1984.091.002

From the Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography (uudb.org) (From The Peabody sisters—Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (May 16, 1804-January 3, 1894), Mary Tyler Peabody Mann (November 16, 1807-February 11, 1887), and Sophia Amelia Peabody Hawthorne (September 21, 1809-February 26, 1871)—were champions of reform movements, pioneers in modern educational theory, founders of the kindergarten movement in America and supporters of the arts. No less important was their function as central conduits in the small, complicated web of relationship that comprised the Transcendentalist movement, and the vital links they represented between institutional Unitarianism and its often estranged Transcendentalist offspring. Of the Peabody sisters, history remembers Elizabeth best, as the proprietress of the West Street Bookstore and as founder of the kindergarten movement in America. Yet all of the sisters remain significant examples of a distinctly Unitarian Transcendentalism that strove to realize its vision of human goodness through practical application in the world.

publication place: Boston