George Peabody: Who is 'the father of modern philanthropy' and how did he become a millionaire?

Though he had to leave school at 11 years old, he gave away millions to education initiatives 

Mythili Sampathkumar
New York
Friday 16 March 2018 15:17 GMT
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Today's Google Doodle honours the 'father of philanthropy' George Peabody
Today's Google Doodle honours the 'father of philanthropy' George Peabody

This week’s Google Doodle honours George Peabody, known as the “the father of modern philanthropy” and his rags-to-riches story.

Today marks the anniversary of Mr Peabody’s Congressional Gold Medal in 1867 for the banker’s generous contributions to education initiatives.

What is remarkable is one of seven children born into a poor Massachusetts family in 1795 and actually stopped attending school at the age of 11 to work in a general store.

After being an apprentice for four years he set out into the world, becoming a store manager by 17 and just three years later become a partner in a wholesale dry goods business. He was worth $40,000 by the time he was 22.

Over the next 20 years he spent much of his time in Baltimore and expanded the business to trade internationally. Eventually, he settled in London and amassed the majority of his wealth as a banker in the financial capital of the world at the time.

He helped the young US country establish credit internationally and founded a company that would later include the business giant known as JP Morgan.

During the course of his life, Mr Peabody gave away an estimated $9m of his $16m fortune. The Congressional medal honored his $2m in contributions specifically to education initiatives, which amounts to approximately $30m today.

In 1866, he gave $150,000 to help establish the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University, where the never-married millionaire’s nephew was a student.

That same year he donated the same amount to Harvard to found the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

The Peabody Trust remains one of the largest housing organisations in the UK to this day. The causes he supported spanned both countries and Mr Peabody received the rare honour of a temporary burial in Westminster Abbey upon his death before being taken home to Massachusetts.

Just before his death in 1869, he was also honoured by his hometown of South Danvers, which changed its name to Peabody.

According to Google, “today's Doodle art is the result of a Doodle team volunteer mural project at George Peabody Elementary School in San Francisco, California. The mural currently resides in the student cafeteria”.

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