Elizabeth Palmer Peabody Papers, 1843-c. 1867

Elizabeth Palmer Peabody Papers, 1843-c. 1867

(Alexandria, VA: Alexander Street, 2011), 92 page(s)

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Abstract / Summary

Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (1804-1894), Transcendentalist, teacher, author, and education reformer, was raised in Salem, Massachusetts, with her sisters Mary Tyler Peabody Mann (1806-1887) and Sophia Amelia Peabody Hawthorne (1809-1871). Educated in her mother's school in Salem, Peabody demonstrated an early interest in theology, philosophy, history, and literature. She taught in Brookline, Massachusetts, and later in Boston, Massachusetts, where she worked with Bronson Alcott (1799-1888). She became a friend and champion of numerous cultural figures of her time: Transcendentalists such as William Ellery Channing (1780-1842), Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) and Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882); literary figures such as her sister Sophia's husband, Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864); and educators such as her sister Mary's husband, Horace Mann (1796-1859). Peabody also published several educational and religious works, and founded the first kindergarten in the United States in 1859. From 1839 to 1844, Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) hosted her "Conversations"—a landmark series of Socratic-method discussion seminars for women—at Peabody's home (which also served as a bookstore) in Boston.

This collection, which spans the years from roughly 1839 to 1867, contains original and typescript copies of letters from Elizabeth Palmer Peabody to friends and publishers. Her letters to Mary Moody Emerson (1774-1863) and other friends include religious and philosophical observations, news of family and friends, and opinions on the health benefits of "magnetism" (by which she may have meant hypnosis, then thought to function via "animal magnetism"). There are also letters written to the publishing house of Lee & Shepard (1861-1904) concerning arrangements for publishing books and articles.

Of special note is a 33-page journal of Margaret Fuller's "Conversations." The journal was kept by several participants besides Peabody, including Ralph Waldo Emerson's family friend Elizabeth Hoar (1814-1878). It includes summations of discussions concerning artistic, philosophical and religious conceptualizations of topics such as "Beauty" and "Genius;" the interpretation of Greek mythology; the education of eighteenth-century women; and the condition of nineteenth-century women.

Field of Interest
Letters and Diaries
Content Type
Letter
Duration
0 sec
Format
Text
Page Count
92
Publication Year
2011
Publisher
Alexander Street
Place Published / Released
Alexandria, VA
Subject
Letters and Diaries, History, Daily Life, Domestic life

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