Hardesty's Historical and Geographical Encyclopedia was a voluminous late 19th century American encyclopedia produced by H.H. Hardesty & Company, publishers, of Chicago and Toledo. A massive work with enormous amount of textual and statistical data, it went through various editions and variations throughout the 1880s, with some special editions focusing on areas of special regional significance. (E.g., a stand-alone military history under the title The Military History of Ohio in special county editions which did not include the more general information in the main Encyclopedia, but included the state’s general military history in addition to a specific county’s military history. Another example was the Special Virginia Edition giving a history of the Virginias, written by R.A. Brock, secr