Philanthropist George Peabody @ MindSay 
1 of 2 Parts: Paul K. Conkin, Peabody College: From a Frontier Academy to the Fro
1 of 2 Parts: Paul K. Conkin, Peabody College: From a Frontier Academy to the Frontiers of Teaching and Learning (Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2002), ISBN 0-8265-1425-1, Reviewed with commentary by Franklin Parker, bfparker.
See end of concluding Part 2 of 2 Parts about reviewer Franklin Parker).
Peabody College of Vanderbilt University
Paul K. Conkin, Vanderbilt University's distinguished history professor emeritus, has long gazed over the Twenty-First Avenue South, Nashville, Tennessee, divide between the campuses of Vanderbilt University and George Peabody College for Teachers. Conkin's new book, Peabody College: From a Frontier Academy to the Frontiers of Teaching and Learning, 2002, is an important multifaceted history covering 217 years of six consecutive charter-connected educational institutions in Nashville culminating in the present Peabody College of Vanderbilt University.
Multifaceted History
The book is about schooling in frontier Nashville before Tennessee became a state (1796) and before and after it became the "Athens of the South."
It is about new beginnings, examining why each of the six predecessor Peabody educational institutions was founded, how each begat its offspring, who their leading officials and teachers were, what they did right, wrong, neglected to do, and the consequences.
It is about the relationship between Peabody College's predecessors and neighboring Vanderbilt University and the merger that occurred on July 1, 1979.
It is about the philanthropic intent of George Peabody, Massachusetts-born merchant in the South who became a London-based banker and philanthropist.
It is about his Peabody Education Fund (1867-1914); and how Peabody College became the legatee of that fund.
It is about how Peabody College as the South's pioneer model private teacher education institution embraced George Peabody's idealistic motto: "Education: A Debt Due from Present to Future Generations."
It is also about Peabody College of Vanderbilt University's continuing pursuit of George Peabody's dream—to uplift the South and advance the nation through professionally prepared teachers serving ever-better public schools.
These are the large tasks Conkin has undertaken.
Origins
In 1779 Virginia-born and North Carolina-reared James Robertson (1742-1814) explored the western part of North Carolina, now Tennessee. The next year (1780) he led mainly Scotch-Irish families to the frontier settlement of Nashborough, later renamed Nashville.
Frequent Indian raids caused settler to build makeshift forts (some 50 settlers annually were killed by Indians). From the North Carolina legislature of which he was a member James Robertson secured both a land grant and a charter for a Davidson Academy (newly named Davidson County included Nashville). He found and persuaded Presbyterian minister Thomas Craighead (c.1750-1825) to be both church pastor and academy principal.
Thomas Craighead was a graduate of the College of New Jersey (which became Princeton University, 1896). It was founded by "New Light" Presbyterians to train ministers. Its President John Witherspoon (1723-94), a signer of the Declaration of Independence, inspired many of his graduates with missionary zeal to preach and teach on the frontier.
Thus, Davidson Academy and its successors (Cumberland College and the University of Nashville) were molded by Scotch-Irish Presbyterian culture, rooted in Scottish reformer John Knox's (c.1514-72) enthusiasm for universal literacy so that all could read and understand the Bible.
Overview, 1785-1875
Peabody's six predecessor schools were: Davidson Academy (during 1785-1806), under Principal Thomas Craighead who also headed for three years to 1809 its rechartered successor, Cumberland College (1806-26).
Noted educator James Priestley (1760-1821) succeeded Craighead as president of Cumberland College from October 24, 1809, to February 4, 1821. Priestley was succeeded as president by a nationally prestigious scholar, President Philip Lindsley (1786-1850), at whose suggestion Cumberland College was rechartered as the University of Nashville from November 27, 1826, to 1875.
Why the University of Nashville?
There was some confusion between Cumberland College, Nashville, and a Cumberland College in Kentucky. Adoption of the name change to the University of Nashville was hastened by the availability of a federal land grant to institutions of higher education. There was also pride in Nashville's growing importance. President Lindsley envisioned a University of Nashville as an umbrella embracing professional schools and academic departments.
Overview, Since 1875
The University of Nashville's (1826-1875) charter was amended in 1875 so that its Literary Department was rechartered as State Normal School (1875-89), renamed officially Peabody Normal College (1889-1911), although informally called Peabody Normal College from the first because of its Peabody Education Fund origin and financial support). Peabody Normal College was rechartered as George Peabody College for Teachers (1914-79), which became Peabody College of Vanderbilt University on July 1, 1979.
Vision of an Athens of the South
Conkin wrote that by scholarly eminence and vision alone Lindsley deserved a chapter by himself, that "Philip Lindsley's University of Nashville first justified the reputation of Nashville as a center of higher education in the South…. It was his Princeton of the West." In 1835 Philip Lindsley first called Nashville the "Athens of the West." (Conkin, p. 47).
University of Nashville (1826-75)
Philip Lindsley was succeeded as president of the University of Nashville in 1850 by his physician son, Dr. John Berrien Lindsley (1822-97), chancellor during 1850-72, succeeded in turn by Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith (1824-93) as chancellor during 1872-75.
University of Nashville's Medical School
Financially pressed and occupied by Union troops during most of the Civil War, the University of Nashville hosted a cluster of schools and departments, some short-lived. The most successful was its medical school from 1850 to 1895, which graduated a total of 1,699 physicians and was the second largest U.S. medical school during the Civil War.
Other Schools and Departments
The University of Nashville also had a law department (1854-72); a school of agriculture and mechanic arts (1872-75); a school of civil engineering (1872-75); a military institute (about 1854-59); and a preparatory school, Montgomery Bell Academy, partly endowed by wealthy Nashville iron manufacturer Montgomery Bell (1769-1855), still functioning under the University of Nashville charter.
Nearly Defunct Literary Department
The University of Nashville's Literary Department, comparable to a college of arts and sciences, did not fare well in enrollment, finances, or faculty. From this nearly defunct Literary Department in 1875 the Peabody Education Fund trustees created and financed a State Normal School, later renamed Peabody Normal College, from which emerged George Peabody College for Teachers and finally Peabody College of Vanderbilt University (July 1, 1979).
Conkin tells this story by describing George Peabody's fund to aid public education in the desolate former Confederate states.
George Peabody (1795-1869)
A short account of Peabody's career and philanthropic motives helps explain his motto, "Education: a debt due from present to future generations." This motto accompanied his July 16, 1852, letter and check founding his first library and lecture hall in his hometown (then South Danvers, renamed Peabody, Massachusetts, 1868). That motto also helps explain the teacher education idealism of Peabody College, offspring of the Peabody Education Fund (1867-1914), whose purpose was to stimulate public schools for all as a way to help reunite and strengthen the nation.
Merchant in the South
Born poor in Massachusetts 19 miles from Boston, Peabody had four years of schooling and was apprenticed in a general store for four years. In 1811 his father died in debt with the family forced out of their mortgaged home to live with relatives. Two weeks later a great fire in Newburyport, Massachusetts, where young Peabody worked in his older brother's store, ruined all business prospects. These catastrophes led the17-year-old to migrate to Georgetown, D.C., where he opened a dry goods store (1812).
Peabody served in the War of 1812. Older fellow soldier and Maryland merchant Elisha Riggs, Sr. (his son founded Riggs Bank, Washington, D.C.) took Peabody at age 19 as junior partner. Their Baltimore-based firm successfully imported dry goods for resale to U.S. wholesalers. Besides traveling widely in the South as a merchant, George Peabody also made five European buying trips during 1827-37.
American Banker in London
On his fifth trip to London, February 1837, he was also an agent to sell abroad Maryland's $8 million in bonds to finance the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The Panic of 1837 soon forced Maryland and eight other U.S. states to stop paying interest on their bonds. Foreign investors holding these bonds, many of them pensioners and widows, were incensed.
Peabody helped ease foreign investors anxiety by publicly urging officials in Maryland and other defaulting states to resume interest payments retroactively. When resumption occurred and it became known that rather than burden the Maryland treasury Peabody had declined his $60,000 commission, he won public thanks from Maryland's legislature and governor and respect in London banking circles.
To show his confidence that the defaulting states would eventually pay interest on their bonds, he privately bought many of them when their value was low. When interest payments were resumed he reaped a profit, the basis of his fortune and the source of his later philanthropy.
George Peabody & Co., London
Remaining in London from 1837 onward he founded George Peabody & Co. (1838-64), a London-based banking firm, which sold state bonds to finance U.S. canals, roads, and railroads. He bought, sold, and shipped iron and steel rails for U.S. railroads. He helped sell the bonds that financed the Mexican War loan. He was a director of the Atlantic Cable Co.
Root of the Banking Firm of J.P. Morgan
Ill and overworked, he took as partner in 1854 Boston merchant Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-90), whose son, John Pierpont Morgan, Sr. (1837-1913), began as New York City agent for George Peabody & Co. On retirement, 1864, unmarried, without a son to carry on, George Peabody withdrew his name. The London firm continued as J.S. Morgan & Co., Morgan Grenfell & Co., and still continues as Deutsche Morgan Grenfell. George Peabody was the founding root of the banking house of J.P. Morgan.
"Deprived as I was"
In his mid-teens when his father died in debt in 1811, Peabody supported his mother and siblings forced out of their mortgaged home to live with relatives. Peabody restored them to the family home(1816) and paid for five of his younger relatives to attend Bradford Academy, Bradford, Massachusetts. When his17-year-old nephew asked his financial help to attend Yale College, Peabody replied from London (May 18, 1831, his underlining):
Deprived, as I was, of the opportunity of obtaining anything more than the most common education, I am well qualified to estimate its value by the disadvantages I labour under in the society [in] which my business and situation in life frequently throws me, and willingly would I now give twenty times the expense attending a good education could I now possess it, but it is now too late for me to learn and I can only do to those who come under my care, as I could have wished circumstances had permitted others to have done by me.
Peabody as Philanthropist
Peabody early told intimates privately and in 1850 said publicly that he would endow helpful institutions in every town and city where he had lived and worked. His gifts included seven Peabody libraries in the U.S.; Peabody museums at Harvard (anthropology), Yale (paleontology), and in Salem, Massachusetts (maritime history); professorships at an academy and several colleges; publication funds to two historical societies; aid to Civil War veterans, their wives and orphan children; and aid for a charitable hospital in the Vatican, Italy.
Housing (London) and Education (Defeated Southern States)
His two largest gifts were: $2.4 million for housing London's working poor (begun 1862), where 34,500 low income Londoners (white, black, others) still live in 17,183 affordable apartments; and a $2 million Peabody Education Fund to aid public education in the eleven embittered, impoverished, Civil War-torn former Confederate states. In May 1866 Peabody went for advice to Robert Charles Winthrop (1809-94), who helped choose the original trustees and also presided over the board of trustees.
Robert Charles Winthrop
Winthrop was descended from Massachusetts Bay Colony's early governor, John Winthrop (1588-1649). He was a Harvard graduate (1828), trained in Daniel Webster's law office, was admitted to the bar (1831), a Whig member of the Massachusetts legislature, Speaker of the Massachusetts State House, elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1842-50 and its speaker, 1847-50), and was appointed to fill Daniel Webster's U.S. Senate seat (1850). A respected national figure no longer seeking public office, Winthrop in the last 27 years of his life (during 1867-94) directed the Peabody Education Fund trustees.
A Plan and an Administrator
Winthrop pondered how to use the relatively small income from a $2 million fund to stimulate public schools for white and black children in twelve poverty-ridden, Civil War-ravaged states (West Virginia was added because of its poverty); how to convince defeated, resentful southern parents, taxpayers, and political leaders that permanent tax supported public schools could help renew their economy and uplift their lives; how to attract and train better teachers; and how to spread public elementary and secondary schools to strengthen a new South.
Barnas Sears
Winthrop found a feasible plan and its able administrator in long-time friend Barnas Sears (1802-90), then president of Brown University in Rhode Island. Barnas Sears was born in Sandisfield, Massachusetts, was a Brown University graduate (1825), studied at Newton Theological Seminary (Massachusetts), was ordained a Baptist minister, was a Colgate University (New York) professor (1831-33), studied in German universities, was Newton Theological Seminary professor and later its president. He succeeded Horace Mann (1796-1859) as Massachusetts Board of Education secretary (during 1848-55) and was Brown University president (1855-67).
Winthrop and Sears, March 13, 1867
Winthrop met Sears by chance at the old Wednesday Evening Club in Boston, March 13, 1867; asked Sears how the Peabody Education Fund might carry out its mission; and was impressed by Sears's remarks.
Sears's March 14, 1867 Letter
Winthrop shared with the trustees Sears's letter of March 14, 1867, from Providence, Rhode Island, detailing how the Fund might operate. Backed by the trustees Winthrop persuaded Sears to accept the post as the Peabody Education Fund's first administrator during 1867-80, the crucial first 13 years.
Sears's Plan
Sears's plan was to strengthen through grants existing public schools in larger towns to serve as models for smaller communities; to establish new public schools where needed; to require that Peabody Education Fund-aided schools become permanent tax-supported public schools under state control; to require that aided schools meet nine or ten months a year; to have at least one teacher per 50 pupils; and to require local citizens to match Peabody Education Fund contributions, if possible, by two or three times the amount of Peabody Education Fund aid.
Matching Funds and Permanent Legislation
Sears set a rising scale of financial aid as enrollments rose: $300 a year for a school enrolling up to 100 pupils, $450 for 100 to 150 pupils, $600 for 150 to 200 pupils, $800 for 200 to 250 pupils, and $1,000 for 300 or more pupils. It was pure pump priming, using small grants for their matching and levering effect and requiring legislative approval and permanent state support.
Sears's First Aim
Sears and his family moved to Staunton, Virginia. He wrote, spoke, and traveled widely during his 13 years as fund administrator (1867-80). He used the fund's limited resources to accomplish his first aim: to help establish tax supported elementary and secondary public schools and create a model teacher training college for the South in Nashville (Peabody Normal College during 1875-1911).
Sears's Other Two Aims
Sears's second aim, to establish both short term teachers' institutes (a week or less training for practicing teachers) and long term professional teacher training normal schools, was largely accomplished by the fund's second administrator J.L.M. Curry during 1881-1903.
Sears's third aim, rural public schools, was largely accomplished by the fund's third administrator Wycliffe Rose (1862-1931) during 1907-14.
State Normal School in Nashville
Sears saw Nashville, Tennessee, as a cultural center and the ideal place for a normal school as a model for the South. Proposals in the Tennessee legislature to establish a state teacher training normal school had failed in 1857 and 1865. In June-July 1867, Sears offered Peabody Education Fund stipends of $1,000 or more annually if Tennessee would establish one or more normal schools. Legislative bills for a state normal school failed in 1868, 1871, and 1873, even though the Peabody Education Fund offered (in 1873) $6,000 annually to match annual state funding.
University of Nashville Land and Buildings
Disappointed at not getting Tennessee legislative cooperation for a state normal school and not wanting to lose Nashville as his preferred site, Sears in 1874 asked the University of Nashville trustees to give land and buildings for a normal school in place of their moribund Literary Department. He promised to support the normal school with $6,000 annually from the Peabody Education Fund.
Helped by Tennessee Governor James Davis Porter
In 1875, with the help of the then new Tennessee Governor James Davis Porter (1828-1912), Sears got the University of Nashville trustees to convert its nearly defunct Literary Department into a normal school. The legislature, encouraged by Governor Porter, amended the University of Nashville's charter to legalize the normal school. Sears and the Peabody Education Fund trustees subsidized the normal school, expecting imminent and continuing state support.
State Normal School: 1875-1889
Glad not to spend state funds, the Tennessee legislature amended the University of Nashville's charter to allow it to establish a normal school, financed by Peabody Education Fund's $6,000 annual contribution (Sears expected sustaining state aid). The new State Normal School on the University of Nashville campus opened December 1, 1875, with 13 students and ended the first year with 60 students.
Peabody Scholarships Provided a Southern Regional Influence
State Normal School (1875-89) was officially renamed Peabody Normal College (1889-1911), although it was always locally called Peabody Normal College. Attendance was cost-free to selected students with promise as future teachers. During 1877-1904, 3,645 of the most promising applicants from the South received Peabody Education Fund scholarships of $200 annually during 1877-91 and $100 annually plus railroad fare during 1891-1904.
The importance of the Peabody scholarships was that they reached beyond Tennessee to the entire South. Alfred Leland Crabb (1883-1979, of George Peabody College for Teachers) later noted that these 3,645 Peabody scholarship teachers in their time formed an important core of educational leaders for the South.
Threat of a Move to Georgia
Unable or unwilling to offer state aid, the Tennessee legislature defeated appropriation bills for the State Normal School in 1877 and 1879, leaving funding solely to the Peabody Education Fund until 1881. Disappointed, Sears and the fund trustees considered moving State Normal School from Nashville to Georgia, whose legislature agreed on state support if the fund continued its $6,000 annual contribution. But Georgia's Constitution required that any such school be state controlled as part of the University of Georgia at Athens. This requirement irked Sears and the fund trustees, who wanted state aid but opposed state control.
Tennessee State Aid
Threat of a move from Tennessee prompted Nashville citizens to guarantee $6,000 by April 1880 to keep the Normal School in Nashville. Stung into action, the Tennessee legislature gave the Normal School $10,000 annually (1881-83), raised to $13,300 annually (1883-95), and raised again to $23,000 annually (1895-1905). Peabody Normal College got $555,730 from the Peabody Education Fund (1875-1909) and $429,000 from the Tennessee legislature (1881-1905).
Peabody Normal College's Three Presidents: 1875-1909
The three presidents of State Normal School (1875-89) and Peabody Normal College (1889-1911) were, first, President Eben Sperry Stearns (1819-87) during 1875-87. Born in Massachusetts and Harvard University educated, Stearns, under Massachusetts Board of Education Secretary Barnas Sears, was the second president of Newton Normal School, Massachusetts (the first U.S. normal school).
The second president was William Harold Payne (1836-1907) during 1888-1901. He had held the first professorship of education in the U.S. at the University of Michigan during 1879-88.
The third president was James Davis Porter during 1901-09, a Tennessean, a University of Nashville graduate (1846), a lawyer, Tennessee House member, Confederate officer, and Tennessee governor (1874-78).
Normal Colleges Became State Colleges of Education
The Peabody Normal College years (1875-1911) coincided with the rise of state normal schools as the chief agency to prepare elementary and secondary school teachers. After 1910, state normal schools were increasingly replaced by state colleges of education, a changeover which coincided with the Peabody Education Fund's dissolution in 1914.
Transition to George Peabody College for Teachers
George Peabody's founding letter (February 7, 1867) allowed the Peabody Education Fund trustees to end the trust after 30 years and to distribute its principal. On January 29, 1903, the fund trustees resolved to give most of the fund's principal to found George Peabody College for Teachers (influential trustees then included Theodore Roosevelt and John Pierpont Morgan, Sr.).
On January 24, 1905, the fund trustees committed $1 million (later raised to $1.5 million) to transform the Peabody Normal College into George Peabody College for Teachers, contingent on matching funds from Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee, and other donors; and on relocating from south Nashville to Twenty-First Avenue near Vanderbilt University for added academic strength.
Transition Problems
A problem arose when Georgia State Commissioner of Education G.R. Glenn, Peabody Education Fund acting administrator in 1903, argued in his annual report that because public education in the South lagged behind national levels, the fund's principal should be used in a campaign to raise local public school taxes. But fear of losing Peabody Education Fund assets led Peabody Normal College alumni to secure petitions supporting the creation of George Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville as successor to Peabody Normal College.
After a year-long deadlock on the issue, the Peabody Education Fund trustees confirmed that George Peabody College for Teachers would indeed succeed Peabody Normal College, with a new campus near Vanderbilt University.
Objection to Move From South Nashville
South Nashville property owners objected to moving Peabody Normal College from their area and began court action. President James D. Porter also preferred south Nashville but the Peabody Education Fund trustees' endowment power determined the Vanderbilt University location. President J.D. Porter acquiesced, was compensated by a pension from the Carnegie Pension Fund, and helped secure the legislation that permitted transfer of assets from the University of Nashville's Peabody Normal School to George Peabody College for Teachers.
By June 1909 President Porter also helped secure funds required to match the Peabody Education Fund's $1.5 million endowment: $250,000 from the Tennessee legislature, $200,000 from the City of Nashville, and $100,000 from Davidson County. President Porter resigned on August 4, 1909, and George Peabody College for Teachers was incorporated on October 5, 1909.
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University was chartered August 6, 1872, as Central University of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In February 1873 its founder, Methodist Bishop Holland N. McTyeire (1824-89), needing building funds, visited Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) in New York City. Their wives were cousins and had been intimate girlhood friends in Mobile, Alabama (this was Cornelius Vanderbilt's second wife, his first wife having died).
Cornelius Vanderbilt's Gifts
Bishop McTyeire told Cornelius Vanderbilt of higher education needs in the South and particularly of Central University building needs in Nashville. Cornelius Vanderbilt, whose wealth came from ferry boats, steamship lines, and railroads (New York Central, 1867), gave Central University in Nashville $500,000 on March 12, 1873, later doubled to $1 million, leading to the renaming of Central University to Vanderbilt University on June 6, 1873.
Vanderbilt-Peabody Connection
Vanderbilt University's second Chancellor James Hampton Kirkland (1859-1939) wanted to make Nashville a great university center. He also knew that George Peabody College for Teachers' endowment was initially greater than Vanderbilt's endowment. Wanting a Vanderbilt-Peabody College connection similar to the successful Teachers College of Columbia University, Kirkland deeded Vanderbilt land to George Peabody College for Teachers, about which some contention later resulted.
Daniel Coit Gilman
Kirkland's hoped-for ally in making a Vanderbilt-Peabody connection was Johns Hopkins University President Daniel Coit Gilman (1831-1908), the South's most respected higher education leader and also an influential Peabody Education Fund trustee. Kirkland urged in 1900 and 1901 that Gilman, about to retire as Johns Hopkins president, become Peabody Normal College president and help form a Vanderbilt-Peabody connection.
While retaining his long friendship with Kirkland, Gilman adroitly sidestepped involvement, declining to give a major address in Nashville in 1900 and also declining to head Peabody Normal College in its last years.
First Peabody College President Bruce Ryburn Payne
First President Bruce Ryburn Payne (1874-1937) during 1911-37 cooperated academically with Vanderbilt but adamantly kept Peabody independent as the South's leading teacher training institution.
North Carolinian Bruce R. Payne was a graduate of Trinity College (later renamed Duke University), was principal of Morganton (North Carolina.) Academy, did graduate study at Trinity College and at Teachers College of Columbia University (M.A., 1903; Ph.D., 1904), was professor of philosophy and education, College of William and Mary, Virginia (1904-05); and was University of Virginia professor of secondary education and psychology and summer school organizer.
Architecture Inspired By Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia
Payne assembled a first-rate faculty, modeled the new Peabody campus on Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia architectural plan (a quadrangle of columned buildings dominated by a Social-Religious Building with a commanding rotunda), and raised an additional $1 million for the new campus.
President Payne's Fund Raising
An example of Payne's fund raising: banker and Peabody Education Fund trustee J.P. Morgan, Sr., had promised $250,000 toward George Peabody College for Teachers buildings when needed but died. Payne went to New York City to request the funds of Morgan's son-in-law, Herbert Livingston Satterlee (1863-1947). Satterlee hesitated because Morgan had not left written evidence of his promised aid. Payne felt he had failed in this fund raising until Satterlee, checking with Morgan's son (J.P. Morgan, Jr.), released the promised amount.
Peabody Education Fund Assets Distributed, 1914
The Peabody Education Fund trustees dissolved in 1914 and distributed their total assets ($2,324,000) as follows: $1.5 million to endow George Peabody College for Teachers; $474,000 to education departments of 14 southern universities ($40,000 each to the universities of Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana [State]); $6,000 each to Johns Hopkins University and to the universities of South Carolina, Missouri, and Texas; $90,000 to Winthrop Normal College, South Carolina (now Winthrop College), founded by Peabody Education Fund trustee President Robert Charles Winthrop.
Recipient state universities of Georgia, Mississippi, Florida at Gainesville, North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and others named their college of education buildings after George Peabody. George Peabody-named elementary and secondary schools exist in the southern states his fund benefited; along with a Peabody Avenue and a Peabody Hotel, both in Memphis, Tennessee; and Peabody Hotels in Orlando, Florida, and elsewhere.
Peabody's Payne and Vanderbilt's Kirkland
Payne, like Kirkland, was a strong administrator with a vibrant personality. Their relations were polite but strained by Payne's determination to keep Peabody College independent yet cooperative in cross-listing courses and programs. Kirkland was elitist and an educational conservative while Payne, concerned for mass education, was egalitarian in the spirit of the democratic educational philosophy of his Columbia University mentor, John Dewey (1859-1952).
A Unique Mini-University
Payne and his successors, rightly or wrongly, made and tried to keep Peabody a unique mini-university. Besides the professional preparation of teachers, it graduated students in liberal arts, science, music, physical education, art, and library science; and had a demonstration elementary school for teachers-in-training, Knapp farm for rural studies, and a school survey research unit used widely in the South. Unresolved fiscal problems in the late 1960s and early 1970s created the possibility of some kind of merger in the late 1970s.
Mutual Suspicions
With more women than men students during the 1920s-50s, Peabodians felt discrimination and a snobbish belittling of their professional education courses by Vanderbilt liberal arts professors (some of whom gladly taught for extra pay in Peabody College's large summer school).
The Peabody community sensed that Vanderbilt wanted to separate its graduate courses from them and that Vanderbilt deans and faculty disdained Peabody's teacher education mission and belittled its academic standards.
Cautious Cooperation
Vanderbilt's short-lived Education Department (1930-34) caused apprehension at Peabody. It was headed by Joseph Kinmount Hart (1876-1949), a progressive educator from the universities of Chicago and Wisconsin who had written A Social Interpretation of Education, 1929, and other textbooks. Hart's liberalism caused student disturbances. He ended his Vanderbilt career with bitterness and vague threats of a lawsuit.
More fruitful was the Joint Universities Library (JUL), dedicated December 5-6, 1941, outgrowth of a 1935 study of library needs of adjoining campuses of Vanderbilt, Peabody, and Scarritt College for Christian Workers (Methodist college founded in 1892, later an adult education conference center). JUL was renamed in 1984 the Jean and Alexander Heard Library.
The following overview of the Peabody presidents since Bruce R. Payne, with Conkin's assessment of each, helps explain conditions that led to the 1979 Vanderbilt merger.
Presidents of George Peabody College for Teachers
Peabody's first President Bruce R. Payne (1911-died in office, April 21, 1937) was succeeded by the following:
S. C. Garrison
Sidney Clarence Garrison (1887-1944), Peabody's second president during 1937-44, eight years; was a North Carolinian, a graduate of Wake Forest College, a high school principal and county superintendent. He was an M.A. degree graduate of Peabody College, 1916; served as a World War I captain; earned the Ph.D. degree from Peabody, 1919; taught educational psychology at Peabody where he was also a dean. "Garrison was not Payne," wrote Conkin; "he was an interim president." (Conkin, pp. 252-253).
Henry H. Hill
President Henry Harrington Hill (1894-1987) was third president during Peabody's boom years, 1945-60 (16 years) and interim president, 1962-63 (total of 18 years). Also a North Carolinian, Hill received the B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Virginia and the Ph.D. degree from Columbia University. He was a teacher, principal, and school superintendent in Arkansas; an education professor and dean at the University of Kentucky; was school superintendent in Lexington, Kentucky; St. Louis, Missouri; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Hill was cautious, moderate, and an expert at building consensus (Conkin, p. 265). In 1951, using a foundation grant, Hill hired four high profile division chairs: 1-Harold R. W. Benjamin (1893-1969) to head Foundations of Education; 2-Willard E. Goslin (1899-1969) to head Education Administration; 3-William Van Til (1911-) to head Teaching and Curriculum; and 4-Nicholas Hobbs (1915-83) to head Guidance and Development (Hobbs later led in securing for Peabody its prestigious and well funded John F. Kennedy Center for Research on Education and Human Development. Hobbs was later also a Vanderbilt provost).
Felix C. Robb
Felix Compton Robb (1914-97), fourth president during 1961-66, was an Alabamian, had a Vanderbilt M.A. degree, took education courses at Peabody where he became President Hill's assistant and heir apparent, and received a Ph.D. degree from Harvard's Graduate School of Education. Conkin characterized Robb as charismatic and idealistic but, when cracks appeared in Peabody's finances, "not a forceful or decisive leader" (Conkin, p. 296).
John Claunch
John M. Claunch (1906-90), fifth president from August 1, 1967, through 1973, six years, was from Louisiana, a graduate of Austin State Teachers College, Texas (B.A., 1928); and the University of Texas (M.A., 1937; Ph.D., 1956). His main administrative experience was as director of Dallas College, an adult education mainly evening college, established by Southern Methodist University. Stronger candidates had warily declined the Peabody presidency. Conkin called Claunch's appointment a "disastrous decision," adding that he was "rigid, insecure,…authoritarian" (Conkin, pp. 311-312).
Claunch chafed at endless studies and reports to keep Peabody College afloat, clashed with Nicholas Hobbs over the Kennedy Center, opposed faculty independence, and was critical of student protests against military action in Vietnam
John Dunworth
John Dunworth (1924-) was Peabody's sixth and last president during 1974-79, five years, when the trauma of merger was played out. Born in Los Angeles, Dunworth was an Ed.D. graduate of the University of Southern California, had been a successful dean of Ball State University's Teachers College, Indiana. Conkin characterized him as "Charming, vain, an expert at self promotion…[he] worked well with faculty" and "in other times, other circumstances, might have been a popular president" (Conkin, p. 330).
Reviewers' Experience at Peabody, 1951-56
[I here insert our experiences during 1951-56 as graduate students at George Peabody College for Teachers for any light it may shed on the Peabody College of that time].
Betty Parker and I were newly married (1950); recent graduates of Berea College near Lexington, Kentucky (a tuition-free work-study college); on our first teaching jobs at what is now Ferrum College near Roanoke, Virginia. To upgrade our teaching skills we took Peabody College courses the summer of 1951.
Peabody had a fine regional reputation in our school-oriented circles. Betty's aunt and other relatives had attended there. We returned to Peabody the summer of 1952 and remained as graduate students through August 1956, four years and two summers, holding part time jobs at Peabody and at Belmont College (now University), which the Baptists had acquired from Ward Belmont School.
Professor Clifton Landon Hall (1898-1987)
I looked for an unexplored aspect of Tennessee higher education as a dissertation topic to pursue under Canadian-born Clifton L. Hall, a respected Peabody professor in history and philosophy of education. Eager to be accepted as Hall's doctoral candidate, I enrolled in Hall's courses for several years. Not until I took Hall's seminars with weekly papers did I feel I had won Hall's confidence. Hall was a graduate of Bishop University (Quebec) and McGill University (Montreal) with a Ph.D. degree under University of North Carolina's (Chapel Hill) history of education Professor Edgar W. Knight.
Dean of Instruction Felix Robb
After I passed the doctoral preliminary examinations, Dean of Instruction Felix Robb had to formalize my doctoral committee and topic. When I met with Dean Robb in late 1953 Robb spoke at length about his own experience at Harvard Graduate School of Education. In a Harvard seminar under historian Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. (1888-1965), Schlesinger, knowing that Robb was a rising administrator at Peabody, mentioned George Peabody’s little known role as a founder of U.S. educational philanthropy. Schlesinger said that someone needed to explore and document that thesis.
Robb, then President Hill's assistant, expected to rise to an executive position and chose instead to write his dissertation on education administration. Perhaps regretting an interesting topic not pursued, perhaps out of respect for Clifton Hall (knowing I was Hall's student), Robb urged me to look into the George Peabody topic.
End of Part 1 of 2 Parts. See concluding Part 2 of 2 Parts.
Please send comments and corrections to bfparker@frontiernet.net
About the Parkers: 24 of their book titles are listed in:
http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/peabody/about/alum6.html#P
For writings by the Parkers in blogs, enter bfparker in google.com or in any other search engine.
See end of concluding Part 2 of 2 Parts about reviewer Franklin Parker).
Peabody College of Vanderbilt University
Paul K. Conkin, Vanderbilt University's distinguished history professor emeritus, has long gazed over the Twenty-First Avenue South, Nashville, Tennessee, divide between the campuses of Vanderbilt University and George Peabody College for Teachers. Conkin's new book, Peabody College: From a Frontier Academy to the Frontiers of Teaching and Learning, 2002, is an important multifaceted history covering 217 years of six consecutive charter-connected educational institutions in Nashville culminating in the present Peabody College of Vanderbilt University.
Multifaceted History
The book is about schooling in frontier Nashville before Tennessee became a state (1796) and before and after it became the "Athens of the South."
It is about new beginnings, examining why each of the six predecessor Peabody educational institutions was founded, how each begat its offspring, who their leading officials and teachers were, what they did right, wrong, neglected to do, and the consequences.
It is about the relationship between Peabody College's predecessors and neighboring Vanderbilt University and the merger that occurred on July 1, 1979.
It is about the philanthropic intent of George Peabody, Massachusetts-born merchant in the South who became a London-based banker and philanthropist.
It is about his Peabody Education Fund (1867-1914); and how Peabody College became the legatee of that fund.
It is about how Peabody College as the South's pioneer model private teacher education institution embraced George Peabody's idealistic motto: "Education: A Debt Due from Present to Future Generations."
It is also about Peabody College of Vanderbilt University's continuing pursuit of George Peabody's dream—to uplift the South and advance the nation through professionally prepared teachers serving ever-better public schools.
These are the large tasks Conkin has undertaken.
Origins
In 1779 Virginia-born and North Carolina-reared James Robertson (1742-1814) explored the western part of North Carolina, now Tennessee. The next year (1780) he led mainly Scotch-Irish families to the frontier settlement of Nashborough, later renamed Nashville.
Frequent Indian raids caused settler to build makeshift forts (some 50 settlers annually were killed by Indians). From the North Carolina legislature of which he was a member James Robertson secured both a land grant and a charter for a Davidson Academy (newly named Davidson County included Nashville). He found and persuaded Presbyterian minister Thomas Craighead (c.1750-1825) to be both church pastor and academy principal.
Thomas Craighead was a graduate of the College of New Jersey (which became Princeton University, 1896). It was founded by "New Light" Presbyterians to train ministers. Its President John Witherspoon (1723-94), a signer of the Declaration of Independence, inspired many of his graduates with missionary zeal to preach and teach on the frontier.
Thus, Davidson Academy and its successors (Cumberland College and the University of Nashville) were molded by Scotch-Irish Presbyterian culture, rooted in Scottish reformer John Knox's (c.1514-72) enthusiasm for universal literacy so that all could read and understand the Bible.
Overview, 1785-1875
Peabody's six predecessor schools were: Davidson Academy (during 1785-1806), under Principal Thomas Craighead who also headed for three years to 1809 its rechartered successor, Cumberland College (1806-26).
Noted educator James Priestley (1760-1821) succeeded Craighead as president of Cumberland College from October 24, 1809, to February 4, 1821. Priestley was succeeded as president by a nationally prestigious scholar, President Philip Lindsley (1786-1850), at whose suggestion Cumberland College was rechartered as the University of Nashville from November 27, 1826, to 1875.
Why the University of Nashville?
There was some confusion between Cumberland College, Nashville, and a Cumberland College in Kentucky. Adoption of the name change to the University of Nashville was hastened by the availability of a federal land grant to institutions of higher education. There was also pride in Nashville's growing importance. President Lindsley envisioned a University of Nashville as an umbrella embracing professional schools and academic departments.
Overview, Since 1875
The University of Nashville's (1826-1875) charter was amended in 1875 so that its Literary Department was rechartered as State Normal School (1875-89), renamed officially Peabody Normal College (1889-1911), although informally called Peabody Normal College from the first because of its Peabody Education Fund origin and financial support). Peabody Normal College was rechartered as George Peabody College for Teachers (1914-79), which became Peabody College of Vanderbilt University on July 1, 1979.
Vision of an Athens of the South
Conkin wrote that by scholarly eminence and vision alone Lindsley deserved a chapter by himself, that "Philip Lindsley's University of Nashville first justified the reputation of Nashville as a center of higher education in the South…. It was his Princeton of the West." In 1835 Philip Lindsley first called Nashville the "Athens of the West." (Conkin, p. 47).
University of Nashville (1826-75)
Philip Lindsley was succeeded as president of the University of Nashville in 1850 by his physician son, Dr. John Berrien Lindsley (1822-97), chancellor during 1850-72, succeeded in turn by Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith (1824-93) as chancellor during 1872-75.
University of Nashville's Medical School
Financially pressed and occupied by Union troops during most of the Civil War, the University of Nashville hosted a cluster of schools and departments, some short-lived. The most successful was its medical school from 1850 to 1895, which graduated a total of 1,699 physicians and was the second largest U.S. medical school during the Civil War.
Other Schools and Departments
The University of Nashville also had a law department (1854-72); a school of agriculture and mechanic arts (1872-75); a school of civil engineering (1872-75); a military institute (about 1854-59); and a preparatory school, Montgomery Bell Academy, partly endowed by wealthy Nashville iron manufacturer Montgomery Bell (1769-1855), still functioning under the University of Nashville charter.
Nearly Defunct Literary Department
The University of Nashville's Literary Department, comparable to a college of arts and sciences, did not fare well in enrollment, finances, or faculty. From this nearly defunct Literary Department in 1875 the Peabody Education Fund trustees created and financed a State Normal School, later renamed Peabody Normal College, from which emerged George Peabody College for Teachers and finally Peabody College of Vanderbilt University (July 1, 1979).
Conkin tells this story by describing George Peabody's fund to aid public education in the desolate former Confederate states.
George Peabody (1795-1869)
A short account of Peabody's career and philanthropic motives helps explain his motto, "Education: a debt due from present to future generations." This motto accompanied his July 16, 1852, letter and check founding his first library and lecture hall in his hometown (then South Danvers, renamed Peabody, Massachusetts, 1868). That motto also helps explain the teacher education idealism of Peabody College, offspring of the Peabody Education Fund (1867-1914), whose purpose was to stimulate public schools for all as a way to help reunite and strengthen the nation.
Merchant in the South
Born poor in Massachusetts 19 miles from Boston, Peabody had four years of schooling and was apprenticed in a general store for four years. In 1811 his father died in debt with the family forced out of their mortgaged home to live with relatives. Two weeks later a great fire in Newburyport, Massachusetts, where young Peabody worked in his older brother's store, ruined all business prospects. These catastrophes led the17-year-old to migrate to Georgetown, D.C., where he opened a dry goods store (1812).
Peabody served in the War of 1812. Older fellow soldier and Maryland merchant Elisha Riggs, Sr. (his son founded Riggs Bank, Washington, D.C.) took Peabody at age 19 as junior partner. Their Baltimore-based firm successfully imported dry goods for resale to U.S. wholesalers. Besides traveling widely in the South as a merchant, George Peabody also made five European buying trips during 1827-37.
American Banker in London
On his fifth trip to London, February 1837, he was also an agent to sell abroad Maryland's $8 million in bonds to finance the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The Panic of 1837 soon forced Maryland and eight other U.S. states to stop paying interest on their bonds. Foreign investors holding these bonds, many of them pensioners and widows, were incensed.
Peabody helped ease foreign investors anxiety by publicly urging officials in Maryland and other defaulting states to resume interest payments retroactively. When resumption occurred and it became known that rather than burden the Maryland treasury Peabody had declined his $60,000 commission, he won public thanks from Maryland's legislature and governor and respect in London banking circles.
To show his confidence that the defaulting states would eventually pay interest on their bonds, he privately bought many of them when their value was low. When interest payments were resumed he reaped a profit, the basis of his fortune and the source of his later philanthropy.
George Peabody & Co., London
Remaining in London from 1837 onward he founded George Peabody & Co. (1838-64), a London-based banking firm, which sold state bonds to finance U.S. canals, roads, and railroads. He bought, sold, and shipped iron and steel rails for U.S. railroads. He helped sell the bonds that financed the Mexican War loan. He was a director of the Atlantic Cable Co.
Root of the Banking Firm of J.P. Morgan
Ill and overworked, he took as partner in 1854 Boston merchant Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-90), whose son, John Pierpont Morgan, Sr. (1837-1913), began as New York City agent for George Peabody & Co. On retirement, 1864, unmarried, without a son to carry on, George Peabody withdrew his name. The London firm continued as J.S. Morgan & Co., Morgan Grenfell & Co., and still continues as Deutsche Morgan Grenfell. George Peabody was the founding root of the banking house of J.P. Morgan.
"Deprived as I was"
In his mid-teens when his father died in debt in 1811, Peabody supported his mother and siblings forced out of their mortgaged home to live with relatives. Peabody restored them to the family home(1816) and paid for five of his younger relatives to attend Bradford Academy, Bradford, Massachusetts. When his17-year-old nephew asked his financial help to attend Yale College, Peabody replied from London (May 18, 1831, his underlining):
Deprived, as I was, of the opportunity of obtaining anything more than the most common education, I am well qualified to estimate its value by the disadvantages I labour under in the society [in] which my business and situation in life frequently throws me, and willingly would I now give twenty times the expense attending a good education could I now possess it, but it is now too late for me to learn and I can only do to those who come under my care, as I could have wished circumstances had permitted others to have done by me.
Peabody as Philanthropist
Peabody early told intimates privately and in 1850 said publicly that he would endow helpful institutions in every town and city where he had lived and worked. His gifts included seven Peabody libraries in the U.S.; Peabody museums at Harvard (anthropology), Yale (paleontology), and in Salem, Massachusetts (maritime history); professorships at an academy and several colleges; publication funds to two historical societies; aid to Civil War veterans, their wives and orphan children; and aid for a charitable hospital in the Vatican, Italy.
Housing (London) and Education (Defeated Southern States)
His two largest gifts were: $2.4 million for housing London's working poor (begun 1862), where 34,500 low income Londoners (white, black, others) still live in 17,183 affordable apartments; and a $2 million Peabody Education Fund to aid public education in the eleven embittered, impoverished, Civil War-torn former Confederate states. In May 1866 Peabody went for advice to Robert Charles Winthrop (1809-94), who helped choose the original trustees and also presided over the board of trustees.
Robert Charles Winthrop
Winthrop was descended from Massachusetts Bay Colony's early governor, John Winthrop (1588-1649). He was a Harvard graduate (1828), trained in Daniel Webster's law office, was admitted to the bar (1831), a Whig member of the Massachusetts legislature, Speaker of the Massachusetts State House, elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1842-50 and its speaker, 1847-50), and was appointed to fill Daniel Webster's U.S. Senate seat (1850). A respected national figure no longer seeking public office, Winthrop in the last 27 years of his life (during 1867-94) directed the Peabody Education Fund trustees.
A Plan and an Administrator
Winthrop pondered how to use the relatively small income from a $2 million fund to stimulate public schools for white and black children in twelve poverty-ridden, Civil War-ravaged states (West Virginia was added because of its poverty); how to convince defeated, resentful southern parents, taxpayers, and political leaders that permanent tax supported public schools could help renew their economy and uplift their lives; how to attract and train better teachers; and how to spread public elementary and secondary schools to strengthen a new South.
Barnas Sears
Winthrop found a feasible plan and its able administrator in long-time friend Barnas Sears (1802-90), then president of Brown University in Rhode Island. Barnas Sears was born in Sandisfield, Massachusetts, was a Brown University graduate (1825), studied at Newton Theological Seminary (Massachusetts), was ordained a Baptist minister, was a Colgate University (New York) professor (1831-33), studied in German universities, was Newton Theological Seminary professor and later its president. He succeeded Horace Mann (1796-1859) as Massachusetts Board of Education secretary (during 1848-55) and was Brown University president (1855-67).
Winthrop and Sears, March 13, 1867
Winthrop met Sears by chance at the old Wednesday Evening Club in Boston, March 13, 1867; asked Sears how the Peabody Education Fund might carry out its mission; and was impressed by Sears's remarks.
Sears's March 14, 1867 Letter
Winthrop shared with the trustees Sears's letter of March 14, 1867, from Providence, Rhode Island, detailing how the Fund might operate. Backed by the trustees Winthrop persuaded Sears to accept the post as the Peabody Education Fund's first administrator during 1867-80, the crucial first 13 years.
Sears's Plan
Sears's plan was to strengthen through grants existing public schools in larger towns to serve as models for smaller communities; to establish new public schools where needed; to require that Peabody Education Fund-aided schools become permanent tax-supported public schools under state control; to require that aided schools meet nine or ten months a year; to have at least one teacher per 50 pupils; and to require local citizens to match Peabody Education Fund contributions, if possible, by two or three times the amount of Peabody Education Fund aid.
Matching Funds and Permanent Legislation
Sears set a rising scale of financial aid as enrollments rose: $300 a year for a school enrolling up to 100 pupils, $450 for 100 to 150 pupils, $600 for 150 to 200 pupils, $800 for 200 to 250 pupils, and $1,000 for 300 or more pupils. It was pure pump priming, using small grants for their matching and levering effect and requiring legislative approval and permanent state support.
Sears's First Aim
Sears and his family moved to Staunton, Virginia. He wrote, spoke, and traveled widely during his 13 years as fund administrator (1867-80). He used the fund's limited resources to accomplish his first aim: to help establish tax supported elementary and secondary public schools and create a model teacher training college for the South in Nashville (Peabody Normal College during 1875-1911).
Sears's Other Two Aims
Sears's second aim, to establish both short term teachers' institutes (a week or less training for practicing teachers) and long term professional teacher training normal schools, was largely accomplished by the fund's second administrator J.L.M. Curry during 1881-1903.
Sears's third aim, rural public schools, was largely accomplished by the fund's third administrator Wycliffe Rose (1862-1931) during 1907-14.
State Normal School in Nashville
Sears saw Nashville, Tennessee, as a cultural center and the ideal place for a normal school as a model for the South. Proposals in the Tennessee legislature to establish a state teacher training normal school had failed in 1857 and 1865. In June-July 1867, Sears offered Peabody Education Fund stipends of $1,000 or more annually if Tennessee would establish one or more normal schools. Legislative bills for a state normal school failed in 1868, 1871, and 1873, even though the Peabody Education Fund offered (in 1873) $6,000 annually to match annual state funding.
University of Nashville Land and Buildings
Disappointed at not getting Tennessee legislative cooperation for a state normal school and not wanting to lose Nashville as his preferred site, Sears in 1874 asked the University of Nashville trustees to give land and buildings for a normal school in place of their moribund Literary Department. He promised to support the normal school with $6,000 annually from the Peabody Education Fund.
Helped by Tennessee Governor James Davis Porter
In 1875, with the help of the then new Tennessee Governor James Davis Porter (1828-1912), Sears got the University of Nashville trustees to convert its nearly defunct Literary Department into a normal school. The legislature, encouraged by Governor Porter, amended the University of Nashville's charter to legalize the normal school. Sears and the Peabody Education Fund trustees subsidized the normal school, expecting imminent and continuing state support.
State Normal School: 1875-1889
Glad not to spend state funds, the Tennessee legislature amended the University of Nashville's charter to allow it to establish a normal school, financed by Peabody Education Fund's $6,000 annual contribution (Sears expected sustaining state aid). The new State Normal School on the University of Nashville campus opened December 1, 1875, with 13 students and ended the first year with 60 students.
Peabody Scholarships Provided a Southern Regional Influence
State Normal School (1875-89) was officially renamed Peabody Normal College (1889-1911), although it was always locally called Peabody Normal College. Attendance was cost-free to selected students with promise as future teachers. During 1877-1904, 3,645 of the most promising applicants from the South received Peabody Education Fund scholarships of $200 annually during 1877-91 and $100 annually plus railroad fare during 1891-1904.
The importance of the Peabody scholarships was that they reached beyond Tennessee to the entire South. Alfred Leland Crabb (1883-1979, of George Peabody College for Teachers) later noted that these 3,645 Peabody scholarship teachers in their time formed an important core of educational leaders for the South.
Threat of a Move to Georgia
Unable or unwilling to offer state aid, the Tennessee legislature defeated appropriation bills for the State Normal School in 1877 and 1879, leaving funding solely to the Peabody Education Fund until 1881. Disappointed, Sears and the fund trustees considered moving State Normal School from Nashville to Georgia, whose legislature agreed on state support if the fund continued its $6,000 annual contribution. But Georgia's Constitution required that any such school be state controlled as part of the University of Georgia at Athens. This requirement irked Sears and the fund trustees, who wanted state aid but opposed state control.
Tennessee State Aid
Threat of a move from Tennessee prompted Nashville citizens to guarantee $6,000 by April 1880 to keep the Normal School in Nashville. Stung into action, the Tennessee legislature gave the Normal School $10,000 annually (1881-83), raised to $13,300 annually (1883-95), and raised again to $23,000 annually (1895-1905). Peabody Normal College got $555,730 from the Peabody Education Fund (1875-1909) and $429,000 from the Tennessee legislature (1881-1905).
Peabody Normal College's Three Presidents: 1875-1909
The three presidents of State Normal School (1875-89) and Peabody Normal College (1889-1911) were, first, President Eben Sperry Stearns (1819-87) during 1875-87. Born in Massachusetts and Harvard University educated, Stearns, under Massachusetts Board of Education Secretary Barnas Sears, was the second president of Newton Normal School, Massachusetts (the first U.S. normal school).
The second president was William Harold Payne (1836-1907) during 1888-1901. He had held the first professorship of education in the U.S. at the University of Michigan during 1879-88.
The third president was James Davis Porter during 1901-09, a Tennessean, a University of Nashville graduate (1846), a lawyer, Tennessee House member, Confederate officer, and Tennessee governor (1874-78).
Normal Colleges Became State Colleges of Education
The Peabody Normal College years (1875-1911) coincided with the rise of state normal schools as the chief agency to prepare elementary and secondary school teachers. After 1910, state normal schools were increasingly replaced by state colleges of education, a changeover which coincided with the Peabody Education Fund's dissolution in 1914.
Transition to George Peabody College for Teachers
George Peabody's founding letter (February 7, 1867) allowed the Peabody Education Fund trustees to end the trust after 30 years and to distribute its principal. On January 29, 1903, the fund trustees resolved to give most of the fund's principal to found George Peabody College for Teachers (influential trustees then included Theodore Roosevelt and John Pierpont Morgan, Sr.).
On January 24, 1905, the fund trustees committed $1 million (later raised to $1.5 million) to transform the Peabody Normal College into George Peabody College for Teachers, contingent on matching funds from Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee, and other donors; and on relocating from south Nashville to Twenty-First Avenue near Vanderbilt University for added academic strength.
Transition Problems
A problem arose when Georgia State Commissioner of Education G.R. Glenn, Peabody Education Fund acting administrator in 1903, argued in his annual report that because public education in the South lagged behind national levels, the fund's principal should be used in a campaign to raise local public school taxes. But fear of losing Peabody Education Fund assets led Peabody Normal College alumni to secure petitions supporting the creation of George Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville as successor to Peabody Normal College.
After a year-long deadlock on the issue, the Peabody Education Fund trustees confirmed that George Peabody College for Teachers would indeed succeed Peabody Normal College, with a new campus near Vanderbilt University.
Objection to Move From South Nashville
South Nashville property owners objected to moving Peabody Normal College from their area and began court action. President James D. Porter also preferred south Nashville but the Peabody Education Fund trustees' endowment power determined the Vanderbilt University location. President J.D. Porter acquiesced, was compensated by a pension from the Carnegie Pension Fund, and helped secure the legislation that permitted transfer of assets from the University of Nashville's Peabody Normal School to George Peabody College for Teachers.
By June 1909 President Porter also helped secure funds required to match the Peabody Education Fund's $1.5 million endowment: $250,000 from the Tennessee legislature, $200,000 from the City of Nashville, and $100,000 from Davidson County. President Porter resigned on August 4, 1909, and George Peabody College for Teachers was incorporated on October 5, 1909.
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University was chartered August 6, 1872, as Central University of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In February 1873 its founder, Methodist Bishop Holland N. McTyeire (1824-89), needing building funds, visited Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) in New York City. Their wives were cousins and had been intimate girlhood friends in Mobile, Alabama (this was Cornelius Vanderbilt's second wife, his first wife having died).
Cornelius Vanderbilt's Gifts
Bishop McTyeire told Cornelius Vanderbilt of higher education needs in the South and particularly of Central University building needs in Nashville. Cornelius Vanderbilt, whose wealth came from ferry boats, steamship lines, and railroads (New York Central, 1867), gave Central University in Nashville $500,000 on March 12, 1873, later doubled to $1 million, leading to the renaming of Central University to Vanderbilt University on June 6, 1873.
Vanderbilt-Peabody Connection
Vanderbilt University's second Chancellor James Hampton Kirkland (1859-1939) wanted to make Nashville a great university center. He also knew that George Peabody College for Teachers' endowment was initially greater than Vanderbilt's endowment. Wanting a Vanderbilt-Peabody College connection similar to the successful Teachers College of Columbia University, Kirkland deeded Vanderbilt land to George Peabody College for Teachers, about which some contention later resulted.
Daniel Coit Gilman
Kirkland's hoped-for ally in making a Vanderbilt-Peabody connection was Johns Hopkins University President Daniel Coit Gilman (1831-1908), the South's most respected higher education leader and also an influential Peabody Education Fund trustee. Kirkland urged in 1900 and 1901 that Gilman, about to retire as Johns Hopkins president, become Peabody Normal College president and help form a Vanderbilt-Peabody connection.
While retaining his long friendship with Kirkland, Gilman adroitly sidestepped involvement, declining to give a major address in Nashville in 1900 and also declining to head Peabody Normal College in its last years.
First Peabody College President Bruce Ryburn Payne
First President Bruce Ryburn Payne (1874-1937) during 1911-37 cooperated academically with Vanderbilt but adamantly kept Peabody independent as the South's leading teacher training institution.
North Carolinian Bruce R. Payne was a graduate of Trinity College (later renamed Duke University), was principal of Morganton (North Carolina.) Academy, did graduate study at Trinity College and at Teachers College of Columbia University (M.A., 1903; Ph.D., 1904), was professor of philosophy and education, College of William and Mary, Virginia (1904-05); and was University of Virginia professor of secondary education and psychology and summer school organizer.
Architecture Inspired By Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia
Payne assembled a first-rate faculty, modeled the new Peabody campus on Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia architectural plan (a quadrangle of columned buildings dominated by a Social-Religious Building with a commanding rotunda), and raised an additional $1 million for the new campus.
President Payne's Fund Raising
An example of Payne's fund raising: banker and Peabody Education Fund trustee J.P. Morgan, Sr., had promised $250,000 toward George Peabody College for Teachers buildings when needed but died. Payne went to New York City to request the funds of Morgan's son-in-law, Herbert Livingston Satterlee (1863-1947). Satterlee hesitated because Morgan had not left written evidence of his promised aid. Payne felt he had failed in this fund raising until Satterlee, checking with Morgan's son (J.P. Morgan, Jr.), released the promised amount.
Peabody Education Fund Assets Distributed, 1914
The Peabody Education Fund trustees dissolved in 1914 and distributed their total assets ($2,324,000) as follows: $1.5 million to endow George Peabody College for Teachers; $474,000 to education departments of 14 southern universities ($40,000 each to the universities of Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana [State]); $6,000 each to Johns Hopkins University and to the universities of South Carolina, Missouri, and Texas; $90,000 to Winthrop Normal College, South Carolina (now Winthrop College), founded by Peabody Education Fund trustee President Robert Charles Winthrop.
Recipient state universities of Georgia, Mississippi, Florida at Gainesville, North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and others named their college of education buildings after George Peabody. George Peabody-named elementary and secondary schools exist in the southern states his fund benefited; along with a Peabody Avenue and a Peabody Hotel, both in Memphis, Tennessee; and Peabody Hotels in Orlando, Florida, and elsewhere.
Peabody's Payne and Vanderbilt's Kirkland
Payne, like Kirkland, was a strong administrator with a vibrant personality. Their relations were polite but strained by Payne's determination to keep Peabody College independent yet cooperative in cross-listing courses and programs. Kirkland was elitist and an educational conservative while Payne, concerned for mass education, was egalitarian in the spirit of the democratic educational philosophy of his Columbia University mentor, John Dewey (1859-1952).
A Unique Mini-University
Payne and his successors, rightly or wrongly, made and tried to keep Peabody a unique mini-university. Besides the professional preparation of teachers, it graduated students in liberal arts, science, music, physical education, art, and library science; and had a demonstration elementary school for teachers-in-training, Knapp farm for rural studies, and a school survey research unit used widely in the South. Unresolved fiscal problems in the late 1960s and early 1970s created the possibility of some kind of merger in the late 1970s.
Mutual Suspicions
With more women than men students during the 1920s-50s, Peabodians felt discrimination and a snobbish belittling of their professional education courses by Vanderbilt liberal arts professors (some of whom gladly taught for extra pay in Peabody College's large summer school).
The Peabody community sensed that Vanderbilt wanted to separate its graduate courses from them and that Vanderbilt deans and faculty disdained Peabody's teacher education mission and belittled its academic standards.
Cautious Cooperation
Vanderbilt's short-lived Education Department (1930-34) caused apprehension at Peabody. It was headed by Joseph Kinmount Hart (1876-1949), a progressive educator from the universities of Chicago and Wisconsin who had written A Social Interpretation of Education, 1929, and other textbooks. Hart's liberalism caused student disturbances. He ended his Vanderbilt career with bitterness and vague threats of a lawsuit.
More fruitful was the Joint Universities Library (JUL), dedicated December 5-6, 1941, outgrowth of a 1935 study of library needs of adjoining campuses of Vanderbilt, Peabody, and Scarritt College for Christian Workers (Methodist college founded in 1892, later an adult education conference center). JUL was renamed in 1984 the Jean and Alexander Heard Library.
The following overview of the Peabody presidents since Bruce R. Payne, with Conkin's assessment of each, helps explain conditions that led to the 1979 Vanderbilt merger.
Presidents of George Peabody College for Teachers
Peabody's first President Bruce R. Payne (1911-died in office, April 21, 1937) was succeeded by the following:
S. C. Garrison
Sidney Clarence Garrison (1887-1944), Peabody's second president during 1937-44, eight years; was a North Carolinian, a graduate of Wake Forest College, a high school principal and county superintendent. He was an M.A. degree graduate of Peabody College, 1916; served as a World War I captain; earned the Ph.D. degree from Peabody, 1919; taught educational psychology at Peabody where he was also a dean. "Garrison was not Payne," wrote Conkin; "he was an interim president." (Conkin, pp. 252-253).
Henry H. Hill
President Henry Harrington Hill (1894-1987) was third president during Peabody's boom years, 1945-60 (16 years) and interim president, 1962-63 (total of 18 years). Also a North Carolinian, Hill received the B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Virginia and the Ph.D. degree from Columbia University. He was a teacher, principal, and school superintendent in Arkansas; an education professor and dean at the University of Kentucky; was school superintendent in Lexington, Kentucky; St. Louis, Missouri; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Hill was cautious, moderate, and an expert at building consensus (Conkin, p. 265). In 1951, using a foundation grant, Hill hired four high profile division chairs: 1-Harold R. W. Benjamin (1893-1969) to head Foundations of Education; 2-Willard E. Goslin (1899-1969) to head Education Administration; 3-William Van Til (1911-) to head Teaching and Curriculum; and 4-Nicholas Hobbs (1915-83) to head Guidance and Development (Hobbs later led in securing for Peabody its prestigious and well funded John F. Kennedy Center for Research on Education and Human Development. Hobbs was later also a Vanderbilt provost).
Felix C. Robb
Felix Compton Robb (1914-97), fourth president during 1961-66, was an Alabamian, had a Vanderbilt M.A. degree, took education courses at Peabody where he became President Hill's assistant and heir apparent, and received a Ph.D. degree from Harvard's Graduate School of Education. Conkin characterized Robb as charismatic and idealistic but, when cracks appeared in Peabody's finances, "not a forceful or decisive leader" (Conkin, p. 296).
John Claunch
John M. Claunch (1906-90), fifth president from August 1, 1967, through 1973, six years, was from Louisiana, a graduate of Austin State Teachers College, Texas (B.A., 1928); and the University of Texas (M.A., 1937; Ph.D., 1956). His main administrative experience was as director of Dallas College, an adult education mainly evening college, established by Southern Methodist University. Stronger candidates had warily declined the Peabody presidency. Conkin called Claunch's appointment a "disastrous decision," adding that he was "rigid, insecure,…authoritarian" (Conkin, pp. 311-312).
Claunch chafed at endless studies and reports to keep Peabody College afloat, clashed with Nicholas Hobbs over the Kennedy Center, opposed faculty independence, and was critical of student protests against military action in Vietnam
John Dunworth
John Dunworth (1924-) was Peabody's sixth and last president during 1974-79, five years, when the trauma of merger was played out. Born in Los Angeles, Dunworth was an Ed.D. graduate of the University of Southern California, had been a successful dean of Ball State University's Teachers College, Indiana. Conkin characterized him as "Charming, vain, an expert at self promotion…[he] worked well with faculty" and "in other times, other circumstances, might have been a popular president" (Conkin, p. 330).
Reviewers' Experience at Peabody, 1951-56
[I here insert our experiences during 1951-56 as graduate students at George Peabody College for Teachers for any light it may shed on the Peabody College of that time].
Betty Parker and I were newly married (1950); recent graduates of Berea College near Lexington, Kentucky (a tuition-free work-study college); on our first teaching jobs at what is now Ferrum College near Roanoke, Virginia. To upgrade our teaching skills we took Peabody College courses the summer of 1951.
Peabody had a fine regional reputation in our school-oriented circles. Betty's aunt and other relatives had attended there. We returned to Peabody the summer of 1952 and remained as graduate students through August 1956, four years and two summers, holding part time jobs at Peabody and at Belmont College (now University), which the Baptists had acquired from Ward Belmont School.
Professor Clifton Landon Hall (1898-1987)
I looked for an unexplored aspect of Tennessee higher education as a dissertation topic to pursue under Canadian-born Clifton L. Hall, a respected Peabody professor in history and philosophy of education. Eager to be accepted as Hall's doctoral candidate, I enrolled in Hall's courses for several years. Not until I took Hall's seminars with weekly papers did I feel I had won Hall's confidence. Hall was a graduate of Bishop University (Quebec) and McGill University (Montreal) with a Ph.D. degree under University of North Carolina's (Chapel Hill) history of education Professor Edgar W. Knight.
Dean of Instruction Felix Robb
After I passed the doctoral preliminary examinations, Dean of Instruction Felix Robb had to formalize my doctoral committee and topic. When I met with Dean Robb in late 1953 Robb spoke at length about his own experience at Harvard Graduate School of Education. In a Harvard seminar under historian Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. (1888-1965), Schlesinger, knowing that Robb was a rising administrator at Peabody, mentioned George Peabody’s little known role as a founder of U.S. educational philanthropy. Schlesinger said that someone needed to explore and document that thesis.
Robb, then President Hill's assistant, expected to rise to an executive position and chose instead to write his dissertation on education administration. Perhaps regretting an interesting topic not pursued, perhaps out of respect for Clifton Hall (knowing I was Hall's student), Robb urged me to look into the George Peabody topic.
End of Part 1 of 2 Parts. See concluding Part 2 of 2 Parts.
Please send comments and corrections to bfparker@frontiernet.net
About the Parkers: 24 of their book titles are listed in:
http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/peabody/about/alum6.html#P
For writings by the Parkers in blogs, enter bfparker in google.com or in any other search engine.
1 of 14: George Peabody (1795-1869): A-Z Handbook...
1 of 14: George Peabody (1795-1869): A-Z Handbook of the Massachusetts-Born Merchant in the South, London-Based Banker, and Philanthropist's Life, Influence, and Related People, Places, Events, and Institutions. ©2007, By Franklin Parker & Betty J. Parker, bfparker@frontiernet.net
This work updates and expands Franklin Parker, George Peabody, A Biography (Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt Univ. Press, ©1971, revised with illustrations ©1995), and related Peabody publications listed in the Authors' Preface below which also describes motives for this work.
Following Background below, this 1 of 14 blogs covers: 1-"Preface," 2-authors list of published writings on GP, 3-Overview of GP's Life and Career, and 4- alphabetical entries from Abbott (Alfred Amos) to Brush (M.P.) 2.
Background: This "Preface" 1 of 14 tells the why-when-where-how-findings-and-motives of the authors’ research on Franklin Parker’s doctoral dissertation, “George Peabody, Founder of Modern Philanthropy,” completed 1956 at George Peabody College for Teachers, adjoining Vanderbilt University, Nashville, which on July 1, 1979, became Peabody College of Vanderbilt University.
Well known in the 1850s-60s, George Peabody has since been sadly neglected by scholars and the public. He was a significant 19th century figure as: 1-a Massachusetts-born merchant in the U.S. South; as junior partner in Riggs & Peabody; later head of Peabody & Riggs (1814-38), both firms importing dry goods and other commodities worldwide for sale to U.S. wholesalers. From mercant Peabody transformed himself into: 2-a London-based merchant-banker, George Peabody & Co. (1838-64), which helped finance in part the B&O RR, the 2nd Mexican War Loan, the Atlantic Cable; and, by choosing Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-90) as partner Oct. 1, 1854, was the root of the JP Morgan international banking firm. Finally, this merchant-turned-banker became: 3-the best known philanthropist of the 1850s-60s, founding the Peabody Homes of London for the working poor; founder in the U.S. of 7 Peabody Libraries and Lecture Halls; the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Baltimore; three Peabody Museums at Harvard (Anthropology), Yale (Paleontology), and the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA (maritime history); and founder of the Peabody Education Fund for the South (1867-1914), model for all later larger U.S. funds and foundations.
Two tributes to George Peabody:
(Historian John Steele Gordon called George Peabody the "Most Underrated Philanthropist.... Peabody is unjustly forgotten today, but his unprecedented generosity was greatly appreciated in his time." Ref.: American Heritage. Vol. 50, No. 3 (May-June 1999), pp. 68-69.
("The Peabody Fund, established in 1867 by George Peabody to assist southern education, is often credited with being the first foundation…" Ref.: Reader's Companion to American History, ed by Eric Foner and John A. Garraty (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991). Internet: http://HistoryChannel.com/
End of Background.
Abbreviations are easily recognizable and include U.S. state names (Tenn. for Tennessee, Md. for Maryland, etc.); city (NYC for New York City); titles (Pres. for President, Sen. for Senator, Rep. for Representative, Secty. for Secretary, Gov. for Governor, PM for Prime Minister, Adm. for Admiral, etc.); months of the year (Jan. for January); terms (Intro. for Introduction); and organizations (Univ. for University, Co. for Company, Dept. for Department, B&O RR for Baltimore and Ohio Railroad; n.d. for no date; n.p. for no page; etc.). The following five abbreviations are used throughout this work:
1-GP for George Peabody (1795-1869
2-GPCFT for George Peabody College for Teachers (1914-79).
3-PCofVU for Peabody College of Vanderbilt Univ. (since July 1, 1979).
4-PEF for the Peabody Education Fund (Feb. 7, 1867-1914).
5-PIB for the Peabody Institute of Baltimore (since Oct. 24, 1857).
6-Peabody Papers, PEM for George Peabody Papers, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass.
7-USS for United States Ship, as in USS Plymouth: CSS for Confederate States Ship, as in CSS Alabama; and (for Britain) HMS for Her Majesty's Ship, as in HMS Monarch.
8-VU for Vanderbilt University.
References (Ref.)
References are briefly identified at the end of most articles as Ref.:, followed by author's last name and page or pages (or first significant words of title and page or pages if no author), with annotated reference easily found alphabetically in the back of this work.
See:
Names of persons after See: are listed by Last, First, and Middle names or initials.
Internet website URL and e-mail addresses of GP-related institutions, persons, and topics are listed in appropriate places (Ref.:, See:, other places) with date seen by the authors since URL's often appear, disappear, and change.
Summary repetitions about people, events, and circumstances are used in the many entries that follow when their use further illuminates GP's life and influence.
Birth and death years of persons, when known, are listed (after their names) when first mentioned in an entry.
English pound £ during GP's years in England (1837-69) was roughly equivalent to U.S. $5.00.
Authors' Preface: On the Trail of George Peabody (1795-1869)
(This Preface interweaves the origin of the authors' research "On the Trail of GP," with findings on his career and influence; lists the authors' GP publications; and continues alphabeticlly with entries 1-14 that touch on every uncovered aspect of GP's life, career, and influence).
1-Sept. 1946-52: We met as students at Berea College near Lexington, Ky. (Sept. 1946), Betty entering from Decatur, Ala.; Franklin from Asheville, N.C. Berea brought us together, led to our marriage (1950), and its Alumni Office got us our first teaching jobs at Ferrum Jr. College near Roanoke, Va., 1950-52.
2-To improve our teaching skills we attended George Peabody College for Teachers (GPCFT), sited next to Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, Tenn., the summers of 1951 and 1952. Attendance at Berea College, a work-study tuition-free college, enabled Franklin to extend his GI Bill entitlement (he served in the U.S. Army Air Forces, 1942-46) to help cover graduate study costs at the Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, 1949-50, and GPCFT, 1952-56, plus travel to and housing near U.S. and British libraries to read GP-related papers.
3-1952-56: A part-time job and small GPCFT scholarship for Franklin, together with Betty's job teaching English in a Nashville business college, enabled us to be graduate students at GPCFT during 1952-56. Franklin took courses from and attached himself as doctoral candidate to Canadian-born Prof Clifton Landon Hall (1898-1987), graduate of Bishop Univ. (Quebec), McGill Univ. (Montreal), a Univ. of N.C., Chapel Hill, Ph.D. in the history of education, and widely respected on the Peabody and Vanderbilt campuses.
4-1953: Searching for a dissertation topic and finding an unexplored area in the history of higher education in Tenn., Franklin went for approval to GPCFT Dean (and later president) Felix Compton Robb (1914-97). Perhaps out of respect for Prof. Hall's reputation, Dean Robb told Franklin of his own earlier experience at Harvard University. In a history course he had at Harvard under historian Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. (1888-1965), Schlesinger, knowing that Robb was a Peabody College administrator, urged Robb to write on GP as a founder of modern educational philanthropy. Schlesinger knew of this achievement and lamented that it had not yet been fully explored and documented.
5-Determined on a career in higher education administration, Robb chose a dissertation in that area. Perhaps regretting a good topic not pursued, Robb spoke with enthusiasm of GP’s little known role as the founder of U.S. educational philanthropy and urged Franklin to consider it as a dissertation topic.
Basic Facts
6-GP in brief: Increasingly intrigued by what we found in libraries and encouraged by small scholarships, we read GP’s original letters and papers intensively in widely scattered U.S. and British depositories during 1953-55. He was born Feb. 18, 1795, into a poor branch of the Peabodys of Mass., third of eight children in Danvers, Mass., 19 miles northeast of Boston. He lived long enough to see his birthplace (renamed South Danvers in 1855 when Danvers was divided into North Danvers and South Danvers) renamed Peabody, Mass., in his honor on April 13, 1868.
7-He attended a district school 4 years, ages 8-12 (1803-07), all his parents could afford; was apprenticed in a general store 4 years, ages 12-15 (1807-10); and worked for a year in his oldest brother's dry goods store in Newburyport, Mass. (1810-11). His father died May 13, 1811, leaving the family in debt, the Danvers home mortgaged, with GP's mother and the five younger children forced to live with nearby relatives. Eighteen days later, May 31, 1811, the Great Fire of Newburyport ruined all business prospects, leading to an exodus of family breadwinners.
8-Paternal uncle John Peabody (1768-1827), whose Newburyport store and stock were burned, urged his 17-year old nephew GP to join him in opening a dry goods store in Georgetown, D.C. Because his uncle could not obtain credit, GP asked a Newburyport merchant to stand surety for him for a consignment of goods on credit from a Boston merchant. With $2,000 in goods secured, uncle and nephew sailed from Newburyport (May 5, 1812) and opened the Georgetown, D.C., store (May 15, 1812).
9-His uncle soon entered other enterprises. On his own GP tended the store and was also a pack peddler selling goods to nearby homes and stores. With nearby Washington, D.C., under threat of British attack, he volunteered in the War of 1812. There he met and impressed 35-year-old fellow soldier and experienced Md. merchant Elisha Riggs, Sr. (1779-1853). Riggs took the 19-year-old GP as junior partner in Riggs, Peabody & Co. (1814-29), which imported European fabric, clothing, and other goods for sale to U.S. wholesalers. The firm moved to Baltimore in 1815 and had warehouses in Philadelphia and New York City (NYC) by 1822. See: Riggs, Elisha, Sr.
Young Merchant in the South
10-Taking early responsibility as family breadwinner, GP sent his mother and siblings flour, sugar, clothes, other necessities, and money. By 1816, age 21, he had paid the family debts and restored his mother and siblings to their home. Newburyport lawyer Ebon Mosely wrote GP on Dec. 16, 1816: "I cannot but be pleased with the filial affection which seems to evince you to preserve the estate for a Parent." Ref.: Ebon Mosely, Newburyport, Mass., to GP, Baltimore, Dec. 16, 1816, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
11-GP paid for the education at Bradford Academy, Bradford, Mass., of five younger relatives: brother Jeremiah, from 1819; sister Judith Dodge during 1821-27, sister Mary Gaines during 1822-27, cousin Adolphus W. Peabody (paternal uncle John's son) during 1827, and a nephew named for him (oldest brother David's son George), also during 1827. He bought a house in West Bradford for his relatives who were enrolled in the academy and where his mother also lived for several years.
12-He later paid for the education of other relatives: nephew Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-99), at Yale Univ., later the first U.S. paleontologist at Yale; nephew George Peabody Russell (1835-1909), Harvard-trained lawyer; niece Julia Adelaide Peabody (b. April 25, 1835), Philadelphia finishing school; and others.
13-GP traveled in the U.S. and abroad for Riggs, Peabody & Co. He made five European buying trips during 1827-37. When Elisha Riggs, Sr., withdrew to become a NYC banker, the firm became Peabody, Riggs & Co. (1829-48), with GP as senior partner and Riggs's nephew, Samuel Riggs (d. 1853), as junior partner.
GP as Md.'s Fiscal Agent Abroad
14-In 1836, as part of large scale internal improvements in many states (building roads, canals, and railroads), the Md. legislature voted to finance the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the B&O RR with interest-bearing state bonds to be sold abroad. Md. appointed three agents to sell its $8 million bond issue abroad. When one agent withdrew, GP sought and secured his place. He left for London Feb. 1837, just before the Panic of 1837.
15-A depression following the financial Panic of 1837 led the two other agents to return to the U.S. without success. GP remained in London the rest of his life (1837-69), 32 years, except for three U.S. visits (Sept. 15, 1856 to Aug. 19, 1857; May 1, 1866 to May 1, 1867; and June 8 to Sept. 29, 1869).
16-Depressed conditions after 1837 led nine states, including Md., to stop interest payments on their bonds sold abroad. GP had to sell the bonds in this depressed market and amid the angers of British and other European investors at the stoppage of interest payments. He publicly assured investors that repudiation was temporary, that payments would be retroactive. By letters, printed in newspapers, he urged officials in Md. and other defaulting states to retroactively resume interest payments.
