Mr. Earle's objective in compiling this collection of photographic essays of colonial Eastern Shore homes and related buildings was to preserve some record of their existence and connection to family history before they disappeared from view. Assisted by Percy Skirven, the author of "First Parishes of the Province of Maryland," Mr. Earle assembled a team of experts to prepare a chapter on each of the nine counties of the Eastern Shore: Kent, Talbot, Somerset, Dorchester, Cecil, Queen Anne's, Worcester, Caroline, and Wicomico. In all, more than eighty colonial homesteads are captured for this remarkable volume, which also includes a separate sketch of Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland.