Henry Howe, working alone or with his friend and collaborator, John Warner Barber, was a pioneering local historian. He filled his works with historical data and illustrations which accentuated the small, local events of American history instead of the grand, obviously important events. His Historical Collections of Virginia and Ohio and the collaborative works on New York and New Jersey preserved unwritten historical traditions. The great number and quality of illustrations throughout Howe's and Barber's works provide a unique visual record of the past.

Howe and Barber compiled books instead of writing them. They knew that there were abundant stories and legends in the small towns, villages, and countrysides of the United States to fill many volumes. This was the heretofore neglected stuff of history which they sought out to preserve and to market. Their aims and research methods anteceded those of modern folklorists and local historians, and...