Those of us who have lots of books can appreciate Thomas W. Streeter, who was born July 20, 1883. A devotee of history, he began collecting historical books and ephemera when he was young. A successful career in law, business, and finance gave him the resources. He loved Texas and accumulated the largest collection of books and papers for the Texas period of 1795-1845. He sold the entire collection to Yale’s Beinecke Library. Streeter also collected widely in travel literature, exploration, cartography, and American history. He compiled important bibliographical and historical information as he went, which was later gathered into eight volumes. I was interested to read that he had the only known copy of Illinois’ earliest newspaper, the Illinois Herald, published at Kaskaskia in 1814. Streeter’s collection was sold at auction in 1966-1969. He died in 1965, but he had spent several years preparing the sale. He offered credit and grants to several institutions so that they could bid on items of interest. Their historical collections were thus enriched with his rare books. Streeter wrote annotations with a sharp lead pencil within the copies themselves. He assumed correctly that books would increase in value with his provenance. His auctions resulted in sales of over $3 million, an unheard-of figure at that time. Streeter’s children resented his collection because it overwhelmed not only his library but their playroom. But son Frank Streeter became an important book collector, too, and whose own auction was an important event.
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