Thomas Pennant Barton (1803 – April 5, 1869) was an American diplomat and bibliophile who is primarily remembered for the collection of books by and relating to

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

and

English drama Drama was introduced to Britain from Europe by the Romans, and auditoriums were constructed across the country for this purpose. Medieval period By the medieval period, the mummers' plays had developed, a form of early street theatre associ ...

that he amassed between 1834 and 1869. Four years after his death, Barton's collection was acquired by the

Boston Public Library The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also Massachusetts' Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse''), meaning all adult re ...

, where it has remained ever since. Throughout much of the nineteenth century, Barton was considered by many to be the preeminent collector of the works of William Shakespeare in the United States. Because of both the breadth of his library and the profusion of rare and early editions counted among its numbers, Barton's is generally considered to be the first major collection of rare, early editions of Shakespeare and Shakespeareana assembled in America.

Early life

Barton was born in Philadelphia. His father named him after the Welsh naturalist

Thomas Pennant Thomas Pennant (16 December 1798) was a Welsh natural history, naturalist, traveller, writer and antiquarian. He was born and lived his whole life at his family estate, Downing Hall, near Whitford, Flintshire, in Wales. As a naturalist he had ...

, who was a close friend. He was a son of noted physician

Benjamin Smith Barton Benjamin Smith Barton (February10, 1766December19, 1815) was an American botanist, naturalist, and physician. He was one of the first professors of natural history in the United States and built the largest collection of botanical specimens in the ...

and his wife, Mary (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Penington) Barton (1771–1819).

Career

Barton served as the American

chargé d'affaires A (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador. The term is Frenc ...

in France in 1835, succeeding his father-in-law,

Edward Livingston Edward Livingston (May 28, 1764May 23, 1836) was an American jurist, statesman and slaveholder. Database at He was an influential figure in the drafting of the Louisiana Civil Code of 1825, a civil code based largely on the Napoleonic Code. Li ...

, who had served as U.S. Minister to France from September 1833 to April 1835. Barton closed the legation on November 8, 1835 "because he had been recalled." He was succeeded in 1836 by

Lewis Cass Lewis Cass (October 9, 1782June 17, 1866) was a United States Army officer and politician. He represented Michigan in the United States Senate and served in the Cabinets of two U.S. Presidents, Andrew Jackson and James Buchanan. He was also the 1 ...

, who served as the next U.S. Minister to France.

Book collecting and personal library

Barton apparently began his book collecting in 1834 while attached to his father-in-law's diplomatic mission in Paris and continued, in earnest, through 1866. According to James Wynne, Barton's library consisted of as many as 16,000 volumes, though the Catalogue of the Barton Collection at the Boston Public Library suggests the collection numbered approximately 12,000 volumes at the time of its accession in 1873. Bartlon_letter_F1a

Throughout his career as a collector, Barton worked with booksellers, binders, and stationers in both Britain, Europe, and America. He purchased from or through

Obadiah Rich Obadiah Rich (November 25, 1777 – January 20, 1850) was an American diplomat, bibliophile and bibliographer specializing in the history of Latin America. He was credited with making the field of Americana a recognized field of scholarship by th ...

, Thomas Rodd, Horatio Rodd, H.G. Bohn, William Pickering, John Russell Smith, F.W. Christern,

Joseph Sabin Joseph Sabin (9 December 1821—5 June 1881) was a Braunston, England-born bibliographer and bookseller in Oxford, Philadelphia, and New York City. He compiled the "stupendous" multivolume ''Bibliotheca Americana: A Dictionary of Books Relating to ...

, and numerous others. Through these agents, he was an active buyer at many of the major British book auctions of the mid-nineteenth century, including the sales of

Richard Heber Richard Heber (5 January 1773 – 4 October 1833) was an English book collector. Biography He was born in Westminster, as the eldest son of Reginald Heber, who succeeded his eldest brother as lord of the manors of Marton in Yorkshire and Hodn ...

(1834), Benjamin Heywood Bright (1845), the Statfold Hall Library sale (1856), and a number of J.O. Halliwell-Phillipps' auctions. Barton's primary collecting interest was in the works of William Shakespeare and, in particular, in the early quarto and folio editions of his plays and poems. During his lifetime, Barton acquired many rare and early Shakespeare editions, including 45 play

quarto Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

s issued before the English Restoration, nine of which were issued during Shakespeare's lifetime. Barton also acquired all four seventeenth-century folio editions (including the

First Folio ''Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies'' is a collection of plays by William Shakespeare, commonly referred to by modern scholars as the First Folio, published in 1623, about seven years after Shakespeare's death. It is cons ...

of 1623, two copies of the

Second Folio The Second Folio is the 1632 edition of the collected plays of William Shakespeare. It follows the First Folio of 1623. Much language was updated in the Second Folio and there are almost 1,700 changes. Background and conception The major partner ...

(1632), both issues of the

Third Folio The earliest texts of William Shakespeare's works were published during the 16th and 17th centuries in quarto or folio format. Folios are large, tall volumes; quartos are smaller, roughly half the size. The publications of the latter are usually a ...

(1663 and 1664), and the

Fourth Folio The earliest texts of William Shakespeare's works were published during the 16th and 17th centuries in quarto or folio format. Folios are large, tall volumes; quartos are smaller, roughly half the size. The publications of the latter are usually a ...

