10 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
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 the authors’ related George Peabody publications. Note: To read on your computer Franklin Parker’s out-of-print George Peabody, A Biography, 1995, as a free Google E-book copy and paste on your browser: http://books.google.com/books?id=OPIbk-ZPnF4C&pg=PP1&lpg=PR4&dq=Franklin+Parker,+George+Peabody,+a+Biography&output=html&sig=6R8ZoKwN1B36wtCSePijnLaYJS8
Background: Why these 1 to 14 blogs on George Peabody? The authors attended George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville (renamed Peabody College of Vanderbilt Univ. July 1, 1979). Franklin Parker’s doctoral dissertation, “George Peabody, Founder of Modern Philanthropy,” 1956, has been an ongoing research and writing interest for over 50 years. The authors’ intent is to perpetuate public memory of him.
George Peabody, now largely forgotten by scholars and the public, was significant as: 1-a Massachusetts-born merchant in the U.S. South, beginning as junior partner in Riggs, Peabody & Co. (1814-29); then head of Peabody, Riggs & Co. (1829-43), importing dry goods and other commodities worldwide for sale to U.S. wholesalers. He transformed himself from merchant into: 2-a London-based merchant-banker, George Peabody & Co. (1838-64), which helped finance 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 a root of the JP Morgan international banking firm.
Merchant-turned-banker George Peabody finally became: 3-the best known U.S. 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), a 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. HTML symbols are intended for blogging (ignore). This 10 of 14 blogs covers alphabetically: Salem Village, Mass. to U.S. Ministers. 3.
Salem Village, Mass., first called Brooksby (1626), became known as Salem Village, and then Danvers (1752-1855), then South Danvers (1855-68), and since April 13, 1868, Peabody, Mass. See: Peabody, Mass.
London Times Editor
Sampson, Marmaduke Blake (d.1876). 1-London Times Editor. Marmaduke Blake Sampson was an accomplished classical scholar, had been secretary of the treasury committee of the Bank of England, was city editor of the London Times for 30 years, and wrote its financial columns (1854-74). He was present at GP's July 4, 1854, dinner at the Star and Garter at Richmond near London, at which super patriot U.S. London Legation Secty. Daniel Edgar Sickles (1819-1914) walked out in anger because GP toasted Queen Victoria before toasting the U.S. President. GP consulted with M.B. Sampson during the subsequent charge and countercharge in letters to newspapers over the incident. Ref.:(Blake mentioned): Wallace and Gillespie, eds., II, pp. 896 (footnote 8), 1110-1111, ff. See: Dinners, GP's, London. Peabody Homes of London. Sickles, Daniel Edgar.
Sampson, M.B. 2-Attended July 9, 1858, Dinner. M.B. Sampson was also the only Englishman who attended GP's July 9, 1858, banquet at the Crystal Palace, London, for 50 Americans, including U.S. Minister to Britain George Mifflin Dallas (1792-1864) and family and John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870). M.B. Sampson is also mentioned in connection with the public announcement of GP's March 12, 1862, Peabody Donation Fund letter founding the Peabody Homes of London. Ref.: Ibid.
Trent Affair
San Jacinto (ship). 1-British Trent Illegally Stopped. On Nov. 8, 1861, Union warship San Jacinto under Capt. Charles Wilkes (1798-1877) fired shots that stopped the British mail packet Trent in the West Indies Bahama Channel. Four Confederate emissaries were illegally and forcibly removed from the Trent and taken to Boston Harbor's Fort Warren prison. They were James Murray Mason (1798-1871) of Va. and his male secretary, seeking recognition, aid, and arms from England; and John Slidell (1793-1871) of La. and his male secretary (George Eustice, 1828-72, from La.), seeking aid and arms from France. See: Trent Affair.
San Jacinto. 2-Affected News of Peabody Homes of London Gift. Their seizure created exultation in the U.S. North but anger and near-war preparations by Britain. Bad feelings lasted well into 1862, affecting GP in London who, with his advisors and trustees, delayed until March 12, 1862, announcement of the Peabody Donation Fund, a $2.5 million (total, 1862-69) gift for apartments for London's working poor. Ref.: Ibid.
San Jacinto. 3-Mrs. Louise Morris (née Corcoran) Eustice. Another GP-Trent connection was with Slidell's secretary George Eustice, married to Louise Morris Corcoran (1838-67), only daughter of GP's longtime business associate William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888) of Washington, D.C. She was a favorite of GP, who had entertained Corcoran and his daughter, sometimes the daughter alone, on European trips. She was on the Trent when her husband was illegally removed. When she reached England, GP's partner in George Peabody & Co., Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-90), called on her to see after her welfare. U.S. jingoism calmed. Pres. Lincoln's cabinet met Dec. 26, 1861, disavowed Capt. Wilkes's action, and the four Confederates were released Jan. 1, 1862. Ref.: Ibid. See: persons named.
GP In Rome
San Spirito Hospital, Rome, Italy. 1-In Rome. GP gave a $19,300 gift to San Spirito Hospital, a Vatican charitable hospital, Rome, Italy, during Feb. 24-28, 1868. He was in Rome, Italy, with philanthropic advisor Robert Charles Winthrop (1809-94), Feb. 19-28, 1868, for sittings in U.S. sculptor William Wetmore Story's (1819-95) studio for the GP seated statue Story was preparing for placement on Threadneedle St., near the Royal Exchange (unveiled July 23, 1869, by the Prince of Wales).
San Spirito Hospital, Rome, Italy. 2-Visit with the Pope. About Feb. 24-25, 1868, GP and Winthrop, accompanied by former Secty. of the U.S. Legation in Rome Mr. Hooker (who arranged the visit), had an audience with Pope Pius IX (Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, 1792-1878, Pope during 1846-78). It was GP's only audience with the Pope and Winthrop's second audience (Winthrop's first audience with the Pope, 1860). Cornell Univ. Pres. Andrew Dickson White (1832-1918) heard from sculptor W.W. Story that Winthrop introduced GP to the Pope "as a gentleman who though unmarried, had hundreds of children; whereupon the Pope, taking him literally, held up his hands and answered, 'Fi donc! Fi donc!" (French expression of disapproval). Ref.: Ibid.
San Spirito Hospital, Rome, Italy. 3-Charitable Hospital Gift. Leaving the Pope, Mr. Hooker introduced GP and Winthrop to Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli (1806-76). The conversation turned to the hospital of San Spirito among other charitable institutions in Rome. When GP reached his room that night (about Feb. 24-25, 1868), he sent the cardinal a contribution. GP left Rome Feb. 27, 1868, for Genoa, then went by boat to Nice, France, arriving March 3, 1868, where Baltimore friend John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870) briefly visited him (Kennedy was on his way to Rome). Ref.: Ibid.
San Spirito Hospital, Rome, Italy. 4-To Cannes & Paris. GP then went to Cannes, France, March 16, 1868, to visit George Eustis (1828-72), William Wilson Corcoran's son-in-law (Corcoran's only daughter Louise Morris née Corcoran Eustis died Dec. 4, 1867, leaving him and their three children). GP, accompanied by Winthrop, then went to Paris about March 16, where they were received by Napoleon III (1808-73) and Empress Eugénie (1826-1920). Ref.: Ibid. See: persons named.
San Spirito Hospital, Rome, Italy. 5-False Report of GP Statue in Rome. GP's visit to Rome, audience with the Pope, and gift to the San Spirito Hospital may have been the basis for a short item from Rome in the vast publicity on GP's death (Nov. 4, 1869) and transatlantic funeral: "A statue of Mr. Peabody is to be erected at Rome by order of the Pope." No GP statue in Rome ever materialized. Ref.: Ibid.
Carl Sandburg
Sandburg, Carl (1878-1967). 1-"poor boys who have become rich." Carl Sandburg was a U.S. poet (The People, Yes, 1936) and biographer of Abraham Lincoln, six volumes, 1926-39. His autobiographical Always the Young Strangers, 1953, tells of his first reading about GP in a small vest pocket booklet series titled "Packed in Duke's Cigarettes." As a schoolboy growing up in Galesburg, Ill. (about 1890), walking to school he picked up a smudged booklet (2" & 3/4 " long by l" & 1'/2 " wide), brushed off the dirt, and saw its title, A Short History of General P.T. Beauregard, part of a "Series of Small Books." Ref.: Sandburg-b, pp. 260, 262-263, 269.
Sandburg, Carl. 2-"poor boys who have become rich" Cont'd. Fascinated with it, he found adults who smoked that brand. One adult agreed to give him the booklet inserts. He collected this series, read and swapped them with other boy collectors. Sandburg was charmed by the Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of a series of 50 on the lives of "poor boys who have become rich." Proud of his vest pocket library, the future poet and biographer reflected on his remembrance on reading the booklet on GP. Ref.: Ibid.
Sandburg, Carl. 3-On First Reading About GP. Sandburg remembered that: "On the back of another book was a bare-shouldered woman worth looking at, one breast bare, and she held a shining green wreath and a banner that read above her 'Charity' and below 'George Peabody, a Philanthropist.' It was what we called a 'jawbreaker,' the word 'Philanthropist,' but the book made it clear. 'During his long life he not only gave away millions of dollars but he placed his great wealth where it would do the most good.'" Ref.: Ibid.
Sandburg, Carl. 4-On First Reading About GP Cont'd. "After making one fortune in America in the grocery and dry-goods business he went to London as a banker and made a bigger fortune. For all of his money he didn't marry and the book said: 'The story is told that a young American girl who had refused him in the day when money was scarce married one of his friends, whereupon Peabody resolved to remain single --a resolve which he faithfully kept." Ref.: Ibid.
Sandburg, Carl. 5-On First Reading About GP Cont'd. "I wanted to know more about that girl and how her husband did by her and what they talked about when George Peabody threw a million dollars to Baltimore for a free library, lecture hall, academy of music, and an art gallery--and later when he put three millions into tearing away tumbledown shanties in the London slums and building brick houses with a little grass around for children to play on--and later when he put another three million dollars into better schools for Negro children of the South." Ref.: Ibid.
Sandburg, Carl. 6-On First Reading About GP Cont'd. "The Queen of England wanted to give Peabody a title. He thanked her, said he could get along without it, and went home to Baltimore, where twenty thousand children met him and waved their hands and their handkerchiefs and he said, 'Never have I seen a more beautiful sight.' I wondered if the girl who had refused him was anywhere among the thousands of grownups looking on. On the front cover Mr. Peabody's white hair fell over his ears, and with his white side whiskers he reminded me of one of our Lutheran deacons." Ref.: Ibid.
Sandburg, Carl. 7-Criticism of GP. Not withstanding his boyhood admiration of GP, in his Pulitzer prize Abraham Lincoln, The War Years (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1939), III, pp. 124-125, Carl Sandburg repeated unsubstantiated charges against GP as a Confederate sympathizer in the Civil War. Such charges had first been made in 1862, without substantial evidence by John Bigelow (1817-1911), U.S. Consul General in Paris; repeated by Samuel Bowles (1826-78), editor of the Springfield Daily Republican (Springfield, Mass.), Oct. 27, 1866; by Gustavus Myers (1872-1942) in History of the Great American Fortunes, 1910, rev. 1936; by Matthew Josephson (1899-1978) in The Robber Barons (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1934 and 1962), p. 60; and by Leland DeWitt Baldwin in The Stream of American History (New York: American Book Co., 1952), II, p. 121. See: Civil War and GP. See: Felt, Charles Wilson. For defense of GP as Union supporter, see McIlvaine, Charles Pettit. "S.P.Q." Weed, Thurlow.
Sandburg, Carl. 8-Criticism of GP Cont'd. (Sandburg wrote): "Of the international bankers Peabody & Morgan, sturdy Samuel Bowles said in the Springfield [Mass.] Republican that their agencies in New York and London had induced during the war a flight of capital from America." Sandburg then quoted Bowles: '"They gave us no faith and no help in our struggle for national existence.... No individuals contributed so much to flooding the money markets with evidence of our debts to Europe, and breaking down their prices and weakening financial confidence in our nationality, and none made more money by the operation.'" Ref.: Ibid.
Great Exhibition of 1851, London (first world's fair)
Sands, Joshua Ratoon (1795-1884). 1-GP's Timely Loan. Joshua R. Sands was the U.S. Navy officer commanding the frigate St. Lawrence authorized by the U.S. Congress to transport U.S. exhibitors and their exhibits to the Great Exhibition of 1851, London, the first world's fair. The St. Lawrence left NYC Feb. 8, 1851, arrived in Southampton, March 1851, when a lack of funds led to a crisis. Congress had neglected to appropriate funds to transfer the exhibits and adorn the Crystal Palace exhibition area. The British press ridiculed American pretensions. A New York Times writer later recorded: "The whole affair looked like a disgraceful failure. At this juncture Mr. Geo. Peabody, of whom not one exhibitor in twenty had ever heard, and who was personally unknown to every member of the Commission, offered through a polite note addressed to Mr. [Abbott] Lawrence [1792-1855, U.S. Minister to Britain] to advance £3,000 [$15,000] on the personal responsibility of [U.S. Commissioner] Mr. [Edward W.] Riddle and his secretary, Mr. [Nathaniel Shattwell] Dodge [1810-74]. This loan, afterward [three years later re]paid by Congress, relieved the Commission of its difficulties, and enabled our countrymen to achieve their first success in industrial competition with the artisans and manufacturers of Europe." See: Great Exhibition of 1851, London (first world's fair).
Sands, J.R.. 2-Career. U.S. Navy officer Sands was born in Brooklyn, NY, May 13, 1795. He was appointed midshipman in the U.S. Navy (June 18, 1812), served in the War of 1812 on Lake Ontario, saw action against the Royal George; served on the Madison (April 1813), took part in the capture of Toronto and the capture of Fort George. He was attached to the Pike, and served on shore (1814), on the frigate Superior, was attached to the Washington in the Mediterranean (1815–18), was promoted lieutenant (April 1, 1818), served on the Hornet off the coast of Africa, in the West Indies (1819), on the Franklin on the Pacific coast (1821–24), on the Vandalia near Brazil (1828–30), was on recruiting duty (1830–40), was promoted Commander (Feb. 23, 1841), served at the NYC navy yard (1841–43), commanded the Falmouth in the Gulf and West Indies (1843–45), the Vixen during the Mexican War, took part in the capture of Alverado, Tabasco and Laguna, and was made governor of Laguna. He participated in the attack on Vera Cruz; assisted in the capture of Tampico and Tuspan (1847) and served in other actions. Ref.: Internet, "Sands, Joshua Ratoon [1795-1884], http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~dav4is/people/SAND320.htm
Sands, J.R.. 3-Career (Cont'd.). After taking the frigate St. Lawrence to the Great Exhibition of London, 1851, he took it to Portugal that year, was promoted Captain (Feb. 25, 1854), commanded the Susquehanna in Central America, in the Mediterranean, and in England (1856), was engaged in laying the Atlantic Cable (1857), served in Central America, commanded the Brazilian squadron on the flagship Congress (1859–61), retired (Dec. 21, 1861), was promoted commodore on the retired list (July 16, 1862), and made rear admiral (July 25, 1866). He served as light-house inspector on Lakes Erie and Ontario and the St. Lawrence River (1862–66), and was port-admiral, Norfolk, Va. (1869–72). He died in Baltimore, Md. (Oct. 2, 1883). Ref.: Ibid.
Satterlee, Herbert Livingston (1863-1947), was John Pierpont Morgan Sr.'s (1837-1913) son-in-law and author of Life of J. Pierpont Morgan (New York; privately printed, 1937). For Satterlee's connection with GPCFT Pres. Bruce Ryburn Payne (1874-1937), See: Payne, Bruce Ryburn. PCofVU. Conkin, Peabody College, index.
Scarritt College for Christian Workers, Nashville. See: Jean and Alexander Heard Library of Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville. PCofVU, history of. Conkin, Peabody College, index.
Naval Reception for GP's Remains
Schenck, Robert Cumming (1809-90). 1-Opposed U.S. Navy Reception for GP's Remains, Portland, Me. U.S. Rep. Robert Cumming Schenck (Republican-Ohio) on Dec. 21, 1869, objected to U.S. House Resolution No. 96 which asked Pres. U.S. Grant (1822-85) to order a U.S. Navy reception for GP's remains, then aboard HMS Monarch, escorted by USS Plymouth, from Portsmouth, England, to Portland, Me. Rep. Schenck led the opposition to the resolution by moving that the House adjourn to allow time to consider if it should go to this expense. Rep. Daniel Wolsey Voorhees (1827-97, Democrat-Ind.) regretted that a move to adjourn was made, in view of GP's vast gifts to U.S. education and science. Rep. Schenck defended his move to adjourn and challenged GP's patriotism during the Civil War, while some Republican members applauded. See: Death and funeral, GP's.
Schenck, R.C. 2-Resolution Passed. U.S. Rep. Thomas Laurens Jones (1819-87, D-Ky.), who originally introduced U.S. House Resolution No. 96 on Dec. 15, 1869, expressed shame that his proposal to honor GP was being so debated. He mentioned withdrawing the resolution. The House refused to adjourn and, with Rep. Schenck still objecting, passed the resolution that day. It was passed by the U.S. Senate on Dec. 23, 1869, and was signed into law by Pres. Grant on Jan. 10, 1870. Ref.: Ibid.
Schenck, R.C. 3-Career. Rep. R.C. Schenck was born in Franklin, Ohio; graduated from Miami Univ. (1827); taught French and Latin; practiced law in Dayton, Ohio; served in the Ohio legislature (1840); in the U.S. House (1843-51); was U.S. Minister to Brazil (1851-53); was a Union general (1861-63); and a radical Republican in the U.S. House (1863-70). There was a touch of irony when in 1870 U.S. Pres. Grant appointed R.C. Schenck (who opposed a U.S. Naval reception for GP's remains on the Monarch at Portland, Me.) to replace John Lothrop Motley (1814-77) as U.S. Minister to Britain during 1871-76. In that capacity, Schenk was a member of the Joint Commission that arbitrated the Alabama Claims and signed the Treaty of Washington in May 1871 by which Britain paid the U.S. $15.5 million in reparations. Ref.: Ibid. Ref.:(Schenck as Union general): Boatner, p. 725. Ref.:(Schenck as U.S. Minister to Britain): Welch, p. 137.
Elopement that Shocked Queen Victoria
Schenley, Edward W.H. (1798-1878). 1-GP in Pittsburgh, April 14-16, 1857. During GP's Sept. 15, 1856, to Aug. 19, 1857, U.S. visit, his first return from London in nearly 20 years, he stayed in Pittsburgh, Penn., with Capt. and Mrs. Edward W.H. Schenley during April 14-16, 1857, where a reception was held in his honor. GP's connection with the Schenleys, not precisely known, may have had to do with her father's initial displeasure at their scandalous elopement from the U.S. to England in 1842, and the possible use by the later reconciled father of George Peabody & Co.'s service in transferring funds to support the Schenleys in London. Ref. Pittsburgh, Penn., Evening Chronicle, April 14, 1857, p. 1, c. 1-3. See: Visits to the U.S. by GP, 1856-57.
Schenley, E.W.H. 2-Scandalous Elopement. Pittsburgh, Penn., heiress Mary Elizabeth Croghan (1827-1903, pronounced "Crawn") attended Mrs. McLeod's boarding school in Staten Island, N.Y. Miss Croghan was aged 15 when in 1842 British military officer Capt. Edward W.H. Schenley (said to have fought in the Battle of Waterloo, 1815) visited that school to see Mrs. McLeod, his sister-in-law. He at age 43 and Miss Croghan at age 15 met, fell in love, and created a sensation by eloping to England. Ref. Shine, Bernice. "Schenley Park Donated by Girl Whose Romance Shocked a Queen." Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, September 15, 1941, seen July 10, 2002, at http://einpgh.org/exhibit/neighborhoods/oakland/oak_108.html
Schenley, E.W.H. 3-Descendant of Pittsburgh Founders. Mary Elizabeth Croghan, her father's only child and heir to a large fortune, was the maternal granddaughter of Pittsburgh founder and landowner Revolutionary War Quartermaster General James O'Hara (1754-1819). She was also related to Pittsburgh's first mayor (1816) Ebenezer Denny (1761-1822). Her father, William Croghan, Jr. (d. 1850), had a stroke on hearing of the elopement. He recovered and, convinced that Capt. Schenley was a fortune hunter, legally blocked Schenley's access to his daughter's fortune. Other parents with daughters in Mrs. McLeod's school, believing her involved in the elopement, withdrew their daughters, causing its closure. Ref. Ibid.
Schenley, E.W.H. 4-Reconciliation. The Schenleys lived in modest circumstances in London. They were excluded from court functions because Queen Victoria disapproved of the elopement. In time the birth of Schenley children and the family's apparent happiness led her father to relent. He visited them in London, restored her inheritance, and wanted them to return to Pittsburgh. The Schenleys made some prolonged visits to the Croghan mansion in Pittsburgh (including GP's April 14-16, 1857, stay with them) but lived permanently in London. Ref. See under Schenley, Capt. Edward W. H., in Ref.: g. Internet: http://www.wqed.org/tv/pghist/oakland.lhtml (seen July 12, 2002).
Schenley, E.W.H. 5-Schenley Park and other Philanthropies. Mrs. Schenley's philanthropic gifts came from land inherited from her maternal grandfather Gen. James O'Hara. She gave land for Pittsburgh's 456-acre Schenley Park; gave adjacent land for the Pittsburgh Carnegie Public Library and the Western Pennsylvania Institute for the Blind; and a lot for a Newsboys' Home. The proximity to Schenley Park of the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning building and the Carnegie Mellon University make it a significant cultural center. Ref.: Ibid.
Schenley Park, Pittsburgh, Penn. See: Schenley, Edward W.H. (1798-1878) above.
Schlesinger, Arthur M., Sr. (1888-1965), was the Harvard Univ. history professor who suggested GP's contributions to educational philanthropy as a doctoral research topic to Felix Compton Robb (1914-97) when Robb attended Harvard Graduate School of Education. Robb, then a GPCFT administrator (assistant to the president, dean of instruction, president during 1961-66), pursued another topic in education administration. In 1953 when he was Dean of Instruction at GPCFT he suggested the topic to co-author Franklin Parker. See: Robb, Felix Compton.
GP’s Nephew, O.C. Marsh
Schuchert, Charles, and Clara Mae LeVene. 1-Biographers of O.C. Marsh. Charles Schuchert and Clara Mae LeVene were the authors of O. C. Marsh, Pioneer in Paleontology (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1940), biography of Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-99), based on his papers at Yale Univ. GP paid for the education of his nephew Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-99) education at Phillips Academy, Mass., Yale College (B.A., 1860), Yale's Sheffield Scientific School (M.A., 1863), and study abroad at the German universities of Berlin, Heidelberg, and Breslau (1863-65). See: Marsh, Othniel Charles.
Schuchert, Charles, and Clara Mae LeVene. 2-Marsh, First U.S. Paleontology Prof. GP also paid for O.C. Marsh's science library (paleontology) and paid to ship these and fossil specimens (2.5 tons) to New Haven, Conn., where Marsh was the first U.S. professor of paleontology at Yale Univ. and the second such professor in the world. O.C. Marsh influenced GP's founding of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard (Oct. 8, 1866, $150,000), the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale (Oct. 22, 1866, $150,000), and less directly what is now the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass. (Feb. 26, 1867, $140,000). See: Science: GP's Contributions to Science and Science Education (below). Institutions named.
Schuchert, Charles, and Clara Mae LeVene. 3-Authors Worked with O.C. Marsh. Charles Schuchert (1858-1942), O.C. Marsh's biographer, helped Charles Emerson Beecher (1856-1904) prepare fossils at Yale during 1892-93, served on the U.S. Geological Survey (1893-94), was Yale's third paleontology professor (1904-23), taught the history of geology at Yale's Sheffield Scientific School, and was geological curator at Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History. Schuchert and co-author Clara M. LeVene, Peabody Museum of Yale librarian, both worked with O.C. Marsh and had full access to his papers. Reviewers praised the Schuchert and LeVene biography as "a labor of love." Ref.: Book Review Digest 1941, pp. 815-816. See: persons named.
Schuler, Hans (1874-1951), was the U.S. sculptor, born in Alsace Lorraine, then part of Germany, who was commissioned to create a bust of GP which was unveiled May 12, 1926, at the University Heights site of the Hall of Fame of New York Univ. See: Hall of Fame of New York Univ.
GP's Gifts to Science
Science: GP's Gifts to Science and Science Education. 1-Seven Gifts. GP's seven gifts to science, totaling $551,000, included: 1-The Md. Institute for the Promotion of Mechanic Arts, Baltimore, Oct. 31, 1851, $1,000 for a chemistry laboratory and school. 2-The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard Univ., Cambridge, Mass., Oct. 8, 1866, $150,000 for a museum and professorship of anthropology. 3-The Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale Univ., New Haven, Conn., Oct. 22, 1866, $150,000 for a museum and professorship of paleontology. See: institutions named.
Science: GP's Gifts. 2-Seven Gifts Cont'd. 4-Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., Oct. 30, 1866, $25,000 for a professorship of mathematics and natural science. 5-Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, Nov. 6, 1866, $25,000 for a professorship of mathematics and civil engineering. 6-The Peabody Academy of Science (Feb. 26, 1867 to 1915), $140,000 to promote science in Essex County, Mass., renamed Peabody Museum of Salem (1915-92), and renamed Peabody Essex Museum (since 1992), Salem, Mass. 7-Washington College, renamed Washington and Lee Univ., Lexington, Va., 1871, $60,000 for a professorship of mathematics. Ref.: Ibid.
GP’s Nephew, O.C. Marsh, First U.S. Paleontologist, Yale
Science (O.C. Marsh). 3-Nephew O.C. Marsh. GP's nephew, Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-99), influenced his uncle's gifts to science and science education, particularly the founding of the Peabody Museums of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard (Oct. 8, 1866) and of Natural History at Yale (Oct. 22, 1866), and to a lesser extent the Peabody Academy of Science (Feb. 26, 1867), now the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 4-Family Background. O.C. Marsh was the son of GP's younger sister Mary Gaines (née Peabody) Marsh (1807-34). Mary Gaines was the seventh child born to Thomas Peabody (1761-1811) and Judith (née Dodge) Peabody (1770-1830), who had eight children. GP, third-born and second son, was the enterprising family member who, a few years after his father's death (May 13, 1811), became the family supporter. See: Marsh, Othniel Charles.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 5-Mary Gaines Peabody Married Caleb Marsh. GP paid for his siblings' schooling and their children's schooling. He paid for Mary Gaines to attend Bradford Academy, Bradford, Mass. In 1826 at age 19 she fell in love with 26-year-old Caleb Marsh (b. c1800), who taught school near Bradford, Mass. The Peabody and Marsh families had been neighbors in Danvers, Mass., with the Marshes more affluent. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 6-Caleb Marsh, Farmer, Lockport, N.Y. About to marry Mary Gaines Peabody, Caleb Marsh expected financial or other help from GP. Caleb Marsh wrote to GP, busy traveling for his firm (Riggs, Peabody & Co.), asking help in getting starting in the dry goods business. Aware of pitfalls for beginners, GP discouraged Caleb Marsh. Caleb Marsh then wrote GP asking for a dowry and under what conditions it would be given. GP provided a monetary settlement, with safeguards. Inept in several enterprises and said later "not to be the best of husbands," Caleb Marsh turned to farming in Lockport, N.Y. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 7-Mary Gaines (Peabody) Marsh died Age 27. Mary Gaines (née Peabody) Marsh died of cholera before her 27th birthday after giving birth to her third child, George Marsh, who also died in his first year of life. She left Caleb Marsh a widower with two children: Mary, age five, and Othniel Charles, approaching age three. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 8-Early Years. Caleb lost heart, returned to Mass., remarried, started a shoe factory which failed, and returned with his second wife to his farm near Lockport, N.Y. There, he fathered six more children. Still inept, he squandered some dowry funds GP had given his sister. Ref.: Ibid. Wallace, D.R., pp. 24-25.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 9-Early Interest in Fossils. O.C. Marsh, called "Othy" as a boy, lived sometimes with aunts and uncles, and also with his father and stepmother on the Marsh farm about a mile from Lockport, N.Y., near the recently excavated Erie Canal. The oldest son in a growing family whose stepmother had little time for him, O.C. Marsh, expected by his father to help with farm work, resisted. He preferring to roam, hunt, and search for fossil-rich rocks in nearby Erie Canal excavations. These fossil-rich rocks attracted fossil collectors from far and wide, both professional and amateurs, including Col. Ezekiel Jewett (1791-1877) who, about 1845 when Marsh was about age 14, first turned the boy's interest toward science and paleontology. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 10-Geologist Ezekiel Jewett. Born in Rindge, N.H., Ezekiel Jewett was an ensign in the 11th U.S. Army infantry, War of 1812, under Gen. Winfield Scott (1786-1866). Jewett was later promoted to second lieutenant and was a colonel about 1816 after serving heroically in Chile and other South American insurrections. The crusty soldier of fortune was also an enthusiastic and indefatigable collector of fossil rocks. A fellow geologist described him as: "Invincible in his search and accordingly successful; intelligent, quick of apprehension and understand; [and] exquisitely and effectively profane…." Col. Jewett conducted a summer school in geology in Lockport for several years when he came to young Marsh's attention. Ref.: Ibid., p. 18. Clarke, p. 242.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 11-Ezekiel Jewett Cont'd. Young Marsh first admired Ezekiel Jewett's skill as a rifleman. Marsh later wrote: Col. Jewett was "the best shot in Western New York…. All envied him but I resolved to beat him…. One day I saw him collecting fossils near the locks…. I joined him occasionally…[and] helped him collect, imbibing wisdom with every hour…. Take him all in all he was one [of the] grandest men I have ever met." Ref. O.C. Marsh, "Col. E. Jewett & what he did for me as boy & man," U.S. National Archives, Record Group No. 57, from Archivist Barbara Narendra, Yale Univ.'s Peabody Museum of Natural History.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 12-Ezekiel Jewett Cont'd. Col. Jewett became curator of the N.Y. State Cabinet of Natural History. Young Marsh went on to an erratic schooling at the Collegiate Institute, Wilson, N.Y. (1847-49) and the Lockport Union School (1850) before attending (at uncle GP's expense) Phillips Academy, Andover Mass., where he blossomed as a scholar. Ref. Schuchert and LeVene, pp. 17-18, and Plate III (medallion portrait of Ezekiel Jewett). Clarke, pp. 241-243. Wells, John W., p. 34-39. See: Jewett, Ezekiel. Marsh, Othniel Charles.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 13-Marsh at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. The death of his sister Mary when she was 22 is said to have shocked O.C. Marsh into buckling down to hard private study. At age 21, inheriting $1,200 of his deceased mother's dowry from GP, Marsh enrolled at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. His fellow students, who were in their teens, called Marsh, who was in his early 20s, "Daddy," and "Captain" (he captained the football team), more in respect than ridicule. He soon became an academic achiever and did some summer fossil hunting. A classmate later recalled that O.C. Marsh made “a clean sweep of all" Phillips Academy honors. He also showed a shrewdness in being elected president of a school society in a strategy planned a year ahead. Ref.: Ibid. Wallace, D.R., p. 26.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 14-Marsh at Yale. GP, in London, pleased by good reports of his nephew Marsh's progress from his sister Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell Daniels (1799-1879), helped pay his expenses at Phillips Academy. Learning that young Marsh wanted to attend Yale College, GP agreed to pay for his schooling there. Marsh studied geology under Prof. James Dwight Dana (1813-95) and chemistry under Benjamin Silliman, Jr. (1816-85). Marsh was eighth in his graduating class of 109 students at Yale in 1860 (B.A. degree). With GP's approval and support, O.C. Marsh attended Yale's newly opened (1861) graduate Sheffield Scientific School. In two years he earned the M.A. degree in science (1862), at a cost to GP, according to science historian Bernard Jaffe, of $2,200. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 15-Budding Scholar. In 1861 Marsh wrote a scientific paper read at a Geological Society of London meeting, published in its Transactions, and reprinted in the U.S. and Europe. His summer vacation field work on fossils in Nova Scotia, Canada, brought praise from Harvard zoology Prof. Louis Agassiz (1807-73), world authority on fossil fishes. Agassiz wrote to Prof. Benjamin Silliman, Jr.: "A student from your Scientific School, Mr. Marsh, has shown me today two vertebrae...which has excited my interest in the highest degree." Marsh wrote proudly from Georgetown, Mass., to GP, London, June 9, 1862: "I was so fortunate during one of my vacations as to make a discovery which has already attracted considerable attention among scientific men." Ref.: Ibid.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 16-Marsh Plans German Univ. Study. Weak eyesight kept Marsh from serving in the Civil War. In that same June 9, 1862, letter to GP he added: "If the plan for completing my studies in Germany, which you once so kindly approved, still meets with your approbation, I should like to go in September next [1862]." GP approved and sent Marsh £200 ($1,000). Ref.: Ibid.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 17-Marsh: Ambitious, Eager. Always eager to please his uncle, Marsh was upset by an article his father sent him from the Lockport Journal and Courier, reprinted from a Danvers, Mass., newspaper. He wrote his father that he was "sorry that someone had no more discretion than to preface the notice with some statements which are calculated to do me more injury than...good. The published statement that I am expecting a Professorship at Yale would do not a little towards preventing my getting it. So also that my expenses at College were paid by Uncle George and that he intended to make me his heir, were certainly very injudicious remarks." Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Harvard Gift). 18-Marsh on GP's Intended Harvard Gift. Marsh sailed for Europe in Oct. 1862. GP talked to his nephew in London about his [GP's] intended gift to Harvard Univ. Marsh described these talks in a letter to his mentor, Yale Prof. Benjamin Silliman, Jr. "I had a long talk with Mr. P. in regard to his future plans and donations.... I will tell you confidentially that Harvard will have her usual good fortune. So many of our family have been educated at Harvard that he naturally felt a greater interest in that institution than in Yale, of which I am the only representative." Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Harvard Gift). 19-Marsh on GP's Intended Harvard Gift. Cont'd. "I can assure you, however, that I did [not] allow the claims of my Alma Mater to be forgotten...and I have strong hopes that she may yet be favored although nothing is as yet definitely arranged. The donation to H. [Harvard] is a large one and for a School of Design.... I did not recommend an endowment for a similar object at Yale, partly because I did not feel so much interest in Art as in Science and partly because Mr. P. manifested so much interest in my scientific studies that I thought it not unlikely that he would be more inclined to that department. I did not propose any definite plan..., as I had then none to propose, but shall hope to do so before long as I do not intend to let the matter rest until something definite is decided upon...." Ref.: Ibid.
Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
Science (Harvard Gift). 20-What Gift to Harvard? GP's first gift idea for Harvard in 1861 was an astronomical observatory. He discussed this idea in letters to Francis Peabody (1801-68) of Salem and William Henry Appleton (1814-84) of Boston. The Harvard gift idea was also discussed with former Harvard Pres. Edward Everett (1794-1865). Everett thought Harvard needed a "School of Design" [i.e., art], more than an observatory. GP's Harvard gift idea thus changed from observatory to a School of Design (art) when he spoke to his nephew O.C. Marsh in London in mid-Oct. 1862. Marsh's enthusiasm about science influenced GP, turning his Harvard gift idea toward science, and resulting in the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard (Oct. 8, 1866). Ref.: Ibid. See: persons named.
Science (Yale Hopeful). 21-Science at Yale. O.C. Marsh's letters from Germany evoked special interest among Yale's small band of scientists. By one account, Prof. Silliman, Sr., had years before sounded out GP about aiding science at Yale, but nothing came of it. Now, with O.C. Marsh as a budding Yale scholar, his Yale teachers had renewed hope of GP's aiding science at Yale. Learning that Prof. Silliman, Jr., had worked out with Prof. James Dwight Dana a plan for a possible Peabody Museum at Yale, Marsh wrote on Feb. 16, 1863: "I shall see Mr. P. in the spring or early in the summer, and shall then try to bring the subject before him in a way best suited to ensure its success." See: Marsh, Othniel Charles.
Science (Yale Hopeful). 22-Plan Peabody Museum, Yale. At the Univ. of Berlin, on advice from his Yale mentors, Marsh specialized in vertebrate paleontology. When he met GP in mid-May 1863 in Hamburg, Germany, Marsh was better able to explain to his uncle the need for an endowed museum which would send out expeditions to find ancient animal and human remains and so reconstruct the antecedents and cultural history of man. Marsh told his uncle that Yale's Sheffield Scientific School (founded 1861) had made such a beginning. He laid out Prof. Benjamin Silliman, Jr.'s, plan for a scientific Peabody museum at Yale. Satisfied that it was a sound idea, GP named five trustees: O.C. Marsh, Benjamin Silliman, Sr. and Jr., James Dixon, and James Dwight Dana. Ref.: Ibid.
Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History
Science (Yale Hopeful). 23-Plan Peabody Museum, Yale Cont'd. GP told Marsh that he would soon add a codicil to his will endowing the Yale museum. Marsh wrote jubilantly from Hamburg to Prof. Silliman, Sr., May 25, 1863: "I take great pleasure in announcing to you that Mr. George Peabody has decided to extend his generosity to Yale College, and will leave a legacy of one hundred thousand dollars to promote the interests of Natural Science in that Institution." Marsh added: "Mr. Peabody suggests that the Trustees...decide upon a plan...best adapted to promote the object proposed, and to embody the main features of this plan in a clause to be inserted in his will." Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Yale Hopeful). 24-Plan Peabody Museum, Yale Cont'd. GP also told Marsh in their May 1863 meeting in Hamburg that although he set the amount to Yale at $100,000, he might raise it and that Yale would receive the gift on his death. As it turned out, GP gave the museum gift to Harvard on Oct. 8 and to Yale on Oct. 22, during his May 1, 1866, to May 1, 1867, U.S. visit, raising the amounts to $150,000 each. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Yale Hopeful). 25-Plan Peabody Museum, Yale Cont'd. Prof. Benjamin Silliman, Jr., urged Marsh to collect fossils, books, and scientific papers on paleontology. He explained that doing this would prepare Marsh for a Yale professorship in paleontology and would also make the need for a museum more evident to all. Prof. James Dwight Dana echoed Prof. Silliman, Jr.'s suggestion for Marsh to study further in Germany. Unlike the strong U.S. liberal arts tradition, teaching science was new and suspect after Christian fundamentalists denounced the theory of evolution described in Charles Darwin's Origin of Species (1859). Fundamentalists feared that belief in evolution might supplant belief in divine Biblical revelation. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Yale Hopeful). 26-Yale Professorship for Marsh. Amidst this conflict between science and religion, Yale's small band of scientists saw hope for their science disciplines in GP's intended museum gifts to Harvard and Yale, and particularly in the Morrill Act of 1862. That act provided federal land grants to states' higher education for science and mechanic arts (engineering). The Conn. legislature in 1863 voted to allocate Morrill Act funds to Yale's Sheffield Scientific School. Prof. Dana remarked, "The fact is Yale is going to be largely rebuilt, and all at once! The time of her renaissance has come!!" Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Yale Hopeful). 27-Plan Peabody Museum, Yale Cont'd. July 1863 Marsh, studying at Heidelberg, wrote to GP: "One...result of your [projected] donation to Yale has been to...realize my highest hopes of a position [there].... The faculty propose to create a new Professorship of Geology and Paleontology.... This Professorship...corresponds to that held by the great Agassiz at Harvard." Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Yale Hopeful). 28-Marsh Needed Science Library and Fossil Collection. Marsh explained to his uncle that he needed a library and fossil collection: "Such a library and cabinet...can only be obtained in Europe.... The amount necessary...would be 3 or 4 thousand dollars.... I have felt some hesitation in asking you for this assistance in view of all you have already done for me, but I have thought it much the best way to state the whole case frankly and leave the matter with you." GP wrote Marsh from Scotland in Aug. 1863 that he would give him $3,500 to buy a library and specimens. Ref.: Ibid.
Science. 29-GP Retired. Ill and wanting to retire, GP cut his ties with George Peabody & Co. on Oct. 1, 1864. Without a son and knowing he would have no control after death, he asked that his name be withdrawn from the firm. Partner Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-90) urged GP to postpone retirement. GP wrote J.S. Morgan politely but firmly: "...I can now make no change, for although the continuance of the firm for three or six months, which you suggest, may appear short to you, to me--feeling as I deeply do, the uncertainty of life at the age of seventy--months would appear as years, for I am most anxious before I die to place my worldly affairs in a much more satisfactory state than they are at present." Ref.: Ibid.
Science. 30-Successor Firms. Thus was George Peabody & Co. (1838-64) succeeded by J.S. Morgan & Co. (1864-1909), by Morgan Grenfell & Co. (1910-1918), Morgan Grenfell & Co. Ltd. (1918-90), and Deutsche Morgan Grenfell (since June 29, 1990, German owned). O.C. Marsh wrote GP from the Univ. of Breslau Oct. 21, 1864: "I saw in the papers the announcement of your retirement.... Before I retire I should like to do for Science as much as you have done for your fellowmen; and if my health continues I shall try hard to do so." Ref.: Ibid.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 31-Marsh at Univ. of Breslau. Marsh expected his Yale professorship in June 1864, but was disappointed when it was postponed until June 1865. Being already in Germany, he wrote his uncle that he thought it best to study at the Univ. of Breslau (he was the first U.S. student to attend there). GP approved and paid his expenses. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 32-Marsh's Books and Fossils. Marsh selected a library of books on geology and paleontology, for which his uncle paid $5,000. GP arranged with his agent-friend, Horatio Gates Somerby (1805-72), born in Newburyport, Mass., a London-based genealogist, to ship Marsh's effects to the U.S. The books and fossils went through customs two years later weighing 2.5 tons. Marsh's fossils were the basis of the collection of the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale. His books formed the basis of its library collection in geology and paleontology. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 33-Marsh and Leading Scientists. In Berlin Marsh met and spoke with Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875). In Paris he met and spoke with French geologist Philippe-Èdouard Poulletier de Verneuil (1805-73). In London, when he was not with his uncle, he spent his time at the British Museum with the Keeper of Geology, Henry Woodward (1832-1921). Marsh also met such British scientists as Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-95) and Charles Darwin (1809-82). Ref.: Ibid.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 34-GP's U.S. Visit, 1866-67. Back at Yale in March 1866, teaching Prof. Dana's classes in geology, Marsh wrote to his cousin-in-law Charles W. Chandler (d. 1882), husband of cousin Julia Adelaide (née Peabody) Chandler (b. April 25, 1835) and a lawyer in Zanesville, Ohio, that GP was about to visit the U.S. (May 1, 1866 to May 1, 1867). Ref.: Ibid.
Science. 35-Philanthropic Advisor R.C. Winthrop. GP arrived in NYC on the Scotia, May 3, 1866, for his year-long U.S. visit. He conferred on May 9 and frequently thereafter with his philanthropic advisor, Robert Charles Winthrop (1809-94). Winthrop had been highly recommended to GP in 1862 in London by Thurlow Weed (1797-1882), politically powerful N.Y. State editor. Weed was in London in 1862 as Pres. Lincoln's emissary to keep Britain from siding with the Confederacy in the Civil War. Weed pointed out that Winthrop was uniquely qualified to advise and guide GP's philanthropy. Ref.: Ibid.
GP’s Philanthropic Advisor, Robert Charles Winthrop
Science. 36-R.C. Winthrop's Career. Winthrop was the distinguished descendant of early Mass. Bay Colony Gov. John Winthrop (1588-1649). He was a Harvard graduate (1828), trained in Daniel Webster's law office, member of the Mass. legislature (1834-39, and its Speaker), member of the U.S. House of Representative (1842-50, its Speaker during 1847-50). He was appointed to fill Daniel Webster's U.S. Senate seat (1851). He gave the main addresses at the Washington Monument cornerstone laying (1848) and at its completion (1885). Known and respected by the U.S. political and academic power structure, Winthrop agreed in 1866 to help plan GP's philanthropy. In 1867 Winthrop helped name the PEF trustees, was president of that board, and guided its work to his death in 1894. Ref.: Ibid.
Science. 37-GP Laid His Philanthropic Plans before Winthrop. When GP first laid before Winthrop his philanthropic plans (most likely on May 9, 1866), Winthrop expressed amazement at their size and scope. Winthrop remembered GP's reply and quoted it in his Feb. 8, 1870, eulogy at GP's funeral service. GP's words, underlined below, were later cut into the stone marker placed at the temporary grave site in Westminster Abbey where GP's remains lay in state 30 days (Nov. 11-Dec. 12, 1869). GP had replied: "Why, Mr. Winthrop, this is no new idea to 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." Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Harvard Museum). 38-Meetings on Peabody Museum, Harvard. Winthrop had a series of meetings on the Peabody Museum of Harvard: with GP on June 1, 1866, at the Tremont House, Boston; on June 4 with GP's nephews, Yale Prof. O.C. Marsh and George Peabody Russell (1835-1909, Harvard graduate, class of 1856) at the Massachusetts Historical Society; and on June 17 again with GP, who gave Winthrop permission to consult confidentially with Harvard friends. Winthrop especially sought the advice and approval of Louis Agassiz (1807-73), leading U.S. scientist and Harvard zoologist. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Harvard Museum). 39-James Walker on Peabody Museum, Harvard. Winthrop also talked to Harvard's former Pres. James Walker (1794-1874, Harvard president during 1853-60). Agassiz, Winthrop, and Walker knew that Harvard officials preferred new gifts of money to go to its library and to its Museum of Comparative Zoology rather than for GP's proposed museum. Pres. Walker said to Winthrop: "...When a generous man like Mr. Peabody proposes a great gift, we...had better take what he offers and take it on his terms, and for the object which he evidently has at heart.... There...will be, as you say, disappointments in some quarters. But the branch of Science, to which this endowment is devoted, is one to which many minds in Europe are now eagerly turning.... This Museum...will be the first of its kind in our country." Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Harvard Museum). 40-Peabody Museum, Harvard, Founding Letter. Winthrop communicated his conversation with Pres. Walker to GP on July 6, 1866. On Sept. 24 Winthrop again met with GP and his nephews, Prof. O.C. Marsh and G.P. Russell. On Sept. 28, 1866, Winthrop called the first meeting of the trustees of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard. The trustees accepted GP's gift of $150,000. His founding letter, dated Oct. 8, 1866, ended with these suggestions that: "...In view of the gradual obliteration or destruction of the works and remains of the ancient races of this continent,[that] the labor of exploration and collection be commenced...as early...as practicable; and also, that, in the event of the discovery in America of human remains or implements of an earlier geological period than the present, especial attention be given to their study, and their comparison with those found in other countries." Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Harvard Museum). 41-Anthropology at Harvard. Thus, O.C. Marsh, a Yale man, influenced the founding at Harvard of the first U.S. museum of anthropology in the U.S. It was endowed by GP nine years after the discovery in 1857 in Prussia of the Neanderthal skull, which renewed interest in man's origins. Ethnological items, long collected but unexamined, were soon donated to the new Peabody Museum at Harvard by New England societies, including the Mass. Historical Society. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Harvard Museum). 42-Walker on Science at Harvard. When the Mass. Historical Society's ethnological items were transferred to the Peabody Museum at Harvard, former Harvard Pres. James Walker said, "For a long time Harvard has exhausted her resources on the traditional liberal arts. The time has come for her to advance scientific knowledge. Mr. Peabody shows great wisdom in facilitating cooperation between the Massachusetts Historical Society and his Museum at Harvard through trustees of the latter who are prominent members of the former." Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Harvard Museum). 43-Harvard Began Study of Anthropology. Anthropologists-historians Charles Franklin Thwing (1853-1937) and Ernest Ingersoll (1852-1946) each wrote that the Peabody Museum at Harvard began the systematic study of anthropology in U. S. higher education. Pre-Columbian life in North America was largely unexplored; existing collections were slight and fragmentary. Ref.: Ibid.
Frederic Ward Putnam, "Father of American Anthropology”
Science (Harvard Museum). 44-Putnam at Harvard. Many early prominent scientists were officers of the Peabody Museum of Harvard, including Frederic Ward Putnam (1839-1915). He was its curator during 1874-1909 and enhanced its reputation as well as his own. He was called by his peers the "Father of American Anthropology." Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Harvard Museum). 45-Putnam at Harvard Cont'd. While at the Peabody Museum of Harvard, he yet found time to help found the 1-Anthropology Dept. of the American Museum of Natural History, NYC, during 1894-1903; 2-the Dept. and Museum of Anthropology, Univ. of California, during 1903-09; and 3-he was secretary of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, during 1873-98. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Harvard Museum). 46-Putnam at Harvard Cont'd. Famed anthropologist Prof. Franz Boas (1858-1942) wrote that F.W. Putnam pursued the subject of early man in North America with "unconquerable tenacity." Putnam wrote over 400 anthropological reports, many of them on the culture of the "mound builders," ancient ancestors of the American Indians. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Harvard Museum). 47-Putnam at Harvard Cont'd. At its centennial in 1967, Peabody Museum Director John O. Brew (1906-88) stated that its personnel had pioneered in studying the unique Mayan culture in Central America and had led a total of 688 expeditions worldwide to study early human life. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 48-Praised by Charles Darwin. O.C. Marsh was a convinced evolutionist when in the early 1860s he visited Charles Darwin at his country home in England. Twenty years later Charles Darwin wrote to Marsh, crediting him with findings fossils that provided the best evidence to prove the theory of evolution. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 49-Praised by T.H. Huxley. Marsh also published fossil proof of the North American origin of the horse. The previous belief was that the horse originated in Europe and was brought to America with Christopher Columbus and the conquistadors. Darwin's strongest defender, Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-95), visiting Marsh at Yale in 1876, became so convinced by Marsh's horse fossil findings that he changed the content of his U. S. lectures, citing Marsh's proof of the pre-Columbian origin of the horse in North America. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 50-Astute Organizer. As Yale Prof. of Paleontology and Director of Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History, Marsh did not teach or receive a salary until his last years, when his private income (left to him by GP) was almost gone. He was an astute organizer of Yale assistants, directing their field work by telegraph and letter, overseeing their collecting and shipping of railroad carloads of fossils. At Yale he assembled entire dinosaurs, toothed birds, and other extinct mammals. His enormous collection at Yale was still being catalogued in the 1990s. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 51-Dinosaur Fossil Finder. He made his major dinosaur fossil finds in the mid 1870s-80s in the Rocky Mountain region; at Como Bluff in eastern Wyoming; Canyon City, Colorado; and elsewhere in the rugged U.S. West. He used Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History resources, student assistants, and federal funds in his capacity as U.S. Geological Survey paleontologist (1882-92) and honorary curator of vertebrate paleontology at the U.S. National Museum (1887) to find over 1,000 new fossil vertebrates, many of which he classified and described. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 52-Prominent Scientist. Marsh lived like a Victorian gentleman in his 18-room New Haven, Conn., house, courting U.S. and foreign scientists and politicians. On frequent trips to NYC Marsh was often seen in fashionable clubs. For 12 years he was president of the National Academy of Sciences, the most prestigious U.S. scientific body. He was prominent in national science affairs and wielded influence in government and academic science circles. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 53-Criticism. He was also criticized by some peers and assistants. One assistant, Samuel Wendell Williston (1852-1918), who achieved scientific renown after leaving O.C. Marsh's employ, criticized him for publishing fossil findings of his assistants as his own. Marsh's last years were marred by lack of money and loss of U.S. government support. Ref.: Ibid.
Marsh-Cope Rivalry: Dinosaur Fossils
Science (O.C. Marsh). 54-Marsh-Cope Compared. Marsh's professional rival was Philadelphia-born paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope (1840-97). Cope was the son of a wealthy Quaker shipowner and philanthropist. Like Marsh, Cope's mother died when he was three-years-old. Unlike Marsh, Cope grew up in a well-ordered household, did well in a Quaker school, and published his first scientific paper at age 18. Marsh did little until age 20 and published his first paper at age 30. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 55-Marsh-Cope Compared Cont'd. Both studied science in Europe. Cope lived with wife and daughter in Haddonfield, N.J. When his father died (1875), Cope at age 35 inherited a fortune which he used to finance his fossil finds. Though wealthy, Cope lived simply, in contrast to Marsh. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 56-Marsh-Cope Rivalry. Marsh and Cope met in Berlin in 1862. They met again for a friendly week in the U.S. in 1868. From then on, they competed for a quarter-century in the rugged west to find and identify new mammal fossils in scientific publications. Cope, of brilliant mind and wider natural history interests than Marsh, had no institutional connections until, financially depleted in his last years, he was a Univ. of Penn. professor. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 57-Marsh-Cope Rivalry Cont'd. Marsh had the knack of management and made the most of academic and federal government connections. From this rivalry came a treasure trove of dinosaur fossil findings, 80 new kinds of dinosaurs found and described in publications by Marsh and 56 found and described in publications by Cope. From this rivalry came much of what is now known about dinosaurs. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (O.C. Marsh). 58-Marsh, GP, Science. Dinosaur displays attracted visitors, particularly young visitors, made science museums popular, and furthered science education. Marsh's biographers estimate that GP gave Yale directly and indirectly through bequests to Marsh close to half a million dollars. The Peabody Museums at Harvard and Yale, their collections, field exploration, exhibits, famous murals (particularly at the Yale Museum), and education programs are eminently the achievements of their directors and staffs. Yet GP's gifts to science education, influenced by nephew O.C. March, made these achievements possible. Ref.: Ibid. Ref. Schiff, p. 80.
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass.
Science (Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass.) 59-200-Year History. The Peabody Essex Museum's 200-year history started long before GP's Feb. 26, 1867, $140,000 gift founded the Peabody Academy of Science. This Peabody Academy of Science (1867-1915), renamed the Peabody Museum of Salem (1915-1992), combined the science collections of two societies, the East India Marine Society, founded in 1799, and the Essex County Natural History Society, founded in 1833. Ref. Parker, F.-q, pp. 137-153, reprinted Parker, F.-zd, pp. 129-140.
Science (Peabody Essex Museum). 60-East India Marine Society. The East India Marine Society's ethnological and marine history collections were brought back by Salem's acquisitive shipmasters from China, Sumatra, India, and the Pacific islands. Before GP's 1867 gift, these were inadequately housed in the moribund East India Marine Society Building in Salem. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Peabody Essex Museum). 61-Essex Institute. Next door was the Essex County Natural History Society, founded in 1833, to collect New England's natural history antiquities. In 1848 this Essex County Natural History Society merged with the Essex Historical Society, founded in 1821 to preserve the history and relics of Essex County, Mass. The 1848 merger resulted in the Essex Institute. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Peabody Essex Museum). 62-Peabody Academy of Science. Soon after, the Peabody Academy of Science (1867) housed and displayed the East India Marine Society's (1799) ethnological and maritime history collections, along with the Essex Institute's Natural History Society's (1833) collections. Other New England societies began to donate their ethnological and maritime objects to the then new (1867) Peabody Academy of Science. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Peabody Essex Museum). 63-Name Change to Peabody Essex Museum. The Peabody Academy of Science (1867-1915) was renamed the Peabody Museum of Salem (1915-1992) and renamed the Peabody Essex Museum since 1992, all at the same location in Salem, Mass. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Peabody Essex Museum). 64-First Dir. Edward Sylvester Morse. Edward Sylvester Morse (1838-1925) was Peabody Academy of Science's first director during 1880-1916. E.S. Morse was Louis Agassiz's (1807-73) student at Harvard Univ. and had worked with other Agassiz students, including Frederic W. Putnam (1839-1915), director of the Peabody Museum of Harvard during 1874-1909. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Peabody Essex Museum). 65-E.S. Morse in Japan. E.S. Morse, who organized the Peabody Academy of Science collections, achieved scientific renown by teaching zoology for the first time at the Imperial Univ. of Tokyo, Japan, during 1877-79 and 1882-83. He founded there a zoological department, library, museum, and journal, and was the first to lecture on Darwinian evolution. For introducing science to Japan during the Meiji period, when Japan first turned to western influence, Morse earned several Japanese honors, including two monuments built to his memory. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Peabody Essex Museum). 66-Name Change. The Peabody Academy of Science (1867-1915) was renamed the Peabody Museum of Salem (1915-92). In 1984 the Peabody Museum of Salem absorbed the China Trade Museum of Milton, Mass., containing the finest collection of Asian export art in the world. In July 1992, after 200 years of public showing of Asian and Pacific ethnological and marine history treasures, the Peabody Museum of Salem and the Essex Institute consolidated into the Peabody and Essex Museum, soon renamed the Peabody Essex Museum. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Peabody Essex Museum). 67-Six Departments. The Peabody Essex Museum has more than a hundred staff. Its focus is on science education for the visiting public, especially young visitors. The museum's collections illuminate Salem's history from its founding as the third oldest colonial village to its zenith as a seaport, when its ships carried goods, culture, and artifacts between the U.S. and the then little-known Oriental and Pacific worlds. The museum's six departments cover 1-Maritime History, 2-American Decorative Arts and Essex County Historical Collections, 3-Asian Export Art, 4-Ethnology, 5-Natural History, 6-and Archaeology. These six departments are housed in nine buildings open for public tours. The nine buildings are historic in that they span Salem's residential architecture from its beginning to the Victorian era. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Peabody Essex Museum). 68-Collections. The Peabody Essex Museum collections include 1-the Edward S. Morse Collection of Japanese Arts and Crafts (since 1877), the largest of its kind outside Japan. 2-The largest collection in the U.S. of marine paintings and drawings, including works by Fitz Hugh Lane (1804-65) and Michele Felice Corné (c1752-1845). 3-Chinese and other Asian porcelains, furniture, and decorative arts made for use in the West. 4-Essex County, Mass., 17th-century-to-the-present furniture, decorative arts, costumes, military uniforms, dolls, and toys. Ref.: Ibid. For a 1995 large oil painting acquisition, artist Robert Dudley's "HMS Monarch Transporting the Body of George Peabody. 1870," see GP Bicentennial Celebration (Feb. 18, 1795-1995).
Science (Peabody Essex Museum). 69-Two Research Libraries. Two important research libraries with 2.5 million items include over one million photographs, 400,000 books and periodicals, and manuscripts, including among them the 1-GP papers, 2-Salem writer Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-64) papers and works (the world's largest collection), and 3-the 1692 Salem witch trial's court documents. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Peabody Essex Museum). 70-Visitors. Peabody Essex Museum visitors annually exceed 150,000 people. Over 13,000 schoolchildren participate in its programs annually. The museum publishes Peabody Essex Museum Collections, the oldest continuously published U.S. historical journal; The American Neptune, the oldest U.S. journal of maritime history; Quarterly Review of Archaeology; and catalogues and books on exhibitions and the permanent collection. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Peabody Essex Museum). 71-Exhibits. In 1993 the museum hosted an exhibit, The Great Age of Sail: Treasures from the National Maritime Museum of England, containing over 100 marine paintings and navigational objects, said to be the most important maritime exhibition ever held in the U.S. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (Peabody Essex Museum). 72-GP's Three Science Museums. Before the advent of extensive state and federal aid to science, GP's gifts of three museums of science at Harvard, Yale, and in Salem, Mass., advanced significantly our knowledge of anthropology, natural science, and maritime history. Ref. Dexter, pp. 254-260. Parker, F.-q, pp. 137-153. Peabody Museum of Salem--Essex Institute News Release, May 19, 1992 [on creating the Peabody Essex Museum]. Peabody Essex Museum Fact Sheet [1993]. Peabody Essex Museum of Salem, Annual Reports, and its quarterly Register (contain exhibit descriptions and current news).
Science (GP's Other Science Gifts). 73-Md. Institute Chemical Lab., 1851. GP's earliest gift was for a chemical lab in Baltimore. In Oct. 1851 GP saw in a Baltimore newspaper an appeal for funds for the Md. Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts. GP sent a donation of $1,000 for a chemical school and laboratory. This donation was made a year before his first philanthropic gift of the Peabody Institute library at South Danvers (renamed Peabody in 1868), Mass., on June 16, 1852. Ref. (Md. Institute, Oct. 1851): Garrett Papers in the Library of Congress ms. See: Great Exhibition of 1851, London (first world's fair).
GP’s Aid to Arctic Exploration
Science (GP's Other Science Gifts). 74-Arctic Exploration. Two years later, in 1853, GP gave $10,000 for scientific equipment to launch the Second U.S. Grinnell Expedition, 1853-55. This expedition was one of many international searches for lost British Arctic explorer, Sir John Franklin (1786-1847), and his 137 seamen. Aided by GP's gift, U.S. Navy Capt. Elisha Kent Kane (1820-57) commanded NYC merchant Henry Grinnell's (1799-1874) two ships in the search. Kane did not find the lost Sir John Franklin but his voyage did initiate U.S. Arctic exploration. Kane named Peabody Bay off Greenland for GP in appreciation for his financial contribution. See: Franklin, Sir John. Kane, Elisha Kent.
Science (GP's Other Science Gifts). 75-White House Desk. An interesting sidelight is that after the British HMS Resolute was abandoned in the ice in the search for Franklin, it was found and extricated and returned to Britain by the captain of a U.S. whaler. When the Resolute was broken up Queen Victoria had a massive desk made from its timbers as a gift to the U.S. president. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy (1929-94) had it moved from a storeroom to the Oval Office where famous photos showed the Kennedy children playing under it. Ref.: Ibid.
Science (GP's Other Science Gifts). 76-Phillips Academy, Math & Natural Science, 1866. On Oct. 30, 1866, GP gave $25,000 to Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. (now called Phillips Andover Academy), for a professorship of mathematics and natural science. GP had paid for the attendance at Phillips Academy of nephew Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-99) and other nephews. See: Marsh, Othniel Charles.
Science (GP's Other Science Gifts). 77-Kenyon College, Math & Engineering. On Nov. 6, 1866, GP donated $25,000 to Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, for a professorship of mathematics and civil engineering. The gift was in honor of GP's longtime friend and advisor Episcopal Bishop of Ohio (and President of Kenyon College) Charles Pettit McIlvaine (1799-1873). See: McIlvaine, Charles Pettit.
GP & R.E. Lee's Washington College, Va.
Science (GP's Other Science Gifts). 78-Washington & Lee Univ.-Mathematics. On his last U.S. visit, a sick GP, four months from death, recuperated at the Greenbrier Hotel, White Sulphur Springs health spa, W.Va., July 23-Aug. 30, 1869. There by coincidence he met, spoke with, and was photographed (Aug. 12) with southern and northern political, military, and educational leaders, including Robert E. Lee (1807-70), then president of Washington College, Lexington, Va., 1865-70, renamed Washington and Lee Univ., 1871. See: Corcoran, William Wilson. Lee, Robert. E. Visits to the U.S. by GP.
Science (GP's Other Science Gifts). 79-Washington & Lee Univ.-Mathematics Cont'd. GP 's gift to Lee's college for a professorship of mathematics was in Va. bonds. These were lost aboard the Collins Line Arctic which collided with the smaller French Vesta, Sept. 27, 1854, 20 miles off Cape Race, Newfoundland. The Arctic sunk with the loss of 322 of the 408 persons aboard and with GP's Va. bonds then worth $35,000. After petitioning the Va. legislature for 15 years to redeem the lost bonds, GP presented their value to Lee's Washington College for a mathematics professorship. In 1883, the state of Va. honored the value of these bonds in the amount of $60,000 with accrued interest. Ref.: Ibid. See: ships mentioned.
Science (GP's Other Science Gifts). 80-Washington & Lee Univ.-Mathematics Cont'd. R.E. Lee's biographer C.B. Flood thus aptly described GP's gift of these lost Va. bonds: "It was generosity with a touch of Yankee shrewdness: you Southerners go fight it out among yourselves. If General Lee can't get [this lost bond money] out of the Virginia legislature, nobody can." Ref. Ibid.
GP on the Scotia
Scotia (ship). 1-J.W. Forney on GP, 1867. The Scotia (Latin for Scotland) was a British Cunard royal mail steamship. GP left Liverpool, England (April 21, 1866) on the Scotia’s first voyage to NYC, arriving May 1, 1866. He left NYC on the Scotia May 1, 1867, for Queenstown (now named Cobh), Ireland. Philadelphia newspaper owner and editor John Wien Forney (1817-70), fellow passenger on that return voyage to Ireland and England, published an account of an incident before disembarkation when a group of Americans on board approached GP to read aloud and hand him carefully prepared resolutions of praise. See: Forney, John Wien.
Scotia . 2-Resolutions of Praise. One resolution that caught GP's attention he asked to be repeated: "Whereas, James Smithson and Stephen Girard had bequeathed their gifts after death, Mr. Peabody became his own executor giving away his wealth during his lifetime while he could watch and plan for its wise use." Forney reported that GP said "with winning courtesy": "Please strike out the last resolution. You will oblige me so much if you would. Whatever may be said of me and however your view may be, the contrast might be construed into a criticism upon these two illustrious men. They did their best, and they did nobly." For his interview with GP on the Scotia and his visit to the Peabody Homes of London, See: Ibid.
Scotia.. 3-1869. GP's last voyage to the U.S. was on the Scotia, which left Liverpool on May 29, 1869. Business friend Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson (1806-85) was the only one of his old London friends to see him off. He arrived in NYC June 8, 1869. He was then age 74, ill, and near death. He visited his relatives and his institutes, made his last will, and completed plans for burial in Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass. He left NYC on the Scotia on Sept. 29, 1869, intending to rest in the south of France, but gravely ill went to Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson's 80 Eaton Sq., London home, where he died Nov. 4, 1869. See: Death and Funeral, GP's.
Scotland. GP visited Scotland during his four commercial buying trips between 1827 to 1837. He also visited Scotland to rest and fish for salmon at Dalguise near Dunkeld, a village in Perthshire in the Scottish Highlands in the fall of 1860. He was in Invergarry, Scotland, Aug. 1863 (after the fall of Vicksburg, Miss.) with business friend Curtis Miranda Lampson (1806-85). He was in Scotland again in Aug. 1864 before his Oct. 1, 1864, retirement.
Barnas Sears, First PEF Administrator
Sears, Barnas (1802-80). 1-First PEF Administrator. Capping an outstanding career as the first PEF administrator during 1867-80, Barnas Sears developed the policy largely followed during the PEF's 47-year life span (1867-1914). Shocked by Civil War devastation he saw in the South, GP founded the $1 million PEF (Feb. 7, 1867), doubled to $2 million (June 29, 1869), to advance public education in the 11 Civil War-devastated former Confederate states plus W.Va. (added because of its poverty). GP actually gave $3,884,000 but $1.5 million in Miss. bonds and $384,000 in Fla. bonds were repudiated by those states. For Sears's accidental meeting with PEF Trustee Pres. Robert Charles Winthrop, leading to Sears's becoming the PEF's first administrator, see PEF. PCofVU. Conkin, Peabody College, index.
Sears, Barnas. 2-Need for an Administrator and a Plan. This first multimillion dollar U.S. foundation faced a daunting task. At the time 1-the eleven former Confederate states plus W. Va. were in economic, social, and political ruin. 2-All but Tenn. and W.Va. of the southern states were under punitive reconstruction military rule. 3-None of the southern states had an adequate public school system. Of the sixteen PEF trustees, twelve of them were northern statesmen and four southern statesmen. None of them was a public school educator. They needed an educational plan and an educational administrator. Ref.: Ibid.
Sears, Barnas. 3-Winthrop Met Sears. PEF trustee Pres. Robert Charles Winthrop (1809-94) found such a person in an old acquaintance, Barnas Sears, then Brown Univ. president. They met casually "at the old Wednesday Evening Club in Boston," soon after the PEF's Feb. 7, 1867, founding (they met most likely on March 12 or 13, 1867). Winthrop asked Sears how the PEF might carry out its mission. Sears outlined a strategy which so impressed Winthrop that he persuaded the trustees to appoint Sears as the PEF's first administrator. Ref.: Ibid.
Sears, Barnas. 4-Career. Sears was born in Sandisfield, Mass., was a Brown Univ. graduate (1822-25) and its president, 1855-67), a graduate of Newton Theological Seminary (1827-29) and later its professor of languages and its president (1836-48). He was a professor at what is now Colgate Univ., Hamilton, N.Y. (1829-33); studied in Germany and France (1833-35); and was the second Mass. Board of Education secretary (1848-55), succeeding Horace Mann (1796-1859). Ref. Ibid.
Sears, Barnas. 5-Plan. Sears's plan which the PEF trustees accepted was, through PEF grants, to: 1-strengthen existing public schools in larger towns as models for other communities, 2-establish new public schools where needed, 3-require local citizens to match PEF funds, if possible, by two or three times the amount of PEF aid, 4-require aided schools to meet nine or ten months a year, 5-have at least one teacher per 50 pupils, and 6-require that PEF-aided schools become permanent tax-supported public schools by state enactment and under state control. Sears set a rising scale of 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. Ref.: Ibid.
Sears, Barnas. 6-Plan Cont'd. Sears's policy of pump priming was to use cumulative small PEF grants for their multiplying effect, to stimulate community effort, and require public schools with state support under state control made permanent by state law. Pres. Franklin Delano Roosevelt used similar federal pump priming of the economy during the 1930's depression. Sears moved his family to Staunton, Va., traveled and spoke widely in the South, and asked local dedicated public school educators to be his sub-agents in selecting schools for PEF grants. Ref.: Ibid.
Sears, Barnas. 7-Three Phases. Sears's first policy phase was to use the PEF's limited resources and requirements as a lever to achieve permanently tax-supported model elementary and secondary public schools. His second phase promoted teachers' institutes (two and three-day teacher training sessions) and established teacher training normal schools, largely carried out by Sears's successor, second PEF agent Ga.-born Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry (1825-93) during 1881-85 and 1888-1903. The PEF's third phase promoted rural public schools, attempted by the PEF's third administrator (during 1907-14), Tenn.-born educator Wycliffe Rose (1862-1931) during 1907-14. Ref. Brouilette, Ph.D., 1937. Carson, M.A., 1948. Peck, Ph.D., 1942. Roberts, Ph.D., 1936.
Sears, Barnas. 8-Sears and a Nashville Normal School. Barnas Sears saw Nashville as a cultural center for the South and urged the establishment of a state normal school there. Nashville had a tax-based public school system (1,892 pupils taught by 35 teachers in 1860), private schools, including Nashville Female Academy (from 1819), and the Univ. of Nashville (1826-75), whose Chancellor John Berrien Lindsley (1822-97), a physician, was also dean of the Univ. of Nashville Medical Dept. (founded 1851, the second largest U.S. medical school during the Civil War). See: PEF.
Sears, Barnas. 9-Legislature Failed to Establish State Normal School. Attempts to establish a teacher training normal school in Tenn. had failed in 1857 and 1865. In June-July 1867, Univ. of Nashville Chancellor John Berrien Lindsley and his trustees discussed a normal school plan initiated by Barnas Sears. Sears offered PEF funds of $1,000 or more annually if Tenn. would establish one or more normal schools. But state normal school legislation failed to pass in 1868, 1871, and 1873 (in 1873 the PEF offered $6,000 annually to match annual state funding). Ref.: Ibid.
Sears, Barnas. 10-Working Through the Univ. of Nashville. Rather than lose Nashville as a normal school site, Sears told the Univ. of Nashville trustees in 1874 that if they gave land and buildings for a normal school in place of their moribund "Literary Department," then the PEF would contribute $6,000 annually. The Univ. of Nashville trustees agreed. Sears asked newly inaugurated Tenn. Gov. James Davis Porter (1828-1912) to help secure legislative approval. Ref.: Ibid. For Tenn. Gov. Porter's account of his help, see Porter, James Davis.
Peabody Normal College, Nashville
Sears, Barnas. 11-State Normal School (1875-89). Glad not to have to spend state funds, the Tenn. legislature amended the Univ. of Nashville's charter to allow it to establish a normal school, financed by PEF's $6,000 annual contribution (Sears expected imminent and continuous state aid). The new State Normal School on the Univ. of Nashville campus opened Dec. 1, 1875, with 13 students and ended that school year with 60 students. See: PEF.
Sears, Barnas. 12-Renamed Peabody Normal College (1889-1911). State Normal School (1875-89), officially renamed Peabody Normal College (1889-1909), was cost-free to selected students, 3,645 of whom during 1877-1904 received PEF-funded Peabody scholarships of $200 annually during 1877-91 and $100 annually plus railroad fare during 1891-1904. GPCFT historian Alfred Leland Crabb (1884-1980) noted that these Peabody scholarship teachers formed a small but important core of southern educational leaders of the time. Ref.: Allen-b, pp. 19-23. Allen-a, pp. 4-13. Folmsbee, et. al., p. 416. GPCFT-b, The Historical Background(Oct. 1941). Windrow, ed.
Sears, Barnas. 13-Hesitant Tenn. State Aid. Sears was disappointed when appropriation bills to fund the State Normal School were defeated in the Tenn. legislature in 1877 and 1879. Sears and the PEF trustees considered moving State Normal School from Nashville to Ga., whose legislature agreed on state support if the PEF continued its $6,000 annual contribution. But Ga.'s constitution required that the State Normal School be state controlled as part of the Univ. of Ga. at Athens. This requirement irked the PEF trustees, who wanted state aid but without state control. See: PEF.
