5 of 14: George Peabody (1795-1869): A-Z Handbook...., by Franklin and Betty J. Parker, bfparker@frontiernet.net
Following Background "Preface" below 5 of 14 blogs covers alphabetically: Harding, Abner Clark (1807-74). 1 to Lee, Mildred Çhilde (1846-1904).
Background: "Preface" 1 of 14 tells the why-when-where-how-findings-and-motives of the authors’ research on Franklin Parker’s doctoral dissertation, “George Peabody, Founder of Modern Philanthropy,” completed 1956 at George Peabody College for Teachers, adjoining Vanderbilt University, which on July 1, 1979, became Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, Nashville.
George Peabody, so well known in the 1850s-60s but since sadly neglected, was a significant 19th century figure as: 1-a Massachusetts-born merchant in the U.S. South: Riggs & Peabody, later Peabody & Riggs (1814-38), who imported dry goods and other commodities (worldwide) for sale to U.S. wholesalers. George Peabody then became: 2-a London-based merchant-banker, George Peabody & Co. (1838-64), who financed in part the B&O RR, the 2nd Mexican War Loan, the Atlantic Cable, and with J.S. Morgan as partner, was the root of the JP Morgan international banking firm. Finally, this merchant-turned-banker became: 3-the best known philanthropist of his time (1850s-60s), who founded the Peabody Homes of London for the working poor; in the U.S. 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), basis for all later larger U.S. funds and foundations. End of Background.
GP's Union Loyalty Questioned
Harding, Abner Clark (1807-74). 1-Cast Doubt on GP's Union Loyalty. Abner Clark Harding was the U.S. House of Rep. member (R-Ill.) who on Mar. 9, 1867, cast doubt on GP's Union loyalty in the Civil War. This action occurred after Sen. Charles Sumner (1811-74, R-Mass.) introduced his joint Congressional resolutions: "Resolved: that both Houses of Congress present thanks to George Peabody of Massachusetts, for his gift for education for the South and Southeastern states.... Resolved: that the President of the United States have a gold medal struck to be given, along with these resolutions, to Mr. Peabody in the name of the people of the United States," March 5, 1867. See: Grimes, James Wilson (above). Congressional Gold Medal and Resolution of Praise to GP.
Harding, A.C. 2-Congressional Resolution and Gold Medal for GP. Sen. Sumner and Sen. Reverdy Johnson (1796-1876, D-Md.) defended GP. The Senate voted 36 yeas, 2 nays (by Senators J. W. Grimes and T.W. Tipton), with 15 senators absent; passage in the U.S. House was on March 14, 1867. Pres. Andrew Johnson signed the Resolutions March 16, 1867. GP's Congressional Resolution and Gold Medal are displayed in the Peabody Institute Library, Peabody, Mass. Ref.: (On Rep. A.C. Harding), Boatner, p. 375.
GP’s Portrait by Chester Harding
Harding, Chester (1792-1866). 1-Portrait Painter. Under U.S. artist Chester Harding's portrait of GP, printed in "Baltimore's 150th Birthday," Maryland History Notes, Vol. 5, No. 3 (Nov. 1947), p. 1, is printed, "Painted during the early years of his maturity," probably in GP's early thirties. Chester Harding visited Baltimore in 1828 and again in 1830-31, when the painting may have been made. GP gave the oil painting on canvas, 30" x 25," in an oval frame, to Mrs. George Nathaniel Eaton (née Susan Brimmer Mayhew, 1824-86) of Baltimore on his last U.S. visit (June 8-Sept. 29, 1869). She was the daughter of Baltimore merchant William Edwards Mayhew (1781-1860) and the wife of George Nathaniel Eaton (1811-74), the latter one of 16 original PEF trustees, who was the brother of Charles James Madison Eaton (1808-93), original PIB trustee. A daughter of the George N. Eatons, Mrs. Charles R. Weld (née Frances Eaton, died March 13, 1947) donated this portrait to the Md. Historical Society, Baltimore. See: Peabody, George, Illustrations. Persons named.
Harding, Chester. 2-Career. Chester Harding was born in Conway, Mass., fought in the War of 1812, was a cabinet maker, sign painter, and largely a self-taught artist although he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Design. He painted portraits in St. Louis, Washington, D.C., and Boston; visited England in 1823 and 1843 and had three years of artistic and social success in London; and became a fashionable painter in Boston. His best known portraits are of Daniel Webster (1782-1852, one in the NYC Bar Association, another in the Cincinnati Art Museum), John Randolph of Roanoke (1773-1843, the Corcoran Art Gallery, Washington, D.C.), U.S. Chief Justice John Marshall (1755-1835), Henry Clay (1777-1852), and Washington Allston (1779-1843). Chester Harding died in Boston. Ref.: Grove Dictionary of Art Online (seen Feb. 9, 2000): http://www.groveart.com
Harding, Chester. 3-Others Who Painted GP's Portrait. Other known portraits of GP were painted by (in alphabetical order): a- British painter Lowes Cato Dickinson (1819-1908); b-Boston-born George Peter Alexander Healy (1813-94); c-James Reid Lambdin (1807-89); d-Philadelphia-born photographer John Jabez Edwin Mayall (1810-1901), whose life-size photo of GP was said to have been painted over by Queen Victoria's portrait painter, Jules Arnoult, to resemble an oil painting; and e-London-born Henry William Pickersgill (1782-1875). See: artists named. Engravers-artists. Peabody, George, Illustrations. Peabody, George, Portraits of. Schuler, Hans (for his bust of GP in N.Y.U. Hall of Fame). Story, William Wetmore (for his seated GP statue in London, a copy of which is in Baltimore).
Harmony Grove Cemetery, Salem, Mass., is where GP was buried Feb. 8, 1870. See Death and Funeral, GP's.
Harris, Gwinn (1780-1837). 1-GP Sought His Support to be Md. Fiscal Agent Abroad. Gwinn Harris is listed as a member of the Md. Governor's Council during 1835-37. GP wrote to him on Jan. 12, 1837, seeking and likely gaining Harris's support in his (GP's) successful effort to succeed Samuel Jones, Jr. (1800-74) as one of the three commissioners appointed to negotiate Md.'s eight million dollar bond sale abroad to promote internal improvements. See: Md.'s $8 Million Bond Sale Abroad (1837-47) and GP.
Harris, Gwinn. 2-Biographical Sketch. Little is known of Gwinn Harris. While not listed as a member of the Md. General Assembly, he is mentioned in "Joseph Harris of Ellenborough," Maryland Historical Magazine, Vol. 31 (1936), pp. 333-337, as Gwinn Harris of Charles County, one of thirteen children of Colonel Thomas Harris and Ann Gwinn, born April 27, 1780, [p. 334]. The Md. Archives lists Harris as deceased in 1837. The Southern Maryland Studies Center, Charles County Community College, Md., has an index entitled "Tombstone Inscriptions in Cemeteries in Charles County Maryland-Name Index," which indicates that his tombstone in Harris Cemetery, Mt. Tizrah, Rt. 257, Tompkinsville, Md., lists his birth date as April 27, 1780, and death date as Aug. 12, 1837.
GP & the Md. Historical Society
Harris, James Morrison (1817-98). 1-Praised GP, Jan. 30, 1857. James Morrison Harris was a member of the Md. Historical Society who praised GP at the society's reception for GP in Baltimore, Jan. 30, 1857, marking GP's first return visit to the U.S. from London in nearly 20 years. J.M. Harris said: "Mr. Peabody is a liberal friend of our Society. He donated some of our most valuable books and aided us in the erection of this building [Athenaeum Bldg. on Saratoga and St. Paul Sts., Baltimore]. I express for the people of Maryland thanks to him for sustaining our credit abroad during our darkest hour. I was in London twelve years ago and know personally of Mr. Peabody's hospitality. I saw with my own eyes the credit of our state assailed and then saved by our friend." See: Md. Historical Society.
