Today In History: Remembering Elizabeth Palmer Peabody

...Kindergarten means a garden of children, and Froebel, the inventor of it, or rather, as he would prefer to express it, the discoverer of the method of Nature, meant to symbolize by the name the spirit and plan of treatment. How does the gardener; treat his plants ? He studies their individual natures, and puts them into such circumstances of soil and atmosphere as enable them to grow, flower, and bring forth fruit, — also to renew their manifestation year after year.... 

-- Mrs. Horace Mann and Elizabeth P. Peabody,  Moral Culture of Infancy, and Kindergarten Guide with Music for the Plays (Boston: T.O.H.P. Burnham; New York: O.S. Felt, 1863).

Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (b. May 16th, 1804; d. January 3rd, 1894) was an esteemed, multi-lingual American educator who taught three generations of children; founded the the first English-language kindergarten in America; wrote and published prolifically; and, with an active interest in anti-slavery, anti-colonialism, transcendentalism, and feminism, ran a bookstore (aka lending library) that served as a meeting place for intellectual, philosophical, and liberal thinkers.  Elizabeth Peabody was home schooled, and also studied under the Unitarian preacher William Ellery Channing and Transcendentalist philosopher-poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, before assisting the educator reformer Bronson Alcott to open the Temple School in Boston. She travelled to Germany to study the teachings of Frederick Froebel, who created the concept of kindergarten and built the foundation of modern education, which Elizabeth Palmer Peabody suffused with physical play, art, and music for the developmental and educational growth of the child.

Although Peabody's own school would close in 1832, she and her sisters Mary, a teacher, and Sophia, an artist, would significantly influence improvements in traditional education; Elizabeth and Mary opened in 1859 the first public kindergarten in the country on Beacon Hill in Boston, and some ten years later would co-publish with Nicholas Patrick Wiseman a seminal book on the role of art in primary education, The Identification of the Artisan and Artist, the Proper Object of American Education, including the relationship between the arts in design and production. She supported child-centered education and continued to serve professionally in many capacities, including founding and editing the Kindergarten Messenger (1873-1877) and organizing the American Froebel Union, which reviewed the work of kindergartens in America.

The following articles are drawn from Proquest Historical Newspapers, which informs and inspires classroom teaching and learning.

• She Saw Its Merit: Story of the Kindergartens in This Old City: Miss Palmer Peabody Opened the First One Here. (1893, Apr 20). Boston Daily Globe (1872-1922) 
• Elizabeth Palmer Peabody. (1894, Jan 05). New York Times (1857-1922) 
• An Elizabeth Peabody House.  (1895, Jun 16). New York Times (1857-1922) 
• A Daily Lesson in History: Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Who Was Called "The Mother of the Kindergartens in America." (1913, Jun 13). Boston Daily Globe (1872-1922) 
• Lloyd, J.H. LOYD. (1933, Dec 31). Kindergartens 60 Years Old: Still Regarded as Fads in Some Communities Despite Wide Use. New York Times (1923-) 
• Gannett, L. (1950, Jan 04). Books and Things: The Peabody Sisters of Salem.  New York Herald Tribune (1926-1962)
• Olive, D. H. (1950, Jan 05). The Flowering of Three Sisters in New England's Heyday. The Christian Science Monitor (1908-) 
• Henry, S.C.  (1950, Jan 08). The Three Peabody Girls and the World They Lived In: A Skillful Affectionate Re-creation of a Family Rich in Character, "Causes," Achievement. New York Herald Tribune (1926-1962) 
• Louise, H. T. (1957, Nov 10). Three Eminent American Maiden Ladies Who Were Devoted to One Man. New York Herald Tribune (1926-1962) 
• Levitan, E. S. (1993, Mar 30). Boston Marks Women's Path Through History: Walking Tours Highlight a Notable But Once-Neglected Group. The Christian Science Monitor (1908-) 

Tips:

• Baylor, Ruth M. Elizabeth Palmer Peabody : Kindergarten Pioneer. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965. Stacks ; LB1199 .B3 1965.
• Edwards, June. Women in American Education, 1820-1955 : The Female Force and Educational Reform. 1st ed. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002.  e-book.
• Elbert, Monika M. (Monika Maria), Julie E. (Julie Elizabeth) Hall, and Katharine Rodier. Reinventing the Peabody Sisters. 1st ed. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2006. e-book.
• Mann, Mary Tyler Peabody, and Elizabeth Palmer Peabody. Moral Culture of Infancy, and Kindergarten Guide with Music for the Plays. Boston: T.O.H.P. Burnham, 1863. Microfiche ; LA91 .H57.  e-book.
• Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer. Chronological History of the United States Arranged with Plates on Beam’s Principle. New York: [publisher not identified], 1856. Closed Stacks Curr ; E178.1 .P4 1856.
• Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer. Lectures in the Training Schools for Kindergartners. Boston: D.C. Heath & company, 1888. Closed Stacks Research ; LB1165 .P4 1888.
• Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer. Method of Spiritual Culture Being an Explanatory Preface to the Second Edition of Record of a School. Boston: Published by James Munroe & Co., 1836. Closed Stacks Research ; LC268 .P22 1836.  e-book.
• Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer. Theory of Teaching, with a Few Practical Illustrations. Boston: E.P. Peabody, 1941. Microfiche ; LA91 .H57. e-book.
• Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer, and E. Adelaide Manning. Education in the Home, the Kindergarten, and the Primary School. London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1887. Closed Stacks Research ; LB1169 .P2 1887. e-book.
• Ronda, Bruce A. Elizabeth Palmer Peabody : A Reformer on Her Own Terms. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1999. 5th Floor Stacks & Loft ; CT275.P484 R66 1999.
• Snyder, Agnes. Dauntless Women in Childhood Education, 1856-1931. Association for Childhood Education International, 1972. ERIC Document.
• Wiseman, Nicholas Patrick, and Elizabeth Palmer Peabody. The Identification of the Artisan and Artist, the Proper Object of American Education. Boston: Sold by Adams & Co., 1869.  Microfiche ; LA91 .H57. e-book.

Images:

• Elizabeth Palmer Peabody Grave, Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
• Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer. Elizabeth Palmer Peabody to Mrs. M. B. C. Slade, February 18, 18-- Concerning Froebel’s Theories, Manuscript Group 1, Teachers College Digital Collections, Courtesy of Teachers College, Columbia University.

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