Background and Family
Elizabeth Peabody, this woman has many outstanding achievements in U.S history, saying this my argument is: Women have made more of an impact on United States history through many movements and successes men have followed women as leaders. Let's look at her life and see how impactful this woman was.
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody is the oldest of her family, she was born on May 16th, 1804 in Billerica Massachusetts. She also had two other sisters Mary the second child born in 1806 and Sophia the third born in 1809. She also had three brothers named Nathaniel, George and Wellington; not much information on them. Lets not forget about her parents. Her father was Dr. Nathaniel Peabody who was a Dentist and passed away in 1855. Her mother is Elizabeth (Eliza) Palmer Peabody she was a teacher and author and passed away in 1853.
Taking a look more at Elizabeth lets give some highlights from her life and to show how much of an impact she had on women and U.S history. In 1820 (age 16) she started her own private school. Next in 1834 the school ‘Temple School” was created with the help of Amos Bronston Alcott. In 1840 her bookstore opened which was also a book borrowing library, located on 13th west street in Boston. These are just a few out of the many achievements, these successes show how she takes action in her life and wants to make a difference and help people.
Let's look at the bookstore more, this was a great place to read and buy books but it was more than that. She hosted the Transcendentalist club meeting in her bookstore, she had two weddings: Mary married Horace Mann and Sophia married Nathaniel Hawthrone. Finally Margaret Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson and more went to her bookshop. Her bookstore had many successes as you can see. This shows many women in the past and future that you can own your own business, have family milestones intertwined in your career and have many famous authors, women and men come to your bookshop. Here is a quote that really explains how the bookstore impacts woman and the future of U.S history 1“The shop blossomed, as “Elizabeth believed that a book shop ought to not merely sell books but should function more widely as a meeting place for authors and readers to congregate, discuss, and purchase books.”.” As the bookshop was that and more having a place to discuss many topics and have debates can further your mind as Elizabeth was all about education this was a positive impact from her bookstore. This was only the start…
Elizabeth wrote many books and articles, she also published many works. One of her papers is “ Aesthetic Papers” which is written and published by her. She also published the Antislavery, Emancipation By Dr. William Ellery Channing. This shows how impactful documents can be written by a man but how Elizabeth made the article become published, as the world can now see it and Channing did not care that a woman published his article. It shows how he had respect for her and her knowledge. This made many impacts to U.S history.
Lastly, Elizabeth is most famous for how she opened the first kindergarten in 1860. It was located on Pinckney St in Beacon Hill Boston. Here are some quotes from two different articles that really explains her passion about education. 2 “Throughout her life, Elizabeth Peabody worked to create interest in and fundraise for new schools. 3 “It was during this time that she also became an advocate for the Kindergarten movement in the United States, following the path of Friedrich Froebel of Germany.” The first quote you can see that she wanted people to have education and knowledge as Elizabeth was a well-known supporter of this, keeping her participation in this movement and to help with campaigning for schools. As she did make a school she wants more schools for more students to grow the world of appreciation and comprehension of different topics of education. Having this made, the future of U.S history impacts the world in a beneficial way.
Elizabeth passed away at the age of 89 on January 3rd in 1894. To give some more information in doing some research for primary and secondary sources I found some great resources. To briefly describe my primary and secondary sources I found a letter, newspaper article and an article on education in the modern era.
This is just my research, my other team members found other great resources which you can read more about on the bibliography sources page, as well as all the citaions all of our sources. The sources I am going to describe assist in my thesis, women have made more of an impact on United States history through many movements and successes men have followed women as leaders. Having this in mind…
Let's look at one of my primary sources that I found that really explains the soul reason why my theory of; women has made an impact on U.S history in a way of how men look up to women by their success. The letter from French DeCoursey to Peabody. In this letter DeCoursey reached out to Peabody to ask for her help to teach in Salt Lake City. DeCoursey made Peabody feel that her success and intelligence of the educational system would help make an impact on the students' life, which DeCoursey was asking for help with. This shows that a man asked for a woman's help and how a man looked up to a woman's triumphs and career victories, to determine how he needed to reach out. This made such a positive breakthrough on U.S history of how the success of a woman made a man realize he needed a woman's help.
My secondary sources highlight the modern era of teaching and the dilemmas which are: race, diversity, teaching licensing, gendering and more. To focus on the gendering part of this article it explains how women are seen more as elementary teachers, even in this modern era anyone can do any job no matter their gender. I feel that Elizabeth Peabody did make an amazing impact on the educational system. I feel that the authors Little and Bartlett should look more into the history of education and see that yes there were a lot of women that were teachers, but that does not define that all women should be teachers, as many women of U.S history did more than just that. Overall you can see the many impacts that Elizabeth Peabody had on U.S history and how learning about all of the amazing women of U.S history can help with gender roles and how women made a difference in the U.S and how men followed them.
Notes
1 Harding-Morse, Chloe. “Elizabeth Palmer Peabody” Boston Athenaeum, (2013). Accessed Nov 13, 2024. https://bostonathenaeum.org/news/elizabeth-palmer-peabody/
2 The Walden Woods Project. “ Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (1804-1894)” The Walden Woods Project. Accessed Oct 29, 2024. https://www.walden.org/what-we-do/library/the-transcendentalists-their-lives-writings/elizabeth-palmer-peabody-1804-1894/
3 Salem Public Libray. ‘The peabody sisters” Salem Public Library. Accessed Nov 19, 2024. https://salempl.org/the-peabody-sisters/