Harris, James Morrison (1817-98). 2-Career. Born and educated in private schools in Baltimore, J.M. Harris entered Lafayette College, Easton, Pa. (1833) but left before graduation because of an eye infection. He worked in a Baltimore bank, cofounded the Mercantile Library of Baltimore, studied law under Baltimore lawyer David Stewart, and was admitted to the bar (1843). Failing health led him to travel abroad in England, France, Germany and Italy (about 1845). He served as Md.’s representative in the U.S. Congress (March 4, 1855, to March 3, 1861), stood strongly against Md.’s secession in the Civil War, and was active in educational and religious work, and spoke at the fiftieth anniversary of the Md. Historical Society (March 12, 1894). Ref.: Harris-a, p. 18. Harris-b, pp. 645-646. U.S. Govt.-f, p. 1139.
Harris, William Torrey (1835-1909), educational administrator and philosopher, was born in Conn. and educated at Yale College. He was public school superintendent, St. Louis, Mo., where with Susan Blow (1843-1916) he founded the first permanent public school kindergarten; was the fourth U.S. Commissioner of Education (1889-1906); and introduced the Hegelian philosophy into the U.S. He wrote as follows on the influence of the PEF: "It would appear to the student of education in the Southern States that the practical wisdom in the administration of the Peabody Fund, and the fruitful results that have followed it, could not be surpassed in the history of endowments." Ref.: quoted in Curry-a, p. 230. See: PEF.
Harrison, John Jacob (1822-88), Rev., is the Royal Navy Chaplain who participated in the Dec. 11, 1869, transfer of GP's remains from the funeral train at Portsmouth harbor, England, to the HMS Monarch. He was born in Yorkshire, educated at Shrewsbury School (graduated 1840 as John James Harrison) and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Univ. (B.A., 1844; M.A., 1849); was ordained in York as deacon (1844) and Anglican priest (1845); and was Royal Navy Chaplain (1846-77), during which he served aboard HMS Royal Adelaide, won three medals, and was Chaplain of Haslar Hospital, the Royal Navy's hospital near Portsmouth, England. His obituary is in The Guardian, March 21, 1888. Ref.: "Harrison, J.J." See: Death and Funeral, GP's.
Harrogate, England. For occasional rest and relaxation GP went to Brighton, a seaside resort, or the Sulphur and iron-rich mineral springs in Harrogate, in Yorkshire's old West Riding, North of England.
PIB-Johns Hopkins Libraries Merger
Hart, Evelyn (née Linthicum) (1923-85). 1-Integrated PIB-Johns Hopkins Libraries. Evelyn Hart, familiarly called Lynn Hart, was the librarian at Enoch Pratt Free Library who, from July 1, 1982, supervised the merger of the PIB Library as part of the Johns Hopkins Univ. Library system. Background: GP's philanthropic example influenced Baltimoreans Johns Hopkins (1795-1873) to found Johns Hopkins Univ., Hospital, and Medical School (1876); and Enoch Pratt (1808-96) to found Enoch Pratt Free [public] Library (1882). In the mid 1960s the PIB Reference Library, in financial crisis, became part of the tax-supported Enoch Pratt Free Library (July 2, 1966-July 1, 1982, 16 years). When Baltimore's finances became strained, the PIB Reference Library became part of the Johns Hopkins Univ. Library system from July 1, 1982. Some saw poetic justice in GP's gift to Baltimore being aided and sustained by institutes created by two Baltimoreans he had influenced. See: Persons named. PIB Reference Library.
Hart, Evelyn. 2-Career. Born in Baltimore, she graduated from Goucher College and earned a master's degree in library science from Catholic Univ. of America. She was school liaison librarian at Enoch Pratt Free Library (1942-50), was head circulation librarian at Goucher College (1950-58), returned to Enoch Pratt Free Library as head of book selection (1965-76), and then headed the PIB Library of Enoch Pratt Free Library (1976-82) when, from July 1, 1982, she skillfully supervised the integration of the PIB Reference Library's 250,000 volumes and seven staff members into the Peabody Library department of the Milton S. Eisenhower Special Collections Division of the Johns Hopkins Univ. Ref.: Ibid.
Hart, Joseph Kinmount (1876-1949). See: PCofVU. Conkin, Peabody College, index.
Harvard Astronomical Observatory. GP's thoughts about a gift to Harvard Univ. were: first to add to its astronomical observatory, then to found a school of design (probably art or architecture), and finally the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Oct. 8, 1866, $150,000. The Peabody Museum idea came partly through the influence of his nephew Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-99), whose education, paid for by GP, enabled Marsh to become the first professor of paleontology at Yale Univ. and the second such professor in the world. See: Science: GP's Gifts to Science and Science Education.
Harvard school of design (art or architecture). GP's second thought in regard to a gift to Harvard Univ., a school of design, probably art or architecture, had been suggested to him by former Harvard Univ. Pres. Edward Everett (1794-1865) Ref.: Ibid.
GP’s Honorary Degrees
Harvard Univ., Honorary Degree to GP (July 17, 1867). 1-Oxford, June 26, 1867. Of the two honorary degrees GP received in 1867, he was present for the Doctor of Laws degree from Oxford Univ. on June 26, 1867. When his name was called, Oxford undergraduates and others applauded, waved their caps, and beat the arms of their chairs with the flat of their hands. Jackson's Oxford Journal, June 29, 1867, recorded: "The lion of the day was beyond doubt, Mr. Peabody." Ref.: (Oxford degree): Jackson's Oxford Journal, June 29, 1867, p. 5, c. 4-6. Oxford Chronicle and Berks and Bucks Gazette, June 29, 1867, p. 5, c. 1-2.
Harvard Univ., Hon. Degree to GP. 2-Harvard, July 17, 1867. Harvard Univ. conferred the honorary Doctor of Laws degree on GP, July 17, 1867, in absentia (he was then in London). Harvard's honorary degree followed by nine months GP's gift (Oct. 8, 1866) of $150,000 to found the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology of Harvard Univ. Some at Harvard would have preferred GP's gift to go to the liberal arts rather than for science. There were then disturbing theological doubts about the theory of evolution proposed in Charles Darwin's Origin of Species (1859). The debate over evolution had swept England and Europe earlier but was delayed in the U.S. by the Civil War. See: Science: GP's Gifts to Science and Science Education.
Harvard Univ., Hon. Degree to GP. 3-Harvard Selling Degree? At the time of GP's gift to Harvard, evolution was being denounced from U.S. pulpits. This controversy may or may not have been behind the charge made against GP in the Worcester Daily Spy, July 26, 1867, that Harvard was "selling its degree": "[Harvard] college is flourishing.....It made one man a doctor...whose prescriptions, pellets or what not, to the tune of $150,000, will make up for Dr. Walker's diversion of his money to Amherst and elsewhere. I mean George Peabody, now a doctor of laws. I don't know about this. If it is not selling titles of honor what is it?" Ref.: (Harvard degree): Worcester (Mass.) Daily Spy, July 26, 1867, p. 2, c. 6. (Note: Harvard's Pres. James Walker, 1794-1874).
Harvard Univ., Hon. Degree to GP. 4-Doubt and Praise. At the 1867 commencement dinner Harvard's president ran through the year's gifts and said of GP's museum of science: "Then came the largest gift in amount, which, I know, disappointed many of the alumni, who had other views connected with the university,--the gift of George Peabody, of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars--Dr. George Peabody, I should have said. He has given us one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and has placed it in the hands of the trustees; but the scientific use of it is under the control of the university. He has given [this amount] for the foundation of a museum and professorship, which should investigate and teach not only the highest of the actual existing, but the highest possible physical sciences, making a fitting crown to the museum of comparative zoology." Ref.: (Harvard commencement dinner): Boston Daily Advertiser, July 18, 1867, p. 2, c. 2-5.
Harvard Univ., Hon. Degree to GP. 5-Harvard's Baccalaureate Sermon. GP was praised in Harvard's baccalaureate sermon: "In men of charity our country has been fortunate. There is one name which our University and our country will always honor and respect. I refer to our greatest benefactor, George Peabody. This man, in advanced age, looks back upon a life spent in charitable works. He sees the trees of benevolence he has planted bloom around him. He hears his father say, 'Well done, good and faithful servant.' Such men live on.....When men like George Peabody die, their light shines on as brightly as ever, and we never realize that they are not with us." Ref.: (Harvard baccalaureate sermon): Harvard Univ.-a, pp. 32-33. See: Science: GP's Gifts to Science and Science Education.
Hassam, Childe (1859-1935), American artist whose painting The Ledges was part of a special "Exhibits of Contemporary American Art," 1911, Peabody Gallery of Art, PIB. See: PIB Gallery of Art.
Havana, Cuba. The four Confederate agents seeking aid and arms from England and France had reached Havana, Cuba, and boarded the British mail ship Trent from which they were illegally removed Sept. 8, 1861. For the effect on GP of the Trent Affair, See: Trent Affair.
Haverhill, Mass. GP's father Thomas Peabody (1762-1811) was born in Andover, Mass., served in the American Revolution, and moved to Haverhill, Mass., where he met and married in 1789 (when he was age 27) Judith (née Dodge) Peabody (1770-1830), then age 19. Their first two children, David Peabody (1790-1841) and Achsah Spofford Peabody (1791-1821), were born in Haverhill, Mass. Thomas Peabody, farmer and sometime cordwainer (leather worker), then moved with his family to Danvers, Mass., whose water, good for tanning, made it a leather center. The third born of their eight children, GP, was born in the South Parish, Danvers, Mass., Feb. 18, 1795.
Havre-de-Grace, Md. On GP's second U.S. visit, May 1, 1866, to May 1, 1867, he went by train from Philadelphia (Oct. 24, 1866) with a stop at Havre-de-Grace, Md., where some PIB trustees came aboard to escort him to Baltimore for the Oct. 25 PIB opening and dedication and attendant events. See: Eaton, Charles James Madison.
Hawaii. See: Bishop, Charles Reed.
PCofVU's First Dean
Hawley, Willis David (1938-). 1-PCofVU's First Administrator. Willis David Hawley was PCofVU's first dean from Oct. 15, 1980, to 1989. He came to Vanderbilt Univ. Aug. 1980 to teach political science and to direct the Center for Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt's interdisciplinary Institute for Public Policy. Born in San Francisco, he earned his teaching credentials along with the B.A., M.A., and Ph. D. degrees in political science from the Univ. of California, Berkeley. He taught political science at Yale Univ. (1969-72) and co-directed Yale's training of secondary school teachers. He taught political science at Duke Univ. (1972-80) and directed its Center for Education Policy. He was on leave from Duke (1977-78) to help plan the cabinet-level U.S. Dept. of Education under Pres. Jimmy Carter. Ref.: Conkin, Peabody College, index.
Hawley, W.D. 2-Subsequent Administrators. PCofVU's first Dean Hawley was succeeded by PCofVU's second Dean James William Pellegrino (1947-, dean during 1992-Aug. 1998), who was succeeded by PCofVU third Dean Camilla Persson Benbow (1956-) from Aug. 1998. W.D. Hawley was subsequently dean, Univ. of Md. College of Ed., College Park (1993-98) and lives in Annapolis, Md. Where he serves as director of the federally funded National Partnership for Excellence and Accountability in Teaching. For his influence on PCofVU and for details of PCofVU's six predecessor colleges and their nineteen chief administrators, See: PCofVU, history of.
Hawthorne, Charles (Webster) (1872-1930), was an artist born in Lodi, Ill., who established the Cape Cod School of Art, Provincetown, Mass. (1899), and whose painting Fisher Boys was part of a special "Exhibits of Contemporary American Art," 1911, Peabody Gallery of Art, PIB. See: PIB Gallery of Art.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel (1804-64), was the famed author of The Scarlet Letter. GP's sister Judith Dodge (née Peabody) Russell's (1799-1879) husband, lawyer Jeremiah Russell (d. 1860), sent GP a copy of the Salem, Mass. Register, June 11, 1849, containing an article, p. 2, c. 1, about Nathaniel Hawthorne, who had left his job as surveyor at the Salem Custom House and was replaced by Captain Allen Putnam. Nathaniel Hawthorne, along with GP, was one of 29 great Americans elected to the Hall of Fame of NY Univ., 1900. Ref.: copy of Salem, Mass. Register, June 11, 1849, in Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass. See Hall of Fame, NYU.
Hayes, Rutherford Birchard (1822-93), was a PEF trustees for 15 years, succeeding trustee Samuel Watson of Tenn. R.B. Hayes was born in Delaware, Ohio; graduated from Kenyon College (1842), graduated from Harvard Univ. Dale Law School (1845), where second PEF administrator Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry (1828-1903) was a classmate; served in the Civil War, and was the 19th U.S. president during 1877-81. Ref.: Curry-b, pp. 76, 91, 103-104, 138. Boatner, p. 389. See: Conkin, Peabody College, index. Presidents, U.S., and GP.
Headstart. Project Headstart, a U.S. national preschool enrichment program was inspired by educational experiment in Nashville, 1965, by GPCFT Early Childhood Education Prof. Susan Gray (1913-92). See: Gray, Susan.
GP’s Portrait by G.P.A. Healy
Healy, George Peter Alexander (1813-94). 1-Painted GP's Portrait. Boston-born artist George Peter Alexander Healy painted a full length portrait of GP in late April 1854 (GP was then age 59). Shortly before, while he was still a struggling artist in Paris, he was contacted by GP's friend and sometime agent, Vt.-born London resident bookseller Henry Stevens (1819-86). Stevens, then visiting Paris and acting as GP's agent, contracted Healy to paint GP's portrait for $1,000. The portrait was intended for the trustees of GP's first Peabody Institute Library in South Danvers, Mass. (founded in 1852; South Danvers was renamed Peabody, Mass., April 13, 1868). Healy ordered an elaborate frame and secured an engraving artist who copied the portrait on a plate from which copies could be made. He also painted a bust from the full-length portrait. Ref.: Healy. Va. Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Va., p. 43.
Healy, G.P.A. 2-GP Aided the Portrait Painter. Healy mentioned to GP his desire to try his fortune in the U.S. GP gave him letters of introduction to friends in Chicago. GP also acted as Healy's agent in collecting a $3,000 debt of two years' standing for a Healy portrait owned by U.S. inventor Charles Goodyear (1800-60). Healy wrote to GP on July 23, 1854: "Everything has prospered with me since the success of your picture." Ref.: George P.A. Healy, Paris, to Henry Stevens, March 29, 1854; George P.A. Healy, Paris, to GP, April 7, 1854; June 14 and 19, 1854; July 23, 1854; Aug. 5, 21, and 27, 1854; George P.A. Healy, Chicago, to GP, Nov. 9, 1857; and July 22, 1858, all in Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass.
Healy, G.P.A. 3-Healy's GP Portrait in the National Portrait Gallery. Healy's portrait of GP is in the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., with reproductions in at least two books. Healy's portrait of GP is mentioned but does not appear in De Mare, p. 206. Ref.: (Prints of Healy's GP portrait): Burk, facing p. 80. Kenin, p. 94. De Mare, p. 206.
Healy, G.P.A. 4-Career. At age 17 Healy set up a studio in Boston, encouraged by British-born artist Thomas Sully (1783-1872), then doing portraits in Boston. Healy opened a studio in Paris and traveled to and worked in London, Rome, and the U.S. His best known portraits are of U.S. Minister to France Lewis Cass (1782-1866); a seated and reflective U.S. Pres. Abraham Lincoln in 1864; and other famous persons. Ref.: Grove Dictionary of Art Online (seen Feb. 9, 2000): http://www.groveart.com
Healy, G.P.A 5-Others Who Painted GP's Portrait. Other known portraits of GP were painted by (in alphabetical order): a-British painter Lowes Cato Dickinson (1819-1908); b-Conway, Mass.-born Chester Harding (1792-1866); c-James Reid Lambdin (1807-89); d-Philadelphia-born photographer John Jabez Edwin Mayall (1810-1901), whose life-size photo of GP was painted over by artist Aed Arnoult, said to be Queen Victoria's portrait painter, to resemble an oil painting; and e-London-born Henry William Pickersgill (1782-1875). See: artists named. Engravers-artists. Peabody, George, Illustrations. Peabody, George, Portraits of. Schuler, Hans (for his bust of GP in N.Y.U. Hall of Fame). Story, William Wetmore (for his seated GP statue in London, a copy of which is in Baltimore).
Heard, Alexander (1917-), was VU chancellor (1963-82) who with VU's only Pres. Emmett B. Fields (1923-) held talks with GPCFT's sixth Pres. John Dunworth (1924-), leading to the PCofVU merger, July 1, 1979. Retiring from VU in 1982, he was chairman of the Ford Foundation board for 16 years, was director of Time, Inc., and lives in retirement in Nashville. See: PCofVU, history of. Persons named. Conkin, Peabody College index.
Heath, William. The Panic of 1857's effects on GP, his illness, his age (63), and his wanting to put his philanthropies in order made him write as follows to a William Heath of Boston, who applied for a position with him: "The influence of the panic year upon my feelings have been such as to greatly modify my ambitious views and I have fully determined not only to keep snug during the terms of my present copartnership but if my life is spared to its end to then leave business entirely and shall most likely pass any remaining years that may be allotted me by Providence in my native land." Ref.: GP to William Heath, Boston, Dec. 9, 1858, Peabody Papers, PEM, Salem, Mass. See: Morgan, Junius Spencer.
Heidelberg, Univ. of. GP's nephew, Othniel Charles Marsh (1831-99), attended the German universities of Berlin, Heidelberg, and Breslau in 1863-65. At his uncle GP's expense he prepared for a career as the first U.S. paleontology professor at Yale Univ. and the second such professor in the world. See: Marsh, Othniel Charles.
GP & Queen Victoria
Helps, Arthur (1813-75). 1-Queen Victoria's Advisor. As clerk of Queen Victoria's Privy Council, Arthur Helps acted as intermediary between the Queen and GP in their exchange of letters just before GP's death on Nov. 4, 1869. Arthur Helps was a British essayist and historian, educated at Eton and Cambridge, was private secretary to Lord Monteagle (Thomas Spring-Rice, first Baron Monteagle of Brandon in Kerry, 1790-1866, Chancellor of the Exchequer from April 1835), clerk of the Privy Council (1860-75), and was created a K.C.B. (1872). Helps wrote the multi-volume The Conquerors of the New World (London: Pickering, 1842-52), Spanish Conquest in America (London: J.W. Parker, 1855-61), and other works.
Helps, Arthur. 2-GP Planned Last U.S. Visit. In May 1869, in his 75th year, having recovered from his last severe illness, GP determined not to delay his intended U.S. visit which he feared might be his last. Wanting to look into the operation of his institutes, add to them, and double his gift for southern education (PEF), he wrote Baltimore friend John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870), May 22, that he intended to sail on the Scotia for NYC, adding "I fear if I postpone this visit until next year it will be too late." PEF trustee Pres. Robert Charles Winthrop (1809-94) also expressed concern about GP's health in a May 20 letter to PEF trustee Hamilton Fish (1808-98), then U.S. Secty. of State: "Recent advices from Mr. Peabody make me very apprehensive that he is more ill than we had anticipated." Ref.: GP, London, to John Pendleton Kennedy, May 22, 1869, Kennedy Papers, PIB. Ref.: Robert Charles Winthrop, Brookline, Mass., to Hamilton Fish, May 20, 1869, "Correspondence of Hamilton Fish," LX, Nos. 7930 and 7931, Library of Congress Ms.
Helps, Arthur. 3-Helps Visited GP. One delicate matter troubled GP in regard to a U.S. visit that might be his last. It involved Queen Victoria. GP let Arthur Helps know that he wished to see him. Arthur Helps reported GP's concern in a note to the Queen.
Helps, Arthur. 4-Helps Reported to the Queen: "Before Mr. Peabody left England he expressed a wish to see Mr. Helps. Mr. Helps accordingly went to see him. He found him very unwell, and that he had rather suddenly determined to go to America, to settle certain affairs there, and then, in about a year's time, to return to England." Helps continued: "The object of the interview which was, of course, brought out with some hesitation, and at some length was practically to this effect (Helps explained)."
Helps, Arthur. 5-Helps Reported to the Queen Cont'd.: "Mr. Peabody would find it very uncomfortable to him, and it would put him in an awkward position, to be asked, as he knew he should be asked perpetually, whether he had an interview with the Queen. He also thought and feared much that when he should reply in the negative, it might occasion some unpleasant remark, and might in some minds, diminish the affectionate respect with which your Majesty is regarded in the United States."
Helps, Arthur. 6-Helps Reported to the Queen Cont'd.: "He then suggested that a letter from Your Majesty might be useful." Helps enclosed with his report to the Queen a draft of a letter which the Queen, if she decided to write GP, might use as a guide. This correspondence was reviewed by the Queen's advisor Gen. Charles Grey (1804-70), who suggested a few changes. Ref.: General Charles Grey to Queen Victoria, June 20, 1869, Royal Archives, L.18/31, Windsor Castle, England.
Helps, Arthur. 7-Queen Victoria to GP. Queen Victoria's letter dated June 20, 1869, reached GP in Salem, Mass. It read: "Windsor Castle, June 20, 1869. The Queen is very sorry that Mr. Peabody's sudden departure has made it impossible for her to see him before he left England, and she is concerned to hear that he is gone in bad health." Her letter continued: "She now writes him a line to express her hope that he may return to this country quite recovered, and that she may then have the opportunity, of which she has now been deprived, of seeing him and offering him her personal thanks for all he has done for the people. Queen Victoria." Ref (Queen Victoria's June 20, 1869, letter): Arthur Helps, Privy Council Office, to H.M. Queen Victoria, June 19, 1869, Royal Archives, L.18/30; and Arthur Helps draft letter from Queen Victoria to GP, June 20, 1869, Royal Archives, L.18/30, both Windsor Castle, England.
Helps, Arthur. 8-At GP's Westminster Abbey Funeral Service. The New York Times printed Queen Victoria's letter to GP and added: "Queen Victoria has paid our great countryman a delicate and graceful compliment. Mr. Peabody left England unexpectedly, his departure known only to a few friends. His feeble health became known to the Queen through London newspapers. With her goodness of heart which Americans never fail to appreciate she sent him a personal letter." GP made his last visit to the U.S. (June 8-Sept. 29, 1869) and returned to London where he died Nov. 4, 1869. Among those at his funeral service in Westminster Abbey, Nov. 12, 1869, were Arthur Helps and Gen. Charles Grey, representing Queen Victoria. See: Death and funeral, GP's. Moran, Benjamin.
Henry, Joseph (1797-1878), first director of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., was the first lecturer in the PIB Lecture Series in 1866. See: PIB Library.
Henry, William Wirt (1831-1900), was a PEF trustee. He was born in Red Rock, Va., graduated from the Univ. of Va., practiced law, was elected to the Va. legislature four times, was an historical researcher, president of the American Historical Association and the Va. Historical Society, and is best known for his Life, Correspondence, and Speeches of Patrick Henry (3 vols., 1890-91).
Her Majesty's Theatre, London. Musicians from Her Majesty's Theatre, London, gave a concert at GP's July 4, 1851, U.S.-British friendship banquet at exclusive Willis's Rooms, London. Most of the 800 guests were connected with the Great Exhibition of 1851, London, the first world's fair. The Duke of Wellington (Arthur Wellesley Wellington, 1769-1852) was the guest of honor. See: Dinners, GP's, London.
Herald (New York Herald). Founder and editor James Gordon Bennett (1795-1872) was born in Keith, Scotland; came to the U.S. in 1819, was Washington, D.C., correspondent of the NYC Enquirer, assistant editor of the NYC Courier and Enquirer (1829-32), and founder and editor of the New York Herald (1835-72), a U.S. newspaper known for its sensationalism. For Bennett's criticism of GP in the New York Herald during GP's Sept. 15, 1856, to Aug. 19, 1857, U.S. visit, with sources, See: Bennett, James Gordon. Corcoran, William Wilson. Morgan, Junius Spencer. Visits to the U.S. by GP.
Hibbs, Henry Clossen (1882-1949), architect, was chosen by first Pres. Bruce R. Payne (1874-1937) to design the GPCFT campus next to Vanderbilt Univ., after Thomas Jefferson's architectural plan for the Univ. of Va. Hibbs, born in Camden, N.J., was educated at the Univ. of Penn, worked in Philadelphia and NYC, came to Nashville as head of NYC’s architectural firm of Ludlow and Peabody, and designed, besides GPCFT, such other landmark Nashville buildings as Fisk Univ. Library, Meharry Medical College, and Scarritt College. Ref.: Hoobler, pp. 422-423. "Architect Helped Build City’s Colleges," Tennessean (Nashville), Sept. 25, 1999, p. lB. See: Payne, Bruce Ryburn.
Peabody Normal College, Nashville
Hicks, Edward D. III (1831-94). 1-Univ. of Nashville Trustee. Before his 1911 retirement as Peabody Normal College president, former Tenn. Gov. James Davis Porter (1828-1912) told how he helped first PEF administrator Barnas Sears (1802-80) establish the Peabody Normal College on the campus of the Univ. of Nashville: "...I was with Dr. Sears, the first General Agent of [the] Peabody Board in 1875 [PEF], and he said to me, 'If you will furnish the house I will establish a normal college in Nashville. I am satisfied it is the best place in the South.' This was within twenty minutes of my inauguration as Governor of the State."
Hicks, E.D., III. 2-Tenn. Gov. J.D. Porter Cont'd. "I said to him, 'Meet me here tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock and I will inform you whether I can secure the building for you. I am very anxious to see the school established. Before that hour I interviewed Judge William F. Cooper [1820-1909], Edwin H. Ewing [1809-1902], Edward D. Hicks, III, and other members of the Board of Trustees of the University of Nashville and obtained from them consent to establish the college in buildings of the University, and when Dr. Sears called I was able to offer him the most eligible building and the best location of any point in the City of Nashville. He accepted the offer, and in the winter following, the school was organized and entered upon a career of the very greatest success." See: PCofVU. PEF. Persons Named.
GP's Commercial-Banking Career
Hidy, Muriel Emmie (1906-85). 1-Economic Historian. Muriel Emmie (née Waganhouse) Hidy was assoc. prof. of economics at Wheaton College, Norton, Mass. Her 1939 Ph.D. dissertation in economics at Radcliffe College, woman's division of Harvard Univ., was published with a new preface as George Peabody, Merchant and Financier, 1829-1854 (New York: Arno Press, 1978). The 25 crucial years she covered of GP's commercial career was based on his papers at the Essex Institute (now Peabody Essex Museum), Salem, Mass., and on related papers in other depositories. She aided her husband's research (he was history prof. at Wheaton College) for his 1935 Harvard Univ. doctoral dissertation, published with additions: Ralph W. Hidy (1905-77), The House of Baring in American Trade and Finance, English Merchant Bankers at Work, 1763-1861. Harvard Studies in Business History (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1949). Ref (M.E. Hidy) Ref.: Wheaton College Library faculty archives, Norton, Mass. (Her obits.): Belmont (Mass.) Citizen, Oct. 24, 1985; Belmont (Mass.) Herald, Oct. 26, 1985. Ref (Ralph W. Hidy): Hidy, R.W.-a, pp. 53-56. Hidy, R.W.-b, 131-145. See: Peabody, George, Biographies.
Hidy, M.E. 2-Economic Historian Cont'd. Trained in economic history, having helped research her husband's related and larger scoped work, M.E. Hidy intended to follow her dissertation with a never completed GP biography. Thoroughly knowledgeable about GP's business career, M.E. Hidy's key insights about GP's business career are given below. Ref (Muriel Emmie Hidy's writings on or mentioning GP): Hidy, M.E.-a, pp. 1-6; Hidy, M.E.-b, p. 1-19. Hidy, M.E.-c. Ref (Writings on or mentioning GP by joint authors R.W. Hidy and M.E. Hidy): Hidy, R.W. and M.E. Hidy.
GP as Dry Goods Importer
Hidy, M.E. 3-On GP's Business Career: "The real start of Peabody's career was as an importer of dry goods to Baltimore, but he entered into several side speculations. He sold some goods to other American cities as well as to China and to South America. As purchaser for his firm, Peabody, Riggs & Co., [he] lived in England. There he secured the short term credits so important in financing American trade and, while handling the financial end of his own house, gradually undertook the same functions for others." Ref.: Hidy, M.E.-c, p. 361.
Hidy, M.E. 4-On GP from Merchant to Merchant Banker: "The prosperous early thirties were followed by the difficulties of the years from 1836 to 1843 and Peabody, Riggs & Co., after years of success, declined. In addition to the cyclical changes of the period, there were other factors which played a part in Peabody's leaving the dry goods business. The relative decline of the Baltimore market, the growth of American manufactures, the frequent and unsettling changes of the tariff, the improvements in transportation, which not only favored New York but also dictated smaller stocks and more rapid turnover, all changed the trade. Profits were not those which Peabody had enjoyed earlier and he therefore turned to his new interest." Ref.: Ibid., pp. 361-362.
GP as Merchant Banker
Hidy, M.E. 5-On GP from Merchant to Merchant Banker Cont'd.: "Peabody had the attributes necessary for merchant banking and in the years between 1837 to 1843 [he] gradually laid the foundations of a [banking] house. He had experience, capital and credit acquired in his earlier business. To these resources were added the gains from successful speculation in American securities during the period of lack of confidence in American credit [i.e., after the Panic of 1837 nine states, including Md., temporarily stopped interest payments on their bonds sold abroad]. By trade and speculation Peabody had acquired the capital on which to build a house serving American traders and financiers." Ref.: Ibid.
Hidy, M.E. 6-On GP 's Business Partnerships: "In the course of his career Peabody entered into several close business relations with other men. The partnership was a very common form of organization; it provided for the pooling of capital and a diversity of abilities. In the case of an international banker, it provided significant contacts in another country. Peabody, resident in England when a dry good merchant, had [as U.S.] partner, Samuel Riggs [d. 1853].... As a merchant banker in England Peabody needed a representative in the United States. Between 1844 and 1847 this object was achieved through a secret partnership with two rich and experienced business men, William S. Wetmore [1802-62, Vt.-born NYC merchant], and John Cryder." Ref.: Ibid., pp. 362-363.
Hidy, M.E. 7-On GP 's Business Partnerships Cont'd: "Another device to achieve the linking of mutual interests was the joint account, and for a time Peabody operated an exchange account with a New Orleans firm, Robb & Hoge.... Later Peabody allowed various firms to open credits for others on his house on the basis of sharing risks and commissions. After 1851...he preferred to do...business on a commission basis. Houses in the United States with the right to grant credits on him had to assume all the risks, as they did in exchange accounts, but in return Peabody shared with them his commissions.... The partnership with Wetmore & Cryder gave Peabody an important contact in China, Wetmore & Co., which he fostered...." Ref.: Ibid., pp. 362-363.
GP Selling Md.'s Bonds Abroad
Hidy, M.E. 8-On GP's Sale of U.S. Bonds Abroad: "In the years which followed [1839-42] he was an active dealer in depreciated American securities and through his knowledge, confidence, methods and the size of his operations was very successful during the period of liquidation. Peabody claimed that in American securities he was the most important dealer.... "In the 1830's he had served as the agent for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company in marketing Maryland bonds. In 1848 [after the nine defaulting states resumed retroactive interest payments on their bonds sold abroad], when some confidence was reinstated in American securities in England and a market could be developed on the continent, Peabody played his part in marketing the Mexican War loan. Later, he sold other bonds on joint account with parties in the United States, including state securities such as Virginia bonds and later railroad bonds. Finally, in 1853 his firm marketed alone an issue of Ohio and Mississippi Railroad Company bonds on the English market." Ref.: Ibid., pp. 362-364.
Hidy, M.E. 9-On GP's Sale of U.S. Bonds Abroad Cont'd.: "It was natural that Peabody, interested in American credit, should play a part in reinstating confidence during the period of default after 1841. He continued to perform the function of informing his English friends about American securities and his American associates about the English market. "Granting credits to other merchants did not prevent Peabody from entering directly into mercantile pursuits.... The most spectacular of his operations were in grain and iron. During the Irish crop failures Peabody and his partners, Wetmore and Cryder, undertook large exportations of Indian corn from the American market and the difficulties which arose indicated some of the problems of a businessman in an age with no Atlantic cable and comparatively poor transportation facilities...." Ref.: Ibid.
Hidy, M.E. 10-On GP Buying British Iron for U.S. Railroads: "In the 1850s the trade which offered the greatest possibility of profit to Peabody was the exportation of British iron for American railroads. His joint account operations with a New York house, Chouteau, Merle & Sanford, and an American merchant in London, C.[urtis] M.[iranda] Lampson [1806-85, Vt.-born fur trader who became rich and a British citizen], illustrates well the flexibility of a joint account. The New York house sold iron, C. M. Lampson purchased it, Peabody acted as banker and the three shared profits...." Ref.: Ibid., pp. 365.
GP’s Social Life
Hidy, M.E. 11-On GP's Social Life: "Peabody's personal social life contributed to his advancement. He had a vigorous personality, and, in spite of a humble origin, apparently found little difficulty in moving in prominent circles. An ability to attract firm friends among his business contemporaries gave him many useful connections....He benefited by the confidence which as a young man he had awakened in Elisha Riggs [Sr.]. Later his amiability brought him close association with Wetmore, Cryder, Sherman and Lampson. Corcoran [William Wilson Corcoran, 1798-1888], the friend of the American government, was attracted to Peabody by their mutual interest in the Riggs family, but letters indicate that a warm friendship cemented their business relations...." Ref.: Ibid., pp. 355-356.
Hidy, M.E. 12-On GP's Social Life Cont'd.: "A comfortable picture of Peabody could be painted [in] his bachelor apartment in London in the forties. E.[zra] J.[enks] Coates, the tall Bostonian, would be relaxed on the couch and Richard Bell, the energetic Englishman, would be arguing the Maine boundary question with the patriotic American, Peabody [over rump steak, ale, or sherry]. Or on another occasion [May 18, 1843] the two bachelors, Peabody and Coates, would be seen entertaining 'all the respectable Americans in London...about 40.' Such contacts contributed...to Peabody's enjoyment...[and] to his knowledge of men and affairs. Intimate letters from the friends of his youth in America added to his understanding of events in the United States and even the local gossip...aided him in formulating his own credit rating of men in America." Ref.: Ibid., pp. 355-356.
Hidy, M.E. 13-On GP's Entertaining U.S. Visitors: "For one who wished to make his firm in England a center of American news and business, a ready personality was an asset. However spontaneous were Peabody's gifts of American apples, Boston crackers, a dish of hominy or some other delicacy from the United States, the business results might follow. When a prominent American visited England in the eighteen fifties, he was likely to have a letter of introduction and Peabody saw that he was well received. A box at the opera with the lavish corsage for the lady, or some other pleasant attention, had a mellowing effect. Peabody had the reputation of entertaining every American who arrived with a letter of credit. ...In July, 1855 [he] remarked that he had entertained eighty Americans for a dinner and thirty-five at the opera within a week." Ref.: Ibid., pp. 357-358.
GP’s U.S-British Friendship Dinners
Hidy, M.E. 14-On GP's U.S-British Friendship Dinners: "Peabody combined his delight in large entertainments with his interest in forwarding amicable relations between Americans and Englishmen. In the fifties he became known for his lavish dinners given in honor of various notable persons, such as the American minister. It was during the Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851 that he gave the first of his July 4th dinners which were to be a feature of London life in the decade before the Civil War." Ref.: Ibid.
Hidy, M.E. 15-On GP's U.S-British Friendship Dinners Cont'd.: "There had been several irritations to mar the tranquillity of the relations between the two English speaking peoples and the date selected for a big dinner appeared hardly one on which to stimulate the happiest memories. But George Peabody invited the aged Duke of Wellington as guest of honor and prominent social and business leaders perforce accepted his invitation. Among the guests were Thomas Baring, J.P. Horsley Palmer [d. 1858] and Peabody's old partner, Elisha Riggs [Sr.]. That the occasion caught the public fancy is indicated by the large and friendly newspaper reports on the occasion.... The London Times even mentioned the dinner in its brief review of the business for the year 1851. This and later banquets were a great success. Whatever their effect on international relations, they appear to have been social triumphs and to have given Peabody much publicity." Ref.: Ibid.
GP's Philanthropy
Hidy, M.E. 16-On the Impact of GP's Philanthropy: "When the American exhibitors [to the Great Exhibition of 1851, London, the first world's fair] needed funds because Congress had failed to provide aid, Peabody advanced them £3,000 [$15,000]. It took him so many years to collect the sum owed that it was often mentioned in the list of his contributions.... It was Peabody's philanthropy that definitely established his international reputation. Not only did he give generously but he also established funds during his life time, which at that period was unique enough to puzzle the London lawyers who were drawing up the papers for a trust fund." Ref.: Ibid.
Hidy, M.E. 17-On the Impact of GP's Philanthropy Cont'd.: "It was his charity that brought the banker praise from such diverse men as W.E. Gladstone [1809-98, PM], Victor Hugo [1802-85, French writer], Louis Blanc [1811-82] and many prominent Americans of the time.... Even before his most important work days were over Peabody had given generously enough to catch the public fancy.... When Peabody visited the United States in 1856, after an absence of 20 years, Danvers [Mass., his birthplace] gave a celebration in his honor. The New York Herald [whose editor James Gordon Bennett was often critical of GP] carried five and a half columns of a report telegraphed from Massachusetts at considerable cost. The front page carried banner headlines such as few bankers have enjoyed in moments of triumph." Ref.: Ibid.
Hidy, M.E. 18-"'national' man in a foreign country." Having read glowing newspaper reports of GP's successful U.S.-British friendship dinners, business friend W. W. Corcoran wrote praising GP in 1853 for having made himself a "'national' man in a foreign country." Besides U.S.-British friendship dinners, Corcoran was thinking of GP's years of helpful service to visiting Americans and of his emerging philanthropy (notably of GP's first Peabody Institute Library, announced in June 1852, in South Danvers, renamed Peabody, Mass., on April 13, 1868). See: Corcoran, William Wilson.
Hidy, M.E. 19-Pride in George Peabody & Co. M.E. Hidy emphasized GP's pride in his London-based banking firm, reflected in his speech to 1,500 friends and townspeople, at the Oct. 9, 1856, GP Celebration, South Danvers, Mass., after nearly 20 years' absence as a banker in London dealing with American trade and securities: "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., p. 360. See: South Danvers, Mass., GP Celebration, Oct. 9, 1856.
Hidy, Ralph W. (1905-77), history prof., Wheaton College, Norton, Mass., wrote The House of Baring in American Trade and Finance, English Merchant Bankers at Work, 1763-1861, Harvard Studies in Business History (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1949), which included material about GP as U.S. merchant banker in London. Ref.: Wheaton College Library faculty archives, Norton, Mass. See: Hidy, Muriel Emmie (above).
Hill, Frederick. See:: Peabody, George (1795-1869), Critics-18-32.
GPCFT's Pres. H.H. Hill
Hill, Henry Harrington (1894-1987). 1-GPCFT's Third President. Henry Harrington Hill was GPCFT's third president during 1945-60, for 16 years, and was interim president, 1962-63. Born in Statesville, N.C., he was educated by his father, a professor; attended Davidson College, N.C.; received the B.A. and M.A. degrees from the Univ. of Virginia, and the Ph.D. degree from Columbia Univ. (1930). Before his Ph.D. degree, he had been a teacher, principal, and school superintendent in Ark., and returned to Ark. as state high school supervisor for a year. He was then education professor, Univ. of Ky., and its first education dean. He was school superintendent, Lexington, Ky.; assistant school superintendent in St. Louis, Mo.; and school superintendent, Pittsburgh, Pa. (1942-45). Ref.: "Henry Hill at Peabody-a." "Henry Harrington Hill-b."
Hill, H.H. 2-Enhanced GPCFT's Reputation. His sixteen years as GPCFT president were a period of post-World War II higher education growth and change hastened by the GI Bill. Under H.H. Hill, GPCFT enhanced its national and international prominence. He was adept at securing foundation funds to hire outstanding faculty, secured trustee permission in 1953 to admit 13 black educators as students, a year before the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court desegregation ruling, and encouraged a GPCFT-managed $7 million U.S. Agency for International Development-funded Korea teacher education project. Ref.: Ibid. For details of PCofVU's six predecessor colleges and their nineteen chief administrators, See: PCofVU, history of.
Hill, Ruth Henderson (1902-90), was Print Dept. Librarian, Essex Institute (now Peabody Essex Museum), Salem, Mass. She also wrote George Peabody, "The Great Benefactor," 1795-1869 (Peabody, Mass.: Peabody Institute, 1953).
GP Praised by Philadelphia Convention of Rabbis
Hirsch, Samuel (1815-89). After GP's Nov. 4, 1869, death in London, in Philadelphia, Nov. 5, 1869, at a national convention of Jewish religious leaders (rabbis), the Rev. Dr. Samuel Hirsch, Rabbi of Philadelphia’s Knesseth Israel (1866-88) and chairman of the convention, spoke of GP's life, philanthropy, and death. The convention unanimously passed a resolution of esteem for GP. Born in Thalfang, Prussia, Germany, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Hirsch was educated at the Universities of Bonn, Berlin, and Leipzig (Ph.D.); was rabbi in Dessau, Germany (1838-41); was forced to resign for his liberal views; wrote for the next two years (1842-43); was appointed chief rabbi of Luxembourg by the King of Holland (1843-66); wrote advocating Reform Judaism; was rabbi Reform Congregation, Knesseth Israel, Philadelphia, Pa. (1866-88); presided over the rabbinical conference, Philadelphia, 1869, where Reform Judaism principles were formulated; and was the father of Emil G. Hirsch (1852-1923), leader of U.S. Reformed Judaism. Ref.: "Hirsch, Samuel," Vol. 5, p. 379. See: Death and Funeral, GP's.
Historical Society of Penn., Phila., has the papers of James Buchanan (1791-1868), 15th U.S. Pres. during 1857-61; and some GP papers. Buchanan was U.S. Minister to Britain during 1853-56. At GP's July 4, 1854, U.S.-British Friendship Dinner, as was his custom, he toasted first the Queen and then the U.S. President. Buchanan's London Legation Secty. Daniel Edgar Sickles (1825-1914), a super patriot, refused to stand, walked out in protest, and soon after accused GP in the press of toadying to the British. See: Sickles, Daniel Edgar.
Historical Society of Phila. GP gave $20 to the Historical Society of Phila. publication fund in Jan. 1857.
Hoar, George Frisbie (1826-1904), was a PEF trustee who succeeded Judge John Lowell (b.1824) as trustee. G.F. Hoar was born in Concord, Mass., the grandson of a Revolutionary War officer, and the son of a lawyer and Congressman from Mass. His mother was the daughter of Roger Sherman (1721-93), a signer of the Declaration of independence. G.F. Hoar graduated from Harvard College (1846) and Harvard Law School (1849), was a lawyer in Worcester, Mass, served in the Mass. House of Representatives (1852-57) and in the Mass. Senate; served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1869-77) and the U.S. Senate (1877-1904). He also served as President, American Antiquarian Society; Regent of the Smithsonian Institution (1880); and trustee of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard Univ. Ref.: Curry-b, p. 117.
Hobbs, Alfred C. (1812-91), was a U.S. locksmith whose unpickable locks were displayed at the U.S. pavilion, Great Exhibition of 1851, London (first world's fair). GP's $15,000 loan to the U.S. exhibitors (repaid by the U.S. Congress three years later) enabled the U.S. pavilion to be decorated so that U.S. art and products were seen to best advantage. See: Great Exhibition of 1851, London (first world's fair).
Hobbs, Nicholas (1915-83), was GPCFT professor of psychology (from 1951); chairman, GPCFT's Division of Human Development (1951-65); cofounder and director, GPCFT's John F. Kennedy Center for Research on Education and Human Development (1965-70); Vanderbilt Univ. Provost (1967-75); Vanderbilt prof. of psychology (1975-80); and Vanderbilt Prof. Emeritus (since 1980). He was president, Am. Psychological Assn. (1966) and enlarged special education for disabilities programs at both institutions.
Hoe, Richard March (1812-86), developed a better printing press shown at the U.S. pavilion, Great Exhibition of 1851, London (first world's fair). GP's $15,000 loan to the U.S. exhibitors (repaid by the U.S. Congress three years later) enabled the U.S. pavilion to be decorated so that U.S. art and industry products were seen to best advantage. See: Great Exhibition of 1851, London (first world's fair).
Hoffman, David (1784-1854), a prominent Baltimore-born lawyer, professor, and historian attended St. John's College, Md.; helped found and was a professor, Univ. of Md. Law School; was politically active; a legal scholar of note; and land agent for Calif. leader John Charles Frémont (1813-90). While in London during 1847-53, David Hoffman wrote two letters (one undated letter, another on Nov. 4, 1850), to ask GP 's financial help in an escape plan to free imprisoned Hungarian freedom fighter Lajos Kossuth (1802-94). Ref.: Bloomfield. "Hoffman, David." See: Kossuth, Lajos.
Holbrook, Josiah (1788-1854), was an educator who first organized in 1826 in Millbury, Mass., the lyceum (named after Aristotle's 4th century B.C. school), adult education lectures in town halls, libraries, and elsewhere. By 1835 there were 3,000 town lyceums. Peabody Institute Libraries had lecture halls and lecture funds for lyceum speakers. For Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82) as lyceum speaker at the PIB, Jan. 2, 4, 9, 11, 1872, See: Emerson, Ralph Waldo.
Holland, Sir Henry (1788-1873), was one of Queen Victoria's physicians whom GP sometimes consulted. Sir Henry Holland was one of the 300 guests who attended the Lord Mayor of London's banquet honoring GP, July 10, 1862. That afternoon GP was the first American to accept the Freedom of the City of London. See: London, Freedom of the City of London.
GP &Oliver Wendell Holmes
Holmes, Oliver Wendell (1809-94). 1-"George Peabody" Poem. Oliver Wendell Holmes, a physician-turned-poet, was born in Cambridge, Mass. He was the father of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935). Poet O.W. Holmes attended the July 14-16, 1869, dedication of the Peabody Institute Library, Danvers, Mass. GP was then present, age 74, infirm, on his last U.S. visit, with a few months to live (died Nov. 4, 1869, in London). On July 16, 1869, after an ailing GP spoke briefly and haltingly, O.W. Holmes was introduced with a hint that he might have composed a poem for the occasion. O.W. Holmes read his prepared poem to an audience that included former Mass. Govs. Clifford Claflin and Robert Charles Winthrop (1809-94), Boston Mayor Nathaniel Bradstreet Shurtleff (1810-74), U.S. Sen. Charles Sumner (1811-74), Essex County statesman Alfred A. Abbott (1820-84), recent past U.S. Minister to Britain Charles Francis Adams (1807-86), GP's two nephews George Peabody Russell (1835-1909) and Robert Singleton Peabody (b.1834), and others:
"George Peabody"
by Oliver Wendell Holmes
Bankrupt--our Pockets inside out!
Empty of words to speak his praises!
Worcester and Webster up the spout
Dead broke of laudatory phrases!
But why with flowery speeches tease,
With vain superlatives distress him?
Has language better words than these--
THE FRIEND OF ALL HIS RACE, GOD BLESS HIM.
A simple prayer--but words more sweet
By human lips were never uttered,
Since Adam left the country seat
Where angel wings around him fluttered.
The old look on with tear-dimmed eyes,
The children cluster to caress him,
And every voice unbidden cries,
THE FRIEND OF ALL HIS RACE, GOD BLESS HIM.
Holmes, O.W. 2-GP's infirmity. Holmes described GP's weakened appearance in a letter to historian-statesman John Lothrop Motley (1814-77), as "...the Dives who is going to Abraham's bosom and I fear before a great while...." Holmes first became known for his poem, "Old Ironsides" (Boston Advertiser, 1830), which prevented the break up of the famous frigate Constitution. He is also remembered for his essay, "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table" (Atlantic Monthly, 1857, published separately 1858) and for his poem, "The Deacon's Masterpiece" (The One Horse Shay, 1858). Ref.: (Peabody Institute dedication): Holmes, II, p. 220. New York Times, July 20, 1869, p. 4, c. 7. Tapley-a, pp. 169-171. Tapley-b, pp. 45-46. Peabody Press (Peabody, Mass.), July 21, 1869, p. 2, c. 2-5. Ref.: (GP's infirmity): Holmes, Boston, to Motley, Rome, July 18, 1869, quoted in Morse, pp. 180-181.
Holton High School, Danvers, Mass. GP gave a $2,000 fund for best scholar medals to Holton High School, Danvers, Mass., 1867; and a $2,600 fund for the same purpose to Peabody High School, Peabody, Mass., 1854-67. See: Peabody, George, Philanthropy.
Homer, Winslow (1836-1910), famous U.S. landscape and marine painter (Crack the Whip, The Maine Coast), was age 20 in his native Boston when he worked on the lithographs in Danvers, Mass., Proceedings at the Reception and Dinner in Honor of George Peabody, Esq., of London, by the Citizens of the Old Town of Danvers, October 9, 1856. To Which is appended an Historical Sketch of the Peabody Institute, with the Exercises at the Laying of the Corner-stone and at the Dedication (Boston: H.W. Dutton & Son, 1856). His initials appear on the illustrations facing pp. 21, 89. Some Winslow Homer paintings are owned by the PIB Gallery of Art. See: South Danvers, Mass., Oct. 9, 1856, GP Celebration. PIB Gallery of Art.
Peabody Homes of London
Homes for London's working poor. 1-First Mention of GP's Intended Gift to London. On Feb. 7, 1857, GP was in Baltimore with John Pendleton Kennedy (1795-1870) and William Edwards Mayhew (1781-1860) to draft his Feb. 12, 1857 letter founding the PIB. He also mentioned to them his intent to make a gift to London. GP's first thought for his London gift was a network of drinking fountains, which he discussed and then discarded with long time business friend Curtis Miranda Lampson (1806-85) after GP's return to London in late Aug. 1857. GP next discussed the possibility of aiding the charitable Ragged School Union with a visiting friend, Episcopal Bishop of Ohio Charles Pettit McIlvaine (1799-1873), during Aug. 1858-March 1859. For full account, See: Peabody Homes of London.
Homes for London's working poor. 2-Lord Shaftesbury Suggested Low Cost Housing. The suggestion for model homes for London's working poor came from social reformer Lord Shaftesbury (Anthony Ashley Cooper, 7th Earl, 1801-85). In early Feb. 1859 Shaftesbury told GP's friend and intermediary Bishop McIlvaine that the London poor's greatest need, even more than schools, was low cost housing. GP's gift to London was delayed by the Civil War and by U.S.-British frictionable incidents over the Civil War, particularly the Nov. 8, 1861, Trent Affair. On March 12, 1862, GP created the Peabody Donation Fund, London, which built the Peabody Homes of London and to which GP gave a total of $2.5 million For full account, See: Peabody Homes of London. Persons named. Trent Affair.
Honorary degrees, GP's. See: 1-Honors, GP's, in Life and after Death (in chronological order). (below). 2-Harvard Univ. (July 17, 1867). 3-Oxford Univ. (June 26, 1867).
GP’s Honors
Honors, GP's, in Life and after Death (in chronological order). 1-Md.'s Resolutions of Praise (March 7, 1848). Md.'s $8 million bond sale abroad, sold in part by GP in London during Feb. 1837-40s, raised foreign capital to finance the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and the B&O RR. On March 7, 1848, the Md. legislature passed unanimously resolutions of praise for GP's sale of its bonds abroad. GP accomplished this sale despite the financial Panic of 1837, the depression which followed, and stoppage of interest payments on their bonds by Md. and eight other states. Md.'s resolutions of praise, sent to GP by Md.'s governor, thanked him for upholding Md.'s credit abroad, for assuring foreign investors that Md. would resume interest payment retroactively, and for de
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