17-GP was finally relieved to sell his part of the Md. bonds cheaply for exclusive resale by London's Baring Brothers banking firm. In 1847-48 Md. officials acknowledged publicly that GP had upheld Md.'s credit abroad during a difficult financial panic and that, rather than burden the state treasury, had declined his own $60,000 commission. Md. Gov. Philip Francis Thomas (1810-90) transmitted Md. legislature's resolutions of praise to him and wrote, "To you, sir...the thanks of the State were eminently due." See: Md.'s $8 Million Bond Sale Abroad and GP.
From Merchant to London-based Banker
18-Gradually curtailing business activities for Peabody, Riggs & Co., he withdrew his capital in 1843 and severed his connection in 1845 (the firm's business ended in 1848). Coincidentally, he founded George Peabody & Co., London (Dec. 1, 1838-Oct. 1, 1864) and increasingly sold U.S. state bonds to finance roads, canals, and railroads. He succeeded in transition from merchant to investment banker.
19-With others he helped finance the second Mexican War loan; bought, sold, and shipped European iron and later steel rails for U.S. western railroads; and was a director and part- financier of the Atlantic Cable Co. He had learned to marshal capital to finance and expand U.S. business and industrial growth. In the 1850s he became the most eminent U.S. banker in London dealing in U.S. trade and securities.
20-George Peabody & Co. prospered. Asked in an interview on Aug. 22, 1869, how and when he made his money, GP said, "I made pretty much of it in 20 years from 1844 to 1864. Everything I touched within that time seemed to turn to gold. I bought largely of United States securities when their value was low and they advanced greatly." Ref.: (Aug. 22, 1869, interview): Moorman-b, pp. 15-17.
Morgan Partnership
21-Often ill and urged by business friends to take a partner, GP on Oct. 1, 1854, at age 59 took as partner Boston merchant Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-90). J.S. Morgan's son John Pierpont Morgan (later Sr., 1837-1913), at age 19, began his banking career as NYC agent for George Peabody & Co. Increasing illness hastened GP's retirement on Oct. 1, 1864. Unmarried, without a son, and knowing he would no longer control the firm, he asked that his name be withdrawn. See: Morgan, Junius Spencer.
22-GP's was thus the root of the international banking house of J.P. Morgan, a fact amply recorded but not now generally known. His firm continued in London as J.S. Morgan & Co. (Oct. 1, 1864-Dec. 31, 1909), Morgan Grenfell & Co. (Jan. 1, 1910-Nov. 1918), Morgan Grenfell & Co., Ltd. (Nov. 1918-90), and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990), a German-owned international banking firm. Relieved of business burdens GP spent the last five years of his life (1864-69) looking after his philanthropic institutions, first begun in 1852.
Philanthropist
23-More intriguing than how GP made his money was why and how he gave it away. In 1820 he was worth between $40,000 and $50,000. His 1827 will left $4,000 for charity. His 1832 will left $27,000 (out of a $135,000 estate) for educational philanthropy. He early told intimates and said publicly in 1850 that he would found an educational or other useful institution in every town and city where he had lived and worked. He earned about $20 million during his lifetime and at his death (Nov. 4, 1869) he gave about half to philanthropy, half to his relatives. (Note: $20 million in 1869 is equivalent to $258.3 million In 2001 purchasing power: See: Philanthropy, GP's, worth of, in Ref.: g. Internet. URL: http://www.eh.net/ehresources/howmuch/dollarq.php).
24-His philanthropic gifts (26 gifts or resulting institutes are numbered below), totaled about $10 million. His seven U.S. Peabody institute libraries, with lecture halls and lecture funds were, like the Lyceums (from 1826) and later Chautauquas (from 1872), part of the adult education centers of the time.
25-His seven Peabody Institute libraries are in: 1-Peabody, 2-Danvers, 3-Newburyport, and 4-Georgetown (all in Mass.). The four-part 5-Peabody Institute of Baltimore (PIB) contained a reference library, initially so extensive that the Library of Congress early borrowed from it, plus an art gallery, a lecture hall a lecture fund, and a conservatory of music.
26-The PIB, to which he gave a total of $1.4 million, presaged such later cultural centers as the Lincoln Center, NYC; and the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. (the PIB reference library and the PIB conservatory of music became part of the Johns Hopkins Univ., from 1982). Other Peabody libraries are in 6-Thetford, Vt. and in 7-Georgetown, D.C. (now the Peabody Room of the Washington, D.C., public library.
27-Influenced by his nephew O.C. Marsh's scientific interests and attainments, GP founded three Peabody museums of science: 8-the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard Univ. (anthropology); 9-the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale Univ. (paleontology), $150,000 each; and 10-what is now the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass. (maritime history plus Essex County historical documents), $140,000.
28-GP earlier gave the 11-Md. Institute for the Promotion of Mechanic Arts $1,000 for a chemistry laboratory and school, Oct. 31, 1851; 12-Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., $25,000 for a professorship of mathematics, Oct. 30, 1866; 13-Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, $25,000 for a professorship of mathematics and civil engineering, Nov. 6, 1866; and 14-and to former Gen. Robert E. Lee's (1807-70) Washington College (renamed Washington and Lee Univ., 1871), Lexington, Va., $60,000 for a professorship of mathematics, Sept. 1869.
29-He gave $20,000 publication funds each to the 15-Md. Historical Society, Baltimore, Nov. 5, 1866; and the 16-Mass. Historical Society, Boston, Jan. 1, 1867. He gave 17-the U.S. Sanitary Commission to aid Civil War orphans, widows, and disabled veterans $10,000, 1864; and the 18-Vatican charitable San Spirito Hospital, Rome, Italy, $19,300, April 5, 1867.
30-He had a 19-Memorial Congregational Church built in his mother's memory in her hometown, Georgetown, Mass., $70,000, 1866. For patriotic causes he donated to the 20-Lexington Monument, now Peabody, Mass., $300, 1835; the 21-Bunker Hill Memorial, Boston, Mass., $500, June 3, 1845; and the 22-Washington Monument, Washington, D.C., $1,000, July 4, 1854.
Peabody Homes of London
31-His largest gift, $2.5 million total, was for model low rent apartments for London's working poor. Begun on March 12, 1862, what is now 23-the Peabody Trust Group, London, GP's most successful philanthropy, on March 31, 2006 owned or managed over 20,000 affordable homes housing over 50,000 low income Londoners (about 59% white, 32% black, and 9% others in 2002). These include, besides Peabody Trust Group-built estates, other London public housing units whose authorities deliberately chose to come under the Peabody Trust Group because of its efficient management, facilities, playgrounds for the young, recreation for the elderly, computer centers, job training, and job placement for its working adults. Ref.: Peabody Trust Group, London-c, annual report, 2002 (and later reports). Ref.: g. Internet. "Peabody Buildings," URL: http://www.vauxhallsociety.org.uk/Peabody.html
32-The Peabody Homes of London, GP's most successful philanthropy, was first suggested by social reformer Lord Shaftesbury (1801-85). GP first (1859) considered and discarded the idea of building a network of drinking fountains in London. He then considered a large gift to enlarge the Ragged Schools Union, a charitable trust managing schools for poor children in England, administered by Lord Shaftesbury (before the establishment of tax supported schools). GP asked his friend, Ohio's Episcopal Bishop Charles Pettit McIlvaine (1799-1873), who knew Shaftesbury, to consult with him. McIlvaine reported Shaftesbury's advice that housing was the London poor's greatest need. This advice determined GP's gift of low cost model apartments. The Peabody Homes of London inspired imitators elsewhere in England and in the U.S. and brought GP many honors in England.
PEF
33-GP's most in19,fluential U.S. gift was the $2 million 23-PEF (1867-1914) to promote public education in the eleven former Confederate states plus W.Va., added because of its poverty. He actually gave the PEF $3,484,000, but $1.1 million in Miss. state bonds and $384,000 in Fla. bonds were never redeemed by those states.
34-For 47 years the PEF helped promote public schools in the devastated post Civil War South, focusing first on aiding existing public elementary and secondary schools in larger towns to serve as models, then aiding teacher training institutes and normal colleges, and finally aiding rural public school growth.
35-The PEF was without precedent, the first multimillion dollar educational foundation in the U.S., cited by historians as the model forerunner of all subsequent significant U.S. educational funds and foundations. See: PEF.
36-High offices held by the over 50 PEF trustees during 1867-1914 included: thirteen state legislators, two U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justices, six U.S. ambassadors, eight U.S. Senators, seven in the U.S. House of Representatives, two Civil War generals, one U.S. naval admiral, one U.S. Army Surgeon-Gen., three Confederate generals, three who served in the Confederate Congress, two bishops, and six U.S. cabinet officers. For names, See: Governors, U.S. States, and GP. PCofVU. PEF. Presidents, U.S., and GP.
37-Other high offices held by PEF trustees: three were U.S. presidents (U.S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Grover Cleveland; or eight U.S. presidents if Peabody Normal College and its predecessor institutions are included), six were U.S. state governors, and three were financiers: J.P. Morgan; Anthony Joseph Drexel (1826-93), inspired by GP's example to found Drexel Univ., Phila., and Paul Tulane (1801-87), inspired to found Tulane Univ., New Orleans, La. Ref.: Ibid.
Peabody Normal College
38-PEF first administrator Barnas Sears (1802-80) wanted a model teachers college for the South in Nashville. When the Tenn. legislature declined to pass funding legislation for several state normal school proposals, Sears through the PEF helped establish the PEF-supported 24-Peabody Normal College (1875-1911) on the Univ. of Nashville campus in place of its moribund Literary Dept. In its 36 years of existence, Peabody Normal College achieved regional and national leadership in the professional preparation of teachers.
39-GP's PEF founding letter (Feb. 7, 1867) permitted ending the fund when its work in promoting public schools in the South was done. In 1914 the trustees distributed the fund's total assets ($2,324,000) as follows: $474,000 went to the education departments of 14 southern universities ($40,000 each to the universities of Va., N.C., Ga., Ala., Fla., Miss., Ark., Ky., and La. [State]; $6,000 each to Johns Hopkins Univ. and to the universities of S.C., Mo., and Tex.; $90,000 to Winthrop Normal College, S.C. (now Winthrop College), founded by PEF trustees Pres. Robert Charles Winthrop (1809-94); and $350,000 to the John F. Slater Fund for Negro Education (a sum given later to the Southern Education Fund, Atlanta, where it still serves African-American education). See: PCofVU. PEF. Southern Education Fund, Atlanta.
GPCFT
40-Most of the PEF principal, $1.5 million plus required matching funds, went to endow 25-GPCFT (1914-79), with a new campus built next to Vanderbilt Univ. for academic strength. For 65 years GPCFT maintained its independence, cooperating with neighboring Vanderbilt Univ. in courses, programs, and library facilities. GPCFT was in fact a unique mini-university, focused on teacher education in a variety of fields, with departments of library science, physical education, science education, and music education. It retained and enhanced its predecessor's reputation as a leading institution in the South, with national recognition and an international student body.
41-GPCFT's best graduates became state university presidents, deans, leading professors, researchers, and textbook writers. Its success thereby strengthened competing lower cost state university colleges of education and ironically contributed to its own demise. National recession in the 1970s combined with higher energy and other costs adversely affected higher education and particularly private colleges of education.
PCofVU
42-Wise Peabodians knew that the time was past for the survival of a private single purpose teachers college like GPCFT, despite its proud history, high regional reputation, and national and international influence. Merger took place on July 1, 1979, when GPCFT became 26-PCofVU, Vanderbilt Univ.'s. ninth school.
43-PCofVU soon increased the status of its predecessor institutions as a leading private southern university's college of education. It quickly led the nation in preparing teachers to apply computers to student learning. Since the 1990s it has consistently ranked among the top U.S. graduate schools of education, highly esteemed in preparing special education teachers, guidance counselors, and educational researchers. Ref.: "Best Graduate Schools," pp. 109, 111.
44-PCofVU's history thus goes back to Davidson Academy (1785-1806), chartered by N.C. eleven years before Tenn. statehood; rechartered as Cumberland College (1806-26); rechartered as the Univ. of Nashville (1826-75); whose moribund literary dept. was rechartered as Peabody Normal College (1875-1911; rechartered as GPCFT (1914-79); renamed PCofVU (since July 1, 1979). PCofVU's lineage of over 210 years makes it the 15th U.S. collegiate institution after the founding of Harvard College in 1636.
45-Faced with greater class and race divisions and with greater financial difficulties than counterpart colleges in other sections of the U.S., it rose phoenix-like again and again to produce educational leaders for the South, the nation, and the world. As part of Vanderbilt Univ., PCofVU carried into the 21st century GP's motto accompanying his check for his first hometown Peabody Institute Library (1852): "Education, a debt due from present to future generations."
Philanthropic Influence
46-GP's philanthropic example, mainly through the PIB and the PEF, directly and personally influenced Enoch Pratt (1808-96) to found the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore's public library; influenced Johns Hopkins (1795-1873) to found the Johns Hopkins Univ., hospital, and medical school in Baltimore; influenced Anthony Joseph Drexel to found Drexel Univ., Philadelphia; influenced Paul Tulane to found Tulane Univ., New Orleans; and influenced others who gave to institutions, funds, and foundations.
47-At his death, Nov. 4, 1869, age 74, GP was the best known philanthropist in the U.S. and Britain, a founder of U.S. educational philanthropy. But time, larger fortunes, wealthier funds and foundations have dimmed his memory, except at his institutes and among interested scholars.
Manuscript Sources
48-We did research on GP concentratedly in 1953-56, sporadically since, and again concentratedly in retirement since 1994, always impressed with his achievements and wondering why he is so neglected. We read GP- papers of the following individuals at the Library of Congress (LC), Washington, D.C.: a-William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888), business associate with whom GP helped finance the Second Mexican War loan (Corcoran is also known for donating the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington, D.C.). b-Hamilton Fish (1809-93), PEF trustee, N.Y. governor, and U.S. Secty. of State involved in GP's unusual 96-day transatlantic funeral.
49-We read the LC papers of c-John Work Garrett (1820-84), B&O RR president, who brought GP and Johns Hopkins together in his home near Baltimore, leading to the founding of Johns Hopkins Univ., Hospital, and Medical School. d-We read the LC papers of U.S. Pres. Andrew Johnson (1808-75) who went to GP's rooms at the Willard's Hotel, Washington, D.C., Feb. 9, 1867, to thank him for the PEF as a national gift. To forestall impeachment by radical Republicans bent on punishing the defeated South, Pres. Johnson's political advisor recommended a complete cabinet reshuffle with GP as Treasury Secty. But loyalty to his old cabinet kept Pres. Johnson from this course.
50-We read the LC papers of e-Benjamin Moran (1820-86), U.S. Legation in London Secty. (later called the U.S. Embassy), who during 1857-69 was often critical of GP in his private journal. f-We read the LC papers of the Riggs family, including Elisha Riggs, Sr., GP's first senior partner; Samuel Riggs (Elisha Riggs, Sr.'s, nephew), GP's second partner; and George Washington Riggs (1813-81, Elisha Riggs, Sr.'s son) who started the Riggs National Bank of Washington, D.C.
51-At the National Archives, Washington, D.C., we read a-"Veterans Records of the War of 1812" documenting GP's 14 days as a soldier, b-"Admirals and Commodores' Letters," c-"Dispatches from United States Ministers, Great Britain," and d-"Log of USS Plymouth," each documenting GP's unusual 96-day transatlantic funeral (from his Nov. 4, 1869, death in London, to his final burial in Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass., Feb. 8, 1870, with much attendant press coverage.
52-In NYC's Pierpont Morgan Library we read the papers of J.S. Morgan, his son J.P. Morgan, Sr., and grandson J.P. Morgan, Jr. (1867-1943). These helped explain how GP, the founding root of the House of Morgan, along with a handful of other merchant-bankers, early learned to marshal foreign capital to help finance U.S. industrial growth.
53-In Mass. we read the bulk of GP's personal papers and business records (then not indexed or calendared) in what is now the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem. We also read his papers in depositories in Peabody, Salem, Danvers, and Boston, Mass.; at Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology; and in Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History (which has his nephew Othniel Charles Marsh’s papers).
54-In Baltimore, where GP spent 22 of his most formative commercial years, 1815-37, we read his papers at the PIB, and the papers and journals of PIB trustee John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870) who, at GP's request for a cultural center for Baltimore, originally conceived of the idea of the PIB. In Baltimore we also read appropriate material in the Johns Hopkins Univ. Library and the Enoch Pratt Free Library, whose founders, as mentioned, GP directly influenced. See: John Pendleton Kennedy and institutions mentioned.
55-Two travel difficulties were solved in Baltimore. We needed inexpensive passage to London. Ben Welsh, under whom Betty worked in the Berea College Labor Office (he was a part time travel agent), got us a low cost berth on a transatlantic ship. To safely store our old car, the Ruckdeshells, in whose Baltimore house we roomed (secured through the Johns Hopkins Univ. student housing), phoned a friend with an empty garage who helped us raise our car on blocks for four months' storage.
In England
56-London: Sept.-Dec. 1954: We registered as student researchers at the Univ. of London and rented an inexpensive "bed-sitter through student housing. Our daily pattern was an early breakfast of bread, peanut butter, fruit, and milk (with the outside window ledge our "fridge"), which preceded morning research in libraries. Lunch at a nearby bustling pub was followed by afternoon library research until closing time. An occasional restaurant supper treat preceded nighttime arranging of notes. We managed some Sunday and holiday visits to cultural sights and events. We survived the cold London winter nights of 1954 by huddling close to a space heater, feeding it shilling coins to keep it going,
57-At London's British Museum Manuscript Division we read PM William E. Gladstone's (1809-98) cabinet minutes, Nov. 10, 1869, showing the decision, first suggested by Queen Victoria, to use Britain's newest and largest warship, HMS Monarch, to return GP's remains from England for burial in the U.S.
Alabama Claims
58-HMS Monarch was deliberately chosen as funeral ship partly because of the public attention it would draw and partly to honor his philanthropy in the U.S. and especially in London. His gift that most warmed English hearts and brought him many British honors was his 1862 $2.5 million gift for low-cost apartments for London's working poor. There was also a political motive for the choice of HMS Monarch, as there was for unusual British (and later U.S.) pomp and ceremony surrounding his unprecedented 96-day transatlantic funeral. See: Peabody Homes of London. Death and Funeral, GP's.
59-GP died at the height of unresolved U.S.-British angers over serious incidents during the U.S. Civil War. One lingering anger was over the Sept. 1861 Trent Affair. Four Confederate agents seeking arms and aid in England and France slipped through a Union blockade of Charleston, S.C., sailed to Havana, Cuba, and then boarded the British mail ship Trent for England when a Union warship stopped, boarded, removed, and jailed the Confederates.
60-Britain furiously protested this illegal seizure and sent troops to Canada should war erupt between the U.S. and Britain. Calmer heads prevailed; Pres. Lincoln had the Confederates released. Also, Confederate agents secretly bought British-built ships, armed them as Confederate raiders, like the CSS Alabama, which wrecked or sank Union ships and cost U.S. lives and vast treasure. The U.S. offered proof that Britain knowingly turned a blind eye to the sale of these raiders and angrily sought indemnity.
61-Choice of HMS Monarch was thus a political decision to soften near-war British-U.S. angers over these and other Civil War incidents. Politically astute PM Gladstone at the Nov. 9, 1869, Lord Mayor's Day banquet, five days after GP's death, said publicly: "With the country of Mr. Peabody we [will] not quarrel." Three years later (1872), a Geneva international court required Britain to pay the U.S. $15.5 million indemnity to settle the Alabama Claims controversy.
62-At London's Guildhall Record Office we read a-"Journals of the Court of Common Council" recording the Freedom of the City of London honor given to GP, July 10, 1862. We also read b-"Minutes of the Committee for Erecting a Statue to Mr. George Peabody, 1866-1870," documenting contributors to GP's seated statue in Threadneedle St., near London's Royal Exchange, created by U.S.-born Rome-based sculptor William Wetmore Story (1815-95), unveiled before crowds by the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII, 1841-1910), July 23, 1869.
63-A replica of GP's seated statue in London was erected in front of the PIB, April 7, 1890, by Baltimorean Robert Garrett (1847-96). GP's seated statue in London, 1869, was the first of four statues of Americans in London, the others being of Abraham Lincoln, 1920; George Washington, 1921; and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1948.
64-At London's Public Record Office we read a-"Alien Entry Lists" recording every time GP entered a British port, b-"Foreign Affairs Papers," and c-"Admiralty Papers," the last two documenting Britain's part in GP's unusual 96-day transatlantic funeral.
65-In London's Westminster Abbey we read a-"Recollections by Dean [Arthur P.] Stanley of Funerals in Westminster Abbey 1865-1881." Visiting in Naples, Italy, when he read of GP's death in London on Nov. 4, 1869, Dean Stanley (1815-81) recalled GP's March 12, 1862, gift for housing London's working poor and telegraphed associates to offer Westminster Abbey for a funeral service for this generous American.
66-We read the Westminster Abbey's b-"Funeral Fee Book 1811-1899," which listed GP's Abbey funeral costs. c-We stood at the permanent GP marker on the stone floor of Westminster Abbey near Britain's unknown soldier where GP's remains rested for 30 days (Nov. 12-Dec. 11, 1869). That marker was refurbished for the 200th GP birthday ceremony at Westminster Abbey on Feb. 18, 1995.
67-To honor his housing gift to London's working poor, GP was made an honorary member of two ancient guilds, the Clothmakers' Co., July 2, 1862, and the Fishmongers' Co., April 19, 1866, whose records we read in the respective guild libraries.
68-At the Royal Archives, Windsor Castle, we read letters from Queen Victoria and her advisors to, from, and about GP. The Queen offered him a knighthood. He declined, since this honor required him to become a British subject. Unwilling to give up his U.S. citizenship he accepted instead her letters of thanks and an enameled miniature portrait she commissioned to be made especially for him. That portrait, along with his other honors, are on display at the Peabody Institute Library, Peabody, Mass.
69-We read the three brass signs on the front door of Morgan, Grenfell & Co., Ltd., 23 Great Winchester St., London, which read from bottom to top: George Peabody & Co., 1838-64; J.S. Morgan & Co., 1864-1909); and Morgan Grenfell & Co. (1909-90). The firm's current descendant, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990), has records of George Peabody & Co. and some business papers of GP, J.S. Morgan, and J.P. Morgan, Sr. We secured a copy of GP's death certificate from London's General Register Office, Somerset House.
70-Turning pages of heavy dusty bound newspaper volumes at the British Library at Colindale, we found many contemporary articles about GP, especially of his elaborate U.S.-British friendship dinners in or near London from 1850 onward, most often on July 4th, U.S. Independence Day.
71-We wrote letters to British newspaper editors asking readers for any privately held GP letters or memorabilia. Two families had "George Peabody" embossed glass plates made by a souvenir glassware manufacturer in Sunderland, England, in the aftermath of his widely publicized death and 96-day transatlantic funeral. We donated GP glassware given us to U.S. Peabody institutions.
72-When first proposed for membership in exclusive British clubs, GP was denied membership (blackballed). This occurred during repudiation of interest on U.S. state bonds sold to British investors, many held by widowed families. Americans were then especially disdained. When it became known that GP had publicly protested repudiation, and particularly after his gift for housing London's working poor, he was unanimously elected to London's best clubs.
73-We read of GP's admission to the most prestigious of these clubs, The Athenaeum, whose librarian Eileen Stiff (d. 1985) befriended us. We met her housemate, writer Margaret Leland Goldsmith (1895-1970), whose invaluable editorial help is mentioned later. We also visited a Peabody apartment complex where some 34,500 low income Londoners still live.
Back in the U.S.: Founders Day Address, Feb. 18, 1955
74-We returned to the U.S., loaded our old car in Baltimore with voluminous notes and microfilm, and headed for Nashville. There, David E. Short (1891-1957), president of the Nashville business school where Betty had taught English in exchange for a near-free apartment, generously let us live there again (paying whatever rent we could afford). His generosity plus part time jobs enabled us, on evenings, weekends, and holidays, to organize our voluminous GP materials. This task was suddenly hastened when GPCFT Pres. Henry H. Hill (1894-1987) asked Franklin to give the GPCFT's Founders Day Address on Feb. 18, 1955, the first such address by a student.
75-Pressed now to succinctly tell the GP story, Franklin's speech to a Peabody College audience highlighted GP's career, U.S.-British friendship dinners, philanthropic influence, death in London, and unprecedented 96-day transatlantic funeral. This speech opportunity would not have happened if Dean Felix Robb had not first suggested the GP research; or if GPCFT Prof. Clifton Hall as major professor had not been widely respected on the Peabody and Vanderbilt campuses (such backing was needed by a little known untried doctoral researcher); or if Franklin not kept his five doctoral committee members abreast of findings by regular research progress reports. Doors of opportunity swung on such hinges.
76-Franklin highlighted GP’s last illness, death, and funeral: A sick 74-year-old GP joined business friend W.W. Corcoran at White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., a popular mineral springs health spa (July 23-Aug. 30, 1869). Present there by chance were southern and northern political, educational and former Civil War leaders, including Robert E. Lee (1807-70), then president of Washington College, Lexington Va., renamed Washington and Lee Univ. in 1871.
77-Though confined to his cabin, GP yet heard some of the gayety of younger visitors who flocked to a Peabody Ball spontaneously held in his honor. On his few well days he and Lee walked, talked, and dined together, often applauded by visitors. GP and Lee were photographed together and with others, including visiting Civil War generals from South and North. Informal talks that last summer of GP’s life were on southern public education needs. These set a precedent for later more formal Conferences on Education in the South, 1898-1902, which in turn led to vast foundation aid which helped raise southern public schools and higher education toward national levels.
