George Foster Peabody was an American banker and philanthropist.
20 Facts About George Foster Peabody
2.
George Foster Peabody was born to George Henry Peabody and Elvira Peabody as the first of four children.
3.
The Civil War impoverished his family, and in 1866 they moved to Brooklyn, New York, and young George Foster Peabody went to work as an errand boy.
4.
George Foster Peabody took part in the activities of the Reformed Church in Brooklyn Heights, where he met and became good friends with young investment banker Spencer Trask.
5.
George Foster Peabody had investments in Mexico, particularly in railways, along with many other US financiers in the late nineteenth century.
6.
George Foster Peabody was director of the Mexican National Railroad; and had holdings in Yucatan, where he was involved in commercial henequen exports, a natural twine used for binding wheat; was a director of the Intercontinental Rubber Company, founded by Bernard Baruch; and provided capital for mining enterprises.
7.
George Foster Peabody retired from business in 1906 to pursue a life of public service.
8.
George Foster Peabody was active in the anti-war movement and interested in education, particularly in the South and particularly for African-Americans.
9.
George Foster Peabody was a co-founder, director and treasurer of the General Education Board, the Southern Education Board, and the Anna T Jeanes Foundation.
10.
George Foster Peabody served on the board of trustees for the American Church Institute for Negroes, Hampton University in Virginia, Tuskegee University in Alabama, the University of Georgia, and the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute.
11.
From early in his life George Foster Peabody was interested in Democratic Party politics.
12.
George Foster Peabody served from 1884 to 1930 as a trustee of Hampton University, one of Virginia's historically black universities, where he established in the university library the George Foster Peabody Collection of rare materials on African-American history, one of the largest collections in the United States.
13.
In 1901 George Foster Peabody donated land for George Foster Peabody Park at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
14.
George Foster Peabody funded YMCA of Metropolitan Columbus, in Georgia, built in 1903, believed to be the only marble "Y" building in the United States.
15.
George Foster Peabody donated land to help reorganize the State College of Agriculture, and founded the university's School of Forestry.
16.
George Foster Peabody maintained a mansion in Brooklyn, where he entertained lavishly.
17.
George Foster Peabody purchased a summer home known as Abenia at Lake George, where he spent most of each year.
18.
George Foster Peabody was frequently a guest at Yaddo, the Saratoga Springs estate of Spencer Trask and his wife, Katrina Trask, and from both estates he developed a wide circle of influence, including many persons from the literary world, church, business, and government, who came to enjoy his gracious hospitality.
19.
George Foster Peabody died in 1938 at his home in Warm Springs, Georgia and is buried at Yaddo.
20.
The George Foster Peabody Awards was established by the National Association of Broadcasters.