Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (May 16, 1804January 3, 1894) was an American educator who opened the first English-language

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

in the United States. Long before most educators, Peabody embraced the premise that children's play has intrinsic developmental and educational value. Peabody was also the first known translator into English of the

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

scripture the

Lotus Sutra The ''Lotus Sūtra'' ( zh, 妙法蓮華經; sa, सद्धर्मपुण्डरीकसूत्रम्, translit=Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtram, lit=Sūtra on the White Lotus of the True Dharma, italic=) is one of the most influ ...

, translating a chapter from its French translation in 1844.

Early years

Peabody was born in

Billerica, Massachusetts Billerica (, ) is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 42,119 according to the 2020 census. It takes its name from the town of Billericay in Essex, England. History In the early 1630s, a Praying Indian ...

on May 16, 1804. She was the daughter of Nathaniel Peabody, a physician, and Elizabeth ("Eliza") Palmer (1778–1853), and spent her early years in Salem.

Career

After 1822, she resided principally in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

where she engaged in teaching. She also became a writer and a prominent figure in the Transcendental movement. During 1834–1835, she worked as assistant teacher to

Amos Bronson Alcott Amos Bronson Alcott (; November 29, 1799 – March 4, 1888) was an American teacher, writer, philosopher, and reformer. As an educator, Alcott pioneered new ways of interacting with young students, focusing on a conversational style, and a ...

at his experimental Temple School in

. After the school closed, Peabody published ''Record of a School'', outlining the plan of the school and Alcott's philosophy of early childhood education, which had drawn on German models.

Bookstore

She later opened a book store, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody's West Street Bookstore, at her home in Boston (c. 1840–1852). It was there that the "Conversations" were held, organized by

Margaret Fuller Sarah Margaret Fuller (May 23, 1810 – July 19, 1850), sometimes referred to as Margaret Fuller Ossoli, was an American journalist, editor, critic, translator, and women's rights advocate associated with the American transcendentalism movemen ...

. The first of these meetings between women was held on November 6, 1839.Slater, Abby. ''In Search of Margaret Fuller''. New York: Delacorte Press, 1978: 43. Topics for these discussions and debates varied but subjects were as diverse as fine arts, history, mythology, literature, and nature. Fuller served as the "nucleus of conversation" and hoped to answer the "great questions" facing women: "What were we born to do? How shall we do it? which so few ever propose to themselves 'till their best years are gone by". Many figures in the woman's rights movement took part, including Sophia Dana Ripley, Caroline Sturgis, and

Maria White Lowell Maria White Lowell (July 8, 1821 – October 27, 1853) was an American poet and abolitionist. Her poems were privately printed by her husband, James Russell Lowell, the poet, two years after her death. Early life Maria White was born in Waterto ...

. The 1840 ''Catalogue of the Foreign Library'' offered several hundred titles in German, French, Spanish, Italian and English languages, including: * Mrs. John Adams' ''Letters'' * Andryane's ''Memoires d'un Prisonnier de'Etate au Spielberg'' * ''

Bentley's Miscellany ''Bentley's Miscellany'' was an English literary magazine started by Richard Bentley. It was published between 1836 and 1868. Contributors Already a successful publisher of novels, Bentley began the journal in 1836 and invited Charles Dickens ...

'' * Bonnycastle's ''Spanish America'' * ''Boston Quarterly Review'' * Buche's ''Ruins of Cities'' * Channing's ''Slavery'' * Crocker's ''Fairy Legends'' * Dumeril's ''Elemens des sciences Naturelles'' * Mrs. Farrar's ''Howard's Life'' * ''

Fraser's Magazine ''Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country'' was a general and literary journal published in London from 1830 to 1882, which initially took a strong Tory line in politics. It was founded by Hugh Fraser and William Maginn in 1830 and loosely directe ...

'' *

Guarini Guarini is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Giovanni Battista Guarini (1538–1612), Italian poet and diplomat * Anna Guarini, Contessa Trotti, (1563–1598), Italian virtuoso singer of the late Renaissance * Frank Jose ...