78-Distressed by the Civil War, GP in Nov. 1861 had helped two of Pres. Abraham Lincoln's emissaries contact leaders in London to keep Britain neutral: Ohio's Episcopal Bishop Charles Pettit McIlvaine (mentioned earlier as GP's emissary to Lord Shaftesbury) and N.Y. state journalist and political leader Thurlow Weed (1797-1882), both GP's long-time friends.
79-After GP's death, when he was attacked as a Confederate sympathizer, Thurlow Weed publicly vindicated GP's Union loyalty (which McIlvaine also affirmed). Some northern extremists, determined to punish the South, faulted GP for founding the PIB in Md. (1857) and the PEF (1867), both seen as aiding the South. Weed reported that the $2 million that went into the PEF GP originally intended (in 1859) to give to the NYC poor. But NYC public schools had prospered and the Civil War had intervened. Moved by Civil War devastation, GP determined to aid public education in the South.
80-Congress and Pres. U.S. Pres. Andrew Johnson recognized GP's PEF as a national gift. as did, Forty seven years later, GPCFT Pres. Bruce R. Payne's (1874-1937) Feb. 18, 1916 Founders Day speech thus imaginatively interpreted GP's PEF founding letter, Feb. 7, 1867, to ten of his 16 trustees gathered at Willard's Hotel, Washington, D.C.: "There stand several governors of states both North and South; senators of the United States; Ulysses S. Grant and Admiral Farragut. [Chief trustee Robert C.] Winthrop is called to take the chair. Mr. Peabody rises to read his deed of gift. They kneel in a circle of prayer, the Puritan of New England, the pioneer of the West, the financier of the metropolis, and the defeated veteran of the Confederacy. [On] bended knee they dedicate this great gift. They consecrate themselves to its wise expenditure. In that act, not quite two years after Appomattox, is the first guarantee of a reunited country." See: PEF.
81-GP gave Lee's college Va. bonds ultimately worth $60,000 for a mathematics professorship, left for Salem, Mass., made his funeral plans, recorded his last will in NYC, and arrived in London gravely ill. Through aides, Queen Victoria invited GP to recuperate at Windsor Castle. But it was too late. He died Nov. 4, 1869, at the 80 Eaton Square (London) home of business associate Sir Curtis Lampson (1806-85). See: Death and Funeral, GP's.
82-Knowing that GP's will required burial in Mass., Lampson telegraphed GP's nephew George Peabody Russell, who left for England to accompany GP's body home. Letters poured in to London newspapers asking for public honors for GP. The Queen's advisor, Sir Arthur Helps, informed her: "There are many persons who wish to pay public respect to the memory of that good man." See persons mentioned.
83-When PM Gladstone, at Queen Victoria’s suggestion, offered HMS Monarch as funeral ship to transport GP's remains to the U.S., Pres. U.S. Grant and U.S. Navy officials, not to be outdone, ordered the USS Plymouth from Marseilles, France, to act as escort vessel. Boston and NYC officials, believing that their cities would be the receiving port, were chagrined when Portland, Maine, was chosen because of its deeper harbor. The U.S. Navy placed Adm. David G. Farragut in charge of a flotilla of U.S. receiving vessels in Portland harbor. GP's funeral took on unprecedented proportions.
84-U.S. London Legation Secretary Benjamin Moran's private journal entries reflected the consternation at mounting funeral plans. He wrote on Nov. 6, 1869: "Peabody haunts the Legation from all parts of the world like a ghost." Again on Dec. 6, 1869: "Old Peabody has given us much trouble," and, "Will that old man ever be buried?" See: Moran, Benjamin.
85-Although critical of GP in his private journal through the years, at the last, Benjamin Moran, witnessing GP's Nov. 12, 1869, Westminster Abbey funeral service, was wondrously touched. He wrote with rare eloquence: "I reflected on the marvelous career of the man, his early life, his penurious habits, his vast fortune, his magnificent charity; and the honor then being paid to his memory by the Queen of England in the place of sepulchre of twenty English kings. An anthem was sung and the service end[ed]--George Peabody having received burial in Westminster Abbey, an honor coveted by nobles and not always granted kings." Ibid.
86-The Dec. 12, 1869, transfer of the coffin from London's Westminster Abbey to Portsmouth, England, harbor took place in pouring rain and a blowing storm. British Marines formed an honor guard. Scarlet-robed Portsmouth council members under black umbrellas mingled oddly with lines, spars, and beams of assembled ships. Guns were fired. Bugles sounded.
87-U.S. Minister to Britain John Lothrop Motley (1814-77) said to the Monarch’s Capt. John E. Commerell (1829-1901): "Into your hands I deliver Mr. Peabody's remains." The Monarch at Spithead Harbor, Portsmouth, awaited the end of the gale then blowing for the long voyage home.
88-British honors evoked some dissent in the U.S. One Union extremist said that returning "Peabody's remains on a British ship of war [is an] insult. Peabody was a secessionist." The charge, often made, was as often denied. In 1866 GP told a Baltimore audience: "My sympathies were with the Union. Three-fourths of my property was invested in United States Government and State securities. I saw no hope except in Union victory. But I could not turn my back on Southern friends." A few radical anti-southern Congressional extremists, erroneously believing GP to have favored the Confederacy, argued against a U.S. Navy reception for his remains at Portland. They were outvoted. Both houses of Congress finally approved unanimously.
89-HMS Monarch and the USS Plymouth were met in Portland harbor, Jan. 25, 1870, by Adm. Farragut and a flotilla of U.S. ships. At Queen Victoria's request and as a final measure of British respect, GP's remains lay in state on the Monarch for two days. Thousands of visitors who flocked to Portland went by small boats to view his coffin aboard the Monarch. On Jan. 29, 1870, a cold New England winter's day, Monarch seamen carried the coffin ashore. Drums sounded a muted roll. The band played the somber Death March.
90-Hushed crowds filed by his coffin lying in state in Portland's City Hall where, on Feb. 1, 1870, The Messiah was sung, Mozart's Requiem was played. In the bitter cold, thousands watched black plumed horses pull the hearse through Portland streets to the railway station. Many others watched en route and as the funeral train reached GP's hometown.
91-His coffin was taken to the Peabody Institute, Peabody, Mass., where it lay in state for viewing in the Peabody library. On display there were Queen Victoria's enameled miniature portrait made especially for him, the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal and resolutions of praise for the PEF, scrolls of the Freedom of the City of London, scrolls of honorary memberships in the Fishmongers' and Clothworkers' Companies, and other honors.
92-The coffin was taken to the Congregational Church for the last funeral service and the eulogy. Special trains from Boston brought solemn crowds to his hometown. The Congregational Church was filled to capacity. All eyes were on Queen Victoria's son Prince Arthur (Duke of Connaught, 1850-1942) and his entourage, captains of the Monarch and the Plymouth, Massachusetts and Maine governors, Harvard Univ. Pres. Charles W. Eliot, mayors of six nearby cities, and trustees of GP's institutes.
93-Eulogist Robert Charles Winthrop (1809-94), GP’s philanthropic advisor, said of him in part: "What a career this has been whose final scene lies before us! The trusts he established, the institutes he founded, the buildings he raised stand before all eyes. He planned these for many years. When I expressed amazement at his purpose, he said to me, 'Why Mr. Winthrop, this is no new idea for me. From the earliest of my manhood, I have contemplated some such disposition of my property; and I have prayed my heavenly Father day by day, that I might be enabled, before I died, to show my gratitude for the blessings which He has bestowed upon me by doing some great good for my fellow-men.'"
94-GP's underlined words above are carved on the Westminster Abbey floor marker where his remains had rested for 30 days (Nov. 12-Dec. 11, 1869). He was buried in Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass., Feb. 8, 1870, near where he played as a boy and where he built the family tomb. The 96-day funeral was over. Two nations had given his funeral a rare touch of grandeur.
GP the Founder of Modern Philanthropy
95-Franklin Parker's dissertation, "George Peabody, Founder of Modern Philanthropy," documented these PEF firsts: 1-The PEF was the first US foundation to require the stimulating effect of matching local grants for schools it aided or founded; 2-the first to require state legislation to perpetuate state financial support of its aided schools; 3-the first multimillion dollar foundation recognized as national rather than local; and 4-the first to provide operational flexibility as conditions changed.
96-Other PEF firsts included: 5-the first U.S. foundation to elect trustees from professional and financial circles; 6-the first deliberately to use public relations to foster public acceptance and good will; 7-the first whose executives were former university officials (Barnas Sears of Brown Univ; JLM Curry of Howard College, Ala.); 8-the first to allow its trustees to disband after its job was done and distribute its assets as they saw fit (when dissolved in 1914, PEF assets endowed George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, next to Vanderbilt Univ.; funded education departments of 14 southern universities and colleges; and gave its residue to the Slater Fund for Negro colleges).
97-Historians have written the following on the PEF's influence: 1-Charles William Dabney: [The Aug. 1869 GP-Lee meeting] inspired the Four Conferences on Education in the South from which emerged the Southern Education Board and [John D. Rockefeller's] General Education Board. 2-Abraham Flexner: There was the closest cooperation among, and interlocking officers and trustees of, the PEF, the Southern Education Board, the General Education Board, the Samuel F. Slater Fund, the Anna T. Jeanes Foundation, and the Rosenwald Fund.
98-Historians on the PEF's influence (cont'd): 3-Paul H. Buck: [the PEF was]: a fruitful experiment in harmony and understanding between the sections. 4-Thomas D. Clark: [the PEF] worked as an education leaven. 5-Harvey Wish: no kindness touched the hearts of the Southerners quite so much as Peabody's educational bequest. 6-Jesse Brundage Sears: [the PEF was] the first successful precedent-setting educational foundation. 7-Daniel Coit Gilman: all subsequent foundations adopted the principles Peabody formulated.
99-Franklin's GPCFT's Founders Day Address, Feb. 18, 1955, documented that in their 47-years existence PEF executives and trustees pioneered the heartbeat of American educational philanthropy—using private wealth judiciously and experimentally as a lever to tackle key educational and socio-economic problems, the results if good serving as models for other agencies and governments to emulate. GP's hope and money made this influence possible. In appreciation and to attest to his influence, southern communities have given his name to a score of streets, avenues, elementary and secondary schools, university education buildings, hotels, and at least one park. GP built better than he knew. See: Peabody, George (1795-1869), Named Institutions, Firms, Buildings, Ships, Other Facilities; Music and/or Poems Named for GP.
100-With Franklin's speech given and handsomely printed, with the GP dissertation accepted, graduation followed in Aug. 1956. Through the years we went to teaching posts at the Univ. of Texas, Austin (1957-64); Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman (1964-68); W.Va. Univ. (1968-86), and (after retirement), Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff (1986-89), and Western Carolina Univ., Cullowhee (1989-94).
101-Over the years we did other research, wrote other books, and wrote and published GP articles (listed fully below). We submitted to several publishers "George Peabody, Founder of Modern Philanthropy," (Nashville: George Peabody College for Teachers, 1956), 3 vols, 1,209 pp. These were returned as needing pruning and focus.
George Peabody, a Biography
102-In May 1970, GPCFT Public Relations Director John E. Windrow (1899-1984) brought together prominent New England Peabodys for a Nashville dinner conference at which Franklin spoke. The new Vanderbilt Univ. Press director, in attendance, asked to see a revised GP manuscript. This welcome request threw us into a frenzy of revision. Unexpected but welcome help came from London Athenaeum Club librarian Eileen Stiff's friend, Margaret Leland Goldsmith, a professional writer. She and Eileen had befriended us through the years. Margaret's editorial suggestions helped turn the dissertation into a readable 233 page book.
103-Thus, 14 years after completing the GP dissertation, Franklin Parker's George Peabody, a Biography (Nashville: Vanderbilt Univ. Press, 1971), was published. Twenty-four years later, for GP's 200th birthday, Feb. 18, 1795-1995, a revised and updated version was republished with 12 illustrations added. Earlier, also for GP's 200th birthday, our 22 previously published GP articles were reprinted in a special bicentennial issue, "The Legacy of George Peabody," Peabody Journal of Education, Fall 1994, 210 pp.
GP's Motives
104-We long pondered GP's philanthropic motives, strengths, weaknesses, and especially why he is he so little known today. His chief motive may have been his 1852 motto: "Education, a debt due from present to future generations." His motive may also have been to compensate for his own lack of formal education.
105-In 1831 he replied to a nephew who asked his financial help to attend Yale College (GP's underlining): "Deprived, as I was, of the opportunity of obtaining anything more than the most common education, I am well qualified to estimate its value by the disadvantages I labour under in the society [in] which my business and situation in life frequently throws me, and willingly would I now give twenty times the expense attending a good education could I now possess it, but it is now too late for me to learn and I can only do to those who come under my care, as I could have wished circumstances had permitted others to have done by me."
106-His motive may been simply to succeed. He said in an 1856 speech: "Heaven has been pleased to reward my efforts with success, and has permitted me to establish a house in the great metropolis of England. I have endeavored to make it an American house, to give it an American atmosphere, to furnish it with American journals; to make it a center for American news, and an agreeable place for my friends visiting London."
107-His motive may have been to gain honors, so abundant in his last years. After death he was elected to the New York Univ. Hall of Fame in 1900, where a bust of him was unveiled in 1926. His likeness was put on a large bronze door intended for the U.S. Capitol Building. Bicentennial programs were held on the 200th anniversary of his birth (1795-1995) at Harvard, Yale, in Nashville; in Danvers and in Peabody, Mass.; at the PIB; and at Westminster Abbey, England, where the marker at his temporary grave was refurbished.
108-Disappointment in love may have driven him. Late in life a business friend congratulated him on being the greatest philanthropist of his time. GP reportedly replied, "After my disappointment long ago, I determined to devote myself to my fellow-beings, and am carrying out that decision to my best ability."
109-This "disappointment" may have been an early failed romance with Elizabeth Knox of Baltimore to whom he is said to have proposed twice. There is also a documented broken engagement to Esther Elizabeth Hoppin (1819-1905) of Providence, R.I. She visited London for young Queen Victoria's coronation (June 28, 1838). As a school girl she had earlier been infatuated with Alexander Lardner in Philadelphia. GP met her in London, fell in love, and proposed marriage. Returning to the U.S. she again met Lardner, realized her engagement to GP was a mistake, broke their engagement, married Lardner, had two children, and outlived GP by 35 years. Her portrait painted in Philadelphia by artist Thomas Sully shows her in all her beauty.
GP's Strengths
110-We long pondered GP's strengths. On this point his first partner Elisha Riggs, Sr. wrote in his last letter to GP (April 17, 1852): "You always had the faculty of an extraordinary memory and strong mind which enabled you to carry out your plans better than almost any other man I ever knew.... [To] these happy faculties I attribute much of your prosperity. [Unusual] perseverance enabled you to rise to an extraordinary position..." See: Riggs, Elisha, Sr.
111-Economic historian Muriel E. Hidy's wrote thus of GP's strengths: "He [GP] had a vigorous personality, and, in spite of a humble origin, apparently found little difficulty in moving in prominent circles. An ability to attract firm friends among his business contemporaries gave him many useful connections....He benefited by the confidence which as a young man he had awakened in Elisha Riggs [Sr.]. Later his amiability brought him close association with "[leading U.S. business men: William Shepard Wetmore, John Cryder, and Curtis Miranda Lampson, and William Wilson Corcoran….]." See: persons named.
112-John Bright, British statesman, wrote in his diary (June 4, 1867): "Mr. Peabody is a remarkable man. He is 74 years old, large and has been powerful of frame. He has made an enormous fortune, which he is giving for good objects--chiefly for education in America and for useful purposes in London. He has had almost no schooling and has not read books, but has had much experience, and is deeply versed in questions of commerce and banking. He is a man of strong will, and can decide questions for himself." See: John Bright.
Old Age Irritations
113-We also pondered his faults. Gout, rheumatism, and other ailments in old age sometimes made him irritable, crotchety, and abrupt. On July 14, 1869, four months before his death, he complained irritably to the trustees of his first Peabody Institute, Peabody, Mass.: "You spend too much. You spend too much." Soon brightening he said smilingly, "Well, well, I must give you $50,000 more to get you out of trouble. And I must say that none of my foundations have given me so much satisfaction as this one at my native place."
114-In his last decade he was incredible busy looking after his philanthropies and seeing friends and relatives. He was also set in his ways. The daughter of a business friend wrote of his autocracy in old age during his 1866-67 U.S. visit.: 'The precision of business habits and a long old bachelor hood, combined with constitutional shyness, caused Mr. Peabody, at times, to appear to disadvantage…. He had himself accomplished so much that he felt [his] wishes…should become instantaneous facts--his small due from those around him….. [T]he ruthless serenity with which [he] countermanded luncheon and advanced the dinner hour to meet business exigencies…dismay[ed]…the hearts of the most devoted hostesses. I do not suppose Mr. Peabody ever thought of giving trouble, and certainly no one ever thought of remonstrating."
Fleeting Fame
115-Mostly we pondered why GP, so lauded in his last years, has been largely forgotten. This may be due to the fleeting nature of fame. Each generation chooses its heroes who rise, flourish, are replaced, and often forgotten. This view is suggested by historian John Steele Gordon whose article, "Most Underrated Philanthropist," American Heritage, Vol. 50, No. 3 (May-June 1999), pp. 68-69 reads in part: "Peabody is unjustly forgotten today, but his unprecedented generosity was greatly appreciated in his time."
Grand Adventure
116-As researchers, looking back, we marvel at the good fortune, helpful people, and unusual turning points that enabled us to find and pursue a neglected American hero. We were 1930s depression children, the first in our families enabled to attend college in the booming aftermath of World War II that ended and altered so many lives.
117-Newly married, without children, seeking challenges--when the GP research opportunity fell our way, we saw he was worth pursuing. We were uncertain innocents, willing to take risks. We made mistakes and were often rescued by friends and fate. In retrospect being "On the Trail of GP" intermittently over the last 50 years has been a grand adventure.
Authors' Publications on GP
Dissertation
Franklin Parker, Ed. D. Dissertation, "George Peabody, Founder of Modern Philanthropy," (Nashville: George Peabody College for Teachers, 1956), 3 vols., 1219 pp. Sold as Doctoral Dissertation No. 19,758, microfilm or hard copy, University Microfilms, 300 N. Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 (Phone 1-800-521-0600 or 313-761-4700, FAX 313-973-1540). See: Dissertation Abstracts, XVII, No. 8 (Aug. 1957), pp. 1701-1702.
Books
1-Franklin Parker, George Peabody, A Biography. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1971, 233 pp. Although out of print 1-there is a microform reprint in CORE [Collected Original Resources in Education], IX, 3 [Nov. 1985], Fiche 7 D10 (CORE is a British miroform journal) and 2-microfilm & print versions were also sold by Books on Demand, University Microfilms, 300 N. Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 [ask for LC79-15,7741, O-8357-3261-4,2039482]). The 1971 version was recorded on 2 audio cassettes, read by narrator Bruce Bortz at the Maryland State Library, held by the Maryland State Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Book Number Md-PH (MDC334), less Chap. 25 "GP’s Legacy"; "An Essay on Sources"; "Sources of Extant Portraits, Photographs, and Illustrations;" and without the Index.
2-Franklin Parker, George Peabody, A Biography. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, Feb. 1995, 278 pp., revised & updated (out of print since Jan. 2002 but still avilable amazon.com and other major booksellers).
Encyclopedias
1-(With Betty J. Parker), "Peabody Education Fund in Tennessee (1867-1914)." Tennessee Encyclopedia of History & Culture (Nashville: Tennessee Historical Society, 1998), pp. 725-726.
2-Franklin Parker, "George Peabody (1795-1869), Merchant, Banker, Creator of the Peabody Education Fund, and a Founder of Modern Philanthropy," Encyclopedia of Notable American Philanthropists, ed. by Robert T. Grimm, Jr. (Greenwood Press & Oryx Press for Indiana Univ. Center for Philanthropy in the U.S., 2003), pp. 242-246.
3-Franklin Parker, "George Peabody (1795-1869)," Encyclopedia of Philanthropy in the United States. Edited by Dwight Burlingame (Greenwood Press and Oryx Press, for Indiana Univ. Center on Philanthropy, 2003), pp. ?-?.
Journal Issue
Franklin Parker, "Legacy of George Peabody: Special Bicentenary Issue" [reprint of 21 articles], Peabody Journal of Education, LXX, No. l (Fall 1994), 210 pp., published as ISBN: 0805898956, by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, sold by Peabody Journal of Education, Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, 113 Payne Hall, Post Office Box 41, Nashville, Tenn. 37203, Phone: (615) 322-8963. $15 for individuals, $8 each for 40+ copies. Also sold at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/ Price: £14, paperback , 216 pages (1996).
Pamphlet
Franklin Parker, George Peabody (1795-1869), Founder of Modern Philanthropy. Nashville, Tenn.: George Peabody College for Teachers of Vanderbilt University, 1956.
Chapter in Book
Franklin Parker, "George Peabody (1795-1869), Founder of Modern Educational Philanthropy: His Contributions to Higher Education," pp. 71-99 in Academic Profiles in Higher Education. Edited by James J. Van Patten. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1992.
Articles in Journals, Since 1955
1-"Founder Paid Debt to Education," Peabody Post, VIII, No. 8 (Feb. 10, 1955), p. 1.
2-"The Girl George Peabody Almost Married," Peabody Reflector, XXVII, No. 8 (Oct. 1955), pp. 215, 224-225.
3-"George Peabody and the Spirit of America," Peabody Reflector, XXIX, No. 2 (Feb. 1956), pp. 26-27.
4-"On the Trail of George Peabody," Berea Alumnus, XXVI, No. 8 (May 1956), p. 4.
5-(With Walter Merrill), "William Lloyd Garrison and George Peabody," Essex Institute Historical Collections, XCV, No. 1 (Jan. 1959), pp. 1-20.
6-"George Peabody and Maryland," Peabody of Journal of Education, XXXVII, No. 3 (Nov. 1959), pp. 150-157.
7-"An Approach to Peabody's Gifts and Legacies," Essex Institute Historical Collections, XCVI, No. 4 (Oct. 1960), pp. 291-296.
8-"Robert E. Lee, George Peabody, and Sectional Reunion," Peabody Journal of Education, XXXVII, No. 4 (Jan. 1960), pp. 195-202.
9-"George Peabody and the Search for Sir John Franklin, 1852-1854," American Neptune, XX, No. 2 (April 1960), pp. 104-111.
10-"Influences on the Founder of the Johns Hopkins University and the Johns Hopkins Hospital," Bulletin of the History of MedicineXXXIV, No. 2 (March-April 1960), pp. 148-153.
11-"George Peabody's Influence on Southern Educational Philanthropy," Tennessee Historical Quarterly, XX, No. 2 (March 1961), pp. 65-74.
12-"Maryland's Yankee Friend--George Peabody, Esq.," Maryland Teacher, XX, No. 5 (Jan. 1963), pp. 6-7, 24. Reprinted in Peabody Notes (Spring 1963), pp. 4-7, 10.
13-"The Funeral of George Peabody," Essex Institute Historical Collection, XCIX, No. 2 (April 1963), pp. 67-87. Reprinted: Peabody Journal of Education, XLIV, No. 1 (July 1966), pp. 21-36.
14-"The Girl George Peabody Almost Married," Peabody Notes, XVII, No. 3 (Spring 1964), pp. 10-14.
15-"George Peabody, 1795-1869, Founder of Modern Philanthropy," Peabody Reflector, XXXVIII, No. I (Jan.-Feb. 1965), pp. 9-16.
16-"George Peabody and the Peabody Museum of Salem," Curator, X, No. 2 (June 1967), pp. 137-153.
17-"To Live Fulfilled: George Peabody, 1795-1869, Founder of George Peabody College for Teachers," Peabody Reflector, XLIII, No. 2 (Spring 1970), pp. 50-53.
18-"On the Trail of George Peabody," mn, XLIV, No. 4 (Fall 1971), pp. 100-103.
19-"George Peabody, 1795-1869: His Influence on Educational Philanthropy," Peabody Journal of Education, XLIX, No. 2 (Jan. 1972), pp. 138-145.
20-"Pantheon of Philanthropy: George Peabody," National Society of Fund Raisers Journal, I, No. 1 (Dec. 1976), pp. 16-20.
21-"In Praise of George Peabody, 1795-1869," CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XV, No. 2 (June 1991), Fiche 5 AO2.
22-"George Peabody (1795-1869), Founder of Modern Educational Philanthropy: His Contributions to Higher Education," CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XVI, No. 1 (March 1992), Fiche 11 D06.
23-"Education Philanthropist George Peabody (1795-1869), Founder of George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, and the Peabody Library and Conservatory of Music, Baltimore (Brief History)." CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XVIII, No. 1 (March 1994), Fiche ?. Abstract in Resources in Education.
24-(With Betty J. Parker), "George Peabody's (1795-1869) Educational Legacy," CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XVIII, No. 1 (March 1994), Fiche 1 C05. Abstract in Resources in Education, XXIX, No. 9 (Sept. 1994), p. 147 (ERIC ED 369 720). (Note: Resources in Education abstracts documents published in ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) since 1966 by the U.S. Department of Education, sold in microform in hard copy).