Sears, Barnas. 14-State Aid (1881-1905). Threat of a move from Tenn. prompted Nashville citizens to guarantee $6,000 by April 1880 to keep the Normal School in Nashville. Stung into action, the Tenn. 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 total income from the Tenn. legislature was $429,000 (1881-1905); total income from the PEF was $555,730 (1875-1909). For Peabody Normal College predecessors and successors, see PEF.
Sears's Race & Schools Dilemma
Sears, Barnas. 15-Insuperable Obstacles. Sears faced severe obstacles in promoting public education in the post-Civil War devastated South: 1-Tax-supported, state mandated, and free public schools for all had not yet taken root in the former Confederate states. 2-White parents who could pay preferred traditional private schools. 3-Southern whites were adamantly opposed to integrated schools. In La., however, where Reconstruction authorities still governed, integrated schools were mandated, posing another dilemma: poor La. whites would not send their children to integrated schools, preferring them instead to go unschooled.
Sears, Barnas. 16-Insuperable Obstacles Cont'd. 4-Initially, Sears found black schools better provided for than white schools. This anomaly arose from a-the U.S. Freedmen's Bureau which during 1865-69 ran 4,239 schools in the South for 247,333 black children, taught by 9,307 teachers, at a cost of $3.5 million; b-from religious groups, mainly the New England-based American Missionary Association which built and financed black schools, and c-by black parents and volunteer northern teachers who combined contributed an estimated $2.5 million more for black schools during 1865-74. Ref.: Ibid.
Sears, Barnas. 17-Black Schools Aided at Two-Thirds White Schools Rate. Sears also found that black public schools cost less to maintain. He thus proposed, and the PEF trustees acquiesced, to aiding black schools at two-thirds the rate given to white schools. Anticipating the charge of discrimination, Sears warned the PEF trustees: "Some will find fault with our making any distinction between the two races." After 1871, increasingly, white communities met the PEF's requirement for local matching funds. Black communities were less able to meet those matching requirements. Ref.: Ibid.
Sears, Barnas. 18-La.'s Racially Mixed Public Schools. La.'s state mandated racially mixed public schools posed the PEF's most serious dilemma. Most white La. parents resisted and circumvented mandated racially mixed schools by sending their children to private fee-charging white schools. La.'s racially mixed schools in fact served mainly black students. Since most poor white parents could not afford private schools, their children went unschooled. Ref. Ibid.
Sears, Barnas. 19-Could the PEF be Kept Out of Politics? Sears was determined to follow the mandate that the PEF be kept out of politics and avoid social strife. "Let the people themselves settle the question" of separate schools, he wrote. Faced with the reality of La.'s tax-supported but in practice black schools from which white parents withheld their children, Sears felt that the PEF had no other option than to aid La's. private white schools. To oppose southern state school laws, Sears felt, would end the PEF's work and influence. Inevitably, the charge of discrimination plagued Sears and the PEF. Ref.: Hovey, Chap. VII, pp. 110-150.
Sears, Barnas. 20-Historian Critics. Educational historian William P. Vaughn charged in 1964 that Sears and the PEF perpetuated racial segregation in southern schools. Educational historian Henry J. Perkinson later wrote that, by going along with racially separate schools, the PEF "prevented the South from attaining educational equality with the North for the next seventy-five years." These revisionist historians judged Sears and the PEF not in terms of exigencies of the time but in light of post-1960s civil rights achievements. See: PEF.
Sears, Barnas. 21-Historian Critics Cont'd. Ninety years earlier, in the 1870s-80s, Sears and the PEF trustees, faced with state-mandated segregated schools, felt they had to comply with existing racial attitudes or fail in their mission. In La. the PEF's influence was less successful and more controversial than in the other PEF-aided southern states. Ref. Ibid.
Sears, Barnas. 22-Was the PEF Race Policy Inevitable? In 1996 historian William L. Richter's American Reconstruction, 1862-1877, reassessed PEF administrator Barnas Sears's dilemma. He wrote that the only way to aid black education from 1867 was under southern white power laws. The Freedmen's Bureau and leading northern freedmen aid societies, Richter wrote, "soon found that the only way to obtain the cooperation of Southern whites was to renounce the notion of integrated education and concentrate on race alone." Ref.: Richter, pp. 174-177.
Sears, Barnas. 23-Historian Richter on Sears's Dilemma. Sears, Richter wrote, "had to face up to separation by race if he hoped to accomplish the fund's mission.… Through a series of Southern tours, Sears found that the only way to gain local white support was to separate the races in school. This he unabashedly did, granting less money for an African American school than for a white school in the same straits. The Peabody Fund also tended to serve school systems in larger urban areas. This meant that the fund generally financed white schools to a greater degree than it helped schools in Louisiana and South Carolina that were integrated by state law." Ref.: Ibid.
Sears, Barnas. 24-Historian Richter on Sears's Dilemma Cont'd.: "Sears claimed that the Peabody Fund was going to stay out of politics.... He also lobbied to get the integrated education clauses pulled out of the Civil Rights Acts of 1875.… Ignoring [congressmen] who favored a strict integration of all public facilities,...Sears went to [other] senators and representatives and convinced them that to integrate schools would drive whites out of the public education system and into private schools...." Sears consulted Pres. U.S. Grant and found him in complete agreement. Ref.: Ibid.
Sears, Barnas. 25-Historian Richter on Sears's Dilemma Cont'd.: "The result was a public accommodations law without the [integration] education clauses and a guarantee that Southern schools would be 'separate but equal' thirty years before the U.S. Supreme Court would endorse such an approach." Richter concluded that, after the Panic of 1873, almost all agencies aiding black education "acquiesced to segregated education." Ref.: Ibid.
Sears, Barnas. 26-Black Historian Horace Mann Bond. Black education historian Horace Mann Bond thus described the public school and race dilemma for Sears and the PEF: "Those who argued against mixed schools were right in believing that such a system was impossible in the South, but they were wrong in believing that the South could, or would, maintain equal schools for both races." Ref.: Ibid. Bond-a, pp. 28-29, 57, 63.
With GP in W.Va.
Sears, Barnas. 27-With GP in W.Va. (Summer 1869). Barnas Sears last saw a gravely ill GP at the Greenbrier Hotel, White Sulphur Springs health spa, W.Va., July 23-Aug. 30, 1869. GP was then four months from death. Longtime business friend William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888) had urged GP to join him there to rest and recuperate. There by coincidence GP met, spoke with, and was photographed with southern and northern political, military, and educational leaders, including Robert E. Lee (1807-70). Lee was then president of Washington College, Lexington, Va., 1865-70, renamed Washington and Lee Univ., 1871. GP had just (June 29, 1869) doubled to $2 million his PEF. Lee and Peabody were the focus of attention. Ref.: Ibid.
Sears, Barnas. 28-Southern Education Needs. Resolutions of praise were read in GP's presence. On the evening of Aug. 11 merrymakers at the "Old White" (Greenbrier Hotel) held a Peabody Ball, whose gaiety GP, too ill to attend, heard in his cottage. Lee and GP were applauded as they talked, walked arm in arm, and dined together. Inevitably, talks took place about southern education needs, talks that led to later consequential Conferences on Education in the South. Historic photos were taken between Aug. 15-19, 1869, centering around GP and Robert E. Lee. See: Corcoran, William Wilson. Lee, Robert E. Visits to the U.S. by GP. White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.
Sears, Barnas. 29-Educator John Eaton on GP. Present at the springs, Tenn.'s superintendent of public instruction John Eaton (1829-1906), wrote in his annual report: "Mr. Peabody shares with ex-Gov. [Henry Alexander] Wise [1806-76] the uppermost cottage in Baltimore Row, and sits at the same table with General Lee, Mr. Corcoran, Mr. Taggart, and others....Being quite infirm, he has been seldom able to come to parlor or dining room, though he has received many ladies and gentlemen at the cottage.... His manners are singularly affable and pleasing, and his countenance one of the most benevolent we have ever seen." Ref.: Ibid. For educator John Eaton's connection with the Freedmen's Bureau, see Eaton, John.
Sears, Barnas. 30-Sears on GP's Public Appearance. Sears also wrote of GP at the springs: "Yesterday he went to the public dinner-table (about 1500 persons are here and dine in a long hall) and then sat an hour in the parlor, giving the ladies an opportunity to take him by the hand...." Sears wrote why GP's presence at White Sulphur Springs was important to the PEF's work in promoting public education in the South: "...both on account of his [GP's] unparalleled goodness and of his illness among a loving and hospitable people [he received] tokens of love and respect from all, such as I have never before seen shown to any one. This visit...will, in my judgment, do more for us than a long tour in a state of good health...." See: Corcoran, William Wilson.
Sears, Barnas. 31-GP and Lee Both Near Death. Lee and GP left the springs together on Aug. 30, Lee accompanying GP a short distance by train. It was next to the last summer of life for Lee, the last summer of life for GP. Ref.: Ibid.
Sears, Barnas. 32-A Summing Up. Historian Perceval Reniers, an authority on the southern springs, aptly summed up GP's appearance at the springs: "The affair that did most to revive their [the Southerners'] esteem was the Peabody Ball...[that] was given to honor the king of philanthropists, Mr. George Peabody, the Yankee-born millionaire of London. Everything was ripe for the Peabody Ball, everybody was ready for just such a climax, the background was a perfect build-up. Mr. Peabody appeared at just the right time and lived just long enough. A few months later it would not have been possible, for Mr. Peabody would be dead." Ref.: Ibid.
Sears, Elizabeth Corey (1838-1900), was the daughter of Barnas Sears (1802-80, above), first PEF administrator. She was her father's secretary during his last years. After his death she was acting PEF General Agent and prepared the 1880-81 PEF annual report, until the appointment of second PEF administrator Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry (1825-1903) on Feb. 2, 1881. She married twice: a-Robert B. Chapman in 1862; and b-James Hampden Fultz( 1845-1912), a physician, on Oct. 12, 1874. Ref.: Hovey, p. 175. See: Fultz, Mrs. John Hampden.
Sears, Jesse Brundage (b.1876), historian on U.S. higher education philanthropy, wrote as follows on the influence of the PEF: "This [the Peabody Education Fund], as our first experiment, must be pronounced a decided success and it must stand as an excellent precedent both for the future public and for the future philanthropist." Ref.: Sears, J.B., p. 91. See: PEF.
”See the Conquering Hero Comes" was played by the band at the entrance of the Duke of Wellington (Arthur Wellesley Wellington, 1769-1852), special guest at the GP-sponsored July 4, 1851, U.S.-British friendship dinner during the Great Exhibition of 1851, London (first world's fair). See: Abbott, Lawrence. Dinners, GP's, London. Great Exhibition of 1851, London (first world's fair).
Segovia, Andrés (1894-1987), was a Spanish-born guitarist who performed at the PIB Conservatory of Music while Otto Randolph Ortmann (1889-1979) was director during 1924-41. See: PIB Conservatory of Music.
Seidenstricker, John Barnhart (b. 1809). 1-Praised GP at the Md. Institute, Feb. 2, 1857. John B. Seidenstricker, former Baltimore City Council member (1835-38) who had served in the Md. General Assembly (1839-40), spoke in praise of GP at the Feb. 2, 1857, reception for GP given by the Md. Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, Baltimore. See: Md. Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts.
Seidenstricker, J.B. 2-Career. Seidenstricker, educated in private Baltimore schools, was collector of taxes in Baltimore and Md. (1841-43), president of the National Fire Insurance Co., Baltimore (from 1853), and led in various Baltimore civic organizations. Ref.: Scharf-c, pp. 485-487.
Alabama Claims
Semmes, Raphael Harwood (1809-77). 1-Confederate Raider. Raphael Harwood Semmes was a U.S. naval officer (1826-61) who sided with the South and became a notorious captain of Confederate raider ships which cost Union lives and treasure. He first captained CSS Sumter, which did considerable damage to northern commerce before it was bottled up at Gibraltar in Jan. 1862. As captain of the CSS Alabama, he became a Confederate naval hero in a two year cruise (June 1862-June 1864) covering 67,000 nautical miles, during which he hijacked or sunk 64 Union ships. See: Alabama Claims.
Semmes, R.H. 2-Alabama at Cherbourg, France. His ship needing repairs, Semmes took the Alabama to the French harbor of Cherbourg in early June 1864. The USS Kearsarge, under Capt. John Ancrum Winslow (1811-73), rushed to confront the Alabama in Cherbourg harbor. The Alabama came out to do battle. The ships fired on each other on June 19, 1864, observed by thousands, one of the last romanticized gunnery duels in the era of wooden ships. Ref.: Ibid.
Semmes, R.H. 3-Alabama Sunk, June 19, 1864. The Alabama was sunk that day. Capt. Semmes and some officers and crew were rescued by the British yacht Deerhound and taken to an English port. The Alabama's remains were not found until Oct. 1984, when some artifacts were raised from Cherbourg harbor. A special international Alabama Claims Commission which met in Geneva, Switzerland, Dec. 187l-Sept. 1872, awarded the U.S. $l5.5 million in reparations paid by Britain for damage to northern shipping by British-built Confederate ships. Ref.: Ibid.
Effect on GP's Funeral
Semmes, R.H. 4-GP Died Amid Alabama Angers. GP died in London Nov. 4, 1869, amid U.S.-British angers over loss of life and treasure caused by the CSS Alabama and other British-built ships. GP's will became known, requiring burial in Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass. British officials, knowing that the public were demanding public honors for the late GP, quickly initiated unusual funeral honors, partly in genuine respect for GP's philanthropy and his U.S.-British friendship efforts, partly to lessen war-like tensions. See: Death and Funeral, GP's.
Semmes, R.H. 5-Funeral Honors. British funeral honors evoked comparable U.S. funeral gestures. These honors included: 1-A Westminster Abbey funeral service (Nov. 12, 1869). 2-Temporary Abbey burial for 30 days (Nov. 12-Dec. 11, 1869). 3-Cabinet decision (Nov. 10, 1869) to return GP's remains on HMS Monarch, Britain's newest and largest warship. 4-USS Plymouth sent from Marseilles, France, as escort. 5-Remains transferred from the Abbey, London, to Portsmouth dock by special funeral train (Dec. 11, 1869). 6-Transatlantic crossing, Spithead near Portsmouth, past Ushant, France, to Madeira island off Portugal, to Bermuda, and north to Portland, Me. (Dec. 21, 1869-Jan. 25, 1870). Ref. Ibid.
Semmes, R.H. 6-Funeral Honors Cont'd. 7-Adm. David Glasgow Farragut (1801-70) commanding the U.S. receiving naval flotilla, Portland harbor, Me. (Jan. 25, 1870). 8-Lying in state of remains aboard Monarch as final mark of respect, while Portlanders filed by the coffin (Jan. 27-28, 1870). 9-Lying in state of remains, Portland City Hall (Jan. 29-Feb. 1, 1870). 10-Special funeral train, Portland, Me., to Peabody, Mass (Feb. 1, 1870). 11-Lying in state, Peabody Institute Library (Feb. 1-8, 1870). 12-Robert Charles Winthrop's funeral eulogy, the South Congregational Church, Peabody, Mass., attended by governors, mayors, Queen Victoria's son Prince Arthur, and other notables (Feb. 8, 1870). 12-Final burial, Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass. (Feb. 8, 1870). Ref. Ibid.
Semmes, R.H. 7-Career. Semmes was born in Charles County, Md., was appointed midshipman in the U.S. Navy (1826), and although a lawyer (1834), continued in the U.S. Navy, took part in the Mexican War, practiced law in Mobile, Ala., was in the Lighthouse Service (1856-Feb. 1861), and was a Confederate hero-raider commanding CSS Sumter and CSS Alabama (1861-65). After the Civil War, he taught, edited a newspaper, lectured, and again practiced law in Mobile. Ref.: Trevelyan, ed., X, pp. 288-289. See: Alabama Claims.
Senate, U.S. The U.S. Senate debated on March 5-16, 1867, Congressional resolutions on awarding GP a Congressional Gold Medal and resolutions of praise for the $2 million PEF (1867-69). See: Congressional Gold Medal and Resolutions of Praise to GP.
Serkin, Rudolf (1903-91), was a Hungarian-born pianist who performed at the PIB Conservatory of Music while Otto Randolph Ortmann (1889-1979) was director during 1924-41. See: PIB Conservatory of Music.
Wm. H. Seward & GP
Seward, William Henry (1801-72). 1-1859. In May 1859 N.Y. Gov. William Henry Seward (1801-72), close political ally of GP's friend Thurlow Weed (1797-1882, Albany, N.Y. Evening News editor) visited London. He went to GP, who arranged for him to dine at the London home of Irish-born MP Sir James Emerson Tennent (1791-1869) where Seward met other British leaders. This meeting was of special importance a few years later when Seward became Pres. Lincoln's Secty. of State during the Civil War. See: Morgan, Junius Spencer.
Seward, W.H. 2-1859 Cont'd. Too ill to attend the dinner himself, GP explained to Seward: "As the time approaches to join you at Lady Tennent's I find myself too unwell to go out being quite lame and in considerable pain in my feet arising from my late severe attack of gout.--Having accomplished the object I had in view of bringing together yourself and Sir James, I do not so much regret my inability to join you but feel forced to make this explanation." Ref. Ibid.
Seward, W.H. 3-Civil War Begins, 1861. Publication of GP's March 12, 1862, letter founding the Peabody Donation Fund (model homes for London's working poor) was delayed by U.S.-British friction early in the Civil War. Secty. of State William Henry Seward's truculence toward Britain contributed to U.S.-British difficulties and was worrisome to GP. See: Peabody Homes of London.
Seward, W.H. 4-How to Keep Britain Neutral? Their country officially neutral in the U.S. Civil War, upper and middle class Britons felt a kinship for the southern aristocracy. Economically, the textile industry was hurt when a Union blockade of southern ports cut off the supply of raw cotton. Historian Shelby Foote wrote that two million British workers in cotton mills and ancillary industries were jobless because of the Union blockade. Ref.:(for Trent, Alabama, cotton, other Civil War U.S.-British conflicts): Foote, pp. 154, 157.
Seward, W.H. 5-How to Keep Britain Neutral? Cont'd. Despite neutrality, British shipyards built and sold ships to Confederate agents who outfitted them as Confederate raiders, such as CSS Alabama and others. Confederate agents went to England and France to seek recognition, arms, and loans. U.S. Secty. of State Seward's constant reminders to Britain of its declared neutrality irritated Foreign Secty. Lord Russell, who wrote to the British ambassador in Washington, D.C., "Mr. Seward must not be allowed to get us into a quarrel. I shall see the southerners...unofficially and keep them at a proper distance." Ref.: Ibid. Hendrick, pp. 146, 150-151.
Seward, W.H. 6-U.S.-British Frictions Affected GP in London. Secty. of State Seward's truculence with Britain, the 1861 Trent Affair (U.S. illegal seizure, jailing, and then release of four Confederates from the British mail ship Trent, seeking British and French aid, arms and recognition), and mutual angers aroused by CSS Alabama and other British-built Confederate raiders, worried GP. He and his trustees in London had to delay announcement of GP's letter founding the Peabody Donation Fund ($2.5 million total gift) to build Peabody Homes for London's working poor. GP feared that the British government, press, and public would not accept his housing gift amid these U.S.-British frictions. See: Peabody Homes of London.
Seward, W.H. 7-GP to Weed about Delay. GP explained his concern in a Jan. 17, 1862, letter to longtime adviser Thurlow Weed (1797-1882), N.Y. state newspaper editor and politician: "Two days ago we thought it exactly the right time, but one cloud between this country and ours is no sooner disposed than another appears. Today the Times and Post are at us again...[as are] ugly extracts from the World and other New York papers.... The feeling [is] as bad as it was before the Trent affair closed." Ref.: GP to Thurlow Weed, Jan. 17, 1862, Weed Collection, Univ. of Rochester, quoted in Barnes, p. 365.
Seward, W.H. 8-"Newcastle Story." GP wrote Weed of the seriousness of the "Newcastle story" printed in the London Times. It stated that U.S. Secty. of State W.H. Seward told the Duke of Newcastle (Henry Pelham, 1811-64), then Colonial Secty., that the way to end the U.S. Civil War and get the South to rejoin the Union was to start a war with Britain. GP urged Weed to get Seward to disavow that menacing view (Weed, as political mentor, had guided Seward's career as N.Y. governor and U.S. senator). Ref.: (Newcastle story): Adams, I, pp. 114, 213, 277. Barnes, p. 365. Wallace and Gillespie, II, p. 925. See: "Newcastle Story."
Seward, W.H. 9-Peabody Homes of London. When U.S.-British relations calmed, GP's March 12, 1862, letter appeared in the press. News of the Peabody Donation Fund for model housing for London's working poor swept London, captured England, echoed in the U.S., and made the world press. It partly offset Trent, Alabama, the "Newcastle story," and years of U.S.-British antagonism. Ref. (GP's March 12, 1862 founding letter): Illustrated London News, April 5, 1862, p. 335. London Times, March 26, 1862, p. 9, c. 6. Peabody Donation, pp. 5-8.
Seward, W.H. 10-Tennent to GP on his London Gift. Sir James Emerson Tennent (1791-1869), Peabody Donation Fund trustee, sent GP London press notices and added: "But the press is only a faint echo of the voice of Society which is so forcible in praise of an act so utterly beyond all precedent. It is the topic of conversation and laudation in every circle of London, from the Palace down...[and]...by the admiration and gratitude expressed by all classes in London." Ref.: James Emerson Tennent to GP, March 27, 1862, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Seward, W.H. 11-Tennent to GP on his London Gift Cont'd.: "As yet we only know the effect in the Metropolis but the country papers will be coming in, & I expect they will attest the astonishment of the people of England at the magnificence of your generosity." Tennent arranged legal acceptance of the gift by the Commissioners of Charities, March 27, 1862. He wrote GP: "...They tell me that in the whole range of charities of England there is nothing to compare with the disinterestedness and magnitude of your gift." Ref. Ibid.
Seward, W.H. 12-Honors to Come. From Baltimore, longtime friend and PIB trustee John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870) wrote GP: "It is pleasant to forget [Civil War] difficulties in the contemplation of the noble work you have projected in London." GP's gift to London would bring unusual honors: Freedom of the City of London, his name inscribed in London's Roll of Fame, honorary membership in two ancient guilds, an Oxford Univ. honorary degree, letters from Queen Victoria, her offer of a title and, when he declined, the gift of a priceless miniature portrait of the Queen, and a GP statue near London's Royal Exchange erected while he lived and paid for by popular subscription. See: Honors, GP's, in Life and after Death (in chronological order).
Seward, W.H. 13-"I had not the least conception." GP rested in Bath, England, late March and early April 1862. His London-based Vt.-born genealogist friend Horatio Gates Somerby (1805-72) sent him more London newspaper clippings. GP replied: "I had not the least conception that it would cause so much excitement over the country." GP was 67, in ill health, with seven years to live. Ref.: GP, York Hotel, Bath, England, to Somerby, n.d. [late March or early April, 1862], Somerby Papers, Mass. Historical Society, Boston.
Seward, W.H. 14-Seward and GP Congressional Medal. In 1868 U.S. Secty. of State William Henry Seward arranged for GP to see in London the U.S. Congressional thanks and gold medal awarded him March 16, 1867. Background: U.S. Sen. Charles Sumner (1811-74, R.-Mass.) on March 5, 1867, introduced joint congressional resolutions to award GP thanks and a congressional gold medal for establishing the PEF (total $2 million) as a national gift to promote public education in the 11 former Confederate states plus W.Va. (added because of its poverty). See: Congressional Gold Medal and Resolutions of Praise to GP.
Seward, W.H. 15-Seward and GP Congressional Medal Cont'd. Despite opposition by a few congressmen (who accused GP of having been pro-Confederate) and a defense by Sen. Reverdy Johnson (1796-1876, D.-Md.), the resolutions and gold medal were passed in the U.S. House March 14, 1867, announced and enrolled in the U.S. Senate March 15, and sent to Pres. Andrew Johnson on March 16, 1867. At GP's request, Secty. of State Seward sent the resolutions and gold medal to GP in London. GP saw them for the first time on Christmas Day, 1868. With a few months to live, GP made his last trip to the U.S., June 8-Sept. 29, 1869, returned to London gravely ill, and died there Nov. 4, 1869. Ref. Ibid.
Peabody Homes of London
Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl (1801-85). 1-Social Reformer Who Suggested the Peabody Homes. Lord Shaftesbury was England's best known social reformer of his time. In 1859, at GP's request, Episcopal Bishop of Ohio Charles Pettit McIlvaine (1799-1873) consulted Lord Shaftesbury about GP's tentative plan to aid the Ragged School Union. Lord Shaftesbury said that the London poor's greatest need, even more than schools, was affordable housing. This advice led GP to found on March 12, 1862, the Peabody Donation Fund, later renamed the Peabody Trust, to build low rent apartments for London's working poor (total gift of $2.5 million). See: Peabody Homes of London
Shaftesbury, Lord. 2-Peabody Homes of London. As of March 31, 1999, 34,500 Londoners (59% white, 32% black, and 9% others) lived in 17,183 Peabody homes (i.e. apartments) including, besides Peabody Trust-built estates, public housing units whose authorities chose to come under the Peabody Trust’s better living facilities, playgrounds for the young, recreation for the elderly, computer training centers, job training, and job placement for working adults. Ref. Ibid.
GP & Delia Salter Bacon
Shakespeare, William (1564-1616). 1-Delia Salter Bacon. New England eccentric writer Delia Salter Bacon (1811-59) was an early believer in the theory that William Shakespeare's plays were written by a group consisting of mainly English philosopher and political figure Francis Bacon (1561-1626); English courtier, navigator, and historian Sir Walter Raleigh (1554-1618); and English poet Edmund Spenser (1551-99). She had friendly aid but no endorsements from Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82), Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-64), and Charles Butler (1802-97), with whose letter of introduction she went to London and called on GP in May 1853. See: Bacon, Delia Salter. Other persons named.
Shakespeare, William. 2-Bacon Had Little Contact with GP. GP's contacts with Delia S. Bacon were minimal, probably limited to converting bank drafts. She haunted Shakespeare's grave in Sept. 1856 but never succeeded in getting it opened to prove her theory. Nathaniel Hawthorne helped to get her book published, Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespeare Unfolded, 1857, which critics derided and which failed to sell. Ref.: David Saville Muzzey, II, Part l, pp. 359-360. Ref.: Ibid.
Shannon River, Ireland (where GP fished for salmon). See: Ireland.
Shaw, Mary Elizabeth, and Shaw, Anna Marie. As GP packed for his first transatlantic crossing on Nov. 1, 1827, he took with him a Bible, an Isaac Watts Hymnal, and the accompanying letter marked "Baltimore Oct. 26, 1827," from Mary Elizabeth and Anna Marie Shaw, perhaps sisters and the daughters of a Baltimore business friend. GP left NYC, Nov. 1, 1827, on the packet ship Florida with 20 passengers aboard. He landed in Liverpool, England, 25 days later, Nov. 25, 1827, ill, weakened, and with considerable weight loss. It was the worst seasickness of his five voyages to England, 1827-37, and subsequent three U.S. visits: 1856-1857; 1866-1867; and June 8 to Sept. 29, 1869. See: Visits to Europe by GP.
Shearmen. The Clothworkers' Co., one of the ancient guilds of London, was originally two guilds, the Fullers and the Shearmen, which were united and granted a Royal Charter in 1528. GP was made an honorary member of the Clothworkers' Co., July 2, 1862, eight days before he was given the Freedom of the City of London (July 10, 1862), two of his several honors in England for his March 12, 1862, Peabody Donation Fund ($2.5 million total gift) which built and managed low rent Peabody apartments for London's working poor. See: Clothworkers' Co. London, Freedom of the City. Honors, GP's, in Life and after Death (in chronological order).
Sheffield Scientific School, Yale Univ. GP paid for the education of his nephew Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-99) at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., Yale College (1860), Yale's Sheffield Scientific School (1860-62), and three German universities. O.C. Marsh became the first U.S. prof. of paleontology at Yale and the second such prof. in the world. O.C. Marsh influenced his uncle GP to found the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard (Oct. 8, 1866), the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale (Oct. 22, 1866), $150,000 each, and what is now the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass. (Feb. 26, 1867). See: Harvard Univ. Marsh, Othniel Charles. Science: GP's Gifts to Science and Science Education. Yale Univ.
GP’s Oxford Univ. Honorary Degree
Sheldonian Theater, Oxford Univ. 1-Designed by Christopher Wren. The Sheldonian Theater, Oxford's famous assembly hall, was designed in 1669 by Christopher Wren, who was then astronomy professor at Oxford Univ. It was Wren's first major architectural commission and was named after the Archbishop of Canterbury, Gilbert Sheldon, who commissioned the theater while he was Oxford Univ.'s chancellor. See: Oxford Univ.
Sheldonian Theater, Oxford Univ. 2-GP, Honorary Degree. Oxford Univ. granted GP an honorary Doctor of Laws degree on Founders' and Benefactors' Day, June 26, 1867. The honorary degree ceremony was held in the Sheldonian Theater. The invitation came from Dr. Henry Longueville Mansel (1820-71) of Oxford's Christ Church College. GP agreed by letter of June 5, 1867, to accept. The ceremony was held during Oxford's Encaenia, combining commencement with the celebration of spring, occasioned by readings, poetry, music, lectures, and a full-dress university parade, reflecting centuries of British tradition. Ref. Ibid.
Sheldonian Theater, Oxford Univ. 3-Undergraduate Banter. Undergraduates, exerting their traditional right of banter, called aloud the names of dignitaries whom they either cheered or hissed (they cheered Lord Derby, groaned at MP John Bright, both cheered and hissed PM William E. Gladstone, and acclaimed PM Benjamin Disraeli). Ref. Ibid.
Sheldonian Theater, Oxford Univ. 4-"The lion of the day..." GP was one of six persons granted an honorary degree that day. When GP's name was called and he stood up, undergraduates applauded him, waved their caps, and beat the arms of their chairs with the flat of their hands. Jackson's Oxford Journal, June 29, 1867, p. 5, c. 4-6, recorded: "The lion of the day was beyond a doubt, Mr. Peabody." Ref. Ibid.
Shenandoah, CSS (ship). The Florida, Shenandoah, most notably the Alabama, and others were British-built ships secretly bought by Confederate agents and outfitted as Confederate raiders which sunk or wrecked northern ships and cost Union lives and treasure. The Shenandoah was bought in London in 1864 and under Confederate Capt. James Iredell Waddell (1824-86) sank or wrecked 38 northern ships, mainly Pacific whalers, after the Confederacy fell (Capt. Waddell did not learn the war's outcome until Aug. 1865). Besides the Union losses, Confederate raiders' success raised insurance rates, forced hundreds of northern vessels to survive by transferring ownership to foreign flags (mostly British), and led to a long decline in U.S. merchant marine activity. Ref.: Boatner, p. 738. See: Alabama Claims. Adams, Charles Francis.
Shepard, Finlay, Mrs. (1868-1938). See: Helen Miller (née Gould) Shepard. She was financier Jay Gould's (1836-92) daughter, whose $100,000 gift made possible N.Y. Univ.'s Hall of Fame on N.Y.U.'s campus overlooking the Hudson River, to which GP was elected, among the first 29 most famous Americans, 1900. A GP bronze tablet was unveiled in his space (1901) was, replaced by a GP bust by sculptor Hans Schuler (1874-1952) in an unveiling ceremony on May 12, 1926. See: Hall of Fame of New York Univ. (N.Y.U).
Sheppard, George (b. 1815), was the mayor of Portsmouth, England, who participated in the Dec. 11, 1869, transfer of GP's remains from Westminster Abbey, London, by train to Portsmouth harbor, England, and the placing of the coffin aboard HMS for the transatlantic voyage to New England. Mayor Sheppard had earlier suggested a funeral procession through Portsmouth streets, but this plan was dropped. George Sheppard, former alderman, was elected mayor by the Portsmouth Town Council on Tuesday, Nov. 9, 1869, five days after GP's death, and 32 days before the arrival of his remains in Portsmouth. Ref.: "Portsmouth Town Council: Election of Mayor," Hampshire Telegraph & Sussex Chronicle (Portsmouth, England), Nov. 10, 1869. Field, p. 18. See: Death and funeral, GP's.
GP & Boston Mayor Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff
Shurtleff, Nathaniel Bradstreet (1810-74). 1-GP at Boston Peace and Music Jubilee, June 1869. Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff was mayor of Boston during 1868-70. In mid-June 1869, during his last U.S. visit (June 8 to Sept. 29, 1869), GP, age 74, ill and a few months from death (Nov. 4, 1869), visited the Boston Music Hall where a Peace and Jubilee Music Festival choir and orchestra performed for several days. The festival's theme was the peaceful existence of all groups in the U.S. GP paid an unannounced call and listened quietly to the chorus. Ref.: Gilmore, p. 598. Boston Post, June 21, 1869, p. 3, c. 4. Bolton, C.K., Vol. 9, pp. 141-142.
Shurtleff, N.B. 2-GP Introduced, Applauded. The Jubilee's official history stated that in the intermission Mayor Shurtleff went to the stage and announced GP's presence. Applause followed and GP was introduced as "the friend of the whole world." In his short remarks GP said he loved the new world as much as he did the old world. He sat down amid deafening applause. The Boston Post of June 21, 1869, stated that on Sunday, June 20, 1869, marking the close of the Festival, the Rev. William R. Alger's sermon mentioned GP's presence said that GP had done more to preserve the peace between England and the U.S. than a hundred demagogues to destroy it. Ref.: Ibid.
Peabody Institute, Danvers, July 14, 1869, Dedication; and
Peabody Institute, Peabody, July 16, 1869, Reception
Shurtleff, N.B. 3-Dedication at Danvers; Reception at Peabody. Mayor Shurtleff was one of 30 friends from Boston GP invited to attend the July 14, 1869, dedication of the Peabody Institute Library, Danvers, Mass.; and the July 16, 1869, reception at the Peabody Institute Library, Peabody, Mass. The Bostonians arrived by special train and included former Mass. Gov. William Claflin (1818-1905), U.S. Sen. Charles Sumner (1811-74), poet Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-94), GP's philanthropic advisor Robert Charles Winthrop (1809-94), former U.S. Minister to Britain Charles Francis Adams (1807-86), Alfred A. Abbott (1820-84), and others. See: persons named.
Shurtleff, N.B. 4-In Danvers, Mass.; and Peabody, Mass. This group went by carriages to the home of Francis Peabody near the boundary between the towns of Peabody and Danvers, then on to the Peabody Institute of Danvers, Mass., for more speeches. There Gov. Claflin praised GP's education gift to the South (PEF) and poet Oliver Wendell Holmes read his poem, "George Peabody," written specially for the occasion. Ref.: (Danvers, Mass., dedication, July 14, 1869; and Peabody, Mass., reception): New York Times, July 16, 1869, p. 1, c. 6; and July 20, 1869, p. 4, c. 7. Peabody Press (Peabody, Mass.), July 14, 1869, p. 2, c. 5.
Shurtleff, N.B. 5-Oliver Wendell Holmes's letter two days later to John Lothrop Motley (1814-77) told how near death GP looked, referring to GP as, "the Dives who is going to Abraham's bosom and I fear before a great while." Ref.: Ibid.
Sibley, Jane Walter (1810-91) of Sutton, Mass., who married Curtis Miranda Lampson (1806-85) in NYC on Nov. 30, 1827, became Lady Lampson when he was created a baronet (Nov. 16, 1866) for his work as a director (since 1856) and later vice chairman of the Atlantic Cable Co. (GP was also a director). See: Lampson, Lady (formerly Jane Walter Sibley of Sutton, Mass.). Lampson, Curtis Miranda.
GP & U.S. Legation in London Secty. D.E. Sickles
Sickles, Daniel Edgar (1825-1914). 1-Jingoistic U.S. Legation in London Secty. Daniel Edgar Sickles was a controversial super patriot who created an incident when, as U.S. Legation Secty., he walked out of a GP-sponsored July 4, 1854, Independence Day dinner in red-gorged anger because GP toasted Queen Victoria before toasting the U.S. president. See: Dinners, GP's, London.
Sickles, D.E. 2-GP's U.S.-British Friendship Dinners since 1850. GP had hosted U.S.-British friendship dinners in London since 1850, bringing together visiting Americans and important Britons. His most notable such friendship dinners on July 4, 1851, and on Oct. 27, 1851, in connection with the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, brought him favorable press attention (GP had lent U.S. exhibitors $15,000 to decorate the U.S. pavilion when Congress neglected to allocate funds). See: Great Exhibition of 1851, London (first world's fair).
Sickles, D.E. 3-Incoming U.S. Minister James Buchanan. The July 4, 1854, dinner was held at the Star and Garter Hotel, Richmond, eight miles from London on the Thames with incoming U.S. Minister to Britain James Buchanan (1791-1868) as guest of honor. Minister Buchanan, who had just hired Sickles as legation secretary, was born near Mercersberg, Penn., was a lawyer, served in the Penn. legislature for two terms (from 1814), was U.S. Congressman (1821-31), U.S. Minister to Russia (1832-33), U.S. Senator (1834-45), U.S. Secty. of State (1845-49), and after being U.S. Minister to Britain was the 15th U.S. President during 1857-61. See: Dinners, GP's, London.
Sickles, D.E. 4-Sickles-GP Initially Cordial. On March 23, 1854, Sickles wrote GP to reserve rooms for his wife, baby, and himself, a courtesy service George Peabody & Co. did for visiting and newly arrived Americans. GP consulted Sickles and others about his planned July 4, 1854, Independence Day banquet. Sickles suggested that it be a subscription dinner and that he, Sickles, arrange it. GP insisted on paying for the dinner as usual but let Sickles help select guests, send invitations, and help plan the entertainment. Ref.: Daniel Edgar Sickles, American Legation, London, to GP, March 23, 1854, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass. Wilson, P.W., pp. 46-47. Chapple, p. 11.
Sickles, D.E. 5-Queen Toasted Before Toast to U.S. President. Following custom, GP first toasted Queen Victoria as head of state and secondly the U.S. President. Sickles was an ultra-patriot at a time of U.S. jingoism (the U.S. had recently won the Mexican War and vast parts of the U.S. West). Sickles, enraged that the Queen should be toasted before the U.S. President (which he considered a national insult), sat while the other 149 guests stood for the two toasts. He then stormed out of the banquet. Buchanan, who had employed Sickles as legation secretary, remained; he was the guest of honor and the main banquet speaker. Ref.: Morning Advertiser (London), July 7, 1854, p. 6, c. 3-4. Daily News (London), July 7, 1854.
Sickles, D.E. 6-Sickles Attacked GP. U.S.-British press reports of Sickles' walkout were fanned to a furor when Sickles, writing anonymously in the Boston Post, July 21, 1854, p. 2, c. l (he later acknowledged authorship), attacked GP's patriotism and chided him for "toadying" to the British. One reader swayed by this charge wrote GP: "If you had a grain of national feeling you wouldn't have done it.... You are no longer fit to be called an American citizen." Ref.: Boston Post, July 21, 1854, p. 2, c. 1. Ref.: W.A.G. Rondeau, New Orleans, to GP, Aug. 3, 1854, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Sickles, D.E. 7-Pro and Con Letters in the Press. Such reaction led GP and others to send the facts to the Boston Post. Letters in the press for and against GP were published for months. Most letter writers faulted Sickles and exonerated GP. Ref.: (Sickles Affair): Boston Post, Sept. 6, 1854, p. 1, c. 5; Aug.-Nov., 1854. New York Times, Sept. 6, 1854, p. 3, c. 3-5; Sept. 7, 1854, p. 1, c. 6; Nov. 6, 1854, p. 3, c. 3-5; Nov. 28, 1854, p. 8, c. 1-2. National Intelligencer (Washington, D.C.), July-Nov. 1854; also copy in Peabody Papers, Library of Congress Ms. Sickles Affair folder, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Sickles, D.E. 8-Career. Sickles was born in NYC and attended what is now New York Univ. His controversial act as London legation secretary on July 4, 1854 was one of several mishaps in a controversial career. On Feb. 27, 1859, while serving in the U.S. Senate (1857-61), Sickles shot to death Philip Barton Key (1815-59) for alleged amorous attentions to his (Sickles') wife. Philip Barton Key (son of Francis Scott Key, 1779-1843, author of the "Star Spangled Banner") was then attorney general for the District of Columbia. Sickles was acquitted of the murder charge as of unsound mind, the first legal use in the U.S. of that defense plea. Ref.: Boatner, p. 760. Bowman, ed. Brandt, pp. 30-31. Pinchon.
Sickles, D.E. 9-Career Cont'd. In the Civil War Sickles as a Union general lost a leg at Gettysburg. As Reconstruction commander of the Carolinas during 1865-67, his treatment of former Confederates leaders was said to have been so severe that Pres. Andrew Johnson (1808-75) transferred him to another command. Sickles was U.S. Minister to Spain (1869-73), served again in the U.S. Congress, was relieved as N.Y. State Monuments Commissioner (1886-1912) for mishandling funds, helped establish Gettysburg as a national park, and helped secure the land for NYC's Central Park. Ref.: Ibid.
Sickles, D.E. 10-GP Defended. NYC friend Fitzroy wrote GP: "We are astounded that you lower yourself by a correspondence with the most contemptible of all Americans, Sickles, who was indicted by a New York Grand Jury for fraud, which indictment stands to this day." Another informant wrote GP that proof of Sickles' guilt in committing fraud was contained in letters stolen from the NYC post office by Sickles' direction. Ref.: Fitzroy, New York City, to George Peabody, Nov. 4, 1854, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass. Ref.: (Another informant): NYC informant to George Peabody, n.d., probably late 1854, Sickles Affair folder, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Sickles, D.E. 11-H.G. Somerby Defended GP. Horatio Gates Somerby (1805-72), who helped GP arrange the dinner, recorded what happened. Somerby was a Newburyport, Mass.-born genealogist working in London, and GP's friend and sometime agent. Somerby wrote: "At Mr. Peabody's request I drew up a series of toasts and submitted them to Mr. Buchanan.... [These] were returned to me as approved.... Mr. Sickles did indeed object to Englishmen being present. The Minister approved and Mr. Peabody's course was independent of Mr. Sickles' opinion." Ref.: Horatio Gates Somerby to George Peabody, Nov. 11, 1854, published in New York Times, Nov. 28, 1854, p. 8. c. 1-2.
Sickles, D.E. 12-Dinner Guests (26) Defend GP. A letter from 26 dinner guests, including Henry Barnard (1811-1900), Conn. Supt. of Common Schools (later first U.S. Commissioner of Education), read: "The undersigned have read Mr. Peabody's letter to the Boston Post of Aug. 16, 1854, and without hesitation affirm as true the events described by Mr. Peabody." Ref.: New York Times, Nov. 28, 1854, p. 8, c. 1-2.
Sickles, D.E. 13-Former Minister A. Lawrence to GP. Abbott Lawrence (1792-1855) of Boston, former U.S. Minister in London (1849-52), wrote GP: "The attack made upon you I deem unworthy of any man who professes to be a gentleman. Your misfortune was in having persons about you who were not worthy to be at your table. I had hard work to get rid of some men in England who hung about me, but cost what it would I would not permit a certain class of adventurer to approach me." Ref.: Abbott Lawrence, Boston, to GP, Nov. 1854, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Sickles, D.E. 14-Business Friend W.W. Corcoran to GP. Longtime business friend William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888) of Washington, D.C., with whom GP had helped sell U.S. bonds abroad that financed the Mexican War, wrote GP that [U.S. Minister James] "Buchanan had not the slightest respect" for Sickles but for political reasons could not reprove him. Minister Buchanan, who had a less controversial new legation secretary, wrote to Sickles: "Your refusal to rise when the Queen's health was proposed is still mentioned in society, but I have always explained and defended you." Ref.: William Wilson Corcoran to GP, no month or day, 1854, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass. Ref.: Buchanan, IX, pp. 290-291.
Sickles, D.E. 15-Cold Aftermath, 1857. Two years later, on GP's Sept. 15, 1856, to Aug. 19, 1857, U.S. visit, he was in Washington, D.C., in Jan. 1857, when Pres. Buchanan was in office. Of this Washington, D.C., visit, GP wrote to his friend Horatio Gates Somerby: "Buchanan's friends are particularly attentive to me, but I refuse any interferences to bring us together without a direct explanation from him. I met Miss [Harriet] Lane [1830-1903, Buchanan's niece and hostess in London and in the White House] who treated me with great cordiality." See: Somerby, Horatio Gates.
Sickles, D.E. 16-J.S. Morgan on Buchanan. About avoiding Pres. Buchanan, GP's partner Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-90) wrote GP from London on March 13, 1857: "Your course respecting Mr. Buchanan strikes me as just the thing. It is for you to receive him if either is to be received, but any reconciliations now would look like truckling to a man because he happens to be in power." See: Morgan, Junius Spencer.
Sickles, D.E. 17-Buchanan's Niece, Harriet Lane. James Buchanan became Harriet Lane's guardian in 1840, when she was age 10, on the death of her mother, his sister. He sent her to fine Washington, D.C., schools and had her visit the White House when he was U.S. Secty. of State (1845-49). In London, she charmed society, was a favorite of Queen Victoria, was later Pres. Buchanan's gracious hostess who brought artists and politicians together at White House dinners. She married a banker, Henry Elliott Johnston of Md., had two sons, gave her art collection to the Corcoran Art Gallery in Washington, D.C., and devoted her last years to charitable work. Ref.: Boatner, pp. 470-471. See: Buchanan, James. Lane, Harriet.
GP's Illnesses
Sickness, GP. 1-Nov. 1-25, 1827, Seasickness. GP was seasick on his first goods-buying transatlantic trip, NYC to Liverpool, England, Nov. 1-25, 1827, when he lost 15 pounds. He wrote his partner Elisha Riggs, Sr. (1779-1853), of "a very boisterous, and to me, extremely unpleasant passage.... My sufferings by Sea Sickness have been greater than you can well imagine.--It continued the whole voyage, and I did not make my appearance at Table until the last day.--I lived entirely on broth, gruel and roast potatoes,--meats I could not touch, and seldom retain on my stomach the most simple food.--had you seen me 20 days out, I was so thin, you would hardly have known me...." Ref.: GP, Liverpool, to Riggs, Peabody & Co., Nov 26, 1827, Peabody Papers, Rare Book Room, Ms Collection, Boston Public Library, Boston, Mass.
Sickness, GP. 2-April 1830-Aug. 15, 1831, Less Seasick. Less seasick on his second commercial trip, April 1830-Aug. 15, 1831, he wrote his sister Judith Dodge Peabody (1799-1879) after his return to NYC (Aug. 25, 1831): "The Ship being new and very easy I suffered much less by sickness than usual, and during most of the time was able to eat my meals with the other passengers.--My general health never was better...hard labour & the climate of England ...eradicating from my system all disposition to Bilious Fevers to which I was a few years since very subject....." Ref.: GP, NYC, to Judith Dodge Peabody, West Bradford, Mass., Aug. 25, 1831, Peabody Papers, Yale Univ.
Sickness, GP. 3-May 1832-May 11, 1834. He was seasick again on his third return trip from Liverpool to NYC (29 days), having purchased goods abroad for two years (about May 1832-May 11, 1834). He wrote sister Mary Gaines (née Peabody) Marsh (1807-34): ..."I suffered much by sea sickness but on the whole got along rather better than usual--...." Ref. GP, NYC, to Mrs. Mary Gaines (née Peabody) Marsh, Lockport, N.Y., May 11, 1834, Peabody Papers, Yale Univ., also referred to in Schuchert and LeVene, p. 71.
Sickness, GP. 4-Summer 1834, 1836. NYC's summer heat, 1834, made him ill, he wrote sister Mary Gaines (née Peabody) Marsh (June 25, 1834): "The heat of New York has made me rather bilious and I have been under the care of a physician for some days but have nearly recovered...." Soon after GP's return from his third trip abroad, his sister Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell (married lawyer Jeremiah Russell, Sept. 20, 1831), hearing there had been an outbreak of smallpox on his return ship, wrote to him in Baltimore. But instead of smallpox he had the whooping cough. Ref.: GP, NYC, to Mrs. Mary Gaines (née Peabody) Marsh, Lockport, N.Y., June 25, 1834, Peabody Papers, Yale Univ. Ref.: Mrs. Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell, New Rowley (later renamed Georgetown), Mass., to GP, Baltimore, Feb. 10, June 20, July 23, 1836, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Sickness, GP. 5-June 1850. In the summer of 1850 GP in London was busy socially with visiting U.S. friends. These included William and Elise Tiffany, son and daughter of Baltimore friend Osmond Capron Tiffany (1794-1851). They planned a tour of Scotland with GP. But GP could not accompany them, being sick part of June 1850 with gout and rheumatism, ailments which were to increase with the years. Elise Tiffany wrote to GP from Glasgow, Scotland (July 3, 1850): "How is it that you cannot walk across the room?" Ref.: Elise Tiffany, Glasgow, Scotland, to GP, July 3, [1850], Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Sickness, GP. 6-1856-57 U.S. Visit. During his Sept. 15, 1856, to Aug. 19, 1857, U.S. visit, GP had gout attacks while visiting Toronto and Montreal, Canada (Oct. 15-Nov. 1, 1856); was sick in Nov. 1856 when he visited his youngest (and then only living) brother Jeremiah Peabody's (1805-77) family in Zanesville, Ohio; and then went on to Cleveland to visit his friend, Episcopal Bishop of Ohio Charles Pettit McIlvaine (1799-1873). On GP's return to NYC Nov. 27, 1856, he was sick and confined to bed for 13 days at the St. Nicholas Hotel. Ref (GP's visit to Ohio is mentioned in): Junius Spencer Morgan to GP, Nov. 1, 1856, Pierpont Morgan Library, NYC.
Sickness, GP. 7-1858. GP had frequent gout attacks the last months of 1858. These attacks often came at night with an intense burning, wrenching pain. The joints of his arms and legs were often inflamed. Sometimes the pain was in the ball of his great toe or other small joint, usually accompanied by fever, incapacitating him so that he could only get about on crutches. He was told he had an acidic condition in his blood. Diet and fresh air exercise were the prescribed treatment. After his partnership with Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-90), from Oct. 1, 1854, he took frequent trips away from London to the warm sun in Southern France or Italy, or to fish for salmon in Scotland. Ref (GP's late 1858 illness mentioned in): Joseph Peabody, NYC, to GP, Dec. 20, 1859, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Sickness, GP. 8-1859. In March 1859, away from London, GP wrote to Washington, D.C., business friend William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888): "I have been a great sufferer by rheumatic gout in my knees and arms, as also my right hand, for several months. I have been here for three weeks for the benefit of the waters, and may remain a fortnight longer. I am now quite well, except my right hand, which is painful when I write...." Ref GP to William Wilson Corcoran, March 22, 1859, Corcoran Papers, VII, Accession Nos. 8279 and 8280, Library of Congress Ms, also quoted in Corcoran, p. 178.
Sickness, GP. 9-1859 Cont'd. Crippled with gout in 1859, GP sought relief at Harrogate, a borough in West Riding, Yorkshire, Northern England, favored as a health resort for its dry climate, bracing uplands draft, and more than 80 springs. Sometimes he went to a health spa at Aix-La-Chapelle, Germany. His friend W.S. Stell wanted him to move to a more airy apartment near Hyde Park and ride horseback for exercise and fresh air. April and May 1859 were two bad months of illness. Ref Bill for lodgings, 15 Cork St., Harrogate, Ben. A. Richards to GP, July 2, 1859, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass. Ref (Spa at Aix-La-Chapelle, Germany, mentioned in): Elisha Riggs, Jr., Paris, to GP, May 30, June 16, 1859, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Sickness, GP. 10-July 1860, 1862-63. At age 65 GP put health before business. With George Peabody & Co. safely cared for by business partner J.S. Morgan, GP stayed away from London for long periods at a Brighton seaside resort or resting and fishing in the Scottish Highlands. In 1862-63, amid business and illness, GP was also worried by U.S.-British frictions, such as the Nov. 8, 1861 Trent Affair (illegal Union seizure of Confederate agents from a British mail ship which created near-war U.S.-British tension). Ref.: Schuchert and LeVene, p. 42.
Sickness, GP. 11-July 1860, 1862-63 Cont'd. He and his trustees postponed to March 12, 1862, announcement of his gift of low rent apartments for London's working poor, uncertain if the English public would accept, spurn, or be indifferent. Happily, press reports were enthusiastic. GP, resting in Bath, England, when he received London press clippings, wrote his friend and sometime agent Horatio Gates Somerby (1805-72): "I had not the least conception it would cause so much excitement over the country." Ref.: GP, York Hotel, Bath, to Horatio Somerby, [probably late March 1862], Somerby Papers, Mass. Historical Society.
Sickness, GP. 12-Jan. 1869. In Jan. 1869 GP had what his doctors called a "gouty cough." He lost appetite, was weak, and writing was impossible. He dictated a letter to Washington, D.C., business friend William Wilson Corcoran: "I have long intended to write to you, but the state of my health...from a gouty cough...loss of appetite, and prostration of strength...[has] rarely enabled me to write a note legibly...." He recovered slowly, knew his time was running out, and wanting to put his U.S. philanthropies in better order, determined to make what was his last U.S. visit. Ref.: GP, London, to William Wilson Corcoran, Jan. 22, 1869, Corcoran Papers, VI, Accession Nos. 10380 and 10381, Library of Congress Ms., also quoted in Corcoran, pp. 292-293.
Sickness, GP. 13-Last U.S. Visit, June 8-Sept. 29, 1869. A greatly weakened GP arrived on the Scotia, NYC, June 8, 1869; saw family and friends; was cared for by Boston's Dr. Putnam; visited and was applauded at the mid-June Boston Peace Jubilee and Music Festival; doubled to $2 million his PEF (June 29, 1869); added $45,000 to the Peabody Institute, Danvers, Mass. (July 14, 1869, total $100,000); gave $50,000 more to the Peabody Institute, Peabody, Mass. (Sept. 13, 1869, total $217,000); added $400,000 to the PIB (Sept. 22, 1869, total $1.4 million); and went by special railroad car to join friend W.W. Corcoran at White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. (July 23-Aug. 30, 1869). See: Death and Funeral, GP's. Visits to the U.S. by GP.
Sickness, GP. 14-Friends' Last Comments. Poet Oliver Wendell Homes (1809-94), who read his poem, "George Peabody," to dignitaries at the dedication of the Peabody Institute Library, Danvers, Mass. (July 16, 1869), two days later described GP as "the Dives who is going to Abraham's bosom and I fear before a great while...." Episcopal Bishop of Ohio Charles Pettit McIlvaine wrote to PEF Trustee Pres. Robert Charles Winthrop (1809-94): "[His] cough is terrible, and I have no expectation of his living a year.…" Ref.: Ibid. See: Corcoran, William Wilson.
Sickness, GP. 15-Last Hurrah. Resting in his cottage, White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. (July 23-Aug. 30, 1869), GP yet roused himself to hear resolutions of praise for the PEF read in his presence to a crowd at the "Old White" hotel parlor (July 27, 1869); heard from his cottage merrymakers at a "Peabody Ball" held in his honor (Aug. 11, 1869); met, talked, walked arm-in-arm, and was photographed with Robert E. Lee (1807-70), then president of Washington College, renamed Washington and Lee Univ., 1871, and others; gave Lee's college Va. bonds which when redeemed with accrued interest totaled $60,000 for a mathematics professorship (Sept. 1869); left the springs by train (Aug. 30, 1869), Lee riding a short distance with him; recorded his last will (Sept. 9, 1869), arranged for his burial, left on the Scotia (Sept. 29, 1869), hurried to longtime friend Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson's (1806-85) London home, where he suffered his last fatal illness. Ref.: Ibid.
Sickness, GP. 16-Last Illness, England. GP reached Queenstown (now Cobh), Ireland, Oct. 8, 1869, and hurried to London. Gravely ill, he rested at the home of long-time business friend Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson, 80 Eaton Sq., London. The London Anglo-American Times, Oct. 23, 1869, reported: "Mr. Peabody has been lying all week very ill at 80, Eaton Square, where he had stopped, on his way to the south of France, to consult Dr. Gull [Sir William Withey Gull, M.D., 1816-99]. There has been no improvement, and the latest report was that, though easier on Thursday night, his condition remained the same. Every one, from the Queen downward, has been making inquiries about the eminent American philanthropist." See: Death & Funeral, GP's.
Sickness, GP. 17-U.S. Legation in London Secty. Benjamin Moran. On Oct. 17, 1869, the fast sinking philanthropist sent his friend and sometime agent, Newburyport, Mass.-born London resident genealogist Horatio Gates Somerby (1805-72), to ask U.S. Legation in London Secty. Benjamin Moran (1820-86) to call on him. Moran's journal entry (Oct. 27, 1869): "Horatio G. Somerby came and said Mr. Peabody wished to see me. I promised to call and sent the old man my regards. But Somerby did not know how ill the old man is. The Times of to-day says he is in a dangerous state and Mr. Motley [John Lothrop, 1814-77] tells me he is really dying. A few hours must close his earthly career. Considering that Mr. Somerby is Peabody's private Secretary it is very, very odd that he did not know of his dangerous state.... I afterwards called at Mr. Peabody's and found him better." Ref.: Ibid.
GP & Queen Victoria
Sickness, GP. 18-Queen Victoria Invited GP to Visit Windsor Castle. After learning of GP's return to London and before she knew of his precarious condition, Queen Victoria asked her privy councilor Arthur Helps (1813-75) to invite GP to visit her at Windsor Castle. Helps transmitted the Queen's message to Sir Curtis Lampson on Oct. 30: "Regarding Mr. Peabody, the Queen thinks the best way would be for her to ask him down to Windsor for one or two nights, where he could rest--and need not come to dinner, or any meals if he feels unequal to it; but where she could see him quietly at any time of the day most convenient to him." Ref.: Ibid.
Sickness, GP. 19-Queen Victoria's Invitation Sent to Lampson. Helps added in his cover letter to Lampson: "You will be the best judge whether this should be mentioned to Mr. Peabody, and, if you think it should, will doubtless choose a favorable time for doing so." Helps concluded with: "Hoping to hear a better account of our good friend's health today...." Ref.: Ibid.
Reports on GP’s Health, 1869
Sickness, GP. 20-Press Health Reports, 1869. The English press carried daily reports on GP's condition: The London Times, Oct. 27, 1869, p. 7, c. 3, announced that GP was dangerously ill. Edinburgh Scotsman, Oct. 28, 1869, p. 8: "Mr. Peabody, who was reported seriously ill at Eaton Square, is said to be slightly better according to the latest report although he continues very weak." London Times, Oct. 29, 1869, p. 7, c. 2: "George Peabody is rather more comfortable but still continues seriously ill." Edinburgh Scotsman, Oct. 29, 1869, p. 8: "At a late hour on Wednesday night [Oct. 27] the answer to inquiries was that Mr. Peabody had somewhat rallied, but that no hopes were entertained of his recovery. Dr. [William Withey] Gull [M.D., 1816-99] and Mr. [William H.] Covey [medical attendant] are among the medical attendants who have visited the great philanthropist since his return from America a little more than a fortnight ago." Ref.: Ibid.
Sickness, GP. 21-Death. GP died Thursday, Nov. 4, 1869, 11:30 P.M. See: Death & Funeral, GP's, for several deathbed accounts, death certificate, Westminster Abbey funeral service, and subsequent British-U.S. transatlantic funeral honors to his final eulogy and burial.
Silliman, Benjamin, Jr. (1816-85), under his father, Benjamin Silliman, Sr., head of Yale's chemistry department (below), taught GP's nephew Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-99) at Yale's graduate Sheffield Scientific School. When Marsh learned that his uncle planned a gift to Harvard Univ., he consulted the Sillimans and through their advice influenced his uncle GP to found the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard Univ. (Oct. 8, 1866), the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale Univ. (Oct. 22, 1866), each with $150,000; and what is now the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass. (Feb. 27, 1867), $l40,000. See: Marsh, Othniel Charles. Institutions named. Science: GP's Gifts to Science and Science Education.
Silliman, Benjamin, Sr. (1779-1864), was born in Conn., was a Yale College graduate and Yale chemistry professor. With his son, Benjamin Silliman, Jr. (above), also a Yale chemistry professor, he counseled Yale student Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-99), who influenced his uncle GP to found three science museums: the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard (Oct. 8, 1866), the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale (Oct. 22, 1866), each $150,000, and what is now the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass, $140,000, 1867. See: Ibid.
Simplon Pass, Alps, between Switzerland and Italy, 6,589 feet high, was crossed by GP (May 1, 1831) on his second European dry goods buying trip. See: Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell Daniels (GP's sister).
Slade, William (1817-1901), was U.S. Consul in Nice, France, whom GP consulted about the order of toasts and protocol when in mid-March 1863, he gave a lavish dinner and concert in honor of the marriage of the Prince of Wales (Albert Edward, 1841-1910, reigned as King Edward VII, 1901-l0). Attending this dinner, besides William Slade, were King Louis (Ludwig) of Bavaria (1786-1868), British jurist and MP Lord Brougham [Henry Peter Brougham, 1778-1868], The affair was expensive, one bill being 12,000 francs. Listed in U.S. Dept. of State records as from Ohio, William Slade was Commissioner, Paris Universal Exhibition, 1867; and U.S. Consul, Brussels, 1885. Woodland Cemetery, Cleveland, Ohio, records list his death as Sept. 26, 1901, age 84. For U.S. Legation in London Secty. Benjamin Moran's criticism of this dinner, see Moran, Benjamin. Nice, France.
Slater Fund, John F. (1882-1937). Philanthropist John Fox Slater (1815-84) publicly acknowledged GP's example in creating the $1 million Slater Fund for Negro Education in the South. Johns Hopkins Univ. Pres. Daniel Coit Gilman (1831-1908), who was a trustee of both the PEF and Slater funds, credited GP's example with influencing the principles of the John F. Slater Fund (1882-1937), John D. Rockefeller's General Education Board (1902-62), the Andrew Carnegie foundations, and the Russell Sage Foundation (1907-46). Gilman wrote: "Mr. George Peabody began this line of modern beneficence.... Almost if not quite all of these foundations have been based on principles that were designated by Mr. Peabody." See: PEF.
Slavery, U.S. South. N.Y. state political leader Thurlow Weed's (1797-1882) "The Late George Peabody: a Vindication of his Course During the Civil War," New York Times, Dec. 23, 1869, p. 2, c. 3-4, quoted what GP said to him (Nov. 1861) about slavery in the South (in part): "The business years of my life, as you know, were spent in Georgetown, District of Columbia, and in Baltimore. My private sympathies while in England have been against the institution of slavery. But during these many years of excitement on that subject I regarded the extremists of both sides as equally mischievous. This view made me think that extreme men were alike enemies of the Union." See: Civil War and GP. Weed, Thurlow.
Slave Trade Reparations and GP. See: Peabody, George (1795-1869), Critics-18-32.
Trent Affair
Slidell, John (1793-1871). 1-Confederates Seeking Arms, Aid, Abroad. Confederate emissaries John Slidell (La.), James Murray Mason (1798-1871, Va.), and their male secretaries, bound for England and France for arms, aid, and recognition, were on the British mail steamer Trent when, on Nov. 8, 1861, the captain of the Union warship San Jacinto illegally stopped the Trent, forcibly removed the four Confederates, and jailed them in Boston Harbor's Fort Warren prison. Britain and France were furious, the U.S. North exultant. Amid angers and threats of war, GP and his trustees in London postponed announcing his gift of apartments for London's working poor ($2.5 million total, announced March 12, 1862), fearing that the British government, press, and public might reject his gift. See: Trent Affair. Peabody Homes of London. Persons, ships, and topics mentioned.
Slidell, John. 2-Career. Britain demanded release of the four prisoners and an explanation. U.S. jingoism calmed. Pres. Lincoln's cabinet met Dec. 26, 1861, disavowed the seizure of the Trent, and the four Confederates were released on Jan. 1, 1862. John Slidell was born in NYC, was a graduate of Columbia College (1810), became a lawyer in New Orleans, represented La. in the U.S. House of Representatives (1843-45); was appointed U.S. Minister to Mexico; was U.S. Senator (La., 1852-61); and was a Confederate diplomat when taken off the Trent with James M. Mason. Slidell did not succeed in getting aid for the Confederacy while in France. Ref.: Ibid.
Slidell, Mrs. Matilde or Matilda (née Deslonde) (d. 1870), was with her husband John Slidell (above) when he was arrested. See: Trent Affair.
Smith, Edmund Kirby (1824-93). 1-Univ. of Nashville Chancellor. Edmund Kirby Smith was a Confederate general and chancellor of the Univ. of Nashville during 1872-75, when its charter was amended to convert its moribund Literary Dept. into State Normal School (1875-89), renamed Peabody Normal College (1889-1911), rechartered as GPCFT (1914-79), rechartered as PCofVU (since July 1, 1979). See: PCofVU, history of. Conkin, Peabody College, index.
Smith, E.K. 2-Career. E.K. Smith was born in St. Augustine, Fla., graduated from West Point (1845), where he later taught mathematics, was cited for gallantry in the Mexican War, fought Indians on the frontier, resigned the U.S. Army, was the last Confederate general to surrender, was the Univ. of Nashville chancellor, and taught mathematics at the Univ. of the South, Sewanee, Tenn. (1875-93). Ref.: Boatner, pp. 769-771.
Smith, John Gregory (1818-91), former Vt. governor, provided GP with a special Vermont Central Line car for GP's trip to Montreal, Canada, July 1866. Gov. Smith, born in St. Albans, Vt., was a businessman, lawyer, Vt. state senator (1858-59), and Vt. state representative (1860-62, Speaker of the Vt. House, 1862). Ref.: Cox.
Md. Historical Society Reception, Jan. 30, 1857
Smith, John Spear (c1790-1866). 1-GP's 1856-57 U.S. Visit. John Spear Smith was the Md. Historical Society president who presided at the Jan. 30, 1857, MHS reception for GP in the picture gallery, Athenaeum Building, Saratoga and St. Paul Streets, Baltimore. This reception occurred during GP's Sept. 15, 1856, to Aug. 19, 1857, U.S. visit, his first return to the U.S. after nearly 20 years' absence in London (since Feb. 1837). He was honored and fêted in his hometown, South Danvers, Mass. (Oct. 9, 1857) and elsewhere including Baltimore, where public receptions were held for him by the Md. Historical Society (Jan. 30, 1857) and by the Md. Institute for the Promotion of Mechanic Arts (Feb. 2, 1857). These were followed by favorable publicity accompanying publication of his Feb. 12, 1857, letter founding the PIB. See: organizations mentioned. Visits to the U.S. by GP.
Smith, J.S. 2-Why GP Was So Honored. GP had lived, worked, and made many friends in Baltimore for 22 years, 1815-37, ages 20-42 (junior partner, Riggs, Peabody & Co., 1814-29; senior partner in its successor Peabody, Riggs & Co., 1829-48). He had made good as a London-based American banker; had sold many of Md.'s $8 million bonds abroad to promote the Chesapeake & Ohio, the B&O RR, and other internal improvements. He had upheld Md.'s credit abroad after the financial Panic of 1837 when nine states, including Md., had been forced temporarily to stop interest payments on their bonds. See: Md.'s $8 Million Bond Sale Abroad and GP.
Smith, J.S. 3-Why GP Was So Honored Cont'd. The NYC Courier & Enquirer’s London correspondent had written: "...The energetic influence of the Anti-Repudiators would never have been heard in England had not Mr. George Peabody...made it part of his duty to give to the holders of the Bonds every information in his power, and to point out...the certainty of Maryland resuming [payment].... He...had the moral courage to tell his countrymen the contempt [because of repudiation] with which all Americans were viewed.... [He is] a merchant of high standing...but also an uncompromising denouncer of chicanery in every shape." On March 7, 1848, both houses of the Md. legislature had voted him unanimous praise, sent to him by Md. Gov. Philip Francis Thomas (1810-90), who added in his cover letter: "To you, sir,…the thanks of the State are eminently due." Ref.: Ibid.
Smith, J.S. 4-Introduced by MHS Pres. J.S. Smith. This appreciation, plus advance knowledge of his forthcoming Feb. 12, 1857, PIB gift ($1.4 million total), helps explain GP's warm receptions in Baltimore, particularly by the Md. Historical Society trustees on Jan. 30, 1857. MHS Pres. Smith introduced GP to members he did not know. He then initiated the speeches that followed by introducing Md. Historical Society founder and first president, the lawyer John Hazlehurst Boneval Latrobe (1803-91). Founder Latrobe's speech was the first of several that evening that praised GP for saving Md.'s credit abroad during and after the Panic of 1837. See: Md. Historical Society.
Smith, J.S. 5-Career. John Spear Smith, born in Baltimore, was secretary of the U.S. Legation at London and chargé d'affaires, 1811; acted as aide-de-camp to his father, Gen. Samuel Smith, in Baltimore's defense in the War of 1812; was judge of the orphans' court; and a presidential elector, 1833. Ref.: "Smith, John Spear," Vol. V, p. 588.
Smithson, James (1765-1829), was a British philanthropist who left funds in his will to found the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Philanthropists James Smithson and Stephen Girard (1750-1831) were mentioned in resolutions of praise Americans aboard the Scotia read to GP, May 9, 1867. See: Forney, John Wien. Girard, Stephen Girard. Visit to the U.S. by GP.
GP & Arctic Exploration
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 1-Aided Search for Lost British Explorer Sir John Franklin. The Smithsonian Institution, the Geographical Society of New York, and the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia all gave some aid to the Second U.S. Grinnell Expedition's (1853-55) search for missing British Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin (1786-1847). NYC merchant Henry Grinnell (1799-1874) gave two ships, the 144-ton Advance and the 91-ton Rescue. U.S. Navy Secty. John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870) authorized 10 U.S. naval volunteers and placed the two ships under the command of U.S. Navy Capt. Elisha Kent Kane, M.D. (1820-57), who had been the U.S. Naval medical officer during the First U.S. Grinnell Expedition, 1850-52. See: persons, ships, and topics mentioned.
Smithsonian Institution. 2-GP Gave $10,000 for Scientific Equipment. U.S. Navy backing made the expedition one of scientific exploration, the first U.S. exploration in the Arctic. Because GP gave $10,000 for scientific equipment, Peabody Bay off Greenland was named for him. His motivation was to promote British-U.S. cooperation by aiding Lady Jane Franklin (1792-1875) in her appeal to the U.S. President and the U.S. Congress to find her lost husband. Ref.: Ibid.
Social Religious Building, PCofVU (renamed Faye and Joe Wyatt Center, PCofVU, 1993-96). See: PCofVU. Conkin, Peabody College, index.
Society for Improving the Conditions of the Laboring Classes. This London-based Society's 1851 book described the block of model housing for the poor built at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London by Henry Roberts at the suggestion of Queen Victoria's husband Albert of Saxe-Co-burg-Gotha (Prince Albert, 1819-61). These preceded the Peabody Homes of London. See: Peabody Homes of London.
GP & Genealogist H.G. Somerby
Somerby, Horatio Gates (1805-72). 1-U.S.-Born Genealogist. Horatio Gates Somerby, a London resident genealogist, longtime friend and GP's sometime agent, was born in Newburyport, Mass. He left school at about age sixteen to study painting in Boston, in Troy, N.Y., and then went back to Boston (he was listed in a Boston directory during 1832-40 and 1840-45). Ref.: Appleton, pp. 132-138 (has full length photo of H.G. Somerby, facing p. 132).
Somerby, H.G. 2-Helped Arrange GP's Dinners. Somerby first went to England in June 1846 aboard the Mediator from NYC to visit his family's ancestral home in England at Little Bytham, Somerby Village, Lincoln County. This short visit determined his later career as a genealogist in London. He earned his living tracing the English ancestry of important Americans, including a genealogical search of the Peabody family for GP. He sometimes helped arrange GP's U.S.-British friendship dinners. Ref.: Ibid. See: Dinners, GP's, London.
Somerby, H.G. 3-July 4, 1854, Dinner. Somerby helped arrange GP's July 4, 1854, Independence Day dinner for 150 distinguished U.S. and British guests at the Star and Garter Hotel, Richmond, eight miles from London on the Thames. Incoming U.S. Minister to Britain James Buchanan (1791-1868, later 15th U.S. president during 1857-61) was guest of honor and speaker. The dinner was marred when new U.S. Legation Secty. Daniel Edgar Sickles (1825-1914), a super patriot, refused to stand with the 149 others and walked out in red-gorged anger because GP, as was the custom, first toasted Queen Victoria before toasting the U.S. President. See: Dinners, GP's, London. Sickles, Daniel Edgar.
Somerby, H.G. 4-Sickles Attacked GP in the Press. It was a time of U.S. jingoism. The U.S. had recently won the Mexican War and had acquired vast parts of the West. U.S.-British press reports of Sickles' walkout were fanned by Sickles' letter, published in the Boston Post (July 21, 1854, p. 2, c. l), attacking GP for lacking patriotism and for "toadying" to the British. One reader swayed by this charge wrote GP: "If you had a grain of national feeling you wouldn't have done it.... You are no longer fit to be called an American citizen." Such reaction led GP and other dinner guests to send the facts to the Boston Post. Most pro and con letters in the press, published for months, faulted Sickles and exonerated GP. Ref.: Ibid.
Somerby, H.G. 5-Somerby's Part in the Dinner. Horatio Gates Somerby described his part in the dinner: "At Mr. Peabody's request I drew up a series of toasts and submitted them to Mr. Buchanan.....[These] were returned to me as approved.... Mr. Sickles did indeed object to Englishmen being present. The Minister approved and Mr. Peabody's course was independent of Mr. Sickles' opinion." Ref.: Ibid.
Somerby, H.G. 6-Corcoran to GP. Washington, D.C., business friend William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888) wrote GP that [U.S. Minister James] "Buchanan had not the slightest respect" for Sickles but for political reasons could not reprove him. Buchanan, who employed a new legation secretary, wrote to Sickles: "Your refusal to rise when the Queen's health was proposed is still mentioned in society, but I have always explained and defended you." Ref.: Ibid.
Somerby, H.G. 7-GP Avoided Pres. Buchanan, 1857. Two years later, on GP's Sept. 15, 1856, to Aug. 19, 1857, U.S. visit, he was in Washington, D.C., in Jan. 1857, avoided Pres. Buchanan, and wrote to Somerby: "Buchanan's friends are particularly attentive to me, but I refuse any interferences to bring us together without a direct explanation from him. I met Miss [Harriet] Lane [1830-1903, James Buchanan's niece] who treated me with great cordiality." GP's partner Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-90) wrote GP from London on March 13, 1857: "Your course respecting Mr. Buchanan strikes me as just the thing. It is for you to receive him if either is to be received, but any reconciliations now would look like truckling to a man because he happens to be in power." Ref.: Ibid.
Somerby, H.G. 8-Somerby to GP from Boston, 1862. Somerby, in Boston on a U.S. visit in Oct. 1862, wrote to GP of Civil War disturbances. He had listened to anti-southern speeches at Faneuil Hall, Boston, Oct. 6, 1862, by U.S. Sen. (from Mass.) Charles Sumner (1811-74) and by George Francis Train (1829-1904). G.F. Train, a Boston-born financier of city railway lines, rabidly anti-southern and anti-British, had attacked GP in the press following GP's March 12, 1862, gift establishing low rent housing for London's working poor (1862, $2.5 million total). Somerby described Train as an activist demonstrator who had fought with the Boston police and been led handcuffed to jail. Ref.: (Boston, 1862): Horatio Gates Somerby, Boston, to GP, Oct., 7, 1862, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass. See: persons named.
Somerby, H.G. 9-Helped GP's Nephew, 1864. GP's nephew, Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-99), studying paleontology at the German universities of Berlin, Heidelberg, and Breslau (at GP's expense), had collected a science library and fossils collection in Europe. GP arranged with H.G. Somerby to ship Marsh's library (cost $5,000) and fossils (weighing 2.5 tons) to Marsh at Yale, where he became the first U.S. professor of paleontology and the second such professor in the world. See: Marsh, Othniel Charles.
Somerby, H.G. 10-Nephew Influenced GP Toward Science. Through Marsh's influence GP founded the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard Univ. (Oct. 8, 1866), the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale Univ. (Oct. 22, 1866), $150,000 each; and what is now the Peabody Essex Museum (Feb. 26, 1867, $140,000), a museum of maritime history and Essex County historical materials, Salem, Mass. See: Science: GP's Gifts to Science and Science Education.
Somerby, H.G. 11-GP's Death, 1869. GP reached London (Oct. 8, 1869) from his last U.S. visit (June 8 to Sept. 29, 1869) and lay gravely ill at the 80 Eaton Sq. (London) home of business friend Sir Curtis Lampson (1806-85). On Oct. 27, from his sickbed, GP asked Horatio Gates Somerby to call on U.S. Legation Secty. Benjamin Moran (1820-86) to ask Moran to visit the dying philanthropist. See: Death and Funeral, GP's. Persons named.
Somerby, H.G. 12-GP's Death, 1869 Cont'd. Benjamin Moran recorded in his journal: "Horatio G. Somerby came and said Mr. Peabody wished to see me. I promised to call and sent the old man my regards. But Somerby did not know how ill the old man is. The Times of to-day says he is in a dangerous state and Mr. Motley [U.S. Minister John Lothrop Motley, 1814-77] says he is really dying. A few hours must close his earthly career. Considering that Mr. Somerby is Peabody's private Secretary it is very, very odd that he did not know of his dangerous state.... I afterwards called at Mr. Peabody's and found him better." But GP died Nov. 4, 1869. Ref.: Ibid.
Somerby, H.G. 13-Moran on Somerby. Moran, invariably critical in his private journal, recorded an earlier visit from Somerby (Feb. 17, 1860): "We were honored to-day with he presence of His Majesty Horatio Somerby, Esq.[, t]he American whose business it is to discover the genealogy of New Englanders. The insolent fellow wanted to see Mr. D. [U.S. Minister George Mifflin Dallas, 1792-1864] & I kept him uncomfortably for about 15 minutes…." Ref.: Wallace and Gillespie, eds., I, p. 640.
Somerset House, London. The General Register Office, Somerset House, London, has GP's official death certificate 277, stating that he died on Nov. 4, 1869, at the London home of longtime business friend Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson (1806-84), 80 Eaton Sq., Belgrave District, Middlesex County, and other brief facts on the short official form. The death certificate information was supplied by Simon Winter, mentioned in news accounts of the time as GP's valet (manservant). A news account of GP's July 23 to Aug. 30, 1869, visit to White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., mentioned GP and a manservant, who may or may not have been Simon Winter. GP, who previously had no servant, needed help in his last gravely ill months of life. See: Death and Funeral, GP's. Winter, Simon.
Somerville, Henderson Middleton (1837-1915), was a PEF trustee (from 1890). Born in Madison County, Va., he was educated at the Univ. of Ala. (B.A., 1856, M.A., 1859), Cumberland Law School (LL.B., 1859), and received honorary degrees from Georgetown, Ky. College (LL.D., 1886), Southwestern Univ., Tenn. (LL.D., 1887), and the Univ. of Ala. (LL.D., 1887). He was editor of the Memphis Appeal (TN) (1859-62), was lecturer, Univ. of Ala. Law School (1873-90), and was Ala. Supreme Court Assoc. Justice (1880-90). Ref.: "Somerville."
South America. GP's younger and improvident brother Thomas Peabody (1801-35) sometimes worked for Riggs, Peabody & Co. (1814-29). In 1830 he worked as bookkeeper to the agent for Alsop, Wetmore & Co., Lima, Peru. Soon after GP's May 1, 1832, departure for his third European buying trip, Thomas was ill in Lima, Peru, gave up his job, and worked his way to the U.S. as ship's clerk. Other misadventures followed. Younger sister Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell (1799-1879) wrote GP in Europe, Aug. 23, 1835, news of brother Thomas's tragic death (details not known), referring to their "poor misguided brother." See: Peabody, Thomas.
South Carolina. See: Peabody, George (1795-1869), Named Institutions, Firms, Buildings, Ships, Other Facilities, Music, & Poems Named for GP. P.,G.: ...Named for GP. 23-Peabody Building, Winthrop University, Rock Hill, S.C.
South Congregational Church, Peabody, Mass. GP's final funeral service was held at South Congregational Church, Peabody, Mass. See: Death and Funeral, GP's. Winthrop, Robert Charles.
South Danvers, Mass. GP's birthplace was first named Brooksby, a village in 1626, which became known as Salem Village, then Danvers (1752-1855), then South Danvers (1855-68), and was renamed Peabody, Mass., on April 13, 1868. See: Peabody, Mass.
South Danvers, Mass., Centennial Celebration, June 16, 1852. GP in London was invited but could not attend the June 16, 1852, 100th anniversary of the separation of his hometown of Danvers from Salem, Mass. Instead he sent a letter from London, May 26, 1852, with funds for his first Peabody Institute Library (total gift $217,600) and a motto: "Education: a debt due from present to future generations." See: Corcoran, William Wilson.
GP Celebration, Oct. 9, 1856, South Danvers, Mass.
South Danvers, Mass., Oct. 9, 1856, GP Celebration. 1-Arrival NYC. After nearly 20 years' absence in London (since Feb. 1837) GP arrived in NYC Sept. 15, 1856, on the Atlantic from Liverpool. Delegations from Boston, NYC, and North and South Danvers greeted him at the landing dock and each offered him a public welcome. GP graciously thanked them and explained that he was obliged to give preference to the celebration planned for him at his hometown (South Danvers) on Oct. 9, 1856. His sister Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell (1799-1879) had alerted him while still in London that South Danvers people had voted $3,000 for a public welcome for him, that they "will be extremely disappointed if they do not do much more than anybody else and do it first. They are tenacious of their right to you." Ref.: (Sister Judith): Mrs. Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell to GP, Sept. 10 and 22, 1856. Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass. See: Abbott, Alfred Amos.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 2-Gala Occasion. Early Thursday, Oct. 9, 1856, a perfect New England Fall day, GP left his sister Judith's home in Georgetown, Mass. The carriage with GP, sister Judith, and her son George Peabody Russell (1835-1909), reached South Danvers, Mass., decorated with U.S. and British flags. At the Maple St. Church GP was greeted by gun salutes, by the committee on arrangements, and by banners reading: "Welcome," "He Has Honored Us Abroad, We Honor Him at Home," "Peabody, We Bid You Welcome," and "Honor the Pacificator of Nations." Bands played and school children marched by the platform built for the occasion in front of the Peabody Institute building. Visiting dignitaries and a crowd estimated at over 20,000 attended the festivities and listened to the speeches. Ref.: Broadside announcing "Peabody Reception...Thursday, October 9th, 1856....A Public Dinner..." Internet http://www.peabody.harvard.edu/archives/broadside.html (seen by authors Aug. 14, l999).
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 3-Cast as a Hero. GP was cast as a small town New England Yankee hero. Locals were proud that one of their own, born poor and against all odds, had become a successful London banker; had won praise abroad for promoting U.S.-British friendship; and had endowed a Peabody Institute Library in his hometown. He had won some national notoriety when, after the Panic of 1837, he stood publicly against Repudiation (i.e., nine states stopped interest payments on their bonds abroad, causing European investors to disdain all Americans). He publicly urged resumption of payments retroactively and 10 years later, 1848, was vindicated when the Md. legislature and governor praised him for saving its credit abroad. See: Md.'s $8 Million Bond Sale Abroad and GP.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 4-Cast as a Hero Cont'd. Many appreciated his hospitality to U.S. visitors passing through London; knew of and appreciated his U.S.-British friendship dinners held on the Fourth of July and at other times. It was known that, unasked, he lent $15,000 (without guarantee of repayment) so that U.S. exhibitors could show to best advantage U.S. products and arts to over six million visitors at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, the first world's fair. Also known was his $10,000 gift for scientific equipment for the Second U.S. Grinnell Exhibition (1853-55) to search for lost Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin (1786-1847). See: Dinners, GP's, London. Great Exhibition of 1851, London (the first world's fair). Franklin, Sir John.
Alfred Amos Abbott on GP
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 5-Alfred Amos Abbott. The welcoming address was given by Essex County dignitary Alfred Amos Abbott (1820-84) A.A. Abbott was born in Andover, Mass., studied at Phillips Academy, Andover, entered Yale College (1837), graduated from Union College (1841), received the LL.B. degree from the Dane Law School, Harvard Univ. (1843), was admitted to the Essex County bar (1844), was a lawyer in South Danvers, served in the Mass. lower house (1850-52), served in the Mass. Senate (1853), was district attorney for Essex County (1853-68), and was appointed and then twice elected Clerk of the Courts (1870-84). A.A. Abbott chaired the Peabody Institute lyceum and library committee (1854-58), was a trustee (from 1858), and president of the board of trustees (1859-84). Ref.: Abbott, pp. 795-796.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 6-Alfred Amos Abbott Speech. Albert Amos Abbott said (in part): "On behalf of Danvers and South Danvers I greet you all. We share with many in general respect for Mr. George Peabody's public character and private virtues. We admire his long career of patient, persevering, successful efforts, his patriotic pride, his vindication of his country's credit, and his bonds of friendship between two kindred nations." Ref.: Ibid. Proceedings...Reception and Dinner...GP...Danvers, October 9, 1856, pp. 39-44.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 7-Alfred Amos Abbott Speech Cont'd.: "Here was his home. Here he passed his youth. Here were his school and playmates, some of whom today are present. From here he went forth to broader fields of endeavor. His life and career have been a part of this town. He always remembered us. When local pride needed aid to erect the Lexington Monument he remembered us. When this town established two high schools he remembered them with prize medals." Ref.: Ibid.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 8-Alfred Amos Abbott Speech Cont'd.: "When Danvers celebrated its centennial he sent us a noble sentiment--education is a debt due from present to future generations. He paid his share and doubled the endowment of the institution before us. "For this we seek to honor him. Denying all other celebrations, he came back to his own. There he stands, our benefactor and friend. This throng, Sir, is more expressive than any words of mine. I can only join my voice with theirs, reverently invoke God's blessing, and bid you welcome." Ref.: Abbott, pp. 795-796. See: Abbott, Alfred Amos.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 9-GP's Reply. Visibly affected, GP replied: "Thank you from my heart. This welcome...almost unmans me.... My old friends are largely gone. You are a new generation." Turning to the school children, GP said: "There is not a youth within the sound of my voice whose advantages are not greater than were mine. I have achieved nothing that is not possible to the most humble among you. To be truly great it is not necessary to gain wealth or importance. Every boy may become a great man in whatever sphere Providence places him. Truth and integrity unsullied by unworthy acts, constitute greatness." GP concluded: "This is my advice to you, from one who always regretted his lack of early education, now freely offered to you. We meet for the first and perhaps last time. While I live I will be interested in your welfare. God bless you all!" Ref.: Proceedings, 1856, pp. 44-46.
Speech: Robert S. Daniels
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 10-R.S. Daniels. At 2:00 P.M., Oct. 9, 1856, in Danvers 1,500 guests gathered under a large tent for dinner. After the dinner Robert Shillaber Daniels (b.1791) was the first to speak. Robert Shillaber Daniels was GP's boyhood friend and a lawyer who had transacted family business for GP. After GP's sister Judith Dodge (Peabody) Russell's first husband died, she married Robert Shillaber Daniels. See: Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 11-R.S. Daniels' Speech:. "When we gathered at the dedication of the Peabody Institute a few years ago we thought the crowning glory of Danvers' history had come. The proceedings of this day, however, surpass it. How can one account for today's spontaneous impulse, this outbreak of popular feeling? No conqueror is here for our homage. No statesman stands before us. We are here to welcome home one of our own after an absence of twenty years. He has no title, no insignia, this private American gentleman. I will tell you why we give him public greeting. He stands for hospitality to friends abroad, for benevolence in private charity, for the sustenance of his country's credit, for friendship [to] his native land and the country of his business residence." Ref.: Proceedings, 1856, pp. 47.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 12-R.S. Daniels' Speech Cont'd.: "And so we honor him. The Peabody Institute is the best investment he ever made; as a monument it will outlast us all and bear fruit to generations yet unborn. It has been forty years since Mr. Peabody lived here. The men of that day are gone. Our population was then 3,000; now it is 10,000. We had then two churches, now nine; two or three public schools, now 15. We spent $2,000 for education then, now $10,000. Mr. Peabody left here with no capital but a good character, energy and resolve. He returned successful and still mindful of his home and friends. I conclude with a hearty welcome to the distinguished citizen, eminent merchant, and public benefactor." (Enthusiastic cheers). Ref.: Ibid., pp. 47-50.
GP's Reply
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 13-GP Replied: "Your reception and the events of the day overpower me. Few boys ever left a New England town under circumstances more humble than I did. None could return more honored...in his own country, and among his own kindred. "Heaven has been pleased to reward my efforts with success, and has permitted me to establish...a house in a great metropolis of England.... I have endeavored...to make it an American house; to furnish it with American journals; to make it a center for American news, and an agreeable place for my American friends visiting England." Ref.: Ibid., pp. 47-53.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 14-GP Replied Cont'd: "You refer to my small efforts in promoting good feelings between Britain and the United States. I share with others the belief that cordial alliance ought to exist between these two countries. Our institutions, laws, language, commercial interests are common bonds. A money crisis in one affects the other; a financial change in one brings similar response in the other. "From our relations, it is true, spring differences. Despite occasional outbursts of jealousy England is no less proud of her offspring than America of its parent stock. From the Queen down to her humblest subjects, goodwill toward this country prevails (long enthusiastic applause)." Ref.: Ibid.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 15-GP Spoke to Edward Everett. GP then turned and spoke directly to former U.S. Minister to Britain Edward Everett (1794-1865): "To no one can I turn more confidently for cooperation than to you, Sir, who filled with credit the office of United States Minister to England. The cornerstone of the Peabody Institute was laid by Abbott Lawrence [1792-55, U.S. Minister to Britain during 1849-52], now gone, who followed worthily in Mr. Everett's footsteps. I admired his talents, respected his virtues, loved him as a friend. He too worked for conciliation and goodwill between the two countries. I pay tribute to his memory." Ref.: Ibid.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 16-GP's Speech Cont'd.: "I now propose a toast: Our own town Danvers, as it was constituted in 1752--may she know none but CIVIL Division. Let me conclude with the hope that the Peabody Institute as it was established in 1852, as it exists now, and as it shall hereafter exist, may prove a perpetual bond to unite the towns of Danvers and South Danvers (Great Cheering)." Ref.: Ibid.
Edward Everett on GP
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 17-Edward Everett. Edward Everett was born in Dorchester, Mass., was a Harvard College graduate (B.A., 1811, M.A., 1814), Harvard professor of Greek literature (1819-26), member, U.S. House of Rep. (1824-34), Mass. governor (1836-39), and U.S. Minister to Britain (1841-45, where GP had contact with him), Harvard Univ. president (1846-49), U.S. Secty. of State (1852-53), and U.S. Sen. (1853-54). A leading orator of his time, his long speech at the Gettysburg cemetery dedication, Nov. 19, 1863, is largely forgotten while Pres. Abraham Lincoln's short address has been memorialized. Ref.: Boatner, p. 268.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 18-Edward Everett's Speech. After Mass. Gov. Henry J. Gardner's (1818-92) short speech, Edward Everett said (in part): "While in England I had the opportunity to witness Mr. Peabody's honorable position in commerce and social circles. The pursuit of commerce has done much to promote civilization. From earliest times caravans of trade have bound the human family together and kept the arts and refinements of life from extinction. Medieval guilds were the bulwark of liberty and the germ of representative government. From trade came law, order, and progress...." Ref.: Proceedings, 1856, pp. 55-56. Everett-a. Everett-b, pp. 466-476.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 19-Edward Everett's Speech Cont'd.: "We honor today one preeminent in commerce. When American credit stood low and the individual states defaulted their trust, our friend stood firm and was the cause of firmness in others. When few would be listened to on the subject of American securities in the parlor of the Bank of England, his judgment commanded respect; his integrity won back trust in America. He performed the miracle by which the word of an honest man turns paper into gold." Ref.: Ibid.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 20-Edward Everett's Speech Cont'd.: "He promoted the enjoyment of travelling Americans as so many here can attest. The United States Minister in England, with little funds, could not bring together Americans and Englishmen and women in convivial friendship. Our honored guest, with ample means, corrected this defect. At the first world's fair in London, 1851, the exhibitors of other nations went officially supplied with funds to display their nation's wares. The American exhibitors found a large place to fill naked and unadorned. At the critical moment when the English press ridiculed the sorry appearance we presented, our friend stepped forward and did what Congress should have done. Our products were shown at their best." Ref.: Ibid.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 21-Edward Everett's Speech Cont'd.: "Leading British journalists admitted that England derived more benefit from the contributions of the United States than from any other country. "Time and again he brought together men of two nations to drink from loving cups of goodwill. These are some reasons we welcome to old Danvers one of her greatest sons." (Great cheering). Ref.: Ibid.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 22-Edward Everett's Speech Cont'd.: "When on the 16th of June, 1852, Danvers celebrated its one hundredth year of separate existence our friend sent a slip of paper containing a noble sentiment. Now a slip of paper can easily be blown away. So, as a paperweight, to keep the toast safe on the table to repay his debt, Mr. Peabody laid down $20,000 and has since doubled it." Ref.: Ibid.
J.C.B. Davis on GP
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 23-J.C.B. Davis. Another speaker that afternoon (Oct. 9, 1856) was John Chandler Bancroft Davis (1822-1907), U.S. Legation in London Secty. J.C.B. Davis was born in Worcester, Mass., went to London when his uncle, U.S. historian and statesman George Bancroft (1800-91), was U.S. Minister to Britain during 1846-49. Davis was U.S. Legation Secty. in London (1849-54), where he knew and sometimes dined with GP. Davis was later U.S. correspondent of the London Times (1869 and 1871), was U.S. Assistant Secty. of State (1873-74), represented the U.S. in the Alabama Claims, was U.S. Minister to Germany (1874-77), and was judge of the U.S. Court of Claims (1878-82). He wrote Mr. Sumner, the Alabama Claims, and Their Settlement (1878) and other works. See: Davis, John Chandler Bancroft.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 24-J.C.B. Davis Cont'd. Also, J.C.B. Davis's Harvard College classmate was Henry Stevens (1819-86), Barnet, Vt.-born London resident rare book dealer since 1845, and GP's agent in book purchases for Peabody Institute libraries. Davis and Stevens both lived for a time at Morley's Hotel, London, where they sometimes dined with GP. One dinner involving Davis, Stevens, GP, and others--at which U.S. novelist Herman Melville (1819-91) was guest of honor--is worthy of mention. See: persons mentioned.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 25-J.C.B. Davis Cont'd. On Nov. 24, 1849, GP, Davis, and Stevens dined at Joshua Bates's (1788-1864) home near London. Bates, Mass.-born, became a naturalized British subject after years as agent for, partner in, and finally head of Baring Brothers, Britain's leading banking firm dealing with U.S. trade and securities. Visiting U.S. author Herman Melville (1819-91) was guest of honor. They talked in part about knowing Melville's older brother Gansvoort Melville (1815-46), who had been U.S. Legation Secty. and died three years before (1846). Ref.: Melville, p. 47. Leyda, p. 388. Parker, W.W., pp. 83, 126.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 26-J.C.B. Davis's Speech (Oct. 9, 1856). Davis first told the South Danvers, Mass., audience of GP's aid to the Second U.S. Grinnell Expedition's (1853-55) search for lost British Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin (1786-47). Davis said: "How proud New York is that its own merchant, Henry Grinnell [1799-1874], joined George Peabody in a gallant venture to search the Arctic seas for Sir John Franklin." See: Davis, John Chandler Bancroft.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 27-J.C.B. Davis's Speech Cont'd.: "I have been a guest at Mr. Peabody's dinners and particularly recall the 1851 Independence Day dinner. In the midst of a most discouraging time, when our wares were stored away in corners of the Crystal Palace, Mr. Peabody not only saved the day by refurbishing our area but conceived the plan for a Fourth of July Dinner. The idea and its execution was a timely stroke of genius." Ref.: Ibid.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 28-J.C.B. Davis's Speech Cont'd.: "I can never fully describe that occasion. When the hero of Waterloo [Duke of Wellington] and the Napoleon of American commerce [GP] walked arm in arm into Almack's, a marked English respect took place toward America. We owe to Mr. Peabody more than any other man, grateful thanks for cordial friendship from England and the Continent which reflects the English press." [Loud applause]. Ref.: Ibid.
Letters of Praise about GP
S. Danvers, Mass., GP celebration, 1856. 29-Letters of Praise. Other speeches followed. There were scores of letters from distinguished persons invited to this Oct. 9, 1856, GP celebration but who could not attend. These letters complimented GP, their writers recalling their contacts with him, were published in the Proceedings, 1856, pp. 55-109.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 30-Letters of Praise Cont'd. Those sending letters included former U.S. Minister to Britain Abbott Lawrence (who died shortly before the Oct. 9, 1856 GP celebration); U.S. jurist Rufus Choate (1799-1859); Edmund Grattan, of the British Consulate, Boston; U.S. writer Washington Irving (1783-1859); U.S. Naval Arctic explorer Elisha Kent Kane (1820-57); U.S. manufacturer and philanthropist Peter Cooper (1791-1883); Mass. statesman and later GP's philanthropic advisor Robert Charles Winthrop (1809-94); U.S. statesman and college president Josiah Quincy, Jr. (1772-1864); Washington, D.C., banker and philanthropist William Wilson Corcoran; U.S. historian George Bancroft; U.S. educator Henry Barnard (1811-90); and others. Ref.: Ibid. See: persons named.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 31-J.C.B. Davis-Abraham Lincoln Connection. An interesting J.C.B. Davis-Abraham Lincoln connection was the comedy play, Our American Cousin, which Lincoln saw the night he was assassinated (April 14, 1865, Ford Theater, Washington, D.C.). Because U.S. industry and arts products won praise during the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, a "Yankee mania" briefly swept Britain. Ref.: Reck.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 32-J.C.B. Davis-Abraham Lincoln Connection Cont'd. Tom Taylor (1817-80), a young London barrister-journalist, wrote a comedy play which he sold to a publisher for ƒ80 (about $400). Anxious to have it produced on stage, Tom Taylor in 1858 asked J.C.B. Davis to bring the play to the attention of U.S. producer Lester Wallack (John Johnstone Wallack, 1820-88). Wallack, not interested, suggested that Davis take the play to actress and stage manager Laura Keene (1826-73). She was not interested initially, but needed a fill-in play during costume and casting problems with her scheduled A Mid-Summer Night's Dream. Ref.: Ibid.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, 1856. 33-J.C.B. Davis-Abraham Lincoln Connection Cont'd. Laura Keene bought the play for $1,000, staged it, and found it a popular success in the U.S. By coincidence Our American Cousin was presented in Chicago May 20, 1860, at the close of the Republican Party Convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln as its presidential candidate. On April 14, 1865, with the Civil War ended and a burden lifted from his shoulders, Pres. and Mrs. Abraham Lincoln went to see Our American Cousin, starring Laura Keene, Ford Theater, Washington, D.C., where he was assassinated. Ref.: Ibid.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP celebration, 1856. 34-Alice L. Putnam. Alice Putnam, 17-year-old Salem, Mass., school girl, attended the Oct. 9, 1856, GP Celebration and described it in a letter, not knowing that some day it would be printed. She wrote: "A celebration was held in Danvers on Thursday, October 9th, in honor of the return of George Peabody, a native of the place who has been residing for many years in London where he has amassed an enormous fortune. He had done a great deal for Danvers during his absence, and they wished to greet his return with some public demonstration.... Almost all Salem went up to the good old town, either to see the decorations, the procession, or Mr. Peabody himself.... Mr. Peabody is a fine looking man, quite tall and stout; he looked warm and dusty from his long ride, but had a fine open countenance.... Mr. Peabody appeared very much affected and his hand trembled very much." Ref.: Putnam, pp. 63-64. Ref.: (Oct. 9, 1856, Danvers reception): New York Times, Oct. 10, 1856, p. 1, c. 3; and Oct. 11, 1856, p. 2, c. 1-5. Barnard, pp. 642-653. Tapley, pp. 166-167.
Press Reports on the GP Celebration, 1856
S. Danvers, Mass., GP celebration, 1856. 35-Press Reports, Boston Transcript (Oct. 9, 1856, p. 9, c. 4): "The entire population enter[s] into the arrangements in a way that shows how the beneficence of the princely merchant, Mr. Peabody, is regarded by the public here. The influx of strangers into Danvers is immense.... The procession was long and imposing...1,500 children in the ranks, and [a] procession of 5,000...was one of the most truly beautiful and interesting pageants.... The scene must have awakened emotions of the most gratifying nature in the bosom of the distinguished guest and benefactor of the town." Ref.: (Newspaper accounts reproduced): Proceedings, 1856, pp. 115-119.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP celebration, 1856. 36-Boston Daily Advertiser: "It was a bright, warm day.... The old town was dressed in holiday trim...a universal and spontaneous tribute of honor by all the people of the town.... Mr. Peabody appeared in good health and seemed to enjoy the day." Ref.: Ibid., pp. 119-120.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP celebration, 1856. 37-Boston Atlas: "Brilliant Ovation." Boston Courier: "The reception of George Peabody, Esq., by his old friends and neighbors, yesterday, was an honor of which the foremost man in the Republic might be proud." Boston Traveller: "The interior of the main hall of the [Peabody] Institute [has] a very beautiful, and life-size full-length picture of Mr. Peabody.... This picture Mr. Peabody consented to have taken in accordance with the wishes of his fellow-citizens, as expressed by a special vote of the town. "On arriving at the residence of Miles Osborne, Esq., an old schoolmate...Mr. Peabody...entered the house...greeted Mr. Osborne...'Ah, I see you look as smiling and jovial as of old, when we went to school together.'" Ref.: Ibid., pp. 120-123.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP celebration, 1856. 38-New York Daily Times: "The object of the demonstration was neither a Czar nor an Emperor, nor even a Lord nor a General, a great novelist, nor a great divine. Nothing but a humble New Englander who having, by integrity and industry and goodness of heart, obtained a high position in the financial and social world, returns to his native village, after 20 years absence, and that village, with joy and pride, comes out to meet GEORGE PEABODY, and give him honor for his useful and spotless life. Now this is beautiful." Ref.: Ibid., p. 130. New York Daily Times (Oct. 23, 1856, p. 4, c. 3.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP celebration, 1856. 39-American Journal of Education: "From an ordinary district school, such as they were fifty years ago, attended only a few months each year for four years, George Peabody achieved a position in the commercial world second to none, preserving a republican simplicity and attachment to his hometown, using a portion of his earnings to promote humanity and education." Ref.: Barnard-b, Vol. 2 (1856), pp. 642-653.
S. Danvers, Mass., GP celebration, 1856. 40-London Times: "A little town called Danvers, about an hour's ride from Boston, was yesterday [the 9th] the scene of a grand popular festival.... The whole country, for miles around, must have poured its population into the place.... Had the Queen of Great Britain been the Sovereign of their allegiance, her name could not have been received with warmer demonstrations of respect and regards." Ref.: Proceedings, 1856, pp. 133-134. (Note: Artist Winslow Homer, 1836-1910, then age 20, worked on the lithographs in the Proceedings, 1856. His initials appear on the illustrations facing pp. 21, 89).
PIB Music Director Lucian H. Southard
Southard, Lucien H. (1827-81). 1-PIB Music Director. Lucien H. Southard was the PIB Academy (later Conservatory) of Music's director, during 1867-71, or four years, when the Academy was still in its first location at 34 Mulberry Street, Baltimore. Southard had studied music at Lowell Mason's Boston Academy and Trinity College, Conn. He had been a composer and organist in Boston, Richmond, and Hartford before his Baltimore appointment. Musical instruction at the PIB Academy of Music began in Oct. 1868. See: PIB Conservatory of Music.
Southard, Lucien H. 2-Overshadowed by Director Asger Hamerik. Southard gave three lectures on the history of music in Feb. 1867. He started the Peabody Academy concerts and the Peabody Chorus. His short four-year tenure was attributed to alleged criticism by Baltimore music community cliques who disliked his northern background and criticized his inability to win community support. His importance in the PIB Academy of Music's first years was overshadowed by the long tenure and accomplishments of his Copenhagen-born successor, Asger Hamerik (1843-1923). PIB Academy of Music records number music directors from Hamerik's time, July 11, 1871, to 1898 (27 years). Ref.: Ibid.
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. GPCFT administrator and Pres. Felix Compton Robb (1914-97) was director, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, 1966-1982. See: Robb, Felix Compton.
Southern Education Board (1901-14). See: PEF.
Southern Education Fund, Atlanta. 1-Residue of the PEF. Permitted by GP's founding letter (Feb. 7, 1867) to end after 30 years, the PEF trustees in 1914 gave away their assets ($2,324,000) as follows: $474,000 to the education departments of 14 southern universities; i.e., $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 (given in 1837 to the Southern Education Fund). See: PCofVU. PEF.
Southern Education Fund. 2-Merger of Four Funds. Created in 1937 to promote minority (largely African American) education in the South, the Southern Education Fund, endowed with about $10 million, had the residue monies of these four foundations: a-the PEF's 1914 gift of $350,000 to the John F. Slater Fund, b-the John F. Slater Fund for Negro Education (1882-1937); c-Anna T. Jeanes Fund (founded 1907, also called the Negro Rural School Fund) which supported black master teachers (called Jeanes supervisors), who assisted rural Southern schools; and d-the Virginia Randolph Fund (founded 1937), containing monies raised by Jeanes teachers in the South, named to honor the first of the Jeanes Teachers (Virginia Randolph). The Southern Education Fund has since 1937 raised additional funds to finance various reforms in minority (largely African American) public school and higher education in the South. Ref.: "Southern Education Foundation…," seen on the Internet (April 8, 2000): http://www.sefatl.org/heritage.htm
Southern Education Fund. 3-John F. Slater Fund. Interestingly, philanthropist John Fox Slater (1815-84), Conn. textile manufacturer, publicly acknowledged GP's example in creating the $1 million Slater Fund for Negro Education in the South, the first foundation solely to advance black education. Trustee of both the PEF and Slater funds, Daniel Coit Gilman (1831-1908), Johns Hopkins Univ. president, credited GP's example with influencing the principles of the John F. Slater Fund (1882-1937), John D. Rockefeller's General Education Board (1902-62), the Andrew Carnegie foundations, and the Russell Sage Foundation (1907-46). Gilman wrote: "Mr. George Peabody began this line of modern beneficence.... Almost if not quite all of these foundations have been based on principles that were designated by Mr. Peabody." Ref.: Ibid. See: Slater Fund, John F. (above). PEF.
Southern Education Fund. 4-Jeanes Fund (1907-37). Interestingly also was the one million dollar Jeanes Fund, given by wealthy Penn. Quaker Anna T. Jeanes (1822-1907) to prominent black educators Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) of Tuskegee Institute, Ala., and Hollis Burke Frissell (1851-1917) of Hampton Institute, Va., to advance rural southern black schools. This was done by sending advanced black "Jeanes teachers" from school to school teaching both children and adults sewing, canning, basketry, woodworking, other industrial subjects, relating such schoolwork to uplifting local rural community lives, health, and welfare. The Jeanes Teacher movement had much influence in Africa and other areas. Ref. Ibid.
Southern Education Fund. 5-Virginia Randolph Fund (1937). The Jeanes Teachers established a memorial fund called the Virginia Randolph Fund to honor the first Jeanes Teacher, Virginia E. Randolph (1874-1958) of Henrico County, Va., who embodied the Jeanes Teacher spirit and initiative. Each Jeanes Teacher raised $50 or more from local communities as a supplement of the Jeanes Fund. Born in Richmond, Va., of slave parents, Virginia E. Randolph graduated from Richmond Normal School (now Armstrong High School), taught school, and was named the first Jeanes Supervisor Industrial Teacher in Henrico County Schools. The Virginia E. Randolph Museum on the campus of the Virginia Randolph Education Centers, Glen Allen, Va., is named for her. Ref.: Ibid.
Spaulding, Prescott (1781-1864). 1-Newburyport, Mass., Merchant. Prescott Spaulding was a Newburyport, Mass., merchant who helped a young GP get started in business. The May 31, 1811, Great Fire of Newburyport, Mass., ruined business prospects in that city, including oldest brother David Peabody's (1790-1841) dry goods store where GP, then age 16, worked, and the store of GP's paternal uncle John Peabody (1768-before 1826). In 1812 GP planned to go with his paternal uncle to open a store in Georgetown, D.C. They needed goods to sell and had no capital. Uncle John had no credit. GP, then age 17, asked help from Newburyport merchant Prescott Spaulding. Spaulding gave GP a letter of credit to Boston merchant James Reed. Reed gave GP $2,000 worth of merchandise on credit for the Georgetown, D.C., store. Ref.: Spalding, p. 145. See: Newburyport, Mass. War of 1812.
Spaulding, Prescott. 2-GP-Spaulding Met 44 Years Later. Forty-four years later, on Oct. 2, 1856, on his first U.S. visit in nearly 20 years since leaving for London (Feb. 1837), GP went to the Essex County Agricultural Fair in Newburyport, Mass. He recognized and spoke to merchant and former Mayor Moses Davenport (1806-61). A man stepped from the crowd and said: you don't know me. Shaking the man's hand GP replied, "Yes, I do, Prescott Spaulding," explaining to all that this was the merchant who helped him get his first consignment of goods. See: Visits to the U.S. by GP. Persons named.
GP & Md.'s Bond Sale Abroad
Speed, John Joseph (1797-1852). 1-Md.'s $8 Million Bond Sale Abroad. A Md. Act of 1835 appointed three commissioners to sell abroad its $8 million bond issue to finance the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, the B&O RR, and other internal improvements. When commissioner Samuel Jones, Jr. (1800-74), resigned early to become a state senator he backed GP to replace him. Despite some opposition, GP was appointed commissioner. The other two commissioners, John Buchanan (1772-1844) and Thomas Emory, tried unsuccessfully to sell the bonds in London, Paris, and Amsterdam. See: Md.'s $8 Million Bond Sale Abroad and GP.
Speed, J.J. 2-GP Remained in London. The other two agents returned to the U.S. by Oct. 8, 1837. On this, his fifth business trip to Europe, GP remained in London for the rest of his life (1837-69), 32 years, except for three U.S. visits: 1-Sept. 15. 1856 to Aug. 19, 1857, 2-May 1, 1866 to May 1, 1867, and 3-June 8 to Sept. 29, 1869. GP, in London, wrote to Md. Lawyer J.J. Speed, concerned legally with the bond sale, about his (GP's) difficulty in selling Md. bonds during the Panic of 1837. Ref.: Ibid.
Speed, J.J. 3-Nine States Stop Interest on Bonds Abroad. That financial panic had led Md. and eight other economically depressed states to stop their bond interest payments in part or whole. GP assured English and other investors that Md. and other states would faithfully resume interest payments, and retroactively. He also let involved Md. officials know that repudiation had given the U.S. a bad name abroad. The example he gave was of the Oriental Club in London, 300 of whose retired officers from the India service held U.S. state bonds. They and their families suffered from the cutting of interest payments. Speed had the correspondence published. Ref.: Ibid.
Speed, J.J. 4-Merchant to Banker Transition. Unable to sell the bonds elsewhere, GP approached the Baring Brothers, Britain's largest and oldest banking firm, and sold them the bonds cheaply for exclusive resale. Ten years later (1847-48), through lawyer J.J. Speed and others, GP's bond sale efforts became known, his upholding of Md.'s credit abroad, and his intent to decline the $60,000 commission due him so as not to further burden economically depressed Md. By the time Md. had recovered economically and resumed its bond interest payments (1847), GP had withdrawn his capital from Peabody, Riggs & Co. (1829-45) and was for a few years in transition from merchandise dealer to London-based broker-banker. Ref.: Ibid.
Speed, J.J. 5-Md.'s Resolution of Praise. The Md. governor's annual report (1847) to the legislative Assembly singled out GP as one "who never claimed or received one dollar of the $60,000 commission due him...whilst the State was struggling with her pecuniary difficulties." On March 7, 1848, both houses of Md.'s Assembly passed a unanimous resolution of praise to GP, sent to him in London, with Gov. Philip Francis Thomas' (1810-90) accompanying comment: "To you, Sir,...the thanks of the State were eminently due." Ref.: Ibid.
Speed, J.J. 6-"the thanks of a Sovereign State." Md. lawyer J.J. Speed widely printed in newspapers Md.'s resolution of praise along with GP's earlier letters against repudiation and assurance to European investors that bond interest payments would be retroactive. Speed wrote to GP in London: "When you reflect that these Resolutions convey the thanks of a Sovereign State--one of those that laid the foundations of this Republic--for services [to] her reputation abroad, you will not fail to prize the distinction.... Your country fully appreciates your services." Though it took ten years for GP's efforts in selling Md. bonds to be fully appreciated, those efforts won him long lasting goodwill. Ref.: Ibid.
Spenser, Edmund (1552-99), was an English poet, believed by eccentric New England writer Delia Salter Bacon (1811-59) to be one of three Englishmen who actually wrote the plays attributed to William Shakespeare. She believed that Shakespeare's plays were written by English philosopher and politician Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English courtier and historian Sir Walter Raleigh (1554-1618), and poet Edmund Spenser. Hoping to prove her theory in England, she secured from NYC banker Charles Butler (1802-97) a letter of introduction to GP which she presented at his London office in May 1853. GP's contacts with her were minimal, probably limited to converting bank drafts. She haunted Shakespeare's grave but never succeeded in getting it opened to prove her theory. Her book, Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespeare Unfolded, 1857, was derided by critics. See: Bacon, Delia Salter. Other persons named.
Spitalfields, London. See: Peabody Homes of London.
Spofford, John (1612-78), was the first of GP's maternal ancestors to leave Yorkshire, England, for America. In America he married Elizabeth Scott (b.1625) from Ipswich, England. They settled in Rowley, renamed Georgetown, Mass., where their descendant of the sixth generation Judith Dodge (1770-1830) of Rowley (later named Georgetown), Mass., married Thomas Peabody (1762-1811) of Andover, Mass. They moved to Haverhill, Mass., and then to Danvers, Mass., where GP (1795-1869), the third-born of their eight children, was born. See: Peabody Genealogy, Maternal.
"
S.P.Q." were the initials used by an anonymous letter writer to the editor, NYC Evening Post, Oct. 25, 1866 (reprinted elsewhere), accusing GP of pro-Confederate anti-Union sympathy and activity in the Civil War. See: "S.P.Q." (first entry under the alphabet letter "S). Civil War and GP.
Springfield (Mass.) Daily Republican. See: Bowles, Samuel.
Springs of Virginia; Life, Love, and Death at the Waters 1775-1900, by Perceval Reniers (Chapel Hill: Univ. of N.C. Press, 1941). Historian Reniers, who chronicled the social life at Va. mineral health spas, described GP's July 23-Aug. 30, 1869, White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., visit. He concluded with the Peabody Ball held on Aug. 11, 1869. GP, too ill to attend, heard the gaiety from his cottage. Reniers wrote: "The affair that did most to revive [the Southerners'] esteem was the Peabody Ball...given to honor...Mr. George Peabody.... Everything was right for the Peabody Ball. Everybody was ready for just such a climax, the background was a perfect build-up. Mr. Peabody appeared at just the right time and lived just long enough. A few months later it would not have been possible, for Mr. Peabody would be dead." See: Corcoran, William Wilson. Lee, Robert E. Visits to the U.S. by GP, 1869.
St. Lawrence (ship), a U.S. Navy frigate authorized by the U.S. Congress to transport U.S. industrial products and art objects at exhibitors' expense from NYC (left Feb. 8, 1851) to Southampton, England, for the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. The crisis and embarrassment came in early March 1851 when U.S. exhibitors realized that Congress had not allocated funds to furbish the large space assigned to the U.S. in the Crystal Palace Exhibition Hall. GP, largely unknown, offered through a note to the U.S. Minister to lend the exhibitors $15,000, an offer gratefully accepted. See: Great Exhibition of 1851, London (first world's fair).
St. Louis, Mo. During GP's Sept. 15, 1856 to Aug. 19, 1857, U.S. visit, his first return to the U.S. after nearly 20 years' absence in London (since Feb. 1837), he visited St. Louis, Mo. (April 3, 1857). For GP's March-April 1857 travel itinerary, see Augusta, Ga.
St. Nicholas Hotel, NYC. During GP's Sept. 15, 1856 to Aug. 19, 1857, U.S. visit he arrived on the Atlantic and stayed at the St. Nicholas Hotel, NYC, Sept. 15-18, 1856. He was there again in November, ill and confined to bed for 13 days. See: Sickness, GP's. Visits to the U.S. by GP.
Stamp, U.S. Postage, Honoring GP. See: U.S. Postage Stamp Honoring GP.
Standish, Paget (1835-77), 4th Viscount, believed then to be the owner-descendant of the Standish O'Grady estate, County Limerick, Ireland, where GP, seeking relief from gout attacks, fished for salmon on a lake he rented June-Aug. 1865. See: Corcoran, William Wilson.
Stansbury, Charles F. Until the arrival of U.S. Commissioner Edward W. Riddle of Boston, Charles F. Stansbury of Washington, D.C., was in charge of the U.S. exhibitors and their 599 exhibits which left NYC Feb. 8, 1851, on U.S. Navy frigate St. Lawrence for Southampton, England, for the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London, the first world's fair. Edward D. Riddle's secty. was Nathaniel Shattwell Dodge (1810-74), who remained in London until 1861 and was a friend of U.S. Legation in London Secty. Benjamin Moran (1820-86). For GP's loan to the U.S. exhibitors, see Dodge, Nathaniel Shattwell. Great Exhibition of 1851, London (first world's fair).
Dean of Westminster Abbey & GP’s Funeral
Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn (1815-81). 1-GP Funeral at Westminster Abbey. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, the Dean of Westminster Abbey, was in Naples, Italy, on Nov. 5, 1869, when he read in the newspapers of GP's death. He telegraphed Abbey colleagues to offer a funeral and interment for GP. His entry in his "Recollections," compiled 12 years later (1881), records: "The next funeral of which I was cognizant was the only one that I made an exception to my general rule of not proposing anything as from myself, and it was then done under very peculiar circumstances. I was in Naples, [Italy,] and saw in the public papers that George Peabody had died. Being absent, considering that he was a foreigner, and at the same time, by reason of his benefactions to the City of London [the word 'fully' follows and is scratched out] entitled to a burial in Westminster Abbey, I telegraphed to express my wishes that his interment there should take place. Accordingly it was so arranged." See: Death and Funeral, GP's.
Stanley, A.P. 2-Career. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley was born in Aldersley, Cheshire, England, and educated at Rugby, where he was influenced by the liberalism of headmaster Thomas Arnold (1795-1842). He entered Balliol College, Oxford Univ. (1834), was a Fellow of Univ. College, Oxford (1838), took deacons' orders (1839) and priests' orders (1843), became a Univ. College tutor (1843) and Oxford Univ. preacher (1845), was Canon of Canterbury (1851), traveled in Palestine and Egypt, was Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History, Oxford Univ. (1856), Canon of Christ Church College (1858), and Dean of Westminster Abbey (from 1863). For U.S. Legation in London Secty. Benjamin Moran's description of GP's Westminster Abbey funeral service (Nov. 12, 1869), see Ibid. Moran, Benjamin.
Stanley, A.P. 3-GP Stone Marker in Westminster Abbey. The marker where GP's body rested in Westminster Abbey consists of nine stone blocks containing these words carved in capital letters: "Here were deposited from Nov. 12 to Dec. 11 1869 the remains of George Peabody, then removed to his native country and buried at Danvers now Peabody Massachusetts. 'I have prayed my heavenly father day by day to shew my gratitude for the blessings which he bestowed upon me by doing some great good to my fellow men.' 'Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven.'" See: Death and Funeral, GP's.
Stanley, A.P. 4-From R.C. Winthrop's Eulogy. The quotation: "I have prayed my Heavenly Father day by day to show my gratitude for the blessings which he bestowed upon me by doing some great good to my fellow men" is from philanthropic advisor Robert Charles Winthrop's (1809-94) eulogy on GP, Feb. 8, 1870, South Congregational Church, Peabody, Mass. The quotation is from the following portion of Winthrop's Eulogy: "...when I [Winthrop] expressed my amazement at the magnitude of his purpose [GP first shared with Winthrop a list of his intended gifts, most likely on May 9, 1866] he said to me with guileless simplicity: 'Why Mr. Winthrop, this is no new idea to 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 to my fellow-men." Ibid.
Stanley, Lord (Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, 1799-1869), was the British statesman who was chairman, board of trustees, Peabody Donation Fund, London, which GP created (March 12, 1862) to build low rent apartments for London's working poor ($2.5 million total). Lord Stanley was elected to Parliament soon after graduating from Christ Church College, Oxford Univ., served as undersecretary of the colonies (from 1827), chief secretary of Ireland (1830-33), colonial secretary (1841-45), and chancellor of the exchequer in PM Disraeli's government. See: Peabody Homes of London.
Stansbury, Charles Frederick (d. 1882), of Washington, D.C., listed as an economist, was initially in charge of U.S. industry and art exhibits at the Great Exhibition of 1851, London (the first world's fair), until the arrival of U.S. Commissioner Edward W. Riddle of Boston. See: Corcoran, William Wilson. Great Exhibition of 1851, London (first world's fair).
Stanton, Phoebe Baroody (b.1914). Phoebe Baroody Stanton, Johns Hopkins Univ. art historian, has recorded that Baltimore architect Edmund George Lind (1828-1909) modeled the PIB library exterior and interior after London's exclusive Reform Club to reflect scholarly contemplation amid classical grandeur. See: PIB Library.
Star and Garter, Richmond, near London. The Star and Garter, set on Richmond Hill near London overlooking the Thames, was the ideal place for a tavern, about eight miles from London. Several of GP's July 4th and other public dinners were held there. The Star and Garter, leased in 1738 from the Earl of Dysart who was a member of the Noble Order of the Garter, is variously described as "formerly one of the favorite residences of George III, as the place where Charles Dickens entertained and from where one could clearly see Windsor Castle. Ref.: Parker, W.W., p. 135. "Star and Garter Home," p. 812. See: Dinners, GP's, London.
”Star-Spangled Banner," written by Francis Scott Key (1779-1843), whose son Philip Barton Key (1815-59), was shot to death by Daniel Edgar Sickles (1825-1914). See: Sickles, Daniel Edgar.
Starr and Marcus was the NYC jewelry and silversmith firm which designed and made the U.S. Congressional gold medal which the U.S. Congress voted in March 1867 to award GP in national appreciation for establishing the PEF ($2 million total). GP founded the PEF to promote public education in the 11 former Confederate states plus W.Va., added because of its poverty. See: Congressional Gold Medal and Resolution of Praise to GP. Honors, GP's, in Life and after Death (in chronological order).
J.W. Starr's Electric Light Bulb (1845) & GP
Starr, John Wellingon (c.1822-1846). 1-Early Electric Light Bulb. Engineer-researcher Edward J. Covington of Millfield, Ohio's, exhaustive history of the electric light bulb cited sources which state that: a-shortly before 1845 John W. Starr of Cincinnati, Ohio, invented a light source (bulb) powered by electricity, b-that Starr perfected and displayed his invention in England, c-that Starr's lawyer Edward Augustin King, Warwick St., Charing Cross, London, obtained for Starr (but in King's name) English Patent No.10,919 in London in 1845, d-that GP was among those asked to finance the invention, but that Starr's death (1846) in Birmingham, England halted exploitation of his invention, perfected in 1879 By Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931). In Jan. 2001, Covington asked and learned from the authors of this work and from the Peabody Essex Museum that there is no known mention of John W. Starr in the PEM's GP papers. Relevant Starr-GP sections from Covington's sources follow below. See: Ref.: g. Internet, Starr, John Wellington.
Starr, J.W. 2-Confirming Sources. Thomas Lockwood of Boston, Mass., read Edwin W. Hammer's article, "Incandescent Lamp Development to the Year 1880," Electrical World and Engineer, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Dec. 1, 1900), p. 839. Evidently knowledgeable about the subject, Thomas Lockwood wrote to the editors of that journal verifying that author Hammer "begins, rightly…by [referring] to the early incandescent lamp work of J. W. Starr [and his London] patent of the year 1845." Lockwood then added information from Nature magazine (Sept. 7, 1877), pp. 459-460, that Starr died suddenly in Birmingham, England, in 1846. Ref.: Ibid.
Starr, J.W. 3- Confirming Sources Cont'd. Lockwood wrote that the Telegraphic Journal (London, Jan. 1, 1879), p. 15, confirmed information about Starr. Lockwood added that the Scientific American (Jan. 18, 1879), pp. 40-41, referred to a "caveat [i.e., a declaration of prior findings intended to forestall later claims by others] filed by Starr for his light [idea] in the United States…" Lockwood wrote that "capitalists, including George Peabody… were ready to assist him [Starr]…and that Starr's lighting] system was exhibited to [English scientist Michael] Faraday [1791-1867]…who pronounced it a perfect success, and that Starr died suddenly during the night following the exhibition…." Ref.: Ibid.
Starr, J.W. 4-Confirming Sources Cont'd. The Scientific American (Jan. 18, 1879), pp. 40-41, article cont'd. with: "had he [Starr] lived he might have proved as much of a genius as Edison. He [Starr] took his invention to England to complete it, Mr. King [Edward Augustin King, acting as Starr's lawyer] going, and two gentlemen, Judge J.[oseph] W.[alker] McCorkle [1819-84], late member of Congress from California, and Mr. P.P. Love, of Dayton, Ohio, furnished the money, about $3,000…. Letters of introduction were given to King and Starr to the American banker in London, George Peabody, who, when the subject was fully explained to him, agreed to furnish all the capital that would be required to promote the project to a successful and practical use, provided that the same was approved and sanctioned by the best and most celebrated electricians in Europe. Professor Faraday was chosen…." Ref.: Ibid.
Starr, J.W. 5-Confirming Sources Cont'd. The Scientific American article cont'd.: "He [Starr] and King took it [the invention] to London and exhibited it to the electricians at the Electrical Society, Professor [with] Faraday being present. So perfect was the invention that the Professor [Faraday] pronounced it a perfect success." Ref.: Ibid. See: McCorkle, Joseph Walker. (Note: An 1883 book published in Paris by French author Louis Figuier also mentioned John W. Starr's invention of an electric light bulb. See Ref.: Figuier).
Starr, J.W. 6-Starr's Obituary. Researcher Covington, who brought the above documents to light, also found an obituary of John W. Starr, the information having apparently come from Birmingham, England, sources, which thus appeared in the Cincinnati Daily Gazette, No. 6030, Vol. XX, Dec. 29, 1846, p. 2: "Messrs. Editors: - It is with sorrow we are obliged…to announce…through…your columns, the decease of John W. Starr… native of our beloved Cincinnati, and the discoverer of the Electro magnetic Light. After securing his right to his discovery in the United States…he visited Europe, secured Patents from the British Government, and also in France,… He died in Birmingham, Eng. On 21st November, at his lodgings, at Mrs. Mellon. He is interred in Key Hill Cemetery, [Birmingham, England]…" These facts were confirmed and considerably added to in Rutger Univ. Prof. C.D. Wrege's exhaustive 1976 research article. Ref.: Ibid. Wrege, pp. 102-122.
Starr, J.W. 7-Commentary by Authors. There is no known mention in the Peabody Essex Museum's GP papers of J.W. Starr, his lawyer, or the electric lamp. What then can one make of the above sources which mention GP's involvement as financier? The authors consider it consistent with GP's custom to have insisted on expert assurance of feasibility and likely success before financing John W. Starr's electric lamp. In related matters, GP loaned $15,000 to U.S. exhibitors to best display U.S. art and industry at the Great Exhibition of 1851, London (first world's fair). GP received a letter in Dec. 1852 from inventor Charles Goodyear (1800-60) who, seeking financial backing, sent GP samples of his vulcanized rubber invention. GP donated $10,000 for scientific equipment to the Second U.S. Grinnell Expedition, 1852-54, to find lost Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin (1786-1847). GP also helped finance inventor Cyrus West Field's (1819-92) Atlantic cable in 1856; and was later a director of the Atlantic Telegraph and Cable Co. In sum, GP's connection with John W. Starr is possible and seems likely based on the above sources. But certainty must await further verification. See: persons and topics named.
State Dept., U.S. For U.S. Secty. of State Hamilton Fish's (1808-93) connection with GP and GP's funeral, see Death and Funeral, GP's. Franklin, Sir John. Kane, Elisha Kent. PEF.
State governors and GP. See: Governors, U.S. States, and GP.
State St., Boston. For Horatio Gates Somerby's (1805-72) letter to GP telling how George Francis Train (1829-1904) was led handcuffed along State St., Boston, to jail, see Civil War and GP. Somerby, Horatio Gates. Train, George Francis.
GP Statues
Statuary Hall, U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Capitol Bldg. Unsuccessful attempts (1885-96) were made to place a GP statue in Statuary Hall, U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Capitol Bldg., Washington, D.C., where each state has statues of two of its great citizens. The first such proposal was made in a conference of Va. Superintendents of Education, recorded in the 1885 annual report of Va.'s Superintendent of Public Instruction. PEF second administrator J.L.M. Curry (1825-1903) urged Southern states to initiate this proposal. His stirring appeal to Va.'s General Assembly in 1895 led Va. state Sen. William Lovenstein (1840-96) to propose and the Va. senate to ask the Va. governor to write other southern governors about securing funds for a GP statue. The S.C. and Tenn. legislatures and governors did the same in 1896, without result. The attempts were unsuccessful. See: Honors, GP's, in Life and after Death (in chronological order). Persons mentioned.
Statues of GP (1795-1869). 1-London: 1866-69. GP's seated statue by William Wetmore Story (1819-95) on Threadneedle St. near the Royal Exchange, London, came in consequence of and in appreciation for GP's March 12, 1862, letter founding the Peabody Donation Fund for low-rent apartments for London's working poor ($2.5 million total). On March 31, 1999, 34,500 low income Londoners (59% white, 32% black, and 9% others) lived in 17,183 affordable Peabody apartments in 26 of London's boroughs, his most successful philanthropy.
Statues of GP. 2-Statue Committee. On March 27, 1866, some of London's Court of Common Council members proposed a tribute to GP for his Peabody Donation Fund gift. A letter signed by 50 prominent London men was circulated, calling for an organizational meeting on April 12, 1866. That meeting led to the formation of a committee to raise funds for a statue. There was some opposition. The Pall Mall Gazette editorialized that it would be better for Londoners to follow GP's example--to give to a good cause--than to erect a statue to him. Ref.: London Times, May 22, 1866, p. 12, c. 5; May 25, 1866, p. 9, c. 6; May 26, 1866, p. 9, c. 5. Ref.: "Minutes of the Committee for Erecting a Statue to Mr. George Peabody, 1866-1870," Manuscript 192, Corporation of London, Guildhall Library, hereafter London GP Statue "Minutes."
Statues of GP. 3-Statue Committee. GP was then conveniently away on a U.S. visit, May 1, 1866, to May 1, 1867. Appeals for fund were published in London newspapers. The amounts pledged were published in April 1867 (£2,342.19s., or about $11,715) and May 1867 (£257.13s.2d., or about $1,285). In June 1867 the London City Architect listed desirable sites. In Aug. 1867 a churchyard site near the Royal Exchange called St. Benet Fink was chosen. Permission was sought from City authorities and the Lord Bishop of London. The search for a sculptor began. Refs. below.
Statues of GP. 4-Statue Committee. Ref.: (Appeal for funds): London Standard, May 5, 1866, pasted in London GP Statue "Minutes," p. 21; (April 1867 pledges): London Times April 20 and 23, 1867; London Daily Telegraph April 29 and 30, 1867; London City Press, May 14, 1867; pasted in London GP Statue "Minutes," p. 38; (third list of pledges): London Times, May 16, 1867; London Daily Telegraph, May 16, 1867; London City Press, May 18, 1867; (fourth list of pledges): London Times, May 29, 1867; London Daily Telegraph, May 30, 1867; London Standard, May 20, 1867; London City Press, May 31, 1867; pasted in London GP Statue "Minutes," entries May 14, 28, 1867; (desirable sites): London GP Statue "Minutes," entries June 14, 18, 1867; (site chosen and permission sought): London GP Statue "Minutes," entries July 31 and Aug. 6, 1867.
Statues of GP. 5-U.S. Sculptor W.W. Story. Of the seven sculptors proposed, four, including William Wetmore Story, declined to enter the competition by Aug. 20, 1867. Abandoning the idea of a competition, the select committee offered the commission to Story, who accepted. London newspapers approved the choice of Story, born in Salem, Mass., son of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story (1779-1845), graduate of Harvard College (1838) and Harvard Law School (1840), student of sculpture in Italy, with a studio in Rome (from 1856). Ref.: (Offered to Story): London GP Statue "Minutes," entries Aug. 20 and Sept. 19, 1867; (London newspapers approve of Story): London Daily Telegraph, Oct. 9, 1867, pasted in London GP Statue "Minutes," meeting of Oct. 9, 1867.
Statues of GP. 6-Raising Funds for GP's London Statue. On October 5, 1867, £3,000 (about $15,000) had been pledged and negotiations begun for the churchyard site. Story agreed to cast the statue in bronze within two years for £2,500 (about $12,500). The Archbishop of Canterbury on May 8, 1868, and London's Court of Common Council on June 26, 1868, approved the site. A temporary pedestal was finished (June 22, 1869) and the Prince of Wales agreed to unveil the statue (July 9, 1869). Ref.: (negotiations for churchyard site): London GP Statue "Minutes," meeting of Oct. 5, 1867; (site approved): London GP Statue "Minutes," meetings of June 26, 1868, and May 8, 1869; (temporary pedestal): London GP Statue "Minutes," meeting of June 22, 1869; (Prince of Wales to unveil): London Times, July 14, 1869, p. 6, c. 2; and London GP Statue "Minutes," meeting of July 9, 1869.
Statues of GP. 7-GP, First of Four Statues of Americans in London. Sculptor William W. Story's model of a seated GP was sent to Germany, where it was cast in bronze and the completed statue shipped via Rotterdam to London (July 16, 1869). Admission tickets were printed and special invitations sent to dignitaries. A special observers' platform was built, and the Royal Artillery provided the guard of honor. Ref.: (Model sent to Munich, Germany): London Ladies Newspaper, July 1, 1869, p. 64, c. 1. Ref.: (Royal Artillery): London GP Statue "Minutes," meetings of July 16, 19, 20, 21, 1869.
Statues of GP. 8-GP, First of Four Statues of Americans in London. Three years and four months after being first proposed, the first statue of an American was unveiled in London. The four statues of Americans in London are of 1-GP, 1869; 2-Abraham Lincoln, 1920; 3-George Washington, 1921; and 4-Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1948. Ref.: Kent, pp. 523-524, 820.
Statues of GP. 9-The City, Heart of London The City is in the heart of London and the Royal Exchange at the head of narrow Threadneedle St. is its hub. The narrow streets were so crowded that only a few hundred of the thousands there gathered could get within sight of the ceremonies. Londoners lined the streets in every direction. Some cheered, some jeered at the relatively few lucky enough to have admission tickets. GP had often stood there to catch a horse-drawn omnibus to his simple lodgings. The two offices (then called "counting houses") George Peabody & Co. had occupied at different times were just a stone's throw away at 6 Warnford Court, Throgmorton St. and 22 Old Broad St.
Statues of GP. 10-GP at White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. On the day his statue was unveiled, July 23, 1869, a very ill GP arrived at White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. Although needing rest in his bungalow, he roused himself to dine with, walk arm-in-arm with, and be photographed (Aug. 12) with Robert E. Lee (1807-70), other Civil War generals, and southern and northern statesmen and educators. He was praised for his $2 million PEF (1867-69) to advance public education in the former Confederate states. From his bungalow he heard the merrymakers at the Peabody Ball held Aug. 11 in his honor. See: Corcoran, William Wilson. Visits to the U.S. by GP. White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.
Statues of GP. 11-Unveiling, July 23, 1869. At the unveiling was Daily Courier (Zanesville, Ohio) reporter Mr. Reamy. He had asked at the U.S. Legation for an admission ticket. But U.S. Minister John Lothrop Motley (1814-77) was out to lunch with the Prince of Wales, and Legation Secty. Benjamin Moran (1820-86) could not help. Correspondent Reamy went to see Mr. R. Rock, member of the statue committee, to explain his dilemma: he was a neighbor of GP's brother Jeremiah Dodge Peabody (1805-77) in Zanesville; had been sent to report the ceremony for his newspaper; but did not have a ticket. Mr. Rock took Reamy to the Reporters' Gallery three feet from the statue. There Reamy and 30 other reporters stood four feet from the Prince of Wales (1841-1910, Queen Victoria's eldest son, later King Edward VII during 1901-10). Ref.: Zanesville Daily Courier (Ohio), Aug. 7, 1869, p. 2, c. 4.
Statues of GP. 12-Unveiling, July 23, 1869 Cont'd. The Prince of Wales eulogized GP, praised W.W. Story, and referred to U.S. Minister Motley in terms of Anglo-American friendship. Motley replied: "Of all men...he [GP] least needs a monument. I am proud it was made by an American sculptor. In Rome I saw Mr. Peabody and his statue seated side by side.... Now tens of thousands, generation after generation, will look upon his likeness." When Story was asked to speak, he pointed to the statue and said, "There is my speech." The committee sent GP a photograph of the statue and a letter describing the unveiling, ending with: "Our work is now completed. This statue, like your philanthropy, is devoted to the good of men and the glory of God." GP's grateful reply, August 31, 1869, was signed in a shaking and barely legible handwriting. Ref.: below.
Statues of GP. 13-Ref.: (Prince of Wales): Macauley, ed., pp. 78-79. Ref.: (Motley): New York Times, Aug. 4, 1869, p. 5, c. 2-4. Ref.: (Story): Ibid. London Spectator, July 31, 1869, p. 891, c. 1-2. Ref.: (Statue Committee to GP): Peabody Statue in London Committee to GP, July 28, 1869, quoted in London GP Statue "Minutes." Ref.: (GP's reply): GP to the Peabody Statue in London Committee, Aug. 31, 1869, quoted in London GP Statue "Minutes"; also quoted in New York Herald, Oct. 10, 1869, p. 3, c. 1; and in Annual Register...1869, p. 91. For other Refs. on GP London statue unveiling, see under Reference, Doctoral dissertations, Parker, 1956, p. 82, footnote 22.
Statues of GP. 14-Other GP Statues. PIB, 1890; Bust NYC, 1926. 1-(PIB, Baltimore, 1890): A replica of Story's seated GP statue in London was placed in front of the PIB, April 7, 1890, paid for by Baltimorean Robert Garrett (1847-96). 2-(NYC, 1926): GP was one of the 29 most famous Americans elected to N.Y. Univ.'s Hall of Fame in 1900. A GP bust created by sculptor Hans Schuler (1874-1952) was unveiled in GP's allotted place in a May 12, 1926, ceremony on NYC's University Heights overlooking the Hudson River. See: persons named. For other busts of GP see Irish-born sculptor Jones, John Edward (1806-62) and U.S.-born sculptor Powers, Hiram (1805-73).
PCofVU Predecessor Institutions
Stearns, Eben Sperry (1819-87). 1-First President, State Normal School, Nashville. E.S. Stearns, first president during 1875-87 of State Normal School (1875-89, renamed Peabody Normal College, 1889-1911), Nashville, was born in Bedford, Mass. He graduated from Phillips Academy, Harvard College, and received honorary degrees from Harvard College (M.A., 1846), Amherst College, (D.D., 1876), and the Univ. of Nashville (LL.D., 1885). He taught in Mass. and Maine public schools, headed one of the first U.S. public high schools for girls, succeeded Cyrus Pierce as second president of West Newton Normal School, Mass. (this first U.S. normal school was founded at Lexington, Mass., and moved to West Newton, 1849-55), headed the Albany Female Academy, N.Y. (1855-69), and was the first president of Robinson Female Academy, Exeter, N.H. (1869-75). Ref.: Dillingham, pp. 109-10.
Stearns, E.S. 2-Background of State Normal School. Barnas Sears (1802-80), first PEF administrator during 1867-80, wanted a teacher training normal school in Nashville as a model for the South. When several proposals in the Tenn. legislature to establish a state normal school failed, Sears, offering $6,000 annual PEF aid (but expecting state support), induced the Univ. of Nashville trustees to transform their inactive Literary Dept. into a normal school (1875). Sears then secured newly inaugurated Tenn. Gov. James Davis Porter's (1828-1912) help with the legislature to amend appropriately the Univ. of Nashville's charter. See: persons named. PCofVU. PEF.
Stearns, E.S. 3-Classes Started Dec. 1, 1875. The State Normal School presidency, declined by two other educators, was offered to E.S. Stearns, initially reluctant to consider the Nashville position. As a courtesy to his friend, Barnas Sears, he visited Nashville between morning and evening trains. His mind was changed when friends convinced him that it was important to build a model normal school in the South. He also wanted to escape cold northern winters. Classes started Dec. 1, 1875, with 13 students and ended the school year with 60 students. Ref.: Ibid.
Stearns, E.S. 4-Mixed PEF and State Aid. When bills for state support failed in the legislature in 1875-76, 1876-77, and 1877-78, Sears, disappointed, considered moving faculty, students, and equipment to Ga. (early 1880). Threat of a move led to state aid. Peabody Normal College was jointly funded by the PEF ($555,730 during 1875-1909) and the Tenn. legislature ($429,000 during 1881-1905). Ref.: Ibid.
Stearns, E.S. 5-Stearns's Difficulties. GPCFT historian Jack Allen (1914-) listed these challenges Stearns faced: 1-Univ. of Nashville buildings in bad repair, 2-few books and little equipment, 3-a campus lacking trees and shrubs, 4-public apathy, 5-Nashville people's distrust of northern educators, 6-criticism from the ante-bellum head of the Nashville Female Academy who had herself wanted the job, 7-a running battle with Montgomery Bell Academy (part of the Univ. of Nashville) over its becoming a model campus school, and 8-uncertainty about moving Peabody Normal College out of Tenn. Ref.: Allen-a, pp. 4-13; Allen,-b, pp. 19-23.
Stearns, E.S. 6-Pres. Stearns's Last Problem. Pres. Stearns's last big problem in 1883 was a student body protest against his administration, which started over a dismissed faculty member. When his presidency ended with his death in April 1887, enrollment had grown from 13 in Dec. 1875 to 178 in 1887. Ref.: Dillingham.
Stearns, E.S. 7-Second Pres. W.H. Payne & 3rd Pres. J.D. Porter. Pres. Stearns was succeeded by William Harold Payne (1836-1907), second president during 1888-1901. At Payne's resignation there were 607 students and 38 faculty. Stearns and Payne were experienced educators. Former Tenn. Gov. James Davis Porter, third president during 1901-09, not an educator, relied on his academic dean. But Porter, a Univ. of Nashville graduate, later a trustee, had worked with Barnas Sears to establish Peabody Normal College, and as former governor and president of the Tenn. Democratic Party had the political and financial influence to raise the large sum needed when Peabody Normal College was transformed during 1909-14 into GPCFT. See: PCofVU, history of.
Stevens, Benjamin Franklin (1833-1902), was born in Barnet, Vt., studied at Middlebury College, and in 1860 joined his older brother Henry Stevens (1819-86) as rare book dealer in London. B.F. Stevens was also U.S. dispatch agent in London in 1868 through whom U.S. Secty. of State William Henry Seward (1801-72) sent GP the U.S. Congressional Resolutions of Praise and Gold Medal in recognition of the 1867 PEF to promote public education in the 11 former Confederate states plus W.Va. ($2 million total). See: Congressional Gold Medal and Resolutions of Praise to GP. Persons named.
GP & Henry Stevens, U.S. Bookman in London
Stevens, Henry (1819-86). 1-London Book Dealer. Born in Barnet, Vt., Henry Stevens studied at Middlebury College, Yale College (1841), and Harvard Law School. In July 1845 he went to London as book buyer for several important U.S. libraries and remained as resident book dealer and bibliographer. He purchased U.S. books for the British Museum, English and European books for the Library of Congress, arranged scholarly exchanges of Smithsonian Institution publications with 60 British learned societies, bought books for U.S. libraries and for such collectors as James Lenox (1800-88), whose library was combined with the Astor Library and Tilden Trust Library to form the New York Public Library on May 23, 1895. Ref.: Parker, W.W., pp. 83, 126.
Stevens, Henry. 2-Book Dealer for Historians. Henry Stevens also supplied rare research books needed by such famed 19th century U.S. historians as Francis Parkman (1823-93), who had encouraged Henry Stevens' move to London, Jared Sparks (1789-1860), and George Bancroft (1800-91, who had been U.S. Minister to Britain, 1846-49). Ref.: Ibid. Kenin, pp. 87-94. Lydenberg, XVII, pp. 611-612.
Stevens, Henry. 3-Herman Melville, 1849. Stevens lived at Morley's Hotel, 4 Trafalgar Sq., in London's West End, where he sometimes dined with GP and other American residents in London. On the night of Nov. 24, 1849, GP, Henry Stevens, and U.S. Legation Secty. John Chandler Bancroft Davis (1822-1907, nephew of U.S. historian George Bancroft) dined at Joshua Bates's (1788-1864) home in East Sheen, near London. There they met U.S. novelist Herman Melville (1819-91), who later wrote Moby Dick (1851). Melville was in London, on his only trip abroad, to market his manuscript, White Jacket. Ref.: (Herman Melville): Melville, p. 47.
Stevens, Henry. 4-Herman Melville, 1849 Cont'd. In his journal Melville mentioned meeting GP: "On my right was Mr. Peabody, an American for many years resident in London, a merchant, & a very fine old fellow of fifty or thereabouts. I had intended to remain over night...but Peabody invited me to accompany him to town in his carriage. I went with him, along with Davis, the Secty. of Legation.... Mr. Peabody was well acquainted with Gansevoort when he was here. He saw him not long before his end. He told me that Gansevoort rather shunned society when here. He spoke of him with such feeling." Ref.: Ibid.
Stevens, Henry. 5-Herman Melville, 1849 Cont'd. Herman Melville's older brother Gansevoort Melville (1815-46), had been U.S. legation secretary in London and had helped get his brother Herman Melville's book, Typee, published in England. GP and Henry Stevens, who both knew Gansevoort before he died in May 1846, were able to share with Herman Melville their remembrances of his late brother. Ref.: Leyda, p. 338.
Stevens, Henry. 6-Joshua Bates and GP. Joshua Bates, born in Weymouth, Mass., was a merchant who went to London in the early 1800s. He began as agent for, then a partner in (at age 38), and finally head of the Baring Brothers, important merchant-bank in U.S. trade and securities. Bates became a naturalized British subject, was the most prominent U.S.-born financier in London in the 1840s, and GP's friendly business rival. See: Bates, Joshua.
Stevens, Henry. 7-Both Endowed Libraries. Bates was also a philanthropist who gave $50,000 in 1852 to found Boston's public library (he later gave that library 30,000 volumes). By coincidence that same year, June 1852, GP gave $20,000, his first gift, to found his first Peabody Institute library in his hometown, South Danvers, Mass. (renamed Peabody on April 13, 1868; GP's total gift to this library, $217,600). With his gift, GP enclosed a motto: "Education: a debt due from present to future generations." There is no evidence that Bates's example influenced GP. Ref.: Ibid.
Stevens, Henry. 8-Oct. 27, 1851 Dinner Proceedings. GP commissioned Henry Stevens to compile and publish the proceedings, menu, and speeches given at GP's Oct. 27, 1851, farewell dinner to the U.S. exhibitors returning home from the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. Background. Agreeing to participate, U.S. federal and state committees appointed commissioners who assembled the 599 U.S. exhibits sent on the U.S. Navy frigate St. Lawrence from NYC to Southampton, England. But the U.S. Congress had not appropriated money to adorn the 40,000 square foot U.S. pavilion at the Crystal Palace exhibition hall. The New York Post's London correspondent wrote: "It is a national disgrace that American wares, which are good, are so barely displayed, so vulgarly spread out, over so large a space." See: Great Exhibition of 1851, London (first world's fair).
Stevens, Henry. 9-No Money for Decorations. England's satirical journal Punch made fun of the unadorned U.S. pavilion: "We could not help...being struck by the glaring contrast between large pretension and little performance...of the large space claimed by...America." U.S. Minister to Britain Abbott Lawrence (1792-1855) had no funds for decorations. Involved Americans, knowing Congress might take months to appropriate funds, if at all, did not know what to do. Ref.: Ibid.
Stevens, Henry. 10-GP's $15,000 Loan. Eighteen years later (Aug. 23, 1869), just before GP's death (Nov. 4, 1869), the New York Times described GP's $15,000 loan (which Congress repaid three years later): "The whole affair looked like a disgraceful failure [when] Mr. Geo. Peabody, of whom not one exhibitor in twenty had ever heard, and was personally unknown to every member of the commission, offered through a polite note...to Mr. Lawrence, to advance [$15,000, which] relieved the Commission of its difficulties, and enabled our countrymen to achieve their first success in industrial competition with the artisans and manufacturers of Europe." Ref.: Ibid.
Stevens, Henry. 11-Over Six Million. Minister Abbott Lawrence and the U.S. exhibitors were relieved. Over six million visitors saw to best advantage such U.S. products as Alfred C. Hobbs's unpickable lock, Samuel Colt's revolvers, Hiram Powers' statue (The Greek Slave), Cyrus McCormick's reaper, and Richard Hoe's printing press. GP's Oct. 27, 1851, dinner for the departing U.S. exhibitors was attended by 150 U.S. and British notables at the London Coffee House on Ludgate Hill, frequented in the past by Benjamin Franklin. For GP Henry Stevens published this dinner's menu, speeches, and proceedings. Ref.: Ibid.
Stevens, Henry. 12-Other GP Connections. In 1853-54, at GP's expense and as a gift to the Md. Historical Society (cost unknown), Henry Stevens abstracted Md. colonial records from English depositories. GP also paid Stevens to buy special libraries in whole or part for shipment to GP's institute libraries. In 1854, Stevens, needing money, asked GP for a loan. For collateral Stevens used his collection of 3,000 Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) documents, which for a time were in GP's care. Stevens eventually sold the Franklin collection to the U.S. Government for the Library of Congress. Ref.: Ibid.
Stevenson, Andrew (1784-1857). For the six Americans offered and the five who received the Freedom of the City of London (Andrew Stevenson [who declined], GP, U.S Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, Gen. J.J. Pershing, and Dwight David Eisenhower), see London, Freedom of the City of London, and GP. Persons named.
Peabody Homes of London
Stewart, Alexander Turney (1803-76). 1-Peabody Homes of London. Philadelphia newspaper owner and editor John Wien Forney (1817-70) met GP on the ship Scotia returning to England May 1-9, 1867, after GP's 1866-67 U.S. visit. Forney was interested in the Peabody apartments for London's working poor (founded March 12, 1862, $2.5 million total gift). GP arranged for Forney's May 25, 1867, visit to the apartments in Peabody Square, Islington, a former slum area. See: Forney, John Wien.
Stewart, A.T. 2-Forney's Impressions Published. Forney published his impressions: "Mr. Peabody's example will be followed...in both hemispheres. Mr. A.T. Stewart of NYC has already procured copies of the plans.... Parliament has already noticed the work...." Forney concluded: "As I saw these happy children enjoying their spacious playground this morning, and walked with their gratified parents, and heard the report of the superintendent, I felt proud that the author of all this splendid benevolence was an American, and predicted that his...generosity would find many imitators in his own and other countries." Ref.: Forney, pp. 19-31, 62-69. Harlow, pp. 3-5.
Stewart, A.T. 3-Career. Alexander Turney Stewart was an Irish-born successful NYC dry goods merchant and philanthropist. His NYC store, called the Marble Palace at 280 Broadway, renamed the Iron Palace at Broadway and Tenth Street in 1862, was the world's largest retail department store and was sold in 1896 to John Wanamaker (1838-1922). Stewart built the planned community at Garden City, Long Island, N.Y., on the plans of the Peabody Homes of London. As of March 31, 1999, 34,500 Londoners (59% white, 32% black, and 9% others) lived in 17,183 Peabody homes (i.e. apartments), in 26 boroughs including, besides Peabody Trust-built estates, public housing units whose authorities chose to come under the Peabody Trust’s better living facilities, playgrounds for the young, recreation for the elderly, computer training centers, job training, and job placement for working adults. Ref.: Ibid. Gordon, A Thread Across the Ocean, pp. 22-23.
Stewart, A.T. 4-Attended GP's NYC Dinner. A.T. Stewart was a guest at GP's banquet, March 22, 1867, after the PEF trustees' second meeting, at NYC's Fifth Avenue Hotel. Other guests besides the trustees and their wives included NYC financier William Backhouse Astor (1792-1875), historian George Bancroft (1800-91), who had been U.S. Minister to Britain (1846-49), and others. For description of this dinner, see Farragut, David Glasgow. Grant, Ulysses Simpson.
Stewart, Dudley Coates. Dudley Coates Stewart and David Hoffman approached GP by letters in Nov. 1850 and requested his financial help in an escape plan to free imprisoned Hungarian freedom fighter Lajos Kossuth (1802-94). See: Lajos Kossuth.
Stewart, Reginald (1900-84), was PIB Conservatory of Music's fourth director during 1941-58, for 17 years. For his career and contributions, see PIB Conservatory of Music.
Stickney's Tavern, Concord, N.H. For GP's stopover there at age 15 in the winter of 1810, see Concord, N.H. Dodge, Jeremiah.
Stone, Edward Durrell (1902-78), was the esteemed architect who designed a dormitory-cafeteria-parking garage complex at the PIB Conservatory of Music, 1968, during Richard Franko Goldman's first year as conservatory director. See: PIB. Goldman, Richard Franko.
U.S. Sculptor Wm. W. Story
Story, William Wetmore (1819-95). 1-Sculptor. William Wetmore Story was the sculptor of GP's seated statue on Threadneedle St., near the Royal Exchange, London, unveiled July 23, 1869. William Wetmore Story was born in Salem, Mass., was a Harvard law school graduate, a writer of legal works, but is best known as a sculptor who worked from his studio in Rome, Italy. His works include a statue of Cleopatra (1864); busts of James Russell Lowell (1819-91), Josiah Quincy (1744-1775), and Theodore Parker (1810-60); a statue of Edward Everett (1794-1865) in the Boston Public Gardens; GP's seated statue in London, with a replica placed in front of the PIB (April 7, 1890), donated by Baltimorean Robert Garrett (1847-96). Statues of GP.
Story, W.W. 2- GP and W.W. Story knew each other before the GP statue, GP having acted as Story's agent in business transactions, including shipping materials and tools for Story's sculptures. GP went to Rome, Italy, Feb. 19-28, 1868, for sittings in W.W. Story's Rome studio. GP and Robert Charles Winthrop (1809-94) then had an audience with Pope Pius IX, followed by GP's $19,300 gift to Rome's San Spirito Hospital via Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli (1806-76). See: persons and topics mentioned.
Stuart, Alexander Hugh Holmes (1807-91), was a PEF trustee during 1871-89. Born in Staunton, Va., he attended a Staunton academy, William and Mary College, graduated from the Univ. of Va. (1828), was a lawyer (bar exam, 1828), member of the Va. House of Delegates (1836-39 and 1873-76), Va. member of U.S. House of Representatives (1841-43), and U.S. Secty. of the Interior under U.S. Pres. Fillmore (1850-53), and member of Va. Senate (1857-61). He opposed secession and was rector of the Univ. of Va. (1876-82 and 1884-86). Ref.: "Stuart," p. 513. Abernethy, IX, pp. 160-161.
Sturgis, Russell (1805-87), was born in Mass., graduated from Harvard College, was admitted to the bar, was a partner in the Boston firm of Amory & Son, joined two firms doing business with Manila and China, and became a partner in London's Baring Brothers banking firm (1849-87). This longtime London resident, with close connections with U.S. Ministers to Britain, often attended GP's dinners. Other members of the Sturgis family were merchants connected with the China trade at Canton. Ref.: Wallace and Gillespie, I, pp. 4-5, footnote 9.
Sullivan, Arthur (1842-1900), British music composer of Gilbert and Sullivan operetta fame, lectured and performed at the PIB Conservatory of Music in late December 1879 under PIB Academy's first director, Asger Hamerik (1843-1923). Asger Hamerik also brought in such eminent musicians to visit and perform as Russian-born composer Anton Rubinstein (1829-94); German-born pianist, conductor, and educator Hans von Bülow (1830-94) during December-January 1875-1876; and Russian composer Piotr Illytch Tchaikovsky (1840-93) in spring 1891. Hamerik's former teacher, Hans von Bülow, wrote in a London paper that "Baltimore was the only place in America where I had proper support." See: PIB Conservatory of Music.
GP’s Broken Engagement
Sully, Thomas (1783-1872). 1-Portrait painter. U.S. portrait painter in Philadelphia who, about 1840, finished a portrait of Esther Elizabeth Hoppin (1819-1905), who married Alexander Lardner (1808-48) of Philadelphia on Oct. 2, 1840. Two years earlier, in 1838, she was engaged to GP in London. See: Hoppin, Esther Elizabeth.
Sully, Thomas. 2-Met GP in London. Esther Elizabeth Hoppin, from a distinguished Providence, R.I., family, was said to have been the most beautiful girl in that city. At age 16 she visited Philadelphia where she met and became infatuated with Alexander Lardner. She was too young and Lardner had yet to become established. They separated. In 1837-38 Esther Hoppin went to London for young Queen Victoria's coronation, June 28, 1838. GP met her in London, fell in love, and proposed marriage. Ref.: Ibid.
Sully, Thomas. 3-She Broke the Engagement. She, a mature beauty at 19, and GP, a promising U.S. merchant-broker-banker in London at 42, became engaged. Esther Hoppin returned to the U.S., again met Alexander Lardner, and past infatuation turned into love. Realizing that her engagement to GP was a mistake, she wrote to him in London, asking to break the engagement. Ref.: Ibid.
Sully, Thomas. 4-Portrait in NYC's Frick Library. Esther Hoppin married Alexander Lardner. They had two children. She outlived Lardner and GP by many years. Sully's portrait of her, in all her beauty, is in the Frick Art Reference Library, New York City. Sully is best known for his portrait of young Queen Victoria and of Washington Crossing the Delaware, the latter in the Fine Arts Museum, Boston. Ref.: Ibid.
Congressional Medal and Praise for GP’s PEF
Sumner, Charles (1811-74). 1-Mass. Senator. Charles Sumner was the U.S. Sen. (R-Mass.) who on March 5, 1867, introduced joint Congressional resolutions to award GP Congressional thanks and a gold medal for establishing the PEF ($2 million total gift) to promote public education in the 11 former Confederate states plus W.Va., added because of its poverty. Believing GP had been pro-Confederate in the Civil War, Senators James Wilson Grimes (1816-72, R-Iowa) and Thomas Warren Tipton (1817-99, R-Neb.) tried to have the resolutions referred to an investigating committee. See: Congressional Gold Medal and Resolution of Praise to GP.
Sumner, Charles 2-Resolutions Passed. Sen. Reverdy Johnson (1796-1876, D-Md.) defended GP's Union loyalty, stating that he had been GP's lawyer in Baltimore in 1817 and had several later contacts with him in London. The Senate voted 36 yeas, 2 nays (Senators Grimes and Tipton), with 15 Senators absent. When the resolutions were debated in the U.S. House of Rep., Mar. 9, 1867, Rep. Abner Clark Harding (1807-74, R-Ill.) moved: "To amend the resolution to strike out the gold medal.... I am informed Mr. Peabody made profit from the rebellion which he aided and abetted." Harding's amendment failed. The resolutions passed in the U.S. House, March 14, 1867, were enrolled in the U.S. Senate, March 15, and signed by Pres. Andrew Johnson on March 16, 1867. Ref.: Ibid.
Sumner, Charles. 3-Gold Medal Displayed. The gold medal was finished by NYC silversmiths and jewelers Starr and Marcus, May 1868, was sent to the Dept. of State, was seen by Pres. Johnson's cabinet on May 26, 1868, and exhibited in the U.S. Capitol Building. On Sept. 18, 1868, GP wrote from London to U.S. Secty. of State William Henry Seward (1801-72) stating that the gold medal would be kept in the Peabody Institute Library, Peabody, Mass. He added: "Knowing the uncertainty of life, particularly at my advanced age, and feeling a great desire of seeing this most valued token my countrymen have been pleased to bestow upon me, I beg...that the medal, with its accompanying documents, may be sent to me here, through our Legation." Ref.: Ibid.
Sumner, Charles. 4-GP Saw Gold Medal. GP in London saw the gold medal for the first time on Christmas Day, 1868. He opened the package before gathered friends who admired the delicate workmanship and sent it for permanent display at the Peabody Institute Library, Peabody, Mass. With ten months to live, GP made his last trip to the U.S., June 8-Sept. 29, 1869, returned to London gravely ill, and died there Nov. 4, 1869. Ref.: Ibid.
GP Receptions, Baltimore, 1857
Swann, Thomas (c1806-83). 1-1857: Md. Historical Society Member. Thomas Swann, long acquainted with GP, was born in Alexandria, Va. (then part of the District of Columbia), was educated at the Univ. of Va. (1826-27), became a lawyer, moved to Baltimore about 1834, entered business, was a director and then president of the B&O RR (1848), was elected mayor of Baltimore (1856-58), was a Unionist in the Civil War, was elected Md. Gov. (1866-69), and was a member for Md. in the U.S. House.
Swann, Thomas. 2-1857: Md. Historical Society Dinner for GP. After nearly 20 years' absence as a merchant-banker in London (since Feb. 1837), GP visited the U.S. 1856-57 and was honored by the Md. Historical Society at a Jan. 30, 1857, evening dinner. In his address GP spoke pleasurably of his 22 years in Baltimore, during 1815-37, aged 20-42, as junior partner in Riggs, Peabody & Co. (1815-29) and senior partner in Peabody, Riggs & Co. (1829-48). Baltimore Mayor Thomas Swann replied to GP's address: "I, too, am one of thousands of American citizens who partook of Mr. Peabody's hospitality in London. When repudiation of our bonds was the unfortunate order of the day, he believed and caused others to believe in the ultimate redemption of Maryland's obligation. He is a Marylander at heart and an American all over. I give you a sentiment: 'To George Peabody--the best representative we ever had in a foreign court.'" See: Md. Historical Society.
Swann, Thomas. 3-1857: Md. Institute Dinner for GP. Three nights later, Feb. 2, 1857, another dinner was held for GP by the Md. Institute for the Promotion of Mechanic Arts. He was escorted by Mayor Swann and Baltimore merchant Enoch Pratt (1808-96). The welcoming address by Pres. Joshua Vansant referred to the Institute's new Chemistry Dept. (to which GP gave $1,000 in 1851) and to the Great Exhibition of 1851. Vansant told of the U.S. exhibitors without funds to display American art and wares at the Crystal Palace Exhibition Hall, London. Embarrassed U.S. exhibitors were relieved by GP's timely $15,000 loan. See: Md. Institute for the Promotion of Mechanic Arts.
Swann, Thomas. 4-1857: Md. Institute Dinner Cont'd. Turning to GP Pres. Vansant said: "By this act national disgrace was averted. Congress should have promptly repaid this loan but did not. I know you did not present a claim on the government for the sum expended. The U.S. Senate at the first Session of the thirty-third Congress voted to reimburse Edward Riddle to whom your loan was made but the House of Representatives struck it out because of some constitutional obstruction. I was a member of that congress, but voted for reimbursement, otherwise I could not now honorably address you. How glad I was when the next Congress (thirty-fourth) finally approved reimbursement to Mr. Riddle, thus enabling him to repay you. Sir, the mechanics and artisans of the United States owe you thanks for enabling their productive skill to be proudly shown to the world. In their name and in the name of the Maryland Institute I bid you cordial welcome." Ref.: Ibid.
Swann, Thomas. 5-1857: Md. Institute Dinner Cont'd. In reply to Pres. Vansant GP said: "I am myself a working man--my success in life is due to work, and my sympathies are with labor.... When I first went to England, thirty years ago, a Mechanics Institute was generally regarded with indifference....now in that old aristocratic country...members of the most distinguished families annually lecture at these institutes." The Baltimore Sun later reported that GP's remarks brought cheers. Here was a banker who appreciated labor, identified himself with it, and clothed it with dignity. He had struck a chord that pleased. Ref.: Ibid.
Swann, Thomas. 6-1857: Md. Institute Dinner Cont'd. Mayor Swann was moved to say from the platform: "It is a compliment to you, Mr. Peabody, to witness the spontaneous expression of 5,000 of the mechanics and workingmen of Baltimore. In addition to Baltimore workingmen, both branches of our city council present join me in saying that the city owes you special welcome. In the commanding position you have occupied abroad you have done much for our State and City. By supporting the character of Maryland you maintained its fame." Ref.: Ibid.
Swann, Thomas. 7-1857: Md. Institute Dinner Cont'd. GP answered Mayor Swann: "You confer on me so much honor.... While it is true I said Maryland's bonds were good, her means ample, and her citizens honorable, Marylanders themselves justified all I said and to their conduct all credit is due." GP concluded with: "Thank you...for the honor conferred upon me this evening. While I live it will never be forgotten." Ref.: Ibid.
Swann, Thomas. 8-1857: Md. Institute Dinner Cont'd. GP moved through the assembly hall for the banquet that followed. Old friends and fellow merchants pressed forward to shake his hand and to introduce their wives and children. After the meal a bouquet was presented to GP by a Mrs. Watson. GP replied publicly: "I shall prize this beautiful bouquet as long as it lasts.... I am not too old to admire the ladies, though they look better at a man of twenty than of sixty." Ref.: Ibid.
Swann, Thomas. 9-1857: Md. Institute Dinner Cont'd. Baltimorean John Barnhart Seidenstricker (b. 1808) then spoke about GP's part in selling Maryland's bonds abroad: "I was then a member of the state legislature and knew well the difficulties connected with levying a tax to uphold our bond sale abroad. George Peabody in Europe and John J. Speed in Maryland upheld public confidence in Maryland's credit." He concluded with: "The name of Peabody in Europe, and the writings of Speed in Maryland had accomplished the great work of freeing our State from repudiation." Ref.: Ibid.
Swann, Thomas. 10-1857: Md. Institute Dinner Cont'd. Mayor Swann, himself a former B&O RR director and president, then told of GP's connection with the railroad's expansion west to Wheeling, [W.] Va. Swann said: "I tell you that the first man who gave an impetus to the mammoth undertaking was George Peabody. We held the bonds of the State, but they could not be negotiated, and the first man I wrote to was our guest of this evening; he came promptly to our assistance, and I tell you, gentlemen, that without his aid, we could not have laid our tracks ten miles beyond Cumberland or pushed forward through the Alleghenies to the threshold of the great West." Ref.: Ibid.
Swann, Thomas. 11-Dec. 1869. Thomas Swann's last connection with GP was seven weeks after GP's death Nov. 4, 1869, in London. U.S.-British angers were then at fever pitch over the Alabama Claims (indemnity sought by the U.S. for British-built Confederate ships which cost Union lives and treasure). To soften this dispute British officials arranged to return GP's remains for burial in New England on HMS , Britain's newest and largest warship. Not to be outdone U.S. officials ordered USS Plymouth to accompany the . On Dec. 15, 1869, in the U.S. House of Representatives, Resolution No. 96 was introduced, which praised GP's philanthropy and asked U.S. Pres. U.S. Grant (1822-85) to order a naval reception when his remains entered the U.S. receiving port. See: Death and Funeral, GP's.
Swann, Thomas. 12-Dec. 1869. Thomas Swann, then a U.S. Rep. from Md., played a key role when this resolution was debated in the House on Dec. 21, 1869. Some members who believed GP had been pro-Confederate in the Civil War, said that there was not enough time to assemble a naval reception and otherwise tried to block the resolution. It was Rep. Swann who finally amended the resolution 1-to refer to Pres. Grant's discretion the sending of U.S. ships, and 2-to request that three members represent the House on the arrival of GP's remains. The House passed the amended resolution that day, as did the Senate on Dec. 23, and it was signed by Pres. Grant on Jan. 10, 1870. Ref.: Ibid.
Switzerland. GP's second European buying trip of some 15 months was made April 1830-Aug. 15?, 1831, with an unknown American friend. They went by carriage and with frequent change of horses covered some 10,000 miles in England, France, Italy, and Switzerland. See: Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell Daniels (GP's sister).
GP Commemorative Glassware
Sykes, Gordon (1918-). 1-GP Commemorative Glassware. Gordon Sykes (d. Aug. 2002), a Canadian who lives near Toronto, Canada, was a collector of GP commemorative pressed glassware. In the early 1970s at an antique shop about 100 miles from Toronto he first found a commemorative pressed glass sugar bowl with "George Peabody" in raised letters. Having later found some 50 pieces of other GP glassware, he learned from the Registry Office, Chancery Lane, London, that the GP glassware was manufactured by the Henry Greener Glass Co., in their Wear Flint Glass Works, Sunderland, England, near Newcastle, south of the border with Scotland. Ref.: Gordon Sykes, "George Peabody Glassware," talk given at the Peabody Institute Library, Danvers, Mass., May 18, 1995, in connection with the bicentennial of GP's birth (with supplementary information from Gordon Sykes to the authors).
Sykes, Gordon. 2-GP Commemorative Glassware Cont'd. The Henry Greener Glass Co. changed its name several times but still exists (2003) as part of the Corning Glass Group. Besides the GP sugar bowl, collector Sykes has found a GP creamer, cup and saucer, plates in three sizes, bowls in three sizes, and a cake or biscuit stand. Most GP commemorative glassware is clear glass. Those in color are amethyst, or blue, or apple green, or Vaseline. Looking down on the GP commemorative plate, the design from the center outward has the outline of a crown within the outline of a beaded heart within a ring of 16 stars. This comprises the flat central part on which the plate rests. The round beveled part of the plate has "George Peabody" in large letters in a circle surrounded by 28 larger stars and with beading (59 beads) around the plate's outer edge. The raised "George Peabody" also has beads in the lettering. Ref.: Ibid.
Sykes, Gordon. 3-GP Commemorative Glassware Cont'd. Manufacturers who submitted their products to the Registry Office between 1845-83 were given a code which they could stamp as a design on their products. It was the design that was registered at the Registry Office, not the glassware or other products. The design was diamond-shaped with a round ball on top. In each of the four corners of the diamond was placed a letter or a number, each indicating the year, day, and month of manufacture. There was also a "batch number" in one corner of the diamond design. One particular plate design had the following code: The number 111 on top and outside of the diamond indicated the class of manufactured item (111 indicating glassware). On top inside the diamond the number 7 indicated the seventh day of the month. On the right side inside the diamond the letter H indicated the year (H was designated for the year 1869). At the bottom inside the diamond the letter A indicated the month of Dec. On the left side inside the diamond the number 7 indicated the Batch or Bundle Number. Ref.: Ibid.
Sykes, Gordon. 4-GP Commemorative Glassware Cont'd. Collector Sykes also has a white Parian Ware bust of GP, about one foot high, made in England just after GP's death. Ref.: (Photos of GP glassware): Lindsey, pp. 372-373. (Photo of GP pressed glass cup): Frizzell, pp. 41, 62. See: Lindsey, Bessie M.
Sykes, Gordon. 5-Added information. In 1858 Henry Greener (d. 1882) and partner James Angus (d. 1869) acquired the Southwick, England, site of the Wear Flint Glass Works, founded in 1697 by the Sunderland Co. of glass makers. Under the company name of Angus and Greener they made glass ware from 1858, in Sunderland, North East England. Their George Peabody Commemorative Dish Design was registered Dec. 7, 1869, following GP's Nov. 4, 1869, death in London, the outpouring of public and press praise, and the beginning of unprecedented publicity about his 96-day transatlantic funeral. Ref.: Bell, John, under References g. Internet (seen Feb. 24, 2000): http://www.glass.co.nz/jobling.htm
Sykes, Gordon. 6-Sykes Glassware Collection Donated. Mrs. Catherine Sykes, 42-175 Fiddler's Green Rd., Ancaster, Ont. L9G4X7, Canada, will donate her husband's glassware collection (April 2003) to GP House Museum Curator Rebecca Larsen Brave, 205 Washington St., Peabody, Mass. 01960, e-mail: rlarsen@ci.peabody.ma.us Ref.: Letters from Mrs. Catherine Sykes, Canada, and GP House Museum Curator, Peabody, Mass., to authors, 2003, to authors, in their possession.
Syracuse, NY. On April 25, 1857, GP and business friend Curtis Miranda Lampson (1806-85) were in Oswego, N.Y. to look into the affairs of the Syracuse and Binghamton Railroad of which GP was a large stockholder. They met with several businessmen at Luther Wright's bank to discuss how to finance completion of the railroad line from Syracuse to Oswego. Ref.: Oswego Daily Times (Oswego, N.Y.), April 25, 1857, p. 3. c. 1.
T
Taft, William Howard. PCofVU historian Sherman Dorn, describing how William Howard Taft (1857-1930), 27th U.S. Pres. during 1909-13, tried to raise funds for GPCFT, wrote: "In a letter of 15 May 1913, former President William Taft wrote to industrialist philanthropist [Andrew] Carnegie (1835-1919) that he should support Peabody College to help supply competent teachers for Southern schools: 'I doubt if you could do anything that would so help the white people of the south in an educational way as to contribute this last $200,000 of the campaign." Carnegie did not respond but others did contribute. Ref.: Dorn, p. 17. See: persons named. Presidents, U.S., and GP.
Tate, William Knox (1870-1917), Peabody Normal College graduate (B.A., 1892) and U.S. educational historian, wrote of the PEF: "No sketch of Southern education should close without an expression of gratitude to our friends in the days of darkness--George Peabody and the Peabody Board of Trustees. No other $3,000,000 ever accumulated on the earth has done so beneficent a work as has this fund." (Note: Part of GP's gift, $1.5 million in Miss. and $384,000 in Fla. bonds, was never honored by those states, leaving a total $2 million fund. For a few years at first the PEF trustees did not make grants to these states but then relented and made its normal grants). Ref.: Tate, p. 291. See: PEF.
Taylor, Richard (1826-79), was a PEF trustee, succeeding Conn.-born La.-resident lawyer Edward Anthony Bradford (1814-72), who resigned because of illness. Richard Taylor, the son of 12th U.S. Pres. Zachary Taylor (1784-1850), was born near Louisville, Ky., studied in Edinburgh, Scotland, in France, at Harvard Univ., and graduated from Yale Univ. (1845). He became a La. planter, was first a Whig, then joined the Democratic Party, voted for secession at the La. convention, and became a Confederate brigadier general (Oct. 21, 1861). He returned to New Orleans penniless and wrote his memoir, Destruction and Reconstruction (1879, published 1955), praised for its literary merit. Ref.: Boatner, pp. 827-828. See: Bradford, Edward Anthony.
Taylor, Zachary (1784-1850), was the 12th U.S. president during 1848-50. His son Richard Taylor (1826-79) was a PEF trustee. See: Taylor, Richard (above).
Teacher training. See: GPCFT. PCofVU. Peabody Normal College. Ragged Schools.
GP & International Technical Cooperation
Technical cooperation, international. 1-GP's Loan, U.S. Exhibitors, 1851 World's Fair. GP's little known role in international technical cooperation began with the $15,000 loan he made that enabled U.S. exhibitors to display U.S. art and industry adequately at the Great Exhibition of 1851, London, the first world's fair. The loan was made in March before the Great Exhibition's May 1, 1851, opening. GP learned of the need and made the loan, enabling U.S. industry and art to be seen to best advantage. Ref.: Cummings, pp. 199-212. Wilson, P.W., p. 49. See: Great Exhibition of 1851, London (first world's fair).
Tech. coop., Internt'l. 2-No Funds to Display U.S. Industry and Art. Background: The U.S. Congress approved of U.S. participation and organized a congressional committee which appointed commissioners who selected the best U.S. industrial products and art objects. These were shipped on the U.S. Navy frigate St. Lawrence to Southampton, England, at exhibitors' expense. But no Congressional funds had been appropriated to decorate the large U.S. pavilion at the Crystal Palace Exhibition Hall. The U.S. Legation, without funds, and the U.S. exhibitors without other resources were embarrassed. London's satirical magazine Punch publicly ridiculed "the glaring contrast between large pretension and little performance...of the large space claimed by...America." Ref.: Ibid.
Tech. coop., internt'l. 3-Loan Offered "through a polite note." A New York Times writer later recorded: "The whole affair looked like a disgraceful failure. At this juncture Mr. Geo. Peabody, of whom not one exhibitor in twenty had ever heard, and who was personally unknown to every member of the Commission, offered through a polite note addressed to Mr. Lawrence [U.S. Minister to Britain Abbott Lawrence, 1792-1855], to advance £3,000 [$15,000] on the personal responsibility of [Commissioner] Mr. Riddle and his secretary, Mr. Dodge. This loan, afterward paid by Congress, relieved the Commission of its difficulties and enabled our countrymen to achieve their first success in industrial competition with the artisans and manufacturers of Europe." Ref.: Ibid.
Tech. coop., internt'l. 4-Over Six Million Visitors Saw U.S. Products. When the Great Exhibition closed on Oct. 19, 1851, over six million visitors to the first world's fair had seen to best advantage at the U.S. pavilion Alfred C. Hobbs's (1812-91) unpickable lock, Samuel Colt's (1814-62) revolvers, Hiram Powers' (1805-73) statue, the Greek Slave, Cyrus Hall McCormick's (1809-84) mechanical reapers, Richard Hoe's (1812-86) printing press, William Cranch Bond's (1789-1859) spring governor, and other products. The 599 U.S. exhibits won 159 awards, or one award for every four exhibits, somewhat better than the awards won by British exhibits. Ref.: Ibid.
Tech. coop., internt'l. 5-Search for Sir John Franklin, 1853-54. GP's second instance of international technical help was his gift of $10,000 on March 4, 1852, to the Second U.S. Grinnell Expedition, 1853-55, searching for lost British Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin (1786-1847). NYC shipping merchant Henry Grinnell (1799-1874) lent two ships, GP gave $10,000 for scientific equipment, and the U.S. Congress authorized U.S. Navy participation under U.S. Navy medical officer and Capt. Elisha Kent Kane (1820-57). GP was moved to offer the gift in response to Lady Jane Franklin's (1792-1875) public appeal for U.S. help to find her husband and the 137 seamen lost with him. GP was touched by the hue and cry then prevalent to find the lost hero-explorer. See: Franklin, Sir John. Persons named.
Tech. coop., internt'l. 6-Initiated U.S. Arctic Exploration. This expedition, one of many searching for Sir John Franklin, did not find the lost explorer, but it did initiate U.S. Arctic exploration. In appreciation for GP's financial help, Kane named Peabody Bay off Greenland for him. GP's motive in both instances, in his $15,000 loan to U.S. exhibitors at London's Great Exhibition of 1851 and his $10,000 gift in the search for Sir John Franklin, was to promote U.S.-British friendship. Ref.: Cummings, pp. 199-212. Wilson, P.W., p. 49.
Telegraph. Telegraph inventor Samuel Finlay Breese Morse (1791-1872) was a guest at GP's July 4, 1856, dinner, Star and Garter Hotel, Richmond, eight miles from London. When a toast was made to "The Telegraph," S.F.B. Morse was unexpectedly asked to respond. He rose, quoted from Psalm 19, "Their line is gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world," and sat amid applause. See: Dinners, GP's, London. Morse, Samuel Finlay Breese.
Tempo Manor, Enniskillen, Ireland, was the country home of Sir James Emerson Tennent (1791-1869), MP from Belfast and trustee of the Peabody Donation Fund for housing London's working poor ($2.5 million total gift). See: Forney, John Wien. Lampson, Curtis Miranda. Peabody Homes of London. Tennent, James Emerson.
MP James Emerson Tennent & GP
Tennent, Sir James Emerson (1791-1869). 1-British Statesman and MP. James Emerson Tennent was a British statesman, an MP from Belfast, and GP's longtime friend. He helped coordinate the announcement in the British press of GP's March 12, 1862, letter founding the Peabody Donation Fund ($2.5 million total) for model apartments for London's working poor; was a trustee of that fund; and sometimes had GP as guest in the 1860s in his home in Ireland (Tempo Manor, Enniskillen). See: Peabody Homes of London.
Tennent, Sir J.E. 2-Career. James Emerson Tennent was born in Belfast, Ireland; was educated at Trinity College, Dublin; traveled abroad, particularly to Greece where he met the poet Lord Byron (1824); studied law at Lincoln's Inn (1831); married the only daughter of a wealthy Belfast banker (1831); served as House of Commons member from Belfast (1832-37, 1838, 1842-45, 1852); was civil secretary to the colonial government of Ceylon (1845-50); was secretary to the India Board (1841-43); was knighted (July 1845); was secretary of the Board of Trade (1852-67); and was created a baronet when he retired (1867). Ref.: (Obituary, b. April 7, 1791, d. March 6, 1869): London Times, March 12, 1869.
Tennent, Sir J.E. 3-Career Cont'd. In 1842 Tennent sponsored through Parliament the copyright of [cloth weaving] designs bill. Its passage pleased Manchester textile manufacturers, who presented James Tennent with a dinner plate service worth £5,000 (about $25,000). Tennent also wrote about Ceylon. His books include: Ceylon: An Account of the Island: Physical, Historical, and Topographical (1859), 2 vols.; Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon (1861); and others. Ref.: Ibid.
Tennent, Sir J.E. 4-Aided Pres. Lincoln's Emissary. In Nov. 1861 N.Y. state Republican leader and newspaper editor Thurlow Weed (1797-1882), one of Pres. Abraham Lincoln's emissaries to keep Britain neutral in the U.S. Civil War, consulted his long time friend GP in London. GP introduced Weed to Tennent. At Tennent's home Weed met such influential British government leaders as 1-Lord Clarence Edward Paget (1811-95), 2-Foreign Secty. John Russell (1792-1878), and 3-MP William W. Torrens (also known as William Torrens McCullagh). See: Civil War and GP. Trent Affair. Persons named.
Tennent, Sir J.E. 5-GP-J.E. Tennent-Reverdy Johnson in Brighton. In Sept. 1868 GP was Sir James Tennent's guest at Tempo Manor, Enniskillen, Ireland. In Nov. 1868 GP was in Brighton, England, with Sir James Tennent and Baltimorean Reverdy Johnson (1796-1876), then U.S. Minister to Britain (1868-69) to negotiate the Alabama Claims controversy. Reverdy Johnson-GP connections: 1-they met in Baltimore in 1817 when Johnson was GP's lawyer; 2-Johnson helped GP in 1854 contact John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870) and others about creating the PIB (1857, $1.4 million total gift); 3-on March 5, 1867, in the U.S. Senate, when GP's Union loyalty was questioned, then-U.S. Sen. Reverdy Johnson's defense of GP's loyalty enabled passage of Congressional resolutions of praise and a gold medal to GP for the PEF (1867-69, $2 million total gift) for public education in the South. Ref.: (GP's Sept. 1868, visit to Tennent): Albion (NYC), Sept. 19, 1869, p. 452, c. 1. See: persons named.
Tennent, Sir J.E. 6-GP-J.E. Tennent-Reverdy Johnson in Brighton Cont'd. Some Brighton citizens, wanting to honor Reverdy Johnson, GP, and Tennent, consulted Brighton's mayor and town authorities. A public dinner for the three visitors was planned for Nov. 21, 1868. GP was too ill to attend. Sir James Tennent and Reverdy Johnson attended. Reverdy Johnson spoke of his efforts to reconcile the Alabama Claims. He also complimented GP's past efforts to promote British-U.S. friendship. On Nov 22, 1868, GP and Reverdy Johnson attended Christ Church in Brighton. The sermon by the Rev. Robert Ainslie praised Reverdy Johnson for promoting peace. GP was favorably compared to British reformer John Howard (1726-90). Ref.: Brighton Guardian (England), Nov. 18, 1868, p. 5, c. 6; and Nov. 25, 1868, p. 7. Brighton Herald (England), Nov. 21, 1868, p. 3, c. 5; and Nov. 28, 1868, p. 4, c. 2-3. Ainslie.
Tennent, Sir William Emerson (1835-76), was the son of Sir James Emerson Tennent (1791-1869) who helped his father coordinate the public announcement of GP's March 12, 1862, letter founding the Peabody Donation Fund (model apartments for London's working poor). See: Tennent, James Emerson (above).
Tenn. PCofVU had six predecessor colleges and nineteen chief administrators. See: PCofVU, Brief History.
Tenn. Legislature. See: PCofVU, Brief History.
Terre Haute, Ind. During GP's Sept. 15, 1856 to Aug. 19, 1857, U.S. visit, his first return to the U.S. after nearly 20 years' absence in London (since Feb. 1837), he visited Terre Haute, Ind., and Indianapolis, Ind., where he stayed with Ind. Gov. Ashbel P. Willard (1820-60), April 7, 1857. See: Augusta, Ga.
Terror (ship). In May 1845 British Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin (1786-1847) sailed on his second Arctic exploration and was never seen alive again. Some 40 international searches were made for the missing explorer (1845-50s), his two ships the Erebus and the Terror, and their crew of 137 seamen. GP contributed $10,000 for scientific equipment to the Second U.S. Grinnell Expedition, 1853-55, in its unsuccessful search for Sir John Franklin. U.S. Navy Capt. Elisha Kent Kane (1820-57), commanding the Second U.S. Grinnell Expedition, named Peabody Bay off Greenland for GP's $10,000 for scientific equipment to this early U.S. effort in Arctic exploration. See: persons named.
Thames (river which runs through London). In the 1850s GP gave U.S.-British friendship dinners, usually on July 4th Independence Day, at the Star and Garter Hotel, Richmond, eight miles from London on the Thames. See: Dinners, GP's, London.
Thetford, Vt. In late winter 1810, GP, then age 15, first visited his maternal grandparents, Judith (née Spofford) Dodge (1749-1828) and her husband Jeremiah Dodge (1744-1824) in Post Mills Village, Thetford, Vt. GP then stopped to visit his maternal aunt Temperance (née Dodge) Jewett (1772-1872?), whose husband, Jeremiah Jewett (1757-1836), was a physician in Barnstead, N.H. In memory of his maternal grandparents and of his visit there, GP gave $5,000 for a public library in Thetford, Vt., in Sept. 1866. See: Concord, N.H. Mayall, John Jabez Edwin. Persons named.
GP & Md. Gov. Philip Francis Thomas
Thomas, Philip Francis (1810-90). 1-Md.'s $8 Million Bond Sale Abroad. Md. Gov. Philip Francis Thomas (during 1848-51) transmitted to GP in 1848 the Md. legislature's resolutions of praise for selling part of Md.'s $8 million in bonds in Europe to finance the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal and the B&O RR. GP left the U.S. Feb. 1837, his fifth trip abroad, as one of three Md. agents to sell these bonds. Hampered by the Panic of 1837, the other two commissioners returned to the U.S. GP remained in London for 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-Sept. 29, 1869. See: Md.'s $8 Million Bond Sale Abroad and GP.
Thomas, P.F. 2-Panic of 1837. The Panic of 1837 and subsequent economic depression led Md. and eight other states to stop paying interest on their bonds in part or whole. GP publicly urged Md. officials to resume interest payments retroactively, assured investors that this would be done, and finally sold his portion of the Md. bonds to the Baring Brothers, Britain's largest, oldest banking firm. Not wanting to burden economically depressed Md., GP never applied for and ultimately publicly declined the $60,000 commission due him. Ref.: Ibid.
Thomas, P.F. 3-Md. Resolutions of Praise. When Md. recovered economically and resumed its bond interest payments, the Md. governor's 1847 annual report to the legislative Assembly singled out GP as one "who never claimed or received one dollar of the $60,000 commission due him...whilst the State was struggling with her pecuniary difficulties." On March 7, 1848, both houses of Md.'s Assembly passed a unanimous resolution of praise to GP, sent to him in London, with Gov. Philip Francis Thomas' accompanying comment: "To you, Sir,...the thanks of the State were eminently due." Ref.: Ibid.
Prince Arthur at GP's Funeral
Thornton, Edward, Sir (1817-1906). 1-British Ambassador to the U.S. Sir Edward Thornton was British Ambassador to the U.S. in Jan. 1870 when he received Queen Victoria's approval for her son Prince Arthur, then on a royal tour of Canada, to visit in the U.S. Prince Arthur (William Patrick Albert Arthur, 1850-1942, Duke of Connaught), left Montreal, Canada, on Jan. 20, 1870, went to Washington, D.C., where he met Pres. U.S. Grant, and was in NYC on Jan. 29, 1870. See: Death and funeral, GP's.
Thornton, Edward, Sir. 2-Attended GP's Funeral. A Jan. 27 letter from his military aide, Lt. Col. Howard Cawfurd Elphinestone (1829-90, later knighted), to Queen Victoria's advisor in England, contained the first mention of Prince Arthur's possible attendance at GP's funeral: "Should Mr. Peabody's funeral take place soon after that, Col. Elphinestone thought it would be a gracious act on the part of the Prince to attend." Prince Arthur left NYC on Feb. 5, 1870, for Boston and left Boston on Feb. 8, 1870, for Peabody, Mass. His attendance at GP's funeral and burial attracted favorable press coverage. British Ambassador to the U.S. Thornton also attended GP's funeral service and burial. Ref.: Ibid.
Thornton, Edward, Sir. 3-Career. London-born Edward Thornton was educated at King's College, London, and Pembroke College, Cambridge (1840). He served in diplomatic posts in Turin, Italy (April 1842), in Mexico (Feb. 1845-Dec. 1853), South American countries (1854-59), succeeded Frederick W.A. Bruce (1814-67) as British ambassador to the U.S. (1867-81) and was ambassador to Russia (1881-87). Ref.: "Thornton," pp. 518-519.
Threadneedle St., London, EC2, is the location of GP's seated statue by William Wetmore Story (1819-95), unveiled by the Prince of Wales, July 23, 1869. The street's name may come from the three needles on the coat of arms of the Needlemakers' Co., or the thread and needle emblem used by Merchant Taylors near the Bank of England. See: Statues of GP.
Throgmorton St., London. George Peabody & Co.'s first office (earlier called "counting house") was at No. 6 Warnford Court, Throgmorton St. (Dec. 1, 1838 to about 1855). It then moved to 22 Old Broad St. (1855), both in London's inner city near the Royal Exchange and near Threadneedle St., where GP's seated statue by William Wetmore Story (1819-95) was unveiled by the Prince of Wales, July 23, 1869. See: Streets named. Statues of GP. Story, William Wetmore.
Thwing, Charles Franklin (1853-1937), was an anthropologist who wrote about the importance of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard Univ. (founded Oct. 8, 1866, $150,000 gift). See: Science: GP's Gifts to Science and Science Education.
Tiffany, Elise, was the daughter of GP's Baltimore business friend Osmond Capron Tiffany (1794-1851). GP entertained Elise Tiffany and her brother George Tiffany in London in 1853. There may have been a touch of romance toward GP on her part. See: Dinners, GP's, London. Romance and GP.
Tiffany, George, was the son of GP's Baltimore business friend Osmond Capron Tiffany (1794-1851). GP entertained George Tiffany and his sister Elise Tiffany in London in 1853. See: Tiffany, Elise (above).
Tiffany, Osmond Capron (1794-1851), was GP's Baltimore business friend whose son George Tiffany and daughter Elise Tiffany GP entertained in London in 1853.
Tillman, Dorothy. See:: Peabody, George (1795-1869), Critics-18-32.
Queen's Miniature Portrait as Gift for GP
Tilt, F.A.C. (fl. 1866-68). 1-Painted Miniature Portrait of Queen Victoria. Daphne Foskett's A Dictionary of British Miniature Painters (1972) listed F.A. Tilt of London and Epsom as the British artist whose 1867 miniature portrait of Queen Victoria was done "by Command; the original miniature for which the enamel was prepared for Mr. Peabody." F.A.C. Tilt shared an address (Lovelands, Walton Heath, Epsom, England) with and was probably related to another miniaturist, E.P. Tilt, whose works were exhibited at London's Royal Academy (of Art), 1866-68, the only documented dates attributed to either artist. The Illustrated London News, May 26, 1867, p. 513, with an engraving of the Queen's miniature portrait, mentions that Tilt was a partner in the firm of Dickinson, 114 New Bond St., London. Ref.: Foskett, p. 550.
Tilt, F.A.C. 2-Background. Queen Victoria’s letter to GP, March 28, 1866, stated that soon after public announcement (March 12, 1862) of GP’s Peabody Donation Fund to build and manage apartments for London's working poor, she wanted to thank and honor him. She inquired through intermediaries if he would accept either a baronetcy or the Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath. He respectfully declined, since U.S. citizens could not accept a foreign title without renouncing U.S. citizenship, which GP felt he could not do. Nothing was done until the Queen saw the announcement of GP’s additional gift to the Peabody Donation Fund (April 19, 1866). She consulted Foreign Secty. Lord John Russell (1792-1878) about how to thank and honor him. Lord Russell suggested she send him a letter of thanks and a gift of her portrait, as was done for foreign ambassadors who signed treaties with Britain. See: Honors, GP's, in Life and after Death (in chronological order). Persons named.
Tilt, F.A.C. 3-Portrait Presented to GP in the U.S. The Queen wrote her thanks to GP, March 28, 1866. About to visit the U.S., May 1, 1866 to May 1, 1867, he replied April 3, 1866. She commissioned F.A.C. Tilt to make her miniature, which was put in a solid gold frame and was presented to GP in March 1867 by British ambassador Sir Frederick Bruce (1814-67) in Washington, D.C. The portrait, said to cost $70,000, is in the Peabody Institute Library, Peabody, Mass. Ref.: Ibid. See: Visits to the U.S. by GP.
Tilt, F.A.C. 4-Painted Other Members of the Royal Family. F.A.C. Tilt also painted miniatures of the Prince and Princess of Wales, Albert of Saxe-Co-burg-Gotha (Prince Albert, 1819-61), Prince George, and others. The Heinz Archive & Library, National Portrait Gallery, London, has one of his portraits. Tilt's grandchild, Ashley Edwards, wrote in the London Daily Telegraph, Jan. 4. 1962: "The 'costly miniature portrait,' a gift by Queen Victoria to George Peabody referred to...[in] the Daily Telegraph, May 26, was painted by my grandfather, F.A.C. Tilt, and was the subject of a long article in a London newspaper on June 16, 1867." Ref.: London Daily Telegraph, Jan. 4, 1962. Information on F.A.C. Tilt supplied by Duncan Chappell, Heinz Archive and Library, National Portrait Gallery, London
Tinkham, Capt., of the packet ship Florida on which GP sailed on his first Atlantic crossing from NYC on the Nov. 1, 1827, landed in Liverpool, England, Nov. 25, 1827. On the Florida GP had the worst seasickness of any of his Atlantic crossings. He was abroad on that first commercial trip for nine months. See: Florida (ship). Visits to Europe by GP.
Congressional Debate, Praise & Medal for PEF
Tipton, Thomas Warren (1817-99). 1-Congressional Praise & Gold Medal for PEF. Thomas Warren Tipton was a U.S. Sen. (R-Neb.) who in March 1867, with U.S. Sen. James Wilson Grimes (1816-72, R-Iowa), challenged congressional resolutions of praise and a gold medal to GP for founding the PEF ($2 million total gift). The PEF promoted public education, teacher institutes, and teacher training normal schools in the eleven former Confederate states plus W.Va. (added because of its poverty). See: Congressional Gold Medal and Resolution of Praise to GP.
Tipton, T.W. 2-Sen. Tipton Objected. The resolutions were introduced by U.S. Sen. Charles Sumner (1811-74, R-Mass.) on March 5, 1867. Senators Grimes and Tipton asked why the resolutions could not first be looked into by an investigating committee to determine the worthiness of the gift (GP was charged by some with having been pro-Confederate). Sen. Reverdy Johnson (1796-1876, D-Md.) defended GP's Union loyalty. He stated that he had been GP's lawyer in Baltimore in 1817 and had since had contacts with him in London. Ref.: Ibid.
Tipton, T.W. 3-Rep. Harding Objected. The Senate voted 36 yeas, 2 nays (Senators Grimes and Tipton), with 15 senators absent. The resolutions were debated in the U.S. House of Representatives on Mar. 9, 1867. Rep. Abner Clark Harding (1807-74, R-Ill.) moved: "To amend the resolution to strike out the gold medal.... I am informed Mr. Peabody made profit from the rebellion which he aided and abetted." Harding's amendment failed. The resolutions were passed in the U.S. House, March 14, 1867, passed in the U.S. Senate, March 15, 1867, and signed by Pres. Andrew Johnson, March 16, 1867. Ref.: Ibid.
Tipton, T.W. 4-Displayed in Washington, D.C. The gold medal, finished by NYC silversmiths and jewelers Starr and Marcus, May 1868, went to the Dept. of State, was seen by Pres. Johnson's cabinet on May 26, 1868, and was exhibited in the U.S. Capitol Building. On Sept. 18, 1868, from London, GP wrote U.S. Secty. of State William Henry Seward (1801-72), stating that the gold medal would be kept in the Peabody Institute Library, Peabody, Mass., but added: "Knowing the uncertainty of life, particularly at my advanced age, and feeling a great desire of seeing this most valued token my countrymen have been pleased to bestow upon me, I beg...that the medal, with its accompanying documents, may be sent to me here [London], through our Legation." Ref.: Ibid.
Tipton, T.W. 5-GP Saw Congressional Gold Medal, Christmas 1868. GP opened the gold medal package on Christmas Day, 1868, before friends, who admired the delicate workmanship. With a few months to live, GP made his last trip to the U.S., June 8 to Sept. 29, 1869, returned to London gravely ill, and died there Nov. 4, 1869. Ref.: Ibid.
Todd, Francis. See: McCabe, James D.
Toronto, Canada. GP visited Toronto and Montreal, Canada, on Oct. 15 to Nov. 1, 1856 (he suffered gout attacks on this visit). See: Cities named Visits to the U.S. by GP.
Torrens, William W. (1813-94). 1-British MP. (Note: In 1863 William W. Torrens, Irish-born barrister and independent Liberal MP during 1847 to 1885, took his mother's surname: McCullagh. He wrote in the press for the North in the Civil War). In Nov. 1861 Pres. Abraham Lincoln sent emissaries to help keep Britain neutral. Two of these emissaries were GP's longtime friends: Ohio Episcopal Bishop Charles Pettit McIlvaine (1799-1873) and Thurlow Weed (1797-1882), Albany, N.Y. Evening Journal owner and N.Y. state Republican political leader. Through GP Weed met and talked to Lord Clarence Edward Paget (1811-95), Major Gen. Sir John Wilson, and at least two prominent MPs: James Emerson Tennent (1791-1869) and William W. Torrens, who soon after spoke and wrote in the British press for the Union side. Ref.: Weed-a. Weed-b. Van Deusen, p. 279. Barnes, pp. 351-352. Ref.: (W.W. Torrens became Wm. Torrens McCullagh): Wallace and Gillespie, eds., II, p. 933 footnote 17. See: Civil War and GP.
Torrens, W.W. 2-Eased U.S.-British Tension. Through MP William W. Torrens, Weed spoke to British Foreign Secty. John Russell (1792-1878). Russell viewed as an illegal act the Nov. 8, 1861, U.S. seizure of Confederate envoys Mason, Slidell, and their male secretaries from the British mail ship Trent, en route to Liverpool. Weed's delicate talks on this and other matters helped ease U.S.-British tension. Ref.: Charles Pettit McIlvaine to Thurlow Weed, Dec. 24, 1869, quoted in New Haven Daily Palladium (New Haven, Conn.), Jan. 6, 1870, p. 2, c. 2-3. Internet [Trent, ship]. See: Civil War and GP. Persons named.
Pres. Lincoln’s Emissary Thurlow Weed Explained Civil War Origins to GP
Toucey, Isaac (1796-1869). 1-Weed to GP on Civil War Origins. N.Y. state newspaper editor and Republican leader Thurlow Weed (1797-1882) was one of Pres. Abraham Lincoln's private emissaries sent to London in Nov. 1861 to keep Britain neutral in the U.S. Civil War. Weed, GP's longtime friend and philanthropic advisor, explained to GP in Dec. 1861 the origins of the Civil War. GP then helped Weed contact British leaders. After GP's death (Nov. 4, 1869) some news accounts accused GP of being pro-Confederate and anti-Union. Weed defended GP as a Unionist in his article "The Late George Peabody; A Vindication of his Course During the Civil War," New York Times, Dec. 23, 1869, p. 2, c. 3-4 (widely reprinted). Weed reported that in Nov.-Dec. 1861 in London he had explained the origins and causes of the Civil War at length to GP, who then helped him contact British leaders. Weed said to GP in part: "Let me say also that a disloyal Secretary of the Navy [?Isaac Toucey of Conn.?] sent nearly all our warships to foreign countries in order to leave the North unprepared for the war forced on the government...." See: Civil War and GP.
Toucey, Isaac. 2-Weed to GP on Civil War Origins Cont'd. Thurlow Weed also told GP "that in 1859-60 a secessionist Secretary of War [?John Buchanan Floyd, 1807-63?] transferred large quantities of arms and ammunition from Northern to Southern arsenals." But there was no proof (and historians have since discounted the charge) that Secty. of War J.B. Floyd transferred federal arms to southern arsenals. For indirect mention of Isaac Toucey and John Buchanan Floyd in Weed's vindication of GP as a Union supporter, see Persons named.
Toucey, Isaac. 3-Career. Isaac Toucey was born in Newtown, Conn., received a private classical education, was a lawyer in Hartford, Conn. (from 1818), was state attorney for Hartford County (1822-25), served in the U.S. Congress (1835-39), was again state attorney (1842-44), Conn. Gov. (1846-47), U.S. Atty. General (1848-49), was elected to the Conn. senate (1850), was U.S. Senator (1852-57), and U.S. Navy Secty. (1857-61).
GP Critic George Francis Train
Train, George Francis (1829-1904). 1-GP Critic, 1862. George Francis Train was a Boston-born financier of city railway lines who publicly criticized GP as pro-Confederate and anti-Union. Train first publicly attacked GP after his March 12, 1862, founding of model apartments for London's working poor ($2.5 million total gift). GP learned of this attack in a June 20, 1862, letter from friend and Peabody Donation Fund (London) trustee James Emerson Tennent (1791-1869). Ref.: James Emerson Tennent to GP, June 20, 1862, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Train, G.F. 2-GP Critic, 1862 Cont'd. Four months later, GP heard more of Train from his friend and sometime agent Horatio Gates Somerby (1805-72), a Newburyport, Mass-born genealogist and London resident. Somerby, visiting in Boston, wrote GP (Oct. 7, 1862) that the day before at Faneuil Hall, he had listened to anti-Confederate speeches by U.S. Sen. from Mass. Charles Sumner (1811-74) and George Francis Train. Somerby reported that Train, an activist demonstrator, had fought with Boston police and been led handcuffed to jail. Train was a pro-Irish and anti-British zealot who had disappointing experiences introducing street railways in English cities. He was also rabidly anti-Confederate during the Civil War. See: Somerby, Horatio Gates.
Train, G.F. 3-Critical of GP's Transatlantic Funeral. Seven years later, after GP died and amid U.S.-British publicity attending GP's transatlantic funeral, George Francis Train in Boston gave a speech generally regarded as ranting and incoherent. He railed against GP as follows: "I regard the fact of George Peabody's remains being brought over on a British ship of war [HMS Monarch, accompanied by the USS corvette Plymouth] the greatest insult ever offered to America. George Peabody was a secessionist. The Alabama Claims is still unsettled and American citizens are dying in British prisons." Ref.: Boston Journal, Dec. 28, 1869, p. 1, c. 1.
Train, G.F. 4-Seen as an Eccentric. Train was seen as an eccentric, even by abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison (1805-79), who wrote: "George Francis Train, a notorious charlatan,… was exciting the mirth of the country by posing as a self-constituted candidate for President." Ref.: Garrison, p. 242.
Transactions of the Geological Society. GP's nephew Othniel Charles Marsh's (1831-99) 1861 paper on Nova Scotia fossils attracted the attention of Louis Agassiz (1807-73), Harvard Univ. authority on fossil fishes. Marsh's paper was read at a meeting of the Geological Society, London, and published in the Society's Transactions. See: Marsh, Othniel Charles.
Deceased GP's British Property
Treasurer-Solicitor's Office, London. 1-George Peabody Escheat Papers. George Peabody Escheat Papers, 1869-1870, Treasurer-Solicitor's Office, London, is a British court record of London property GP left in his will worth £200,000 ($1 million). It went to the Peabody Donation Fund (founded March 12, 1862) to build apartments for London's working poor ($2.5 million total gift). Background: GP, a U.S. citizen, died Nov. 4, 1869, at the London home of longtime friend Sir Curtis Miranda Lampson (1806-85). On the death of a foreigner British law held that his British real estate property reverted to the Crown. It was understood from the first that once the facts were legally determined, the Crown would turn the property over to the trustees. See: Death and funeral, GP's.
Treasurer-Solicitor's Office, London. 2-GP-Lampson Arrangement. GP wanted to buy land at Stockwell, near London, in 1866 as a gift to the Peabody Donation Fund. Lampson and other trustees told GP that because he was not a British subject, he could not legally buy the land, obtain title to it, own it, or dispose of it. He arranged with Curtis Lampson, a Vt.-born but naturalized British citizen, to buy the land with GP's money, the land to be given at his death to the Peabody Donation Fund. Sir Curtis Lampson's sworn statement in court settled the matter. The property, escheated to the Crown, was by royal prerogative turned over to the Peabody Donation Fund trustees. Ref.: Ibid.
Treasury, Secty. of the U.S. To avoid impeachment U.S. Pres. Andrew Johnson's (1808-75) political advisor, Francis Preston Blair, Sr. (1791-1876), recommended a complete change of cabinet with GP as U.S. Treasury Secty. Loyalty to his cabinet, however, kept Johnson from this course. See: Congressional Gold Medal and Resolutions of Praise to GP. Persons named.
Tremont House, Boston. GP met his philanthropic advisor Robert Charles Winthrop (1809-94) in May 1866 and later at the Tremont House, Boston, opened in 1829, and noted as among the grandest hotels in the U.S.
GP Affected by Trent Affair
Trent Affair (Nov. 8, 1861). 1-GP's London Housing Gift. The Nov. 8, 1861, Trent Affair (illegal U.S. seizure of 4 Confederate agents from a British ship), provoked near-war U.S.-British hysteria. Already embroiled in Civil War, U.S. officials knew they would be crushed by British might. GP and his trustees in London, about to announce his gift of housing for London's working poor, delayed publishing his letter of gift. The fear was that anger over the Trent seizure would make British authorities spurn this gift from an American in their midst. It was a worrisome time. Ref.: Internet [Trent, ship]
Trent. 2-Confederate Agents Seek Aid Abroad. Seeking to buy ships, arms, and other aid the Confederacy sent abroad agents Pierre A. Rost (1797-1868), William L. Yancey (1814-63), and Ambrose Dudley Mann (1801-89). They were soon followed by James Murray Mason (1798-1871) and his secretary J.E. McFarland, both of Va., to Britain; and John Slidell (1793-1871) and his secretary George Eustice (1828-72), both from La, to France. Ref.: Ibid. London Times, Dec. 10, 1861, p. 9, c. 1-3; Dec. 11, 1861, p. 10, c. 3; and Dec. 24, 1861, p. 10, c. 3-5. Pratt, pp. 33-34. Foote, pp. 154, 157. Porter-a, pp. 63-74.
Trent. 2-Illegal Seizure of British Trent. On the stormy night of Oct. 11, 1861, Mason, Slidell, and Slidell's family evaded the Union blockade of Charleston, S.C., took ship to Havana, Cuba, and there boarded the British mail packet Trent bound for Southampton, England. On Nov. 8, 1861, in the Bahama Channel, West Indies, Union warship San Jacinto's Capt. Charles Wilkes (1798-1877), stopped the Trent with shots across its bow, forcibly removed Mason, Slidell, and their secretaries, and took them to Boston Harbor's Fort Warren prison. Britain and France were furious at the illegal seizure. The U.S. North was jubilant. Near-war angers over the Trent affair lasted well into 1862. GP and his trustees postponed to March 12, 1862, announcement of the Peabody Donation Fund to build apartments for London's working poor ($2.5 million total gift). Ref.: Ibid.
Trent. 3-Britain & U.S. Civil War. Officially neutral, upper and middle class Britons felt a kinship with the southern aristocracy. Britain's economy was also hurt because southern cotton, essential for textile manufacture, was cut off by the Union blockade of southern ports. Historian Shelby Foote recorded that British jobless in cotton mills and ancillary industries totaled two million because the Union blockade of Southern ports produced a cotton famine. Ref.: Ibid.
Trent. 4-British Built Confederate Raiders. The Confederacy, without a navy, sent secret agents to buy British-built ships, which were then armed as Confederate warships. The British-built Confederate CSS Alabama, for example, sunk 64 Union ships. Years later (1872), in international arbitration over the Alabama Claims, Britain paid the U.S. $15.5 million indemnity. The seriousness of the Trent affair and other British-U.S. Civil War differences worried GP and his advisors. Britain demanded release of the four Confederate prisoners, an apology, and an explanation. U.S. jingoism calmed. Pres. Lincoln's cabinet met Dec. 26, 1861, disavowed Capt. Wilkes's action, and the four Confederates were released on Jan. 1, 1862. Ref.: Ibid.
Trent. 5-George Eustice Married to Louise Morris Corcoran. One GP-Trent connection was with Confederate emissary John Slidell's secretary, George Eustice, who was married to Louise Morris Corcoran (1838-67), only child of GP's longtime Washington, D.C., business associate William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888). She was a favorite of GP, who had entertained Corcoran and his daughter, sometimes the daughter alone, on European trips. See: Corcoran, William Wilson. Persons named.
Trent. 6-Trent Capt. Richard Williams' Account. Another GP-Trent connection was with the Trent mail officer, Capt. Richard Williams. Capt. Williams was asked at a dinner to give his version of what happened on the Trent. His version, published in the Liverpool Daily Post, Jan. 8, 1862 (p. 5, c. 1-2), was that when the San Jacinto's Lt. Donald McNeill Fairfax (1821-94) demanded to take Mason and Slidell into custody, they appeared before him with Slidell's daughter clinging to her father. When Lt. Fairfax tried to separate father and daughter, she slapped his face. The Daily Post article added that there was a contradiction to Capt. Williams' version from a Member of Parliament who "had the contradiction from George Peabody, the well known banker and merchant." Ref.: Daily Post (Liverpool, England), Jan. 8, 1862, p. 5, c. 1-2.
Trent. 7-Allen S. Hanckel's Account. The article added information from a Mr. Allen S. Kanckel (his last name, misspelled, was Hanckel), who claimed to have witnessed the Trent incident. He told the editor that Slidell's daughter did not slap Lt. Fairfax but "put her hand twice on his face to keep him back." The article ended with: "Mr. Kanckel adds, that Mr. Peabody, uninvited, called on Mrs. Slidell, and behaved ungentlemanly." Ref.: (Hanckel Affair): Allen S. Hanckel, Liverpool, to George Peabody, London, Jan. 8, 1862, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Trent. 8-Trent Affair Stirred Passions. The editor sent GP the news article along with Allen S. Hanckel's calling card. Hanckel wrote GP that the Daily Post editor had made a mistake, that it had been GP's partner, Junius Spencer Morgan (1813-90), who had burst uninvited into Mrs. Slidell's room. Hanckel added with an implied threat, "I shall certainly call upon you and hope to receive an explanation." Mr. Hanckel's visit never materialized. The Trent affair stirred passions. It delayed but did not hinder GP's March 12, 1862, announcement and acceptance of his housing gift for London's working poor. Ref.: Ibid.
Univ. of Nashville Science Professor Gerard Troost
Troost, Gerard (1776-1850). 1-Dutch Scientist. After a wandering science career in Europe and the U.S., Gerard Troost taught chemistry at the Univ. of Nashville (1828-50), a predecessor of GPCFT. He left his birth place, s'Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands (1794-95), when French troops captured his hometown and changed its name to Boise-le-Duc. Believed to have been educated at the Univ. of Leyden, he was a medical doctor with a second diploma in pharmacy. He served first as a foot soldier, then as a surgeon in the French-dominated Dutch army and was twice wounded. Ref.: Corgan, pp. 992-993.
Troost, Gerard. 2-In Holland & France. He manufactured pharmaceuticals in The Hague (1802), was a mineral collector, worked at the natural history museum, Paris (1807-10), where he was the protégé of Abbé René Just Hauy (1743-1822), founder of crystallography; and managed the royal mineral collection of Louis Bonaparte (1778-1846), French-imposed king of The Netherlands. The multilingual Troost (Latin, Greek, Dutch, German, French, English) translated Alexander von Humboldt's (1769-1859) Ansichen der Natur into Dutch (1808) and began to publish scientific papers. Ref.: Ibid.
Troost, Gerard. 3-In Philadelphia & Indiana. With the collapse of the Dutch monarchy, he left France (1810), claiming to be on a scientific expedition to Java for Louis Napoleon but ended in Philadelphia with letters of introduction to U.S. scientists (1811). He joined a group organizing the first chemical plant in Cape Sable, Md. (1812), which failed. He was the founding president of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (1811-18); taught pharmacy at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, the first in the U.S. (early 1820s); mapped Philadelphia's geology; revised the first geological map of North America with geologist William Maclure (1763-1840); taught science and mathematics (1825-27), New Harmony, Ind., an experimental community organized by industrialist Robert Owen (1771-1858) and William Maclure; and left to teach chemistry at the Univ. of Nashville. Ref.: Ibid.
Troost, Gerard. 4-In Tenn. After years of wandering, Troost, proud of what he called his Tenn. Citizenship, taught at the Univ. of Nashville 23 years, organized the Nashville Museum of Natural History (1827-32), was the official geologist for the state of Tenn. (1831-50), published many geological reports, and built the largest mineral collection in the U.S. Ref.: Ibid. See: PCofVU.
PEF Trustee & Paul Tulane & GP
Tulane, Paul (1801-87). 1-PEF Trustee. Paul Tulane was a PEF trustee influenced by GP's example to found Tulane Univ. Descendant of a family of French jurists, he was born in Princeton, N.J., and moved to New Orleans, La., where his merchandise store prospered. He founded the Tulane Education Trust (1882), totaling $1.1 million, which was given to the old Univ. of Louisiana in New Orleans (opened 1834), renamed Tulane Univ. in 1884. Ref.: Curry-b, pp. 92-93.
Tulane, Paul. 2-Influenced to Endow Tulane Univ. Second PEF administrator J.L.M. Curry stated that Paul Tulane's friend and attorney "General Gibson...consulted with Mr. Winthrop [PEF Board of Trustees president Robert Charles Winthrop, 1809-94], and received 'highly prized information and advice,' and afterwards frankly wrote: 'I have now the pleasure to inform you that the plan suggested, and your own course with regard to the munificent donation of the late Mr. Peabody, were adopted.'" Ref.: Ibid.
Tulane Univ., New Orleans, first opened as the Univ. of La. in 1834. New Orleans merchant and PEF trustee Paul Tulane's (1801-87) gift of $1.1 million in 1882 resulted in a change of name to Tulane Univ. (1884). See: Tulane, Paul (immediately above).
Turin, Italy. GP's second European buying trip of some 15 months was made April 1830 to Aug. 15, 1831, with an unknown American friend. They went by carriage and with frequent change of horses covered some 10,000 miles in England, France, Italy (including Turin), and Switzerland. See: Daniels, Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell (GP's sister).
U
Uhler, Philip Reese (1835-1913), first assisted PIB librarians John Godlove Morris (1803-95) and Nathaniel Holmes Morison (1815-90). P.R. Uhler was appointed the PIB's third librarian during 1890-1913 (23 years). See: PIB Reference Library.
U.S.-British Relations, Civil War. See: Alabama Claims. Trent Affair. Internet [Trent, ship].
U.S. Capitol Building, Washington, D.C. Artist Louis Amateis (1855-1913) designed a relief figure entitled "Apotheosis of America," featuring GP and others, on a transom atop two bronze doors intended for the U.S. Capitol Building, Washington, D.C. See: Amateis, Louis.
U.S. Embassy, London, was called U.S. Legation, London, in GP's years in London (1837-69).
U.S. Ministers to Britain & GP
U.S. Ministers to Britain and GP. 1-U.S. Dry Good Merchant in London. GP made four European purchasing trips, 1827 to 1837, for Riggs, Peabody & Co. (1814-29) and its successor Peabody, Riggs & Co. (1829-48). On his Feb. 1837, fifth commercial trip abroad he remained in London, partly as head of Peabody, Riggs & Co.; partly as Md.'s fiscal agent to sell the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Co. part of Md.'s $8 million bond issue abroad for internal improvements, including the B&O RR; and partly as head of George Peabody & Co., London (Dec. 1838-Oct. 1, 1864), trading on his own in dry goods, other commodities, and increasingly in U.S. state securities.
U.S. Ministers to Britain and GP. 2-Quiet Bachelor, U.S. Merchant in London. Early in his near 30-year residence in London (1837-69, except for three U.S. visits), he remained largely a quiet Mass.-born merchant and securities broker, a bachelor who lived simply without a servant in rented rooms or in a hotel, intimate with relatively few British and fellow U.S. resident merchants in London, mostly commercial men like himself, involved in the sale of dry goods, other commodities, and U.S. state bonds. He early confided to some that if he prospered he would found an educational or other useful institution in towns and cities where he worked, lived, and had family connections.
U.S. Ministers. 3-Panic of 1837 and Repudiation. It was his public stand after the Panic of 1837 and the accompanying depression through the mid-1840s that brought him to minor public attention in commercial circles in both the U.S. and in Britain. Economic pressures led nine states, including Md., to stop or curtail interest payments on their bonds sold abroad. By letters often published in the U.S. press, GP wrote Md. state leaders that until interest payments were resumed retroactively, angry foreign bondholders had cause to berate and vilify all Americans. He assured angry foreign bond holders that Md. and other repudiating states would resume bond interest payments retroactively. Because Md. was in financial difficulty, he let it be known that he would not claim the $60,000 commission owed him for selling his assigned portion of its bonds to Britain's Baring Brothers. See: Md.'s $8 Million Bond Sale Abroad and GP.
End 10 of 14. Continued on 11 of 14. Send corrections, questions to: bfparker@frontiernet.net
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