1-GP for George Peabody (1795-1869).

2-GPCFT for George Peabody College for Teachers (1914-79).

3-PCVU for Peabody College of Vanderbilt Univ. (since July 1, 1979).

4-PEF for the Peabody Education Fund (Feb. 7, 1867-1914).

5-PIB for the Peabody Institute of Baltimore (since Oct. 24, 1857).

6-Peabody Papers, PEM for George Peabody Papers, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass.

7-VU for Vanderbilt University.

8-USS for United States Ship, as in USS Plymouth; CSS for Confederate States Ship, as in CSS Alabama; and (for Britain) HMS for Her Majesty's Ship, as in HMS Monarch.

(References [•Ref.] & Other Preliminary Explanations)

References (•Ref.) are briefly identified at the end of most numbered entries as •Ref., followed by author's last name and page or pages (or first significant words of title and page or pages if no author), with corresponding annotated reference easily found alphabetically in the back of this work.

Names of persons in entries after •See are listed by Last, First, and Middle names.

(This Preface interweaves the origin of the authors' research "On the trail of GP," with findings on his career and influence; lists the authors' GP publications; and ends with entries that give an overview of GP's life and career).

1-Sept. 1946-52: We met as students at Berea College near Lexington, Ky. (Sept. 1946), Betty entering from Decatur, Ala.; Franklin from Asheville, N.C.  Berea brought us together, led to our marriage (1950), and its Alumni Office got us our first teaching jobs at Ferrum Jr. College near Roanoke, Va., 1950-52.

2-To improve our teaching skills we attended George Peabody College for Teachers (GPCFT), sited next to Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, Tenn., the summers of 1951 and 1952. Attendance at Berea College, a work-study tuition-free college, enabled Franklin to extend his GI Bill entitlement (he served in the U.S. Army Air Forces, 1942-46) to help cover graduate study costs at the Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, 1949-50, and GPCFT, 1952-56, plus travel to and housing near U.S. and British libraries to read GP-related papers.

3-1952-56: A part-time job and small GPCFT scholarship for Franklin, together with Betty's job teaching English in a Nashville business college, enabled us to be graduate students at GPCFT during 1952-56. Franklin took courses from and attached himself as doctoral candidate to Canadian-born Prof Clifton Landon Hall (1898-1987), graduate of Bishop Univ. (Quebec), McGill Univ. (Montreal), a Univ. of N.C., Chapel Hill, Ph.D. in the history of education, and widely respected on the Peabody and Vanderbilt campuses.

4-1953: Searching for a dissertation topic and finding an unexplored area in the history of higher education in Tenn., Franklin went for approval to GPCFT Dean (and later president) Felix Compton Robb (1914-97). Perhaps out of respect for Prof. Hall's reputation, Dean Robb told Franklin of his own earlier experience at Harvard University. In a history course he had at Harvard under historian Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. (1888-1965).  Schlesinger, knowing that Robb was a Peabody College administrator, urged Robb to write on GP as a founder of modern educational philanthropy.  Schlesinger knew of this achievement and lamented that it had not yet been fully explored and documented.

5-Determined on a career in higher education administration, Robb chose a dissertation in that area.  Perhaps regretting a good topic not pursued, Robb spoke with enthusiasm of GP’s little known role as the founder of U.S. educational philanthropy and urged Franklin to consider it as a dissertation topic.

(GP Basic Facts)

6-GP in brief: Increasingly intrigued by what we found in libraries and encouraged by small scholarships, we read GP’s original letters and papers intensively in scattered U.S. and British depositories during 1953-55.  •GP was born Feb. 18, 1795, into a poor branch of the Peabodys of Mass., third of eight children in Danvers, Mass., 19 miles northeast of Boston. He lived long enough to see his birthplace (renamed South Danvers in 1855 when Danvers was divided into North Danvers and South Danvers) renamed Peabody, Mass., in his honor on April 13, 1868.

7-He attended a district school 4 years, ages 8-12 (1803-07), which was all his parents could afford; was apprenticed in a general store 4 years, ages 12-15 (1807-10); and worked for a year in his oldest brother's dry goods store in Newburyport, Mass. (1810-11). His father died May 13, 1811, leaving the family in debt, the Danvers home mortgaged, with GP's mother and the five younger children forced to live with nearby relatives. Eighteen days later, May 31, 1811, the Great Fire of Newburyport ruined all business prospects, leading to an exodus of many family breadwinners in that town.

8-Paternal uncle John Peabody (1768-1827), whose Newburyport store and stock were burned, urged his 17-year old nephew GP to join him in opening a dry goods store in Georgetown, D.C.  Because his uncle could not obtain credit, GP asked a Newburyport merchant to stand surety for him for a consignment of goods on credit from a Boston merchant.  With $2,000 in goods secured, uncle and nephew sailed from Newburyport (May 5, 1812) and opened a dry goods store in Georgetown, D.C. (May 15, 1812).

9-His uncle soon entered other enterprises. On his own GP tended the store and was also a pack peddler selling goods to nearby homes and stores. With nearby Washington, D.C., under threat of British attack, he volunteered in the War of 1812.  There he met and impressed 35-year-old fellow soldier and experienced Md. merchant Elisha Riggs, Sr. (1779-1853).  Riggs took the 19-year-old GP as junior partner in Riggs, Peabody & Co. (1814-29), which imported European fabric, clothing, and other goods for sale to U.S. wholesalers.  The firm moved to Baltimore in 1815 and had warehouses in Philadelphia and NYC by 1822. •See Riggs, Elisha, Sr.