George Peabody Monument (Baltimore, MD)
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Location
East Mount Vernon Place (Street View)
GPS: 39° 17′ 51.18″ N 76° 36′ 54.33″ W
History
Born in 1795 in the town of South Danvers, Massachusetts (later renamed Peabody, MA), George Peabody was an entrepeneur and philanthropist who moved to Baltimore, in 1816, where he lived for twenty years overseeing the dry-goods mercantile business he co-founded, Peabody, Riggs, and Company. In the 1850’s, while in London, Peabody became involved in banking, forming a prominent partnership with Junius Spencer Morgan, father of financier JP Morgan. A number of large financial institutions, including Morgan Grenfell, JPMorgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley, can trace their roots directly back to Peabody’s handiwork. For this reason, a statue of Peabody quite similar to Baltimore’s was unveiled before his death beside the Royal Exchange in London. Peabody is also considered to be father of modern philanthropy. In 1857, Peabody founded the first music conservatory in the United States in Baltimore, the Peabody Institute (now a part of Johns Hopkins University). In 1862, he set up the Peabody Trust in London to provide housing for the city’s deserving poor. After the American Civil War, he established the Peabody Education Fund to educate children from the Southern States, and is known to have donated some $8 million dollars to charitable trusts and organizations during his lifetime. His philanthropic acts served as a model for others, including Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller and Bill Gates.
Notes
Peabody’s Baltimore monument rests in the park just east of the Washington Monument in Mount Vernon. Immediately to his south is the magnificent Peabody Institute building. The neighborhood itself is something of a hub for cultural activity in the city during the warmer months, and houses many business clubs and fraternal organizations with some measure of power in city affairs. Despite that, and perhaps due to the area’s abundant natural beauty – or maybe even the kindness with which he treated the underclasses – the park Peabody’s statue resides over is also a common stopover point for the city’s indigent and homeless.
Nearby
- Washington Monument (Mt Vernon)
- Marquis de Lafayette
- Military Courage Statue
- Severn Teackle Wallis
- John Eager Howard (Mt Vernon)
- Roger Taney
- Sea Urchin (Mt Vernon)
- Pope John Paul II
- James Cardinal Gibbons
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