Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

I am an amateur antique book enthusiast. I've come across some gems in antique stores and estate sales, including Volume One of Harper's New Monthly Magazine, and an original first edition of the first collection of Lord Byron's work published after he died.

So I am quite interested in a book my grandmother recently came across. It's a Bible that has the name of a man who, as near we can tell, is her great uncle, who wrote "1825" in it. (Actually it looks kind of like 1525, but the book obviously isn't that old.

What's interesting is that the capital letter S and the letter s at the ends of words looks like a modern s, but within words the s looks like an f only it's not struck all the way through. It looks like an f but the little crossing line only sticks out the back, if that makes sense.

Obviously, I know this was the convention in the time of colonial America. My question is, when did that convention die out in printing? Knowing that would help me date the book and thus place it in its proper context in my family lineage. If anyone could help, I'd be most appreciative!

I work in a library, and I often work with old German items, where the long s is just one of the peculiarities of the script. For instance, the lowercase "k" looks like an "f" as well! The capital "V" often looks like an "O," believe it or not! I'm often called on to assist coworkers in deciphering the old German script, and I occasionally find cataloging errors that where obviously caused by misreading the script!

I think the Wikipedia article is correct about when the long s disappeared from general usage, as I see very few English language items published later than the early 19th century that use it.