Within recent years fairly exhaustive studies have been made on many aspects on American Science and Technology. To make a comprehensive study of American scientific instruments and instrument makers in the American Colonies is no simple matter, partly because of an indifference to the subject in the past, and partly because of the great volume of sources that must be sifted to accomplish it.

Samuel Lane, whose life in and around the town of Stratham, New Hampshire, spanned much of the 18th century, was truly a "Renaissance man." Civic, business, and personal concerns fill the pages of the diary he kept for over 60 years. The worries, dilemmas, and day-to-day work Lane detailed provide a compelling view of life in colonial New Hampshire. Together with his business records and family papers, Lane's diaries form an important part of the New Hampshire Historical Society's collections. Basing his narrative on careful study of this rich documentary legacy, historian Jerald E. Brown explores the life, career, and motivations of one man and his family. In a preliminary essay, editor Donna-Belle Garvin introduces Lane's world to the reader. The many illustrations of leatherworking, farming, surveying, buildings, bridges, crops, animals, and gravestones draw readers into the complex world and work that shaped Lane and his family. This fascinating tale is the most complete account now available of the life of a colonial New England artisan and tradesman.