's ''Pastor Fido'' * Haydn et Mozart lettres *

Herder A herder is a pastoral worker responsible for the care and management of a herd or flock of domestic animals, usually on open pasture. It is particularly associated with nomadic or transhumant management of stock, or with common land grazing. ...

's ''Hebrew Poetry'' * Junger's ''Lustspiele'' * Lanzi's ''Storia Pittorica'' * Lessing's ''Nathan der Weise'' * '' Metropolitan Magazine'' * Miss Mitford's ''Our Village'' * ''Musical Journal'' *

Isaac Taylor Isaac Taylor (17 August 1787 – 28 June 1865) was an English philosophical and historical writer, artist, and inventor. Life He was the eldest surviving son of Isaac Taylor of Ongar. He was born at Lavenham, Suffolk, on 17 August 1787, and m ...

's ''Natural History of Enthusiasm'' *

Sara Coleridge Sara Coleridge (23 December 1802 – 3 May 1852) was an English author and translator. She was the third child out of four and the only daughter of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge and his wife Sara Fricker. She gained further popularity with in ...

's ''Phantasmion'' * Pringle's ''Residence in South Africa'' * ''

Revue des deux Mondes The ''Revue des deux Mondes'' (, ''Review of the Two Worlds'') is a monthly French-language literary, cultural and current affairs magazine that has been published in Paris since 1829. According to its website, "it is today the place for debates a ...

'' *

George Sand Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil (; 1 July 1804 – 8 June 1876), best known by her pen name George Sand (), was a French novelist, memoirist and journalist. One of the most popular writers in Europe in her lifetime, bein ...

's ''André'' * Madame Necker de Saussure's ''Notice sur le caractère et les écrits de Mme de Staël'' * Cockton's ''Valentine Vox'', illus. by Cruikshank * ''Vie de Poussin'' In 1852, the bookstore and library located at 13–15 West Street in Boston closed down. Members of the Transcendentalist movement had begun to disperse since the mid-1840s and income from the bookstore had gradually declined. In 2011, the

Boston Landmarks Commission The Boston Landmarks Commission (BLC) is the historic preservation agency for the City of Boston. The commission was created by state legislation i1975 History Urban renewal in the United States started with the Housing Act of 1949, part of Preside ...

designated the building as a

Boston Landmark A Boston Landmark is a designation by the Boston Landmarks Commission for historic buildings and sites throughout the city of Boston based on the grounds that it has historical, social, cultural, architectural or aesthetic significance to New Engla ...

''The Dial''

For a time, Peabody was the business manager of ''

The Dial ''The Dial'' was an American magazine published intermittently from 1840 to 1929. In its first form, from 1840 to 1844, it served as the chief publication of the Transcendentalists. From the 1880s to 1919 it was revived as a political review and ...

'', the main publication of the Transcendentalists. In 1843, she noted that the journal's income was not covering the cost of printing and that subscriptions totaled just over two hundred. In 1844 the magazine published Peabody's translation of a portion of the

from French, which was the first English version of a Buddhist scripture. The publication ceased shortly thereafter in April 1844.

Kindergarten

When Peabody opened her kindergarten in 1860, the practice of providing formal schooling for children younger than six was largely confined to Germany. She had a particular interest in the educational methods of

Friedrich Fröbel Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel or Froebel (; 21 April 1782 – 21 June 1852) was a German pedagogue, a student of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, who laid the foundation for modern education based on the recognition that children have unique need ...

, particularly after meeting one of his students,

Margarethe Schurz Margarethe Meyer-Schurz (born Margarethe Meyer; also called Margaretha Meyer-Schurz or just Margarethe Schurz; 27 August 1833 – 15 March 1876) was a German-American woman who opened the first German-language kindergarten in the United States at ...

, in 1859. In 1867, she visited Germany for the purpose of studying Fröbel's teachings more closely. Through her own kindergarten, and as editor of the ''Kindergarten Messenger'' (1873–1877), Peabody helped establish kindergarten as an accepted institution in American education. She also wrote numerous books in support of the cause. The extent of her influence is apparent in a statement submitted to

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

on February 12, 1897, in support of free kindergartens: ::"The advantage to the community in utilizing the age from 4 to 6 in training the hand and eye; in developing the habits of cleanliness, politeness, self-control, urbanity, industry; in training the mind to understand numbers and geometric forms, to invent combinations of figures and shapes, and to represent them with the pencil—these and other valuable lessons… will, I think, ultimately prevail in securing to us the establishment of this beneficent institution in all the city school systems of our country."

