Many (>60) years ago, my grandmother gave me a 'copybook' that had been started in 1877 by Charles Prior in Manchester, England. This was a simple cardboard-bound composition book, not much different from the books that you can purchase today for a couple of bucks in the stationery department at Target. Prior used this book to practice his handwriting, a sample of which is shown in the attachment. Some will recognize the poem written by Longfellow in 1841.
The fountain pen was invented in the first half of the nineteenth century, but the information I have read suggests that the dip pen continued to be the more popular writing instrument until well into the 20th century. Prior recorded his address on the first page of the copybook, and according to Google earth, today that address is a relatively modest 'terrace' (ie, a row house) - it's modern in the sense that there are satellite TV dishes on the roof, but the basic building could easily date to the 19th century. The address is a very short distance away from the University of Manchester which leads me to suspect that Prior was a student.
The ink used in the copybook shows modest 'bleedthrough' - which probably says more about the paper than it does the ink. The paper is pretty fragile, but the fact that the ink does not appear to have faded at all suggests that it is iron gall (which is typically blue-black, but ages to brown).
History aside, this book has always been an inspiration to me to try to have better handwriting. I don't begin to measure up to the standard set by Prior, but I try.
I am the product of a public school system, and while I was taught cursive in the early grades in elementary school, that emphasis didn't last very long. I'm now an ORG (old retired guy), but during my professional career I worked with a number of people whose handwriting was particularly nice. My sense is that most of those folks came up through parochial school systems where handwriting style and quality was promoted more seriously.
Finally, Donny mentioned drafting - I agree that skill in hand lettering was critical in that field, but even in that situation there were notable differences. Of course it's all done by computer now, but up through the first half of the twentieth century, the mark of a truly skill draftsman was beautiful lettering.