25-(With Betty J. Parker), "Educational Philanthropist George Peabody (1795-1869), George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, and the Peabody Library and Conservatory of Music, Baltimore (Brief History)," CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XVIII, No. 1 (March 1994), Fiche 3 A10. Abstract in Resources in Education, XXX, No. 5 (May 1995), pp. 133-134 (ERIC ED 378 070). Same in Journal of Educational Philosophy & History, XLIV (1994), pp. 69-93.
26-"Educational Philanthropist George Peabody (1795-1869): Photos and Related Illustrations in Printed Sources and Depositories," CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XVIII, No. 2 (June 1994), Fiche 1 D1Z; abstract in Resources in Education, XXX, No. 6 (June 1995), p. 149 (ERIC ED 397 179).
27-"The Legacy of George Peabody: Special Bicentenary Issue" [reprints 22 article on George Peabody], Peabody Journal of Education, LXX, No. 1 (Fall 1994), 210 pp.
28-"Educational Philanthropist George Peabody and Peabody College of Vanderbilt University: Dialogue with Bibliography," CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XVIII, No. 3 (Dec. 1994), Fiche 2 E06.
29-(With Betty J. Parker). "A Forgotten Hero's Birthday [George Peabody]: Lion and the Lamb," Crossville Chronicle, (Tenn.) Feb. 22, 1995, p. 4A.
30-(With Betty J. Parker). "America's Forgotten Educational Philanthropist: A Bicentennial View," CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XIX, No. 1 (March 1995), Fiche 7 A11. Abstract in Resources in Education, XXXI, No. 12 (Dec. 1996), p. 161 (ERIC ED 398 126).
31-(With Betty J. Parker). "Educational Philanthropist George Peabody (1795-1869) and the Peabody Institute Library, Danvers, Massachusetts: Dialogue and Chronology," CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XIX, No. 1 (March 1995), Fiche 7 B01.
32-(With Betty J. Parker). "George Peabody (1795-1869); Merchant, Banker, Philanthropist," CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XX, No. 1 (March 1996), Fiche 9 B01. Abstract in Resources in Education, XXXI, No. 3 (March 1996), p. 169 (ERIC ED 388 571).
33-(With Betty J. Parker). "On the Trail of Educational Philanthropist George Peabody (1795-1869): A Dialogue." CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XX, No. 3 (Oct. 1996), Fiche 13 B07.
34-(With Betty J. Parker). "Educational Philanthropist George Peabody (1795-1869) and First U.S. Paleontology Prof. Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-1899) at Yale University." CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XXII, No. 1 (March 1998), Fiche 7 A04.
35-(With Betty J. Parker). "Educational Philanthropist George Peabody (1795-1869) and U.S.-British Relations, 1850s-60s." CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XXII, No. 1 (March 1999), Fiche 1 A05. Also abstract in Resources in Education, XXXV, No. 6 (May 2000), p. ? (ERIC ED 436 444).
36-(With Betty J. Parker). "Educational Philanthropist George Peabody's (1795-1869) Death and Funeral." CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education) and Abstract in Resources in Education (ERIC ED). Accepted and to appear soon.
37-(With Betty J. Parker). "George Peabody A-Z," CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), Vol. 23, No. 3 (Oct. 1999), Fiche 11 C10.
38-(With Betty J. Parker). "U.S. Medical Education Reformers Abraham Flexner (1866-1959) and Simon Flexner (1863-1946) ." Abstract in Resources in Education, XXXVI, No. 1 (Jan. 2001), p. 160 (ERIC ED 443 765).
39-(With Betty J. Parker). "General Robert E. Lee (1807-70) and Philanthropist George Peabody (1795-1869) at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, July 23-Aug. 30, 1869." Abstract in Resources in Education, XXXVI, No. 2 (Feb. 2001), p. 184 (ERIC ED 449 17).
40-(With Betty J. Parker). "Forgotten George Peabody (1795-1869); Massachusetts-born Merchant, London-based Banker, Philanthropist. His Life, Influence, and Related People, Places, Events: A Handbook," 1243 pp. Abstract in Resources in Education, Vol. XXXVI, No. 3 (March 2001), p. 122 (ERIC ED 445 998).
Overview of GP's Life and Career
(While this A to Z handbook arrangement focuses on specific persons, events, and influences--some readers might like to first read the following selected entries which collectively offer an overview of GP's life and career):
1-Proctor, Sylvester (1769-1852) describes GP's youth and apprenticeship in Proctor's general store in Danvers (later South Danvers, later Peabody), Mass.
2-Riggs, Elisha, Sr. (1779-1853), Md. merchant, and GP's first senior partner, describes GP's early career as a dry goods importer and wholesaler merchant in the U.S. South, with 5 buying trips to Europe.
3-Bradford Academy, Mass., where GP paid for the education of his siblings, nephews, nieces, and cousins, including his same-named nephew (George Peabody, 1815-32), to whom GP's expressed profound regret at his own lack of schooling is a key to his later philanthropy.
4-Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell (1799-1879), GP's sister who knew him intimately and disbursed his family funds for him.
5-Corcoran, William Wilson (1798-1888), business associate and close personal friend through whom is told GP's rise as a London-based American banker.
6-Hidy, Muriel Emmie (1906-), who chronicled his business career as a 19th century merchant in international trade.
7-Morgan, Junius Spencer (1813-90), Conn.-born merchant who GP took as partner, through whom GP's banking career can be read.
8-Morgan, John Pierpont, Sr. (1837-1913), J.S. Morgan's son, who at age 19 began as NYC agent for George Peabody & Co., London, and became a banking colossus (GP laid the foundation of the House of Morgan).
9-Dinners, GP's, London (1850s), showing his social emergence and his U.S.-British friendship efforts.
10-PIB (1857), an early multicultural center which presaged such later institutes as Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center and NYC's Lincoln Center, and whose early conflicts amid Civil War dislocations so worried GP.
11-Peabody Homes of London (1862), his largest and most financially successful gift to affordably house London's poor.
12-PEF (1867), the philanthropic gift he said was closest to his heart, through which he hoped through public education to help elevate the defeated South and make the nation whole.
13-Kenin, Richard (1947-), who wrote perceptively of GP's London years, hopes, dreams, and accomplishments.
14-Moran, Benjamin (1820-86), overworked, underpaid, and envious U.S. Legation in London secty. who, in his secret journal castigated GP (and others) until, attending GP's Dec. 11, 1869, Westminster Abbey funeral service, he wrote an eloquent tribute to GP.
15-Civil War and GP describes his misunderstood role in that conflict.
16-Quotations by and about GP contains insights into his life, career, faults, and virtues.
17-Death and Funeral, GP's, has a full account of his unprecedented 96-day transatlantic funeral and why it was used to ease near-war U.S.-British angers over the Trent Affair and the Alabama Claims.
Entries (in alphabetical order)
(Entries are
This work updates and expands Franklin Parker, George Peabody, A Biography (Nashville, Tenn.: Vanderbilt Univ. Press, ©1971, revised with illustrations ©1995), and related Peabody publications listed in the Authors' Preface below which also describes motives for this work.
Following Background below, this 1 of 14 blogs covers: 1-"Preface," 2-authors list of published writings on GP, 3-Overview of GP's Life and Career, and 4- alphabetical entries from Abbott (Alfred Amos) to Brush (M.P.) 2.
Background: This "Preface" 1 of 14 tells the why-when-where-how-findings-and-motives of the authors’ research on Franklin Parker’s doctoral dissertation, “George Peabody, Founder of Modern Philanthropy,” completed 1956 at George Peabody College for Teachers, adjoining Vanderbilt University, Nashville, which on July 1, 1979, became Peabody College of Vanderbilt University.
Well known in the 1850s-60s, George Peabody has since been sadly neglected by scholars and the public. He was a significant 19th century figure as: 1-a Massachusetts-born merchant in the U.S. South; as junior partner in Riggs & Peabody; later head of Peabody & Riggs (1814-38), both firms importing dry goods and other commodities worldwide for sale to U.S. wholesalers. From mercant Peabody transformed himself into: 2-a London-based merchant-banker, George Peabody & Co. (1838-64), which helped finance in part the B&O RR, the 2nd Mexican War Loan, the Atlantic Cable; and, by choosing Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-90) as partner Oct. 1, 1854, was the root of the JP Morgan international banking firm. Finally, this merchant-turned-banker became: 3-the best known philanthropist of the 1850s-60s, founding the Peabody Homes of London for the working poor; founder in the U.S. of 7 Peabody Libraries and Lecture Halls; the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Baltimore; three Peabody Museums at Harvard (Anthropology), Yale (Paleontology), and the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA (maritime history); and founder of the Peabody Education Fund for the South (1867-1914), model for all later larger U.S. funds and foundations.
Two tributes to George Peabody:
(Historian John Steele Gordon called George Peabody the "Most Underrated Philanthropist.... Peabody is unjustly forgotten today, but his unprecedented generosity was greatly appreciated in his time." Ref.: American Heritage. Vol. 50, No. 3 (May-June 1999), pp. 68-69.
("The Peabody Fund, established in 1867 by George Peabody to assist southern education, is often credited with being the first foundation…" Ref.: Reader's Companion to American History, ed by Eric Foner and John A. Garraty (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991). Internet: http://HistoryChannel.com/
End of Background.
Abbreviations are easily recognizable and include U.S. state names (Tenn. for Tennessee, Md. for Maryland, etc.); city (NYC for New York City); titles (Pres. for President, Sen. for Senator, Rep. for Representative, Secty. for Secretary, Gov. for Governor, PM for Prime Minister, Adm. for Admiral, etc.); months of the year (Jan. for January); terms (Intro. for Introduction); and organizations (Univ. for University, Co. for Company, Dept. for Department, B&O RR for Baltimore and Ohio Railroad; n.d. for no date; n.p. for no page; etc.). The following five abbreviations are used throughout this work:
1-GP for George Peabody (1795-1869
2-GPCFT for George Peabody College for Teachers (1914-79).
3-PCofVU for Peabody College of Vanderbilt Univ. (since July 1, 1979).
4-PEF for the Peabody Education Fund (Feb. 7, 1867-1914).
5-PIB for the Peabody Institute of Baltimore (since Oct. 24, 1857).
6-Peabody Papers, PEM for George Peabody Papers, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass.
7-USS for United States Ship, as in USS Plymouth: CSS for Confederate States Ship, as in CSS Alabama; and (for Britain) HMS for Her Majesty's Ship, as in HMS Monarch.
8-VU for Vanderbilt University.
References (Ref.)
References are briefly identified at the end of most articles as Ref.:, followed by author's last name and page or pages (or first significant words of title and page or pages if no author), with annotated reference easily found alphabetically in the back of this work.
See:
Names of persons after See: are listed by Last, First, and Middle names or initials.
Internet website URL and e-mail addresses of GP-related institutions, persons, and topics are listed in appropriate places (Ref.:, See:, other places) with date seen by the authors since URL's often appear, disappear, and change.
Summary repetitions about people, events, and circumstances are used in the many entries that follow when their use further illuminates GP's life and influence.
Birth and death years of persons, when known, are listed (after their names) when first mentioned in an entry.
English pound £ during GP's years in England (1837-69) was roughly equivalent to U.S. $5.00.
Authors' Preface: On the Trail of George Peabody (1795-1869)
(This Preface interweaves the origin of the authors' research "On the Trail of GP," with findings on his career and influence; lists the authors' GP publications; and continues alphabeticlly with entries 1-14 that touch on every uncovered aspect of GP's life, career, and influence).
1-Sept. 1946-52: We met as students at Berea College near Lexington, Ky. (Sept. 1946), Betty entering from Decatur, Ala.; Franklin from Asheville, N.C. Berea brought us together, led to our marriage (1950), and its Alumni Office got us our first teaching jobs at Ferrum Jr. College near Roanoke, Va., 1950-52.
2-To improve our teaching skills we attended George Peabody College for Teachers (GPCFT), sited next to Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, Tenn., the summers of 1951 and 1952. Attendance at Berea College, a work-study tuition-free college, enabled Franklin to extend his GI Bill entitlement (he served in the U.S. Army Air Forces, 1942-46) to help cover graduate study costs at the Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, 1949-50, and GPCFT, 1952-56, plus travel to and housing near U.S. and British libraries to read GP-related papers.
3-1952-56: A part-time job and small GPCFT scholarship for Franklin, together with Betty's job teaching English in a Nashville business college, enabled us to be graduate students at GPCFT during 1952-56. Franklin took courses from and attached himself as doctoral candidate to Canadian-born Prof Clifton Landon Hall (1898-1987), graduate of Bishop Univ. (Quebec), McGill Univ. (Montreal), a Univ. of N.C., Chapel Hill, Ph.D. in the history of education, and widely respected on the Peabody and Vanderbilt campuses.
4-1953: Searching for a dissertation topic and finding an unexplored area in the history of higher education in Tenn., Franklin went for approval to GPCFT Dean (and later president) Felix Compton Robb (1914-97). Perhaps out of respect for Prof. Hall's reputation, Dean Robb told Franklin of his own earlier experience at Harvard University. In a history course he had at Harvard under historian Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. (1888-1965), Schlesinger, knowing that Robb was a Peabody College administrator, urged Robb to write on GP as a founder of modern educational philanthropy. Schlesinger knew of this achievement and lamented that it had not yet been fully explored and documented.
5-Determined on a career in higher education administration, Robb chose a dissertation in that area. Perhaps regretting a good topic not pursued, Robb spoke with enthusiasm of GP’s little known role as the founder of U.S. educational philanthropy and urged Franklin to consider it as a dissertation topic.
Basic Facts
6-GP in brief: Increasingly intrigued by what we found in libraries and encouraged by small scholarships, we read GP’s original letters and papers intensively in widely scattered U.S. and British depositories during 1953-55. He was born Feb. 18, 1795, into a poor branch of the Peabodys of Mass., third of eight children in Danvers, Mass., 19 miles northeast of Boston. He lived long enough to see his birthplace (renamed South Danvers in 1855 when Danvers was divided into North Danvers and South Danvers) renamed Peabody, Mass., in his honor on April 13, 1868.
7-He attended a district school 4 years, ages 8-12 (1803-07), all his parents could afford; was apprenticed in a general store 4 years, ages 12-15 (1807-10); and worked for a year in his oldest brother's dry goods store in Newburyport, Mass. (1810-11). His father died May 13, 1811, leaving the family in debt, the Danvers home mortgaged, with GP's mother and the five younger children forced to live with nearby relatives. Eighteen days later, May 31, 1811, the Great Fire of Newburyport ruined all business prospects, leading to an exodus of family breadwinners.
8-Paternal uncle John Peabody (1768-1827), whose Newburyport store and stock were burned, urged his 17-year old nephew GP to join him in opening a dry goods store in Georgetown, D.C. Because his uncle could not obtain credit, GP asked a Newburyport merchant to stand surety for him for a consignment of goods on credit from a Boston merchant. With $2,000 in goods secured, uncle and nephew sailed from Newburyport (May 5, 1812) and opened the Georgetown, D.C., store (May 15, 1812).
9-His uncle soon entered other enterprises. On his own GP tended the store and was also a pack peddler selling goods to nearby homes and stores. With nearby Washington, D.C., under threat of British attack, he volunteered in the War of 1812. There he met and impressed 35-year-old fellow soldier and experienced Md. merchant Elisha Riggs, Sr. (1779-1853). Riggs took the 19-year-old GP as junior partner in Riggs, Peabody & Co. (1814-29), which imported European fabric, clothing, and other goods for sale to U.S. wholesalers. The firm moved to Baltimore in 1815 and had warehouses in Philadelphia and New York City (NYC) by 1822. See: Riggs, Elisha, Sr.
Young Merchant in the South
10-Taking early responsibility as family breadwinner, GP sent his mother and siblings flour, sugar, clothes, other necessities, and money. By 1816, age 21, he had paid the family debts and restored his mother and siblings to their home. Newburyport lawyer Ebon Mosely wrote GP on Dec. 16, 1816: "I cannot but be pleased with the filial affection which seems to evince you to preserve the estate for a Parent." Ref.: Ebon Mosely, Newburyport, Mass., to GP, Baltimore, Dec. 16, 1816, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
11-GP paid for the education at Bradford Academy, Bradford, Mass., of five younger relatives: brother Jeremiah, from 1819; sister Judith Dodge during 1821-27, sister Mary Gaines during 1822-27, cousin Adolphus W. Peabody (paternal uncle John's son) during 1827, and a nephew named for him (oldest brother David's son George), also during 1827. He bought a house in West Bradford for his relatives who were enrolled in the academy and where his mother also lived for several years.
12-He later paid for the education of other relatives: nephew Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-99), at Yale Univ., later the first U.S. paleontologist at Yale; nephew George Peabody Russell (1835-1909), Harvard-trained lawyer; niece Julia Adelaide Peabody (b. April 25, 1835), Philadelphia finishing school; and others.
13-GP traveled in the U.S. and abroad for Riggs, Peabody & Co. He made five European buying trips during 1827-37. When Elisha Riggs, Sr., withdrew to become a NYC banker, the firm became Peabody, Riggs & Co. (1829-48), with GP as senior partner and Riggs's nephew, Samuel Riggs (d. 1853), as junior partner.
GP as Md.'s Fiscal Agent Abroad
14-In 1836, as part of large scale internal improvements in many states (building roads, canals, and railroads), the Md. legislature voted to finance the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the B&O RR with interest-bearing state bonds to be sold abroad. Md. appointed three agents to sell its $8 million bond issue abroad. When one agent withdrew, GP sought and secured his place. He left for London Feb. 1837, just before the Panic of 1837.
15-A depression following the financial Panic of 1837 led the two other agents to return to the U.S. without success. GP remained in London the rest of his life (1837-69), 32 years, except for three U.S. visits (Sept. 15, 1856 to Aug. 19, 1857; May 1, 1866 to May 1, 1867; and June 8 to Sept. 29, 1869).
16-Depressed conditions after 1837 led nine states, including Md., to stop interest payments on their bonds sold abroad. GP had to sell the bonds in this depressed market and amid the angers of British and other European investors at the stoppage of interest payments. He publicly assured investors that repudiation was temporary, that payments would be retroactive. By letters, printed in newspapers, he urged officials in Md. and other defaulting states to retroactively resume interest payments.
17-GP was finally relieved to sell his part of the Md. bonds cheaply for exclusive resale by London's Baring Brothers banking firm. In 1847-48 Md. officials acknowledged publicly that GP had upheld Md.'s credit abroad during a difficult financial panic and that, rather than burden the state treasury, had declined his own $60,000 commission. Md. Gov. Philip Francis Thomas (1810-90) transmitted Md. legislature's resolutions of praise to him and wrote, "To you, sir...the thanks of the State were eminently due." See: Md.'s $8 Million Bond Sale Abroad and GP.
From Merchant to London-based Banker
18-Gradually curtailing business activities for Peabody, Riggs & Co., he withdrew his capital in 1843 and severed his connection in 1845 (the firm's business ended in 1848). Coincidentally, he founded George Peabody & Co., London (Dec. 1, 1838-Oct. 1, 1864) and increasingly sold U.S. state bonds to finance roads, canals, and railroads. He succeeded in transition from merchant to investment banker.
19-With others he helped finance the second Mexican War loan; bought, sold, and shipped European iron and later steel rails for U.S. western railroads; and was a director and part- financier of the Atlantic Cable Co. He had learned to marshal capital to finance and expand U.S. business and industrial growth. In the 1850s he became the most eminent U.S. banker in London dealing in U.S. trade and securities.
20-George Peabody & Co. prospered. Asked in an interview on Aug. 22, 1869, how and when he made his money, GP said, "I made pretty much of it in 20 years from 1844 to 1864. Everything I touched within that time seemed to turn to gold. I bought largely of United States securities when their value was low and they advanced greatly." Ref.: (Aug. 22, 1869, interview): Moorman-b, pp. 15-17.
Morgan Partnership
21-Often ill and urged by business friends to take a partner, GP on Oct. 1, 1854, at age 59 took as partner Boston merchant Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-90). J.S. Morgan's son John Pierpont Morgan (later Sr., 1837-1913), at age 19, began his banking career as NYC agent for George Peabody & Co. Increasing illness hastened GP's retirement on Oct. 1, 1864. Unmarried, without a son, and knowing he would no longer control the firm, he asked that his name be withdrawn. See: Morgan, Junius Spencer.
22-GP's was thus the root of the international banking house of J.P. Morgan, a fact amply recorded but not now generally known. His firm continued in London as J.S. Morgan & Co. (Oct. 1, 1864-Dec. 31, 1909), Morgan Grenfell & Co. (Jan. 1, 1910-Nov. 1918), Morgan Grenfell & Co., Ltd. (Nov. 1918-90), and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990), a German-owned international banking firm. Relieved of business burdens GP spent the last five years of his life (1864-69) looking after his philanthropic institutions, first begun in 1852.
Philanthropist
23-More intriguing than how GP made his money was why and how he gave it away. In 1820 he was worth between $40,000 and $50,000. His 1827 will left $4,000 for charity. His 1832 will left $27,000 (out of a $135,000 estate) for educational philanthropy. He early told intimates and said publicly in 1850 that he would found an educational or other useful institution in every town and city where he had lived and worked. He earned about $20 million during his lifetime and at his death (Nov. 4, 1869) he gave about half to philanthropy, half to his relatives. (Note: $20 million in 1869 is equivalent to $258.3 million In 2001 purchasing power: See: Philanthropy, GP's, worth of, in Ref.: g. Internet. URL: http://www.eh.net/ehresources/howmuch/dollarq.php).
24-His philanthropic gifts (26 gifts or resulting institutes are numbered below), totaled about $10 million. His seven U.S. Peabody institute libraries, with lecture halls and lecture funds were, like the Lyceums (from 1826) and later Chautauquas (from 1872), part of the adult education centers of the time.
25-His seven Peabody Institute libraries are in: 1-Peabody, 2-Danvers, 3-Newburyport, and 4-Georgetown (all in Mass.). The four-part 5-Peabody Institute of Baltimore (PIB) contained a reference library, initially so extensive that the Library of Congress early borrowed from it, plus an art gallery, a lecture hall a lecture fund, and a conservatory of music.
26-The PIB, to which he gave a total of $1.4 million, presaged such later cultural centers as the Lincoln Center, NYC; and the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. (the PIB reference library and the PIB conservatory of music became part of the Johns Hopkins Univ., from 1982). Other Peabody libraries are in 6-Thetford, Vt. and in 7-Georgetown, D.C. (now the Peabody Room of the Washington, D.C., public library.
27-Influenced by his nephew O.C. Marsh's scientific interests and attainments, GP founded three Peabody museums of science: 8-the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard Univ. (anthropology); 9-the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale Univ. (paleontology), $150,000 each; and 10-what is now the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass. (maritime history plus Essex County historical documents), $140,000.
28-GP earlier gave the 11-Md. Institute for the Promotion of Mechanic Arts $1,000 for a chemistry laboratory and school, Oct. 31, 1851; 12-Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., $25,000 for a professorship of mathematics, Oct. 30, 1866; 13-Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, $25,000 for a professorship of mathematics and civil engineering, Nov. 6, 1866; and 14-and to former Gen. Robert E. Lee's (1807-70) Washington College (renamed Washington and Lee Univ., 1871), Lexington, Va., $60,000 for a professorship of mathematics, Sept. 1869.
29-He gave $20,000 publication funds each to the 15-Md. Historical Society, Baltimore, Nov. 5, 1866; and the 16-Mass. Historical Society, Boston, Jan. 1, 1867. He gave 17-the U.S. Sanitary Commission to aid Civil War orphans, widows, and disabled veterans $10,000, 1864; and the 18-Vatican charitable San Spirito Hospital, Rome, Italy, $19,300, April 5, 1867.
30-He had a 19-Memorial Congregational Church built in his mother's memory in her hometown, Georgetown, Mass., $70,000, 1866. For patriotic causes he donated to the 20-Lexington Monument, now Peabody, Mass., $300, 1835; the 21-Bunker Hill Memorial, Boston, Mass., $500, June 3, 1845; and the 22-Washington Monument, Washington, D.C., $1,000, July 4, 1854.
Peabody Homes of London
31-His largest gift, $2.5 million total, was for model low rent apartments for London's working poor. Begun on March 12, 1862, what is now 23-the Peabody Trust Group, London, GP's most successful philanthropy, on March 31, 2006 owned or managed over 20,000 affordable homes housing over 50,000 low income Londoners (about 59% white, 32% black, and 9% others in 2002). These include, besides Peabody Trust Group-built estates, other London public housing units whose authorities deliberately chose to come under the Peabody Trust Group because of its efficient management, facilities, playgrounds for the young, recreation for the elderly, computer centers, job training, and job placement for its working adults. Ref.: Peabody Trust Group, London-c, annual report, 2002 (and later reports). Ref.: g. Internet. "Peabody Buildings," URL: http://www.vauxhallsociety.org.uk/Peabody.html
32-The Peabody Homes of London, GP's most successful philanthropy, was first suggested by social reformer Lord Shaftesbury (1801-85). GP first (1859) considered and discarded the idea of building a network of drinking fountains in London. He then considered a large gift to enlarge the Ragged Schools Union, a charitable trust managing schools for poor children in England, administered by Lord Shaftesbury (before the establishment of tax supported schools). GP asked his friend, Ohio's Episcopal Bishop Charles Pettit McIlvaine (1799-1873), who knew Shaftesbury, to consult with him. McIlvaine reported Shaftesbury's advice that housing was the London poor's greatest need. This advice determined GP's gift of low cost model apartments. The Peabody Homes of London inspired imitators elsewhere in England and in the U.S. and brought GP many honors in England.
