Justin Winsor, librarian, editor, historian, is little known among contemporary historians. His commitment to scientific and collaborative history became unfashionable long ago. But Winsor's eclipse as a historian has been paralleled by his heightened relevance to modern librarianship. His insistence on professional autonomy, his remarkable administrative skills, and his unfailing dedication remain benchmarks for professional librarians. Winsor deserves wider recognition among today's professional historians as a pioneer in their own field of study. When his masterwork, the eight-volume Narrative and Critical History of America, was completed, it served as a monument to those critical historians who flourished from 1848, the year the last volume of Jared Sparks's Library of American Biography was published, to 1889, when Winsor's final volume appeared. For some forty years, the Narrative and Critical History of America was an important force in the realm of historical scholarship.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, on 2 January 1831, Justin Winsor was...