A Banjo History by Lowell H. Schreyer. This book focuses on the hundreds of banjoists who made their living as professional entertainers in years ranging from the minstrel period of the early 1800s into the ragtime era leading into the 20th Century. The book also touches on related areas in the banjo’s development. Author Lowell H. Schreyer, a former newspaper reporter, relied heavily on the products of his profession in tracing careers and performing routes of these banjoists through pre-Civil War newspapers, entertainment journals and later fretted instrument periodicals. This virtual time travel in print involved years of tedious cranking through microfilm of these publications page by page.