Around 1848, Lossing conceived the idea of writing a narrative sketchbook on the American Revolution. The first installment was published in "Harper's New Monthly Magazine" in 1850; the completed "Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution" was published in 1853. To gather material for the work, Lossing traveled some 8,000 miles throughout the United States and Canada. As with his subsequent books, his pen and ink drawings served as the primary illustrations when turned into wood cuts. The book won him critical acclaim and general reputation. During and after the Civil War, Lossing toured the United States and the once Confederacy. On the basis of that research, he published a three-volume pictorial field book/history of the war, which is also presumed to have been Mathew Brady's first collaboration in the use of his Civil War photographs as book illustrations. In 1860 and 1861, the London Art Journal featured a series of Lossing's articles describing the history and scenery of the Hudson Valley; the illustrated articles were published in 1866 under the title "The Hudson: From the Wilderness to the Sea". Lossing was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1872. He was awarded an LL.D. by the University of Michigan in 1873, adding to lesser degrees previously awarded him by Hamilton College and Columbia University. He also worked with engraver and book publisher George Edward Perine, most notably on his "History of New York City" (1884).