Description:Mr. Peabody is seated wearing a black suit, white shirt with black bowtie. In his left hand he holds a letter with stamp adddressed as follows: The Honorable Robert C. Winthrop, Boston. Winthrop was Peabody's confidential friend and chairman of the trustees of the Peabody Education Fund.
History:This portrait of George Peabody by an unknown artist, hangs in Kirkland Hall on the Vanderbilt University campus.
Notes:Born in South Danvers, MA in 1795, George Peabody, one of ten children, received only four years of formal education. Entering the merchantile business at an early age, he faced many hardships which he overcame and went on to be a successful financier in London where he lived from 1837 until his death in 1869. Sometimes referred to as the "founder of philanthropy," Peabody funded charitible causes in both the United States, as well as his adopted England. He established the Peabody Education Fund in 1867 'for the promotion and encouragement of intellectual, moral and industrial education among the the young of the more destitute portions of the Southern and Southwestern states of the Union...' It was from these funds that Peabody Normal School, later Peabody College for Teachers, was established in 1875. Peabody College and Vanderbilt University merged in 1979.
