Thomas Pennant Barton was the first major American collector of Shakespearean folios, concentrating his book-hunting efforts in both England and the United States. With dedication, knowledge, and determination he built a collection that remains among the most distinguished in the country, not so much for its completeness as for the condition of his copies, on which he insisted with a discrimination unusual in his time.

Born in Philadelphia in 1803, Thomas Pennant Barton was the son of Mary Pennington and Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton, eminent professor of natural history, botany, and medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Little is known about Barton's childhood. The only established fact is that after his father died in 1815, he and his family moved to Europe and spent much of the next fifteen years in Paris.

In April 1833 Barton married Cora Livingston, daughter of Louise d'Avezac de Castera and Edward Livingston, who served as...