primer

Category : Books
Date : May 16, 2013

On May 16, 1804, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody was born in Billerica, MA.

She was the daughter of Eliza & Nathaniel Peabody and is the first of The Peabody Sisters, covered in Megan Marshall’s enthralling biography.  Eliza Peabody ran a girls school and as reported, “At the turn of the eighteenth century, teaching was the highest calling a woman could respectively aspire to, but it was near the bottom of the scale for a college-educated man, generally a prelude to a career in law, medicine, or the ministry.”  At that time, young girls were taught rudimentary reading and writing, as well as more useful skills:  needlework, music, nursing, cooking, conversation, and etiquette.

The New England Primer was used during the 18th Century

The New England Primer was used during the 18th century

Elizabeth Palmer Peabody followed in her mother’s footsteps and would later be recognized as the “founder of kindergartens in America.” In August of 1840, she opened West Street Book Store, and “filled the shelves with books in English, French, German, Italian Greek and Latin, selling at prices from 50 cents for pocket editions of Shakespeare’s plays to $65 for a handsomely illustrated forty-eight volume set of Scott’s Waverly novels.”   One could also join her lending library for a $5 fee. West Street Book Store would later serve as the meeting place for Margaret Fuller’s famous talks.

(Meghan Marshall recently published a biography of Fuller).

[Megan Marshall, The Peabody Sisters, (Houghton Mifflin, 2005) p. 58, 391-393, 452.]

Comments (2)

Lee

What a remarkable story — to think of the impact Elizabeth Palmer Peabody had! Where was the West Street Bookstore — or, rather, in what town was this West Street?
Another interesting post in a great blog — thanks,
Lee

11 years ago
    Brece Honeycutt

    West Street Book Store was in Boston!! It as frequented by the Transcendentalists.

    Thanks for reading and subscribing!

    11 years ago

Leave a Reply to Lee Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Website by Roundhex. Adapted from Workality Plus by Northeme. Powered by WordPress
@