History is unlike other disciplines in that amateurs can read it and at the local level collect and disseminate information. Local history can be defined as the "study of past events, or of people or groups, in a given geographical area." That definition can be expanded further in that it also describes a process that includes learning. This learning includes an understanding of the causes of events in the past.

This collection of local and regional histories provides vivid portraits of individual people, places, and situations. It puts local history in the service of current event with the examination of historical demographic, social, and cultural transformations. For example, these volumes can provide historical perspectives on politics and literature and show how metaphor — "Keystone State", and the "city of brotherly love, Philadelphia" — and myth invent, distort, and hold captive local towns, peoples, and places.

State and especially local history gives students a chance to understand the people, places and things around them with which they’re already familiar. They know the place names and relative geography when talking about small, seemingly-insignificant battles; they realize that the name of the local community college pays homage to a person whose marked impact on the region has been remembered for several generations. This everyday connection to history, something one has more trouble fostering when talking about distant places and unfamiliar names long dead, is important to the intellectual and moral development of our students.

From a curricular standpoint, the study of state and local history provides transferable skills and frames of reference that will apply to the further study and appreciation of history. One simply cannot fully appreciate the place in which one is without being able to compare it to the place in which one has been. That appreciation is history in action.

Among the more important sources for American state and local histories are the county and regional histories and atlases published during the last quarter of the 19th century and first half of the 20th century. These histories offer easy access to an increasingly scarce and previously expensive source of information on the social, political and economic development of an area.

Originally compiled and produced by publishers and subscriptions agents for area residents and patrons, the original histories are difficult-to-find materials. Included in this digital collection are tables and lists of vital statistics, military service records, municipal and county officers, chronologies, portraits of individuals and views of urban and rural life not found anywhere else. The atlases provide additional information on land use and settlement patterns and scarce early town and city plans.

Publisher’s Note: This collection comprises, in its entirety, the Primary Source Media microfilm collection entitled County and Regional Histories and Atlases (Pennsylvania subset).