Diverse activities

With grounding in history and literature and a reading knowledge of ten languages, in 1840 she also opened a bookstore which held Margaret Fuller's "Conversations" and published books from

Nathaniel Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion. He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...

and others in addition to the periodicals ''The Dial'' and ''Æsthetic Papers''. She was an advocate of

antislavery Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

and of

Transcendentalism Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in New England. "Transcendentalism is an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century, centered around Ralph Wald ...

. Moreover, she also led decades of efforts for the rights of the

Paiute Paiute (; also Piute) refers to three non-contiguous groups of indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. Although their languages are related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, these three groups do not form a single set. The term "Pai ...

Indians.

Personal life

Her sisters were painter Sophia Peabody Hawthorne (wife of writer

) and writer

Mary Tyler Peabody Mann Mary Tyler Mann ( Peabody; November 16, 1806 in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts – February 11, 1887 in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts) was a teacher, author, and mother. She was the wife of Horace Mann, American education reformer and politician. E ...

(wife of educator

Horace Mann Horace Mann (May 4, 1796August 2, 1859) was an American educational reformer, slavery abolitionist and Whig politician known for his commitment to promoting public education. In 1848, after public service as Secretary of the Massachusetts Sta ...

). Peabody died January 3, 1894, aged 89. She is buried at

Sleepy Hollow Cemetery Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York, is the final resting place of numerous famous figures, including Washington Irving, whose 1820 short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is set in the adjacent burying ground at the Old Dutch C ...

Concord, Massachusetts Concord () is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. At the 2020 census, the town population was 18,491. The United States Census Bureau considers Concord part of Greater Boston. The town center is near where the conflu ...

.Library of Congress ''Today in History: May 16''
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Selected works

Peabody published a number of works, including:
Record of a school
exemplifying the general principles of spiritual culture. (Boston: J. Munroe, 1835). About Bronson Alcott's Temple School, Boston.
''Crimes of the House of Austria''
(editor; New York, 1852) * ''The Polish-American System of Chronology'' (Boston, 1852) * ''Kindergarten Culture'' (1870) * ''Kindergarten in Italy'' (1872) * ''Reminiscences of Rev. Wm Ellery Channing, D.D.'' (1880) * ''Letters to Kindergarteners'' (1886) * ''Last Evening with Allston, and other Papers'' (1887) * ''Lectures in the Training Schools for Kindergartners'' (1888)

References

External links

* * *
Peabody, Elizabeth, Ed. ''Æsethic Papers''. The Editor, Boston, 1849
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

.
Elizabeth Peabody and Her Aesthetic Papers
excerpted from The Periodicals Of American Transcendentalism by Clarence L. F. Gohdes (Duke University Press, 1931) pp. 142–156, courtesy of the

Walden Woods Project The Walden Woods Project (WWP) is a nonprofit organization located in Lincoln, Massachusetts, devoted to the legacy of Henry David Thoreau and the preservation of Walden Woods, the forest around Walden Pond that spans Lincoln and Concord, Massachu ...

. * Mabel Flick Altstetter, �
Some Prophets of the American Kindergarten
” ''Peabody Journal of Education'', Vol. 13, No. 5 (March 1936), pp. 221–225.
Salem Women's Heritage TrailBoston Women's Heritage Trail
*City of Boston
Boston Landmarks Commission
https://web.archive.org/web/20130420063810/http://www.cityofboston.gov/Images_Documents/13-15_West_Street_Study_Report_tcm3-31148.pdf 13-15 West Street Study Report] {{DEFAULTSORT:Peabody, Elizabeth Members of the Transcendental Club American educators American education writers Early childhood education in the United States Writers from Boston 1804 births 1894 deaths 19th century in Boston People from Billerica, Massachusetts Bookstores in Boston Commercial circulating libraries American abolitionists 19th-century American women writers 19th-century American writers American women non-fiction writers