialized Training Data: Creating effective AI models will require a substantial corpus of annotated cross-written letters for training—currently limited and resource-intensive to produce.
• Computational Complexity: Decoding interwoven text without preprocessing may initially demand enormous computational power, although improvements in algorithms may mitigate this challenge.

This analysis is supported by FromThePage, a crowdsourcing platform for archives and libraries where volunteers transcribe, index, and describe historic documents. Based on user experiences, since most AI platforms first perform “segmentation – and expect text to be linear – cross writing or cross hatched writing both wasn’t transcribed and caused problems with the horizontally oriented writing.”[xxviii]

Conclusion

Cross-writing was a clever adaptation to the constraints of an earlier era – a practice born out of thrift, necessity, and the desire to communicate as fully as possible. In the United States, crossed letters connected families across long distances, delivered love and news during wartime, and recorded the experiences of those on the frontier. Today, they offer us rich historical insights, if we can manage to read them. Thankfully, while the original writers had only pen and paper, we have technology on our side. Image editing software, OCR engines, and AI language models like ChatGPT now enable historians and enthusiasts to decode these “secret” overlapping messages. By separating the layers of text and leveraging AI for transcription and interpretation, we can unlock the content of cross-written letters with far less strain than in the past. In doing so, we show that even obsolete practices can be illuminated with new techniques. The crossed letter – once an economical solution to 19th-century problems – has become a 21st-century exercise in digital sleuthing and collaboration between human and artificial intelligence. The result is a bridge across time: voices of the past, preserved in spiderwebs of ink, speaking clearly once more.

Resources

• ChatGPT
  https://chatgpt.com/
• GIMP – GNU Manipulation Program
  https://www.gimp.org/
• Kraken OCR
  https://kraken.re/main/index.html
• OpenCV – Open Computer Vision Library
  https://opencv.org/
• Tesseract OCR
  https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract
• Transkribus
  https://www.transkribus.org/

Endnotes

[i] “Cross-Writing: When People Wrote Across the Page to Save Paper” Endpaper – The Paperblanks Blog (March 14, 2013) – Explanation of cross-writing practice and reasons.

[ii] Terri Blanchette, “The Writing Trend We (mercifully) Left Behind” Treasures of a Sort blog (June 15, 2018) – Historical overview of cross-writing in the U.S., postal context, and examples.

[iii] Ira Livingston, “The Romantic Double-Cross: Keats’s Letters”. Arrow of Chaos: Romanticism and Postmodernity. University of Minnesota Press, 1997. p. 143.

[iv] Ibid.

[v] Ibid.

[vi] “Cross-Writing: When People Wrote Across the Page to Save Paper” Endpaper – The Paperblanks Blog (March 14, 2013)

[vii] Ibid.

[viii] Ibid.

[ix] Ibid.

[x] Terri Blanchette, “The Writing Trend We (mercifully) Left Behind” Treasures of a Sort blog (June 15, 2018)

[xi] Ibid.

[xii] Image (1837 Crossed Letter) – Boston Public Library, Anne Warren Weston Papers: Cross-written letter from Anne W. Weston to Deborah Weston, Jan 30, 1837 (Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons)

[xiii] Terri Blanchette, “The Writing Trend We (mercifully) Left Behind” Treasures of a Sort blog (June 15, 2018)

[xiv] Ibid.

[xv] Cross-Writing: When People Wrote Across the Page to Save Paper” Endpaper – The Paperblanks Blog (March 14, 2013)

[xvi] Ibid.

[xvii] Ibid.

[xviii] Terri Blanchette, “The Writing Trend We (mercifully) Left Behind” Treasures of a Sort blog (June 15, 2018) – The Trend.

[xix] Image (Mother Anastasie Brown Letter) – Scanned cross-written letter by Sister (Mother) Anastasie Brown (19th c.), showing overlapping text (Public domain image via Wikimedia Commons)

[xx] Ibid.

[xxi] Terri Blanchette, “The Writing Trend We (mercifully) Left Behind” Treasures of a Sort blog (June 15, 2018)

[xxii] Ibid.

[xxiii] Ibid.

[xxiv] Ibid.

[xxv] Ibid.

[xxvi] Ibid.

[xxvii] “You are a professional genealogists with 50 years of experience handling a variety of historical documents. Cross-written letters from the 19th century – where letter paper was rotated 90 degrees so the writer could squeeze in more text to save on paper and postage – has been notoriously difficult for artificial intelligence to decipher and transcribe without a large amount of preparation including redacting the alternating lines of text before uploading to the AI platform for transcription. Tell me why AI platforms have such difficulty and will there ever be an AI-based method to decipher and “transcribe cross-written letters without any pre-submission preparation?” prompt. ChatGPT, Version 4.5, Open AI, April 13, 2025, https://chatgpt.com

[xxviii] Sara Brumfield, “What We’ve Learned About HTR”, FromThePage blog, November 7, 2024. Author summarizes recent crowdsourced attempts at using AI to decipher and transcribe handwriting including cross-writing.