Ok..let's see if I can try to summarize some characteristics I've found in Robert White's work.
His design career seemed to span from about 1910 until the late 1930s, with most of his design work taking place in the 20s during the Golden Age. In fact, one of his courses, the 9 hole Green Hills GC from 1939 is about 15 minutes from my house and is virtually untouched in terms of revisions over the years.
White came over here at the behest of Tillinghast, not sure the exact arrangement, but he was the early Superintendent at Shawnee on the Delaware, Tilly's first course. As such, he was heavily involved in the early growth of the game in the Pocono Mountains, gradually expanding into NJ and into southeastern PA mostly. He is credited with some designs beyond this region, in DC, NY, CT and South Carolina where his travels as first head of the PGA of America likely took him.
Much like his architectural contemporary Alex Findlay, White was first and foremost a functional architect, not an artist. Neither man did much in the way of any earthmoving, preferring by necessity to simply route, shape greens and tees, and bunker somewhat sparingly, mostly around the greens.
However, given that many of White's courses were built in the very hilly region of the Poconos, such a "minimalist" approach led to many a hole that could be called quirky or strange, or even amateurish given today's golf mentality.
I tend to love this kind of stuff while a fellow like Matt Ward generally detests it. But, that's what makes for interesting discussion.
I've found that his courses on more severe terrain, such as Water Gap CC (formerly Wolf Hollow) can tax the most adventurous spirit and saintly patience, as patently unfair things can happen to decent golf shots, but on land where White had something more moderate to work with, his designs reflected sound principles and there is nothing inherently goofy about them, such as Berkleigh CC near Reading, PA, or Pine Lakes CC in Myrtle Beach.
If I can throw out a few generalities I've observed in no particular order;
* White seemed to love to perch greens on high points, oftimes with severe slopes to the sides that deflect misplayed shots unmercifully. It's not uncommon to have a recovery where you're 25 feet below the surface of a green after a near miss.
* White seemed to have an affinity for using water as a cross-hazard, particularly when he had a stream to employ for that purpose. A number of his holes ask the golfer to either lay up or try to drive over a creek, and I've also seen him use that feature on second shots to a par five as a gambling feature.
* Most of White's course do feature more internal contour in his greens than some of his other functional contemporaries. I know redanman is very impressed by the greens at Northampton CC near Easton, PA, but I suspect those greens may be the result of Tillinghast coming by for a revision in 1930. Still, even his most untouched courses like the aforementioned Green Hills employ both existing slope with some notable internal contour and interest to this day.
* White used very few fairway bunkers and was generally spare in employing them around greens. In some cases, he used them to save balls from cascading down steep hills. His bunkers are functional at best, hardly artistic, yet never seem poorly placed.
* One prototypical White hole I've seen employed at a number of courses is the one where the approach shot is downhill, to a green that flows from fairway level in the front, but is then built up on the sides and back considerably above the prevailing slope. Such a hole is very daunting when playing to a back or side pin placement because the penalty for missing can be severe in terms of recovery options.
* White also uses mounding in a number of his courses, the most interesting one I ever saw was a "Mae West" feature on the par 5 8th hole at Wiscasset GC (sadly NLE) where the green sat in a deep saddle between large mounds. I'm quite sure that's where White buried boulders, stumps, and other residue, but his mounds are most often used in conjuction with greenside features, complicating both approach and recovery shots.
* White, largely out of necessity, seemed to be unafraid to take on steep uphill or downhill or sidehill terrain in his routings. At today's mowing lengths, it is largely impossible to keep the ball on the high side of some of his fairways. Similarly, White wasn't above asking the golfer to drive over a large hill 100 yards in front of the tee to a blind landing area beyond, nor was he averse to having you play a blind downhill approach into a seeming chasm.
* As was mentioned, he seemed to like building plateau to plateau par threes that were all carry and featured broken ground between.
If I think of more I'll add to this. Thanks!