(1685)). Among the many early Shakespearean quarto editions in the Barton collection are all nine of the Jaggard/Pavier quartos (sometimes referred to as the

False Folio False Folio is the term that Shakespeare scholars and bibliographers have applied to William Jaggard's printing of ten Shakespearean and pseudo-Shakespearean plays together in 1619, the first attempt to collect Shakespeare's work in a single v ...

), as well as several early and rare anthologies and poetic

miscellanies A miscellany (, ) is a collection of various pieces of writing by different authors. Meaning a mixture, medley, or assortment, a wikt:miscellany, miscellany can include pieces on many subjects and in a variety of different Literary genre, forms. ...

containing Shakespeare's poetry. John Alden refers to Barton as "the first American to form an extensive, purposeful collection of Shakespeariana." Indeed, his participation in the Heber sale (1834-1836) marked a watershed moment in the history of American Shakespeare collecting. During that single sale, Barton acquired, among other things, the first quarto o
''A Midsummer Night's Dream''
the first quarto o
''The Merchant of Venice''
and the third quarto o
''Hamlet''lot nos. 2012, 2014, and 2021, respectively
. Barton was also interested in English drama more generally, and the collection is particularly strong with respect to the

early modern The early modern period is a Periodization, historical period that is defined either as part of or as immediately preceding the modern period, with divisions based primarily on the history of Europe and the broader concept of modernity. There i ...

period, containing hundreds of quarto editions of English playbooks by playwrights including

Christopher Marlowe Christopher Marlowe ( ; Baptism, baptised 26 February 156430 May 1593), also known as Kit Marlowe, was an English playwright, poet, and translator of the Elizabethan era. Marlowe is among the most famous of the English Renaissance theatre, Eli ...

John Lyly John Lyly (; also spelled ''Lilly'', ''Lylie'', ''Lylly''; born c. 1553/54 – buried 30 November 1606)Hunter, G. K. (2004)"Lyly, John (1554–1606)". ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 23 January 2 ...

Thomas Kyd Thomas Kyd (baptised 6 November 1558; buried 15 August 1594) was an English playwright, the author of ''The Spanish Tragedy'', and one of the most important figures in the development of Elizabethan drama. Although well known in his own time, ...

Ben Jonson Benjamin Jonson ( 11 June 1572 – ) was an English playwright, poet and actor. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence on English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for the satire, satirical ...

Thomas Middleton Thomas Middleton (baptised 18 April 1580 – July 1627; also spelt ''Midleton'') was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. He, with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson, was among the most successful and prolific of playwrights at work in the Jac ...

, John Fletcher, and

Thomas Heywood Thomas Heywood (early 1570s – 16 August 1641) was an English playwright, actor, and author. His main contributions were to late Elizabethan and early Jacobean theatre. He is best known for his masterpiece ''A Woman Killed with Kindness'', a ...

, among others. Barton also amassed substantial selections of French, Italian, Spanish, and German literature and belles-lettres. In addition, nearly 4,000 volumes in Barton's collection come from the personal library of Edward Livingston, which Barton inherited in 1836. Livingston's library consisted largely of works on jurisprudence and history. The condition of his books was a major concern for Barton, and he sought out only the finest copies of any given editions available on the market.Winsor, Justin. A bibliography of the original quartos and folios of Shakespeare. Boston: Osgood, 1876. pp. 5-7. As a result, the breadth of his collection was limited by the availability on the market of excellent copies. In the collection of Barton's papers held at the Boston Public Library, Barton can be observed frequently turning down exceedingly rare editions of early quartos and folios based on their poor or otherwise deficient condition. Many of these copies can now be tracked to other collections. As of 2017, the Boston Public Library is actively engaged in the conservation and digitization of Barton's Shakespeare and Shakespeareana
Digitized copies of his books
are accessible through the Internet Archive.

Personal life

In 1833, Thomas Pennant Barton married Coralie "Cora" Livingston (1806-1873), a member of the prestigious

Livingston family The Livingston family of New York (state), New York is a prominent family that migrated from Scotland to the Dutch Republic, and then to the Province of New York in the 17th century. Descended from the 4th Lord Livingston, its members included s ...

. Cora was the daughter of U.S. Secretary of State

and Louise (née d'Avezac de Castera) Livingston (sister of

Auguste Davezac Auguste Davezac (May 30, 1780 – February 15, 1851) was a Saint Dominican-American diplomat who served twice as United States Ambassador to the Netherlands. Biography Auguste Genevieve Valentin D'Avezac was born in May, 1780, near Aux Cayes in ...

). Her paternal grandparents were Judge Robert Livingston, a member of the New York Provincial Assembly and a Judge of the New York Supreme Court of Judicature, and Margaret (

Beekman) Livingston, heir to immense tracts of land in Dutchess and

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

counties. He died, without issue, on April 5, 1869, at

Montgomery Place Montgomery Place, now Bard College: The Montgomery Place Campus, near Barrytown, New York, United States, is an early 19th-century estate (house), estate that has been designated a National Historic Landmark. It is also a contributing property ...

, the Livingston family estate near

Barrytown, New York Barrytown is a Hamlet (New York), hamlet (and census-designated place) within the town of Red Hook, New York, Red Hook in Dutchess County, New York, Dutchess County, New York (state), New York, United States. It is within the Hudson River Histo ...

References

External links

Thomas Pennant Barton Collection of Shakespeare and Shakespeariana
at the

.
Digitized copies of books from the Thomas Pennant Barton Collection
available in the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Barton, Thomas Parton 1803 births 1869 deaths American book and manuscript collectors Shakespearean scholars