One of the outstanding collectors of Americana and the author of the landmark Bibliography of Texas, 1795-1845 (1955), Thomas Winthrop Streeter matched his successful career as an attorney and business manager with a passion for American history and the books, pamphlets, maps, periodicals, and broadsides that documented it. Through a combination of knowledge, taste, enthusiasm, and financial means, Streeter assembled a private collection of Americana unsurpassed during the twentieth century. His family home and library on the outskirts of Morristown, New Jersey, where he lived from 1922 until his death, drew fellow collectors, booksellers, scholars, and librarians for three generations. As his collections grew, Streeter sought the help of a succession of assistants and librarians, one of whom was Howell J. Heaney, hired in 1947. In his address to the Rare Book Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries in 1970, Heaney described Streeter's house and library in Morristown:

Its...