PEF
33-GP's most in19,fluential U.S. gift was the $2 million 23-PEF (1867-1914) to promote public education in the eleven former Confederate states plus W.Va., added because of its poverty. He actually gave the PEF $3,484,000, but $1.1 million in Miss. state bonds and $384,000 in Fla. bonds were never redeemed by those states.
34-For 47 years the PEF helped promote public schools in the devastated post Civil War South, focusing first on aiding existing public elementary and secondary schools in larger towns to serve as models, then aiding teacher training institutes and normal colleges, and finally aiding rural public school growth.
35-The PEF was without precedent, the first multimillion dollar educational foundation in the U.S., cited by historians as the model forerunner of all subsequent significant U.S. educational funds and foundations. See: PEF.
36-High offices held by the over 50 PEF trustees during 1867-1914 included: thirteen state legislators, two U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justices, six U.S. ambassadors, eight U.S. Senators, seven in the U.S. House of Representatives, two Civil War generals, one U.S. naval admiral, one U.S. Army Surgeon-Gen., three Confederate generals, three who served in the Confederate Congress, two bishops, and six U.S. cabinet officers. For names, See: Governors, U.S. States, and GP. PCofVU. PEF. Presidents, U.S., and GP.
37-Other high offices held by PEF trustees: three were U.S. presidents (U.S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Grover Cleveland; or eight U.S. presidents if Peabody Normal College and its predecessor institutions are included), six were U.S. state governors, and three were financiers: J.P. Morgan; Anthony Joseph Drexel (1826-93), inspired by GP's example to found Drexel Univ., Phila., and Paul Tulane (1801-87), inspired to found Tulane Univ., New Orleans, La. Ref.: Ibid.
Peabody Normal College
38-PEF first administrator Barnas Sears (1802-80) wanted a model teachers college for the South in Nashville. When the Tenn. legislature declined to pass funding legislation for several state normal school proposals, Sears through the PEF helped establish the PEF-supported 24-Peabody Normal College (1875-1911) on the Univ. of Nashville campus in place of its moribund Literary Dept. In its 36 years of existence, Peabody Normal College achieved regional and national leadership in the professional preparation of teachers.
39-GP's PEF founding letter (Feb. 7, 1867) permitted ending the fund when its work in promoting public schools in the South was done. In 1914 the trustees distributed the fund's total assets ($2,324,000) as follows: $474,000 went to the education departments of 14 southern universities ($40,000 each to the universities of Va., N.C., Ga., Ala., Fla., Miss., Ark., Ky., and La. [State]; $6,000 each to Johns Hopkins Univ. and to the universities of S.C., Mo., and Tex.; $90,000 to Winthrop Normal College, S.C. (now Winthrop College), founded by PEF trustees Pres. Robert Charles Winthrop (1809-94); and $350,000 to the John F. Slater Fund for Negro Education (a sum given later to the Southern Education Fund, Atlanta, where it still serves African-American education). See: PCofVU. PEF. Southern Education Fund, Atlanta.
GPCFT
40-Most of the PEF principal, $1.5 million plus required matching funds, went to endow 25-GPCFT (1914-79), with a new campus built next to Vanderbilt Univ. for academic strength. For 65 years GPCFT maintained its independence, cooperating with neighboring Vanderbilt Univ. in courses, programs, and library facilities. GPCFT was in fact a unique mini-university, focused on teacher education in a variety of fields, with departments of library science, physical education, science education, and music education. It retained and enhanced its predecessor's reputation as a leading institution in the South, with national recognition and an international student body.
41-GPCFT's best graduates became state university presidents, deans, leading professors, researchers, and textbook writers. Its success thereby strengthened competing lower cost state university colleges of education and ironically contributed to its own demise. National recession in the 1970s combined with higher energy and other costs adversely affected higher education and particularly private colleges of education.
PCofVU
42-Wise Peabodians knew that the time was past for the survival of a private single purpose teachers college like GPCFT, despite its proud history, high regional reputation, and national and international influence. Merger took place on July 1, 1979, when GPCFT became 26-PCofVU, Vanderbilt Univ.'s. ninth school.
43-PCofVU soon increased the status of its predecessor institutions as a leading private southern university's college of education. It quickly led the nation in preparing teachers to apply computers to student learning. Since the 1990s it has consistently ranked among the top U.S. graduate schools of education, highly esteemed in preparing special education teachers, guidance counselors, and educational researchers. Ref.: "Best Graduate Schools," pp. 109, 111.
44-PCofVU's history thus goes back to Davidson Academy (1785-1806), chartered by N.C. eleven years before Tenn. statehood; rechartered as Cumberland College (1806-26); rechartered as the Univ. of Nashville (1826-75); whose moribund literary dept. was rechartered as Peabody Normal College (1875-1911; rechartered as GPCFT (1914-79); renamed PCofVU (since July 1, 1979). PCofVU's lineage of over 210 years makes it the 15th U.S. collegiate institution after the founding of Harvard College in 1636.
45-Faced with greater class and race divisions and with greater financial difficulties than counterpart colleges in other sections of the U.S., it rose phoenix-like again and again to produce educational leaders for the South, the nation, and the world. As part of Vanderbilt Univ., PCofVU carried into the 21st century GP's motto accompanying his check for his first hometown Peabody Institute Library (1852): "Education, a debt due from present to future generations."
Philanthropic Influence
46-GP's philanthropic example, mainly through the PIB and the PEF, directly and personally influenced Enoch Pratt (1808-96) to found the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore's public library; influenced Johns Hopkins (1795-1873) to found the Johns Hopkins Univ., hospital, and medical school in Baltimore; influenced Anthony Joseph Drexel to found Drexel Univ., Philadelphia; influenced Paul Tulane to found Tulane Univ., New Orleans; and influenced others who gave to institutions, funds, and foundations.
47-At his death, Nov. 4, 1869, age 74, GP was the best known philanthropist in the U.S. and Britain, a founder of U.S. educational philanthropy. But time, larger fortunes, wealthier funds and foundations have dimmed his memory, except at his institutes and among interested scholars.
Manuscript Sources
48-We did research on GP concentratedly in 1953-56, sporadically since, and again concentratedly in retirement since 1994, always impressed with his achievements and wondering why he is so neglected. We read GP- papers of the following individuals at the Library of Congress (LC), Washington, D.C.: a-William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888), business associate with whom GP helped finance the Second Mexican War loan (Corcoran is also known for donating the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington, D.C.). b-Hamilton Fish (1809-93), PEF trustee, N.Y. governor, and U.S. Secty. of State involved in GP's unusual 96-day transatlantic funeral.
49-We read the LC papers of c-John Work Garrett (1820-84), B&O RR president, who brought GP and Johns Hopkins together in his home near Baltimore, leading to the founding of Johns Hopkins Univ., Hospital, and Medical School. d-We read the LC papers of U.S. Pres. Andrew Johnson (1808-75) who went to GP's rooms at the Willard's Hotel, Washington, D.C., Feb. 9, 1867, to thank him for the PEF as a national gift. To forestall impeachment by radical Republicans bent on punishing the defeated South, Pres. Johnson's political advisor recommended a complete cabinet reshuffle with GP as Treasury Secty. But loyalty to his old cabinet kept Pres. Johnson from this course.
50-We read the LC papers of e-Benjamin Moran (1820-86), U.S. Legation in London Secty. (later called the U.S. Embassy), who during 1857-69 was often critical of GP in his private journal. f-We read the LC papers of the Riggs family, including Elisha Riggs, Sr., GP's first senior partner; Samuel Riggs (Elisha Riggs, Sr.'s, nephew), GP's second partner; and George Washington Riggs (1813-81, Elisha Riggs, Sr.'s son) who started the Riggs National Bank of Washington, D.C.
51-At the National Archives, Washington, D.C., we read a-"Veterans Records of the War of 1812" documenting GP's 14 days as a soldier, b-"Admirals and Commodores' Letters," c-"Dispatches from United States Ministers, Great Britain," and d-"Log of USS Plymouth," each documenting GP's unusual 96-day transatlantic funeral (from his Nov. 4, 1869, death in London, to his final burial in Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass., Feb. 8, 1870, with much attendant press coverage.
52-In NYC's Pierpont Morgan Library we read the papers of J.S. Morgan, his son J.P. Morgan, Sr., and grandson J.P. Morgan, Jr. (1867-1943). These helped explain how GP, the founding root of the House of Morgan, along with a handful of other merchant-bankers, early learned to marshal foreign capital to help finance U.S. industrial growth.
53-In Mass. we read the bulk of GP's personal papers and business records (then not indexed or calendared) in what is now the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem. We also read his papers in depositories in Peabody, Salem, Danvers, and Boston, Mass.; at Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology; and in Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History (which has his nephew Othniel Charles Marsh’s papers).
54-In Baltimore, where GP spent 22 of his most formative commercial years, 1815-37, we read his papers at the PIB, and the papers and journals of PIB trustee John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870) who, at GP's request for a cultural center for Baltimore, originally conceived of the idea of the PIB. In Baltimore we also read appropriate material in the Johns Hopkins Univ. Library and the Enoch Pratt Free Library, whose founders, as mentioned, GP directly influenced. See: John Pendleton Kennedy and institutions mentioned.
55-Two travel difficulties were solved in Baltimore. We needed inexpensive passage to London. Ben Welsh, under whom Betty worked in the Berea College Labor Office (he was a part time travel agent), got us a low cost berth on a transatlantic ship. To safely store our old car, the Ruckdeshells, in whose Baltimore house we roomed (secured through the Johns Hopkins Univ. student housing), phoned a friend with an empty garage who helped us raise our car on blocks for four months' storage.
In England
56-London: Sept.-Dec. 1954: We registered as student researchers at the Univ. of London and rented an inexpensive "bed-sitter through student housing. Our daily pattern was an early breakfast of bread, peanut butter, fruit, and milk (with the outside window ledge our "fridge"), which preceded morning research in libraries. Lunch at a nearby bustling pub was followed by afternoon library research until closing time. An occasional restaurant supper treat preceded nighttime arranging of notes. We managed some Sunday and holiday visits to cultural sights and events. We survived the cold London winter nights of 1954 by huddling close to a space heater, feeding it shilling coins to keep it going,
57-At London's British Museum Manuscript Division we read PM William E. Gladstone's (1809-98) cabinet minutes, Nov. 10, 1869, showing the decision, first suggested by Queen Victoria, to use Britain's newest and largest warship, HMS Monarch, to return GP's remains from England for burial in the U.S.
Alabama Claims
58-HMS Monarch was deliberately chosen as funeral ship partly because of the public attention it would draw and partly to honor his philanthropy in the U.S. and especially in London. His gift that most warmed English hearts and brought him many British honors was his 1862 $2.5 million gift for low-cost apartments for London's working poor. There was also a political motive for the choice of HMS Monarch, as there was for unusual British (and later U.S.) pomp and ceremony surrounding his unprecedented 96-day transatlantic funeral. See: Peabody Homes of London. Death and Funeral, GP's.
59-GP died at the height of unresolved U.S.-British angers over serious incidents during the U.S. Civil War. One lingering anger was over the Sept. 1861 Trent Affair. Four Confederate agents seeking arms and aid in England and France slipped through a Union blockade of Charleston, S.C., sailed to Havana, Cuba, and then boarded the British mail ship Trent for England when a Union warship stopped, boarded, removed, and jailed the Confederates.
60-Britain furiously protested this illegal seizure and sent troops to Canada should war erupt between the U.S. and Britain. Calmer heads prevailed; Pres. Lincoln had the Confederates released. Also, Confederate agents secretly bought British-built ships, armed them as Confederate raiders, like the CSS Alabama, which wrecked or sank Union ships and cost U.S. lives and vast treasure. The U.S. offered proof that Britain knowingly turned a blind eye to the sale of these raiders and angrily sought indemnity.
61-Choice of HMS Monarch was thus a political decision to soften near-war British-U.S. angers over these and other Civil War incidents. Politically astute PM Gladstone at the Nov. 9, 1869, Lord Mayor's Day banquet, five days after GP's death, said publicly: "With the country of Mr. Peabody we [will] not quarrel." Three years later (1872), a Geneva international court required Britain to pay the U.S. $15.5 million indemnity to settle the Alabama Claims controversy.
62-At London's Guildhall Record Office we read a-"Journals of the Court of Common Council" recording the Freedom of the City of London honor given to GP, July 10, 1862. We also read b-"Minutes of the Committee for Erecting a Statue to Mr. George Peabody, 1866-1870," documenting contributors to GP's seated statue in Threadneedle St., near London's Royal Exchange, created by U.S.-born Rome-based sculptor William Wetmore Story (1815-95), unveiled before crowds by the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII, 1841-1910), July 23, 1869.
63-A replica of GP's seated statue in London was erected in front of the PIB, April 7, 1890, by Baltimorean Robert Garrett (1847-96). GP's seated statue in London, 1869, was the first of four statues of Americans in London, the others being of Abraham Lincoln, 1920; George Washington, 1921; and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1948.
64-At London's Public Record Office we read a-"Alien Entry Lists" recording every time GP entered a British port, b-"Foreign Affairs Papers," and c-"Admiralty Papers," the last two documenting Britain's part in GP's unusual 96-day transatlantic funeral.
65-In London's Westminster Abbey we read a-"Recollections by Dean [Arthur P.] Stanley of Funerals in Westminster Abbey 1865-1881." Visiting in Naples, Italy, when he read of GP's death in London on Nov. 4, 1869, Dean Stanley (1815-81) recalled GP's March 12, 1862, gift for housing London's working poor and telegraphed associates to offer Westminster Abbey for a funeral service for this generous American.
66-We read the Westminster Abbey's b-"Funeral Fee Book 1811-1899," which listed GP's Abbey funeral costs. c-We stood at the permanent GP marker on the stone floor of Westminster Abbey near Britain's unknown soldier where GP's remains rested for 30 days (Nov. 12-Dec. 11, 1869). That marker was refurbished for the 200th GP birthday ceremony at Westminster Abbey on Feb. 18, 1995.
67-To honor his housing gift to London's working poor, GP was made an honorary member of two ancient guilds, the Clothmakers' Co., July 2, 1862, and the Fishmongers' Co., April 19, 1866, whose records we read in the respective guild libraries.
68-At the Royal Archives, Windsor Castle, we read letters from Queen Victoria and her advisors to, from, and about GP. The Queen offered him a knighthood. He declined, since this honor required him to become a British subject. Unwilling to give up his U.S. citizenship he accepted instead her letters of thanks and an enameled miniature portrait she commissioned to be made especially for him. That portrait, along with his other honors, are on display at the Peabody Institute Library, Peabody, Mass.
69-We read the three brass signs on the front door of Morgan, Grenfell & Co., Ltd., 23 Great Winchester St., London, which read from bottom to top: George Peabody & Co., 1838-64; J.S. Morgan & Co., 1864-1909); and Morgan Grenfell & Co. (1909-90). The firm's current descendant, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990), has records of George Peabody & Co. and some business papers of GP, J.S. Morgan, and J.P. Morgan, Sr. We secured a copy of GP's death certificate from London's General Register Office, Somerset House.
70-Turning pages of heavy dusty bound newspaper volumes at the British Library at Colindale, we found many contemporary articles about GP, especially of his elaborate U.S.-British friendship dinners in or near London from 1850 onward, most often on July 4th, U.S. Independence Day.
71-We wrote letters to British newspaper editors asking readers for any privately held GP letters or memorabilia. Two families had "George Peabody" embossed glass plates made by a souvenir glassware manufacturer in Sunderland, England, in the aftermath of his widely publicized death and 96-day transatlantic funeral. We donated GP glassware given us to U.S. Peabody institutions.
72-When first proposed for membership in exclusive British clubs, GP was denied membership (blackballed). This occurred during repudiation of interest on U.S. state bonds sold to British investors, many held by widowed families. Americans were then especially disdained. When it became known that GP had publicly protested repudiation, and particularly after his gift for housing London's working poor, he was unanimously elected to London's best clubs.
73-We read of GP's admission to the most prestigious of these clubs, The Athenaeum, whose librarian Eileen Stiff (d. 1985) befriended us. We met her housemate, writer Margaret Leland Goldsmith (1895-1970), whose invaluable editorial help is mentioned later. We also visited a Peabody apartment complex where some 34,500 low income Londoners still live.
Back in the U.S.: Founders Day Address, Feb. 18, 1955
74-We returned to the U.S., loaded our old car in Baltimore with voluminous notes and microfilm, and headed for Nashville. There, David E. Short (1891-1957), president of the Nashville business school where Betty had taught English in exchange for a near-free apartment, generously let us live there again (paying whatever rent we could afford). His generosity plus part time jobs enabled us, on evenings, weekends, and holidays, to organize our voluminous GP materials. This task was suddenly hastened when GPCFT Pres. Henry H. Hill (1894-1987) asked Franklin to give the GPCFT's Founders Day Address on Feb. 18, 1955, the first such address by a student.
75-Pressed now to succinctly tell the GP story, Franklin's speech to a Peabody College audience highlighted GP's career, U.S.-British friendship dinners, philanthropic influence, death in London, and unprecedented 96-day transatlantic funeral. This speech opportunity would not have happened if Dean Felix Robb had not first suggested the GP research; or if GPCFT Prof. Clifton Hall as major professor had not been widely respected on the Peabody and Vanderbilt campuses (such backing was needed by a little known untried doctoral researcher); or if Franklin not kept his five doctoral committee members abreast of findings by regular research progress reports. Doors of opportunity swung on such hinges.
76-Franklin highlighted GP’s last illness, death, and funeral: A sick 74-year-old GP joined business friend W.W. Corcoran at White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., a popular mineral springs health spa (July 23-Aug. 30, 1869). Present there by chance were southern and northern political, educational and former Civil War leaders, including Robert E. Lee (1807-70), then president of Washington College, Lexington Va., renamed Washington and Lee Univ. in 1871.
77-Though confined to his cabin, GP yet heard some of the gayety of younger visitors who flocked to a Peabody Ball spontaneously held in his honor. On his few well days he and Lee walked, talked, and dined together, often applauded by visitors. GP and Lee were photographed together and with others, including visiting Civil War generals from South and North. Informal talks that last summer of GP’s life were on southern public education needs. These set a precedent for later more formal Conferences on Education in the South, 1898-1902, which in turn led to vast foundation aid which helped raise southern public schools and higher education toward national levels.
78-Distressed by the Civil War, GP in Nov. 1861 had helped two of Pres. Abraham Lincoln's emissaries contact leaders in London to keep Britain neutral: Ohio's Episcopal Bishop Charles Pettit McIlvaine (mentioned earlier as GP's emissary to Lord Shaftesbury) and N.Y. state journalist and political leader Thurlow Weed (1797-1882), both GP's long-time friends.
79-After GP's death, when he was attacked as a Confederate sympathizer, Thurlow Weed publicly vindicated GP's Union loyalty (which McIlvaine also affirmed). Some northern extremists, determined to punish the South, faulted GP for founding the PIB in Md. (1857) and the PEF (1867), both seen as aiding the South. Weed reported that the $2 million that went into the PEF GP originally intended (in 1859) to give to the NYC poor. But NYC public schools had prospered and the Civil War had intervened. Moved by Civil War devastation, GP determined to aid public education in the South.
80-Congress and Pres. U.S. Pres. Andrew Johnson recognized GP's PEF as a national gift. as did, Forty seven years later, GPCFT Pres. Bruce R. Payne's (1874-1937) Feb. 18, 1916 Founders Day speech thus imaginatively interpreted GP's PEF founding letter, Feb. 7, 1867, to ten of his 16 trustees gathered at Willard's Hotel, Washington, D.C.: "There stand several governors of states both North and South; senators of the United States; Ulysses S. Grant and Admiral Farragut. [Chief trustee Robert C.] Winthrop is called to take the chair. Mr. Peabody rises to read his deed of gift. They kneel in a circle of prayer, the Puritan of New England, the pioneer of the West, the financier of the metropolis, and the defeated veteran of the Confederacy. [On] bended knee they dedicate this great gift. They consecrate themselves to its wise expenditure. In that act, not quite two years after Appomattox, is the first guarantee of a reunited country." See: PEF.
81-GP gave Lee's college Va. bonds ultimately worth $60,000 for a mathematics professorship, left for Salem, Mass., made his funeral plans, recorded his last will in NYC, and arrived in London gravely ill. Through aides, Queen Victoria invited GP to recuperate at Windsor Castle. But it was too late. He died Nov. 4, 1869, at the 80 Eaton Square (London) home of business associate Sir Curtis Lampson (1806-85). See: Death and Funeral, GP's.
82-Knowing that GP's will required burial in Mass., Lampson telegraphed GP's nephew George Peabody Russell, who left for England to accompany GP's body home. Letters poured in to London newspapers asking for public honors for GP. The Queen's advisor, Sir Arthur Helps, informed her: "There are many persons who wish to pay public respect to the memory of that good man." See persons mentioned.
83-When PM Gladstone, at Queen Victoria’s suggestion, offered HMS Monarch as funeral ship to transport GP's remains to the U.S., Pres. U.S. Grant and U.S. Navy officials, not to be outdone, ordered the USS Plymouth from Marseilles, France, to act as escort vessel. Boston and NYC officials, believing that their cities would be the receiving port, were chagrined when Portland, Maine, was chosen because of its deeper harbor. The U.S. Navy placed Adm. David G. Farragut in charge of a flotilla of U.S. receiving vessels in Portland harbor. GP's funeral took on unprecedented proportions.
84-U.S. London Legation Secretary Benjamin Moran's private journal entries reflected the consternation at mounting funeral plans. He wrote on Nov. 6, 1869: "Peabody haunts the Legation from all parts of the world like a ghost." Again on Dec. 6, 1869: "Old Peabody has given us much trouble," and, "Will that old man ever be buried?" See: Moran, Benjamin.
85-Although critical of GP in his private journal through the years, at the last, Benjamin Moran, witnessing GP's Nov. 12, 1869, Westminster Abbey funeral service, was wondrously touched. He wrote with rare eloquence: "I reflected on the marvelous career of the man, his early life, his penurious habits, his vast fortune, his magnificent charity; and the honor then being paid to his memory by the Queen of England in the place of sepulchre of twenty English kings. An anthem was sung and the service end[ed]--George Peabody having received burial in Westminster Abbey, an honor coveted by nobles and not always granted kings." Ibid.
86-The Dec. 12, 1869, transfer of the coffin from London's Westminster Abbey to Portsmouth, England, harbor took place in pouring rain and a blowing storm. British Marines formed an honor guard. Scarlet-robed Portsmouth council members under black umbrellas mingled oddly with lines, spars, and beams of assembled ships. Guns were fired. Bugles sounded.
87-U.S. Minister to Britain John Lothrop Motley (1814-77) said to the Monarch’s Capt. John E. Commerell (1829-1901): "Into your hands I deliver Mr. Peabody's remains." The Monarch at Spithead Harbor, Portsmouth, awaited the end of the gale then blowing for the long voyage home.
88-British honors evoked some dissent in the U.S. One Union extremist said that returning "Peabody's remains on a British ship of war [is an] insult. Peabody was a secessionist." The charge, often made, was as often denied. In 1866 GP told a Baltimore audience: "My sympathies were with the Union. Three-fourths of my property was invested in United States Government and State securities. I saw no hope except in Union victory. But I could not turn my back on Southern friends." A few radical anti-southern Congressional extremists, erroneously believing GP to have favored the Confederacy, argued against a U.S. Navy reception for his remains at Portland. They were outvoted. Both houses of Congress finally approved unanimously.
89-HMS Monarch and the USS Plymouth were met in Portland harbor, Jan. 25, 1870, by Adm. Farragut and a flotilla of U.S. ships. At Queen Victoria's request and as a final measure of British respect, GP's remains lay in state on the Monarch for two days. Thousands of visitors who flocked to Portland went by small boats to view his coffin aboard the Monarch. On Jan. 29, 1870, a cold New England winter's day, Monarch seamen carried the coffin ashore. Drums sounded a muted roll. The band played the somber Death March.
90-Hushed crowds filed by his coffin lying in state in Portland's City Hall where, on Feb. 1, 1870, The Messiah was sung, Mozart's Requiem was played. In the bitter cold, thousands watched black plumed horses pull the hearse through Portland streets to the railway station. Many others watched en route and as the funeral train reached GP's hometown.
91-His coffin was taken to the Peabody Institute, Peabody, Mass., where it lay in state for viewing in the Peabody library. On display there were Queen Victoria's enameled miniature portrait made especially for him, the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal and resolutions of praise for the PEF, scrolls of the Freedom of the City of London, scrolls of honorary memberships in the Fishmongers' and Clothworkers' Companies, and other honors.
92-The coffin was taken to the Congregational Church for the last funeral service and the eulogy. Special trains from Boston brought solemn crowds to his hometown. The Congregational Church was filled to capacity. All eyes were on Queen Victoria's son Prince Arthur (Duke of Connaught, 1850-1942) and his entourage, captains of the Monarch and the Plymouth, Massachusetts and Maine governors, Harvard Univ. Pres. Charles W. Eliot, mayors of six nearby cities, and trustees of GP's institutes.
93-Eulogist Robert Charles Winthrop (1809-94), GP’s philanthropic advisor, said of him in part: "What a career this has been whose final scene lies before us! The trusts he established, the institutes he founded, the buildings he raised stand before all eyes. He planned these for many years. When I expressed amazement at his purpose, he said to me, 'Why Mr. Winthrop, this is no new idea for me. From the earliest of my manhood, I have contemplated some such disposition of my property; and I have prayed my heavenly Father day by day, that I might be enabled, before I died, to show my gratitude for the blessings which He has bestowed upon me by doing some great good for my fellow-men.'"
94-GP's underlined words above are carved on the Westminster Abbey floor marker where his remains had rested for 30 days (Nov. 12-Dec. 11, 1869). He was buried in Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass., Feb. 8, 1870, near where he played as a boy and where he built the family tomb. The 96-day funeral was over. Two nations had given his funeral a rare touch of grandeur.
GP the Founder of Modern Philanthropy
95-Franklin Parker's dissertation, "George Peabody, Founder of Modern Philanthropy," documented these PEF firsts: 1-The PEF was the first US foundation to require the stimulating effect of matching local grants for schools it aided or founded; 2-the first to require state legislation to perpetuate state financial support of its aided schools; 3-the first multimillion dollar foundation recognized as national rather than local; and 4-the first to provide operational flexibility as conditions changed.
96-Other PEF firsts included: 5-the first U.S. foundation to elect trustees from professional and financial circles; 6-the first deliberately to use public relations to foster public acceptance and good will; 7-the first whose executives were former university officials (Barnas Sears of Brown Univ; JLM Curry of Howard College, Ala.); 8-the first to allow its trustees to disband after its job was done and distribute its assets as they saw fit (when dissolved in 1914, PEF assets endowed George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, next to Vanderbilt Univ.; funded education departments of 14 southern universities and colleges; and gave its residue to the Slater Fund for Negro colleges).
97-Historians have written the following on the PEF's influence: 1-Charles William Dabney: [The Aug. 1869 GP-Lee meeting] inspired the Four Conferences on Education in the South from which emerged the Southern Education Board and [John D. Rockefeller's] General Education Board. 2-Abraham Flexner: There was the closest cooperation among, and interlocking officers and trustees of, the PEF, the Southern Education Board, the General Education Board, the Samuel F. Slater Fund, the Anna T. Jeanes Foundation, and the Rosenwald Fund.
98-Historians on the PEF's influence (cont'd): 3-Paul H. Buck: [the PEF was]: a fruitful experiment in harmony and understanding between the sections. 4-Thomas D. Clark: [the PEF] worked as an education leaven. 5-Harvey Wish: no kindness touched the hearts of the Southerners quite so much as Peabody's educational bequest. 6-Jesse Brundage Sears: [the PEF was] the first successful precedent-setting educational foundation. 7-Daniel Coit Gilman: all subsequent foundations adopted the principles Peabody formulated.
99-Franklin's GPCFT's Founders Day Address, Feb. 18, 1955, documented that in their 47-years existence PEF executives and trustees pioneered the heartbeat of American educational philanthropy—using private wealth judiciously and experimentally as a lever to tackle key educational and socio-economic problems, the results if good serving as models for other agencies and governments to emulate. GP's hope and money made this influence possible. In appreciation and to attest to his influence, southern communities have given his name to a score of streets, avenues, elementary and secondary schools, university education buildings, hotels, and at least one park. GP built better than he knew. See: Peabody, George (1795-1869), Named Institutions, Firms, Buildings, Ships, Other Facilities; Music and/or Poems Named for GP.
100-With Franklin's speech given and handsomely printed, with the GP dissertation accepted, graduation followed in Aug. 1956. Through the years we went to teaching posts at the Univ. of Texas, Austin (1957-64); Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman (1964-68); W.Va. Univ. (1968-86), and (after retirement), Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff (1986-89), and Western Carolina Univ., Cullowhee (1989-94).
101-Over the years we did other research, wrote other books, and wrote and published GP articles (listed fully below). We submitted to several publishers "George Peabody, Founder of Modern Philanthropy," (Nashville: George Peabody College for Teachers, 1956), 3 vols, 1,209 pp. These were returned as needing pruning and focus.
George Peabody, a Biography
102-In May 1970, GPCFT Public Relations Director John E. Windrow (1899-1984) brought together prominent New England Peabodys for a Nashville dinner conference at which Franklin spoke. The new Vanderbilt Univ. Press director, in attendance, asked to see a revised GP manuscript. This welcome request threw us into a frenzy of revision. Unexpected but welcome help came from London Athenaeum Club librarian Eileen Stiff's friend, Margaret Leland Goldsmith, a professional writer. She and Eileen had befriended us through the years. Margaret's editorial suggestions helped turn the dissertation into a readable 233 page book.
103-Thus, 14 years after completing the GP dissertation, Franklin Parker's George Peabody, a Biography (Nashville: Vanderbilt Univ. Press, 1971), was published. Twenty-four years later, for GP's 200th birthday, Feb. 18, 1795-1995, a revised and updated version was republished with 12 illustrations added. Earlier, also for GP's 200th birthday, our 22 previously published GP articles were reprinted in a special bicentennial issue, "The Legacy of George Peabody," Peabody Journal of Education, Fall 1994, 210 pp.
GP's Motives
104-We long pondered GP's philanthropic motives, strengths, weaknesses, and especially why he is he so little known today. His chief motive may have been his 1852 motto: "Education, a debt due from present to future generations." His motive may also have been to compensate for his own lack of formal education.
105-In 1831 he replied to a nephew who asked his financial help to attend Yale College (GP's underlining): "Deprived, as I was, of the opportunity of obtaining anything more than the most common education, I am well qualified to estimate its value by the disadvantages I labour under in the society [in] which my business and situation in life frequently throws me, and willingly would I now give twenty times the expense attending a good education could I now possess it, but it is now too late for me to learn and I can only do to those who come under my care, as I could have wished circumstances had permitted others to have done by me."
106-His motive may been simply to succeed. He said in an 1856 speech: "Heaven has been pleased to reward my efforts with success, and has permitted me to establish a house in the great metropolis of England. I have endeavored to make it an American house, to give it an American atmosphere, to furnish it with American journals; to make it a center for American news, and an agreeable place for my friends visiting London."
107-His motive may have been to gain honors, so abundant in his last years. After death he was elected to the New York Univ. Hall of Fame in 1900, where a bust of him was unveiled in 1926. His likeness was put on a large bronze door intended for the U.S. Capitol Building. Bicentennial programs were held on the 200th anniversary of his birth (1795-1995) at Harvard, Yale, in Nashville; in Danvers and in Peabody, Mass.; at the PIB; and at Westminster Abbey, England, where the marker at his temporary grave was refurbished.
108-Disappointment in love may have driven him. Late in life a business friend congratulated him on being the greatest philanthropist of his time. GP reportedly replied, "After my disappointment long ago, I determined to devote myself to my fellow-beings, and am carrying out that decision to my best ability."
109-This "disappointment" may have been an early failed romance with Elizabeth Knox of Baltimore to whom he is said to have proposed twice. There is also a documented broken engagement to Esther Elizabeth Hoppin (1819-1905) of Providence, R.I. She visited London for young Queen Victoria's coronation (June 28, 1838). As a school girl she had earlier been infatuated with Alexander Lardner in Philadelphia. GP met her in London, fell in love, and proposed marriage. Returning to the U.S. she again met Lardner, realized her engagement to GP was a mistake, broke their engagement, married Lardner, had two children, and outlived GP by 35 years. Her portrait painted in Philadelphia by artist Thomas Sully shows her in all her beauty.
GP's Strengths
110-We long pondered GP's strengths. On this point his first partner Elisha Riggs, Sr. wrote in his last letter to GP (April 17, 1852): "You always had the faculty of an extraordinary memory and strong mind which enabled you to carry out your plans better than almost any other man I ever knew.... [To] these happy faculties I attribute much of your prosperity. [Unusual] perseverance enabled you to rise to an extraordinary position..." See: Riggs, Elisha, Sr.
111-Economic historian Muriel E. Hidy's wrote thus of GP's strengths: "He [GP] had a vigorous personality, and, in spite of a humble origin, apparently found little difficulty in moving in prominent circles. An ability to attract firm friends among his business contemporaries gave him many useful connections....He benefited by the confidence which as a young man he had awakened in Elisha Riggs [Sr.]. Later his amiability brought him close association with "[leading U.S. business men: William Shepard Wetmore, John Cryder, and Curtis Miranda Lampson, and William Wilson Corcoran….]." See: persons named.
112-John Bright, British statesman, wrote in his diary (June 4, 1867): "Mr. Peabody is a remarkable man. He is 74 years old, large and has been powerful of frame. He has made an enormous fortune, which he is giving for good objects--chiefly for education in America and for useful purposes in London. He has had almost no schooling and has not read books, but has had much experience, and is deeply versed in questions of commerce and banking. He is a man of strong will, and can decide questions for himself." See: John Bright.
Old Age Irritations
113-We also pondered his faults. Gout, rheumatism, and other ailments in old age sometimes made him irritable, crotchety, and abrupt. On July 14, 1869, four months before his death, he complained irritably to the trustees of his first Peabody Institute, Peabody, Mass.: "You spend too much. You spend too much." Soon brightening he said smilingly, "Well, well, I must give you $50,000 more to get you out of trouble. And I must say that none of my foundations have given me so much satisfaction as this one at my native place."
114-In his last decade he was incredible busy looking after his philanthropies and seeing friends and relatives. He was also set in his ways. The daughter of a business friend wrote of his autocracy in old age during his 1866-67 U.S. visit.: 'The precision of business habits and a long old bachelor hood, combined with constitutional shyness, caused Mr. Peabody, at times, to appear to disadvantage…. He had himself accomplished so much that he felt [his] wishes…should become instantaneous facts--his small due from those around him….. [T]he ruthless serenity with which [he] countermanded luncheon and advanced the dinner hour to meet business exigencies…dismay[ed]…the hearts of the most devoted hostesses. I do not suppose Mr. Peabody ever thought of giving trouble, and certainly no one ever thought of remonstrating."
Fleeting Fame
115-Mostly we pondered why GP, so lauded in his last years, has been largely forgotten. This may be due to the fleeting nature of fame. Each generation chooses its heroes who rise, flourish, are replaced, and often forgotten. This view is suggested by historian John Steele Gordon whose article, "Most Underrated Philanthropist," American Heritage, Vol. 50, No. 3 (May-June 1999), pp. 68-69 reads in part: "Peabody is unjustly forgotten today, but his unprecedented generosity was greatly appreciated in his time."
Grand Adventure
116-As researchers, looking back, we marvel at the good fortune, helpful people, and unusual turning points that enabled us to find and pursue a neglected American hero. We were 1930s depression children, the first in our families enabled to attend college in the booming aftermath of World War II that ended and altered so many lives.
117-Newly married, without children, seeking challenges--when the GP research opportunity fell our way, we saw he was worth pursuing. We were uncertain innocents, willing to take risks. We made mistakes and were often rescued by friends and fate. In retrospect being "On the Trail of GP" intermittently over the last 50 years has been a grand adventure.
Authors' Publications on GP
Dissertation
Franklin Parker, Ed. D. Dissertation, "George Peabody, Founder of Modern Philanthropy," (Nashville: George Peabody College for Teachers, 1956), 3 vols., 1219 pp. Sold as Doctoral Dissertation No. 19,758, microfilm or hard copy, University Microfilms, 300 N. Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 (Phone 1-800-521-0600 or 313-761-4700, FAX 313-973-1540). See: Dissertation Abstracts, XVII, No. 8 (Aug. 1957), pp. 1701-1702.
Books
1-Franklin Parker, George Peabody, A Biography. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1971, 233 pp. Although out of print 1-there is a microform reprint in CORE [Collected Original Resources in Education], IX, 3 [Nov. 1985], Fiche 7 D10 (CORE is a British miroform journal) and 2-microfilm & print versions were also sold by Books on Demand, University Microfilms, 300 N. Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346 [ask for LC79-15,7741, O-8357-3261-4,2039482]). The 1971 version was recorded on 2 audio cassettes, read by narrator Bruce Bortz at the Maryland State Library, held by the Maryland State Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Book Number Md-PH (MDC334), less Chap. 25 "GP’s Legacy"; "An Essay on Sources"; "Sources of Extant Portraits, Photographs, and Illustrations;" and without the Index.
2-Franklin Parker, George Peabody, A Biography. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, Feb. 1995, 278 pp., revised & updated (out of print since Jan. 2002 but still avilable amazon.com and other major booksellers).
Encyclopedias
1-(With Betty J. Parker), "Peabody Education Fund in Tennessee (1867-1914)." Tennessee Encyclopedia of History & Culture (Nashville: Tennessee Historical Society, 1998), pp. 725-726.
2-Franklin Parker, "George Peabody (1795-1869), Merchant, Banker, Creator of the Peabody Education Fund, and a Founder of Modern Philanthropy," Encyclopedia of Notable American Philanthropists, ed. by Robert T. Grimm, Jr. (Greenwood Press & Oryx Press for Indiana Univ. Center for Philanthropy in the U.S., 2003), pp. 242-246.
3-Franklin Parker, "George Peabody (1795-1869)," Encyclopedia of Philanthropy in the United States. Edited by Dwight Burlingame (Greenwood Press and Oryx Press, for Indiana Univ. Center on Philanthropy, 2003), pp. ?-?.
Journal Issue
Franklin Parker, "Legacy of George Peabody: Special Bicentenary Issue" [reprint of 21 articles], Peabody Journal of Education, LXX, No. l (Fall 1994), 210 pp., published as ISBN: 0805898956, by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, sold by Peabody Journal of Education, Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, 113 Payne Hall, Post Office Box 41, Nashville, Tenn. 37203, Phone: (615) 322-8963. $15 for individuals, $8 each for 40+ copies. Also sold at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/ Price: £14, paperback , 216 pages (1996).
Pamphlet
Franklin Parker, George Peabody (1795-1869), Founder of Modern Philanthropy. Nashville, Tenn.: George Peabody College for Teachers of Vanderbilt University, 1956.
Chapter in Book
Franklin Parker, "George Peabody (1795-1869), Founder of Modern Educational Philanthropy: His Contributions to Higher Education," pp. 71-99 in Academic Profiles in Higher Education. Edited by James J. Van Patten. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1992.
Articles in Journals, Since 1955
1-"Founder Paid Debt to Education," Peabody Post, VIII, No. 8 (Feb. 10, 1955), p. 1.
2-"The Girl George Peabody Almost Married," Peabody Reflector, XXVII, No. 8 (Oct. 1955), pp. 215, 224-225.
3-"George Peabody and the Spirit of America," Peabody Reflector, XXIX, No. 2 (Feb. 1956), pp. 26-27.
4-"On the Trail of George Peabody," Berea Alumnus, XXVI, No. 8 (May 1956), p. 4.
5-(With Walter Merrill), "William Lloyd Garrison and George Peabody," Essex Institute Historical Collections, XCV, No. 1 (Jan. 1959), pp. 1-20.
6-"George Peabody and Maryland," Peabody of Journal of Education, XXXVII, No. 3 (Nov. 1959), pp. 150-157.
7-"An Approach to Peabody's Gifts and Legacies," Essex Institute Historical Collections, XCVI, No. 4 (Oct. 1960), pp. 291-296.
8-"Robert E. Lee, George Peabody, and Sectional Reunion," Peabody Journal of Education, XXXVII, No. 4 (Jan. 1960), pp. 195-202.
9-"George Peabody and the Search for Sir John Franklin, 1852-1854," American Neptune, XX, No. 2 (April 1960), pp. 104-111.
10-"Influences on the Founder of the Johns Hopkins University and the Johns Hopkins Hospital," Bulletin of the History of MedicineXXXIV, No. 2 (March-April 1960), pp. 148-153.
11-"George Peabody's Influence on Southern Educational Philanthropy," Tennessee Historical Quarterly, XX, No. 2 (March 1961), pp. 65-74.
12-"Maryland's Yankee Friend--George Peabody, Esq.," Maryland Teacher, XX, No. 5 (Jan. 1963), pp. 6-7, 24. Reprinted in Peabody Notes (Spring 1963), pp. 4-7, 10.
13-"The Funeral of George Peabody," Essex Institute Historical Collection, XCIX, No. 2 (April 1963), pp. 67-87. Reprinted: Peabody Journal of Education, XLIV, No. 1 (July 1966), pp. 21-36.
14-"The Girl George Peabody Almost Married," Peabody Notes, XVII, No. 3 (Spring 1964), pp. 10-14.
15-"George Peabody, 1795-1869, Founder of Modern Philanthropy," Peabody Reflector, XXXVIII, No. I (Jan.-Feb. 1965), pp. 9-16.
16-"George Peabody and the Peabody Museum of Salem," Curator, X, No. 2 (June 1967), pp. 137-153.
17-"To Live Fulfilled: George Peabody, 1795-1869, Founder of George Peabody College for Teachers," Peabody Reflector, XLIII, No. 2 (Spring 1970), pp. 50-53.
18-"On the Trail of George Peabody," mn, XLIV, No. 4 (Fall 1971), pp. 100-103.
19-"George Peabody, 1795-1869: His Influence on Educational Philanthropy," Peabody Journal of Education, XLIX, No. 2 (Jan. 1972), pp. 138-145.
20-"Pantheon of Philanthropy: George Peabody," National Society of Fund Raisers Journal, I, No. 1 (Dec. 1976), pp. 16-20.
21-"In Praise of George Peabody, 1795-1869," CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XV, No. 2 (June 1991), Fiche 5 AO2.
22-"George Peabody (1795-1869), Founder of Modern Educational Philanthropy: His Contributions to Higher Education," CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XVI, No. 1 (March 1992), Fiche 11 D06.
23-"Education Philanthropist George Peabody (1795-1869), Founder of George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, and the Peabody Library and Conservatory of Music, Baltimore (Brief History)." CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XVIII, No. 1 (March 1994), Fiche ?. Abstract in Resources in Education.
24-(With Betty J. Parker), "George Peabody's (1795-1869) Educational Legacy," CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XVIII, No. 1 (March 1994), Fiche 1 C05. Abstract in Resources in Education, XXIX, No. 9 (Sept. 1994), p. 147 (ERIC ED 369 720). (Note: Resources in Education abstracts documents published in ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) since 1966 by the U.S. Department of Education, sold in microform in hard copy).
25-(With Betty J. Parker), "Educational Philanthropist George Peabody (1795-1869), George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, and the Peabody Library and Conservatory of Music, Baltimore (Brief History)," CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XVIII, No. 1 (March 1994), Fiche 3 A10. Abstract in Resources in Education, XXX, No. 5 (May 1995), pp. 133-134 (ERIC ED 378 070). Same in Journal of Educational Philosophy & History, XLIV (1994), pp. 69-93.
26-"Educational Philanthropist George Peabody (1795-1869): Photos and Related Illustrations in Printed Sources and Depositories," CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XVIII, No. 2 (June 1994), Fiche 1 D1Z; abstract in Resources in Education, XXX, No. 6 (June 1995), p. 149 (ERIC ED 397 179).
27-"The Legacy of George Peabody: Special Bicentenary Issue" [reprints 22 article on George Peabody], Peabody Journal of Education, LXX, No. 1 (Fall 1994), 210 pp.
28-"Educational Philanthropist George Peabody and Peabody College of Vanderbilt University: Dialogue with Bibliography," CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XVIII, No. 3 (Dec. 1994), Fiche 2 E06.
29-(With Betty J. Parker). "A Forgotten Hero's Birthday [George Peabody]: Lion and the Lamb," Crossville Chronicle, (Tenn.) Feb. 22, 1995, p. 4A.
30-(With Betty J. Parker). "America's Forgotten Educational Philanthropist: A Bicentennial View," CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XIX, No. 1 (March 1995), Fiche 7 A11. Abstract in Resources in Education, XXXI, No. 12 (Dec. 1996), p. 161 (ERIC ED 398 126).
31-(With Betty J. Parker). "Educational Philanthropist George Peabody (1795-1869) and the Peabody Institute Library, Danvers, Massachusetts: Dialogue and Chronology," CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XIX, No. 1 (March 1995), Fiche 7 B01.
32-(With Betty J. Parker). "George Peabody (1795-1869); Merchant, Banker, Philanthropist," CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XX, No. 1 (March 1996), Fiche 9 B01. Abstract in Resources in Education, XXXI, No. 3 (March 1996), p. 169 (ERIC ED 388 571).
33-(With Betty J. Parker). "On the Trail of Educational Philanthropist George Peabody (1795-1869): A Dialogue." CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XX, No. 3 (Oct. 1996), Fiche 13 B07.
34-(With Betty J. Parker). "Educational Philanthropist George Peabody (1795-1869) and First U.S. Paleontology Prof. Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-1899) at Yale University." CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XXII, No. 1 (March 1998), Fiche 7 A04.
35-(With Betty J. Parker). "Educational Philanthropist George Peabody (1795-1869) and U.S.-British Relations, 1850s-60s." CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), XXII, No. 1 (March 1999), Fiche 1 A05. Also abstract in Resources in Education, XXXV, No. 6 (May 2000), p. ? (ERIC ED 436 444).
36-(With Betty J. Parker). "Educational Philanthropist George Peabody's (1795-1869) Death and Funeral." CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education) and Abstract in Resources in Education (ERIC ED). Accepted and to appear soon.
37-(With Betty J. Parker). "George Peabody A-Z," CORE (Collected Original Resources in Education), Vol. 23, No. 3 (Oct. 1999), Fiche 11 C10.
38-(With Betty J. Parker). "U.S. Medical Education Reformers Abraham Flexner (1866-1959) and Simon Flexner (1863-1946) ." Abstract in Resources in Education, XXXVI, No. 1 (Jan. 2001), p. 160 (ERIC ED 443 765).
39-(With Betty J. Parker). "General Robert E. Lee (1807-70) and Philanthropist George Peabody (1795-1869) at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, July 23-Aug. 30, 1869." Abstract in Resources in Education, XXXVI, No. 2 (Feb. 2001), p. 184 (ERIC ED 449 17).
40-(With Betty J. Parker). "Forgotten George Peabody (1795-1869); Massachusetts-born Merchant, London-based Banker, Philanthropist. His Life, Influence, and Related People, Places, Events: A Handbook," 1243 pp. Abstract in Resources in Education, Vol. XXXVI, No. 3 (March 2001), p. 122 (ERIC ED 445 998).
Overview of GP's Life and Career
(While this A to Z handbook arrangement focuses on specific persons, events, and influences--some readers might like to first read the following selected entries which collectively offer an overview of GP's life and career):
1-Proctor, Sylvester (1769-1852) describes GP's youth and apprenticeship in Proctor's general store in Danvers (later South Danvers, later Peabody), Mass.
2-Riggs, Elisha, Sr. (1779-1853), Md. merchant, and GP's first senior partner, describes GP's early career as a dry goods importer and wholesaler merchant in the U.S. South, with 5 buying trips to Europe.
3-Bradford Academy, Mass., where GP paid for the education of his siblings, nephews, nieces, and cousins, including his same-named nephew (George Peabody, 1815-32), to whom GP's expressed profound regret at his own lack of schooling is a key to his later philanthropy.
4-Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell (1799-1879), GP's sister who knew him intimately and disbursed his family funds for him.
5-Corcoran, William Wilson (1798-1888), business associate and close personal friend through whom is told GP's rise as a London-based American banker.
6-Hidy, Muriel Emmie (1906-), who chronicled his business career as a 19th century merchant in international trade.
7-Morgan, Junius Spencer (1813-90), Conn.-born merchant who GP took as partner, through whom GP's banking career can be read.
8-Morgan, John Pierpont, Sr. (1837-1913), J.S. Morgan's son, who at age 19 began as NYC agent for George Peabody & Co., London, and became a banking colossus (GP laid the foundation of the House of Morgan).
9-Dinners, GP's, London (1850s), showing his social emergence and his U.S.-British friendship efforts.
10-PIB (1857), an early multicultural center which presaged such later institutes as Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center and NYC's Lincoln Center, and whose early conflicts amid Civil War dislocations so worried GP.
11-Peabody Homes of London (1862), his largest and most financially successful gift to affordably house London's poor.
12-PEF (1867), the philanthropic gift he said was closest to his heart, through which he hoped through public education to help elevate the defeated South and make the nation whole.
13-Kenin, Richard (1947-), who wrote perceptively of GP's London years, hopes, dreams, and accomplishments.
14-Moran, Benjamin (1820-86), overworked, underpaid, and envious U.S. Legation in London secty. who, in his secret journal castigated GP (and others) until, attending GP's Dec. 11, 1869, Westminster Abbey funeral service, he wrote an eloquent tribute to GP.
15-Civil War and GP describes his misunderstood role in that conflict.
16-Quotations by and about GP contains insights into his life, career, faults, and virtues.
17-Death and Funeral, GP's, has a full account of his unprecedented 96-day transatlantic funeral and why it was used to ease near-war U.S.-British angers over the Trent Affair and the Alabama Claims.
Entries (in alphabetical order)
(Entries are