Amelia Peabody Photographs ca. 1845-1960 Guide to the Photograph Collection

Table of Contents Collection Summary Biographical Sketches Source Collection Description Related Materials Acquisition Information Organization of the Collection Detailed Description of the Collection Preferred Citation Access Terms

Collection Summary

Biographical Sketches

Francis Howard Peabody (1831-1905) was the son of William Bourn Oliver Peabody (1799-1847) and Elizabeth Amelia White (1799-1843). He had three brothers: Everett (1830-1862), Oliver White (1834-1896), and William Bourn (1834-1894). Francis was first in the employ of the banking house John E. Thayer & Brother with his brother Oliver White Peabody. In 1865, Francis, Henry P. Kidder, and Oliver White Peabody formed Kidder, Peabody & Co. In 1854, Francis married Lucy Adelaide Kinsley (1831-1914). Their children were Frank Everett (1856-1918), Fanny (1858-1896), and Lilian (1863-1942). Fanny and Lilian never married.

Frank Everett Peabody (1856-1918) was employed in the family business Kidder, Peabody & Co. He married in 1882 Gertrude Bayley (1859-1937). Their children were: Everett (1885-1900) and Amelia (1890-1984). The couple maintained a summer house in Marblehead, Mass., and their winter residence at 120 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston. They also purchased a farm ("Snipatuit Farm") and camp on a lake in North Rochester, Mass. Frank enjoyed hunting, fishing, horseback riding, and yachting. After his death, Frank's widow Gertrude married (2nd) in 1920 a long-time family friend, William Storer Eaton.

Amelia Peabody was born in 1890, the daughter of Gertrude Bayley Peabody (later Eaton) and Frank Everett Peabody, a partner in the investment house of Kidder, Peabody. After her debut in 1909, she studied sculpture at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts under Charles Grafly and became an accomplished sculptor, horsewoman, farm owner and breeder, and philanthropist. At her farms in Dover, Mass., she raised registered Hereford cattle, Yorkshire pigs, sheep, and thoroughