Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer definition of Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer (pē`bädē, –bədē), 1804–94, American educator, lecturer, and reformer, b. Billerica, Mass. The Peabody family moved (c.1809) to Salem, where the father began practicing dentistry. Of the three Peabody sisters, the second, Mary, married Horace Mann Mann, Horace (măn), 1796–1859, American educator, b. Franklin, Mass.
..... Click the link for more information. , and the youngest, Sophia, married Nathaniel Hawthorne Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804–64, American novelist and short-story writer, b. Salem, Mass., one of the great masters of American fiction. His novels and tales are penetrating explorations of moral and spiritual conflicts.
..... Click the link for more information. . Elizabeth, after a period as governess in Hallowell, Maine, with her sister Mary, established a school for girls in what is now Brookline, Mass. Although she was an inspired teacher, she was a poor businesswoman, and her ventures were short-lived. After giving up this school she wrote a series of history textbooks and became a successful lecturer on history. She assisted Bronson Alcott Alcott, Bronson (ôl`kət, ăl–, –kŏt), 1799–1888, American educational and social reformer, b.
..... Click the link for more information. in his Temple School and created an annotated transcript of conversations regarding his educational theories in Record of a School (1835). Her path crossed those of most of the great New Englanders of her day—Emerson Emerson, Ralph Waldo (ĕm`ərsən), 1803–82, American poet and essayist, b. Boston.
..... Click the link for more information. , William Ellery Channing Channing, William Ellery, 1780–1842, American Unitarian minister and author, b. Newport, R.I. At 23 he was ordained minister of the Federal St. Congregational Church in Boston, where he served until his death.
..... Click the link for more information. , Henry David Thoreau Thoreau, Henry David (thôr`ō, thərō`), 1817–62, American author and naturalist, b. Concord, Mass., grad.
..... Click the link for more information. , and many others.

The bookshop Peabody opened in Boston in 1840 was a literary center. Margaret Fuller Fuller, Margaret, 1810–50, American writer and lecturer, b. Cambridgeport (now part of Cambridge), Mass. She was one of the most influential personalities of her day in American literary circles.
..... Click the link for more information. held her conversation classes there, and Elizabeth soon found herself a publisher as well as a bookseller; the transcendental magazine, the Dial, pamphlets of the Anti-Slavery Society, and several of Hawthorne's early works were published by her. Of a projected periodical, Aesthetic Papers, only one number appeared, in 1849. After closing her bookshop she traveled about, lecturing and selling historical charts. An ardent abolitionist, Elizabeth went to Richmond in 1859 to plead unsuccessfully with the governor of Virginia for the life of one of John Brown Brown, John, 1800–1859, American abolitionist, b. Torrington, Conn. He spent his boyhood in Ohio. Before he became prominent in the 1850s, his life had been a succession of business failures in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York.
..... Click the link for more information. 's aides at Harpers Ferry. In Boston she opened (1861) one of the first kindergartens in the country. With her sister Mary she wrote Moral Culture of Infancy and Kindergarten Guide (1866). In 1867–68 she studied Froebel Froebel, Friedrich Wilhelm August (frā`bəl, frō`–, Ger.
..... Click the link for more information. 's methods in Germany and on her return she established a Froebel Union and opened the first kindergarten training school in the country. From then on kindergarten training was the cause that took her traveling about the country. Two years after her death a Boston settlement, Elizabeth Peabody House, was established as a memorial; it moved to Somerville, Mass., in the 1950s and is still in operation.

Bibliography

See L. H. Tharp, The Peabody Sisters of Salem (1950); study by R. M. Baylor (1965); M. Marshall, The Peabody Sisters (2005).

Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer (1804–94) publisher, educator; born in Billerica, Mass. In 1839 she opened a Boston bookstore where the transcendentalists' Dial magazine was published. She started the first U.S. kindergarten in 1860 in Boston.