Monograms and ciphers sold to personalize products such as luggage, handbags, totes, linens, dress shirts, sweatshirts, T-shirts and even baby onesies mostly look the same. Stationer Nancy Sharon Collins explains their historical progression and the evolution of the monogram into something as plain and simple as most have become.

With her decades-long work researching and creating custom monograms for private individuals, Collins has discovered the key to these compelling questions: Where did monogram and cipher lettering styles come from? how did they evlove? What’s next?

Nancy Sharon Collins is the country’s leading engraved stationery working in her eponymous New Orleans company, Nancy Sharon Collins, Stationer LLC. She authored The Complete Engraver A Guide to Monograms, Crests, Ciphers, Seals, and the Etiquette and History of Social Stationery and writes for PRINT and HOW magazines about engraving, design, and commercial printing. She appears in popular media such as Town & Country, VOGUE, Veranda, The New York Times, and WWNO|NPR.

Collins, in partnership with Antenna Gallery, produces LETTERS READ, the series of live performances bringing historically important letters, vital to the history of New Orleans, to various locations throughout the Crescent City.