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Henry Howe

American historian (1816-1893)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 30, 2026
Entity authorityQ5723341
Source-derived summary

Henry Howe (October 11, 1816 – October 14, 1893) was an American author who wrote histories of several states in the United States. His most celebrated work is the three volume Historical Collections of Ohio.

Early life

Henry Howe was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of a publisher and printer, whose bookstore was one of the most famous in the country. His father, Hezekiah Howe, published the first edition of Noah Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language in 1828. The younger Howe learned the printing trade, and wrote for local newspapers. He went to New York to work in his uncle's bank.

Writing career

A copy of Historical Collections of Connecticut by John Warner Barber came into the senior Howe's bookstore in 1838. Barber had traveled across the state making sketches and collecting material. This book impressed Henry Howe, who wrote later "Although born in an atmosphere of books, this impressed me more than any book I had ever seen, and I felt that I would like of all things to dedicate my life to traveling and making such books. ...

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Henry Howe” as american historian (1816-1893). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1816, 1893, 1828, 1838—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1816-10-11. The account is most persuasive where Henry, Howe and American can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american historian (1816-1893). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5723341. VIAF identifies the subject as 8470948. The Library of Congress control number is n50029080. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1816, 1893, 1828 and 1838.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Henry Howe”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Henry Howe primary sources, Henry Howe archive and Henry research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Henry Howe”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Henry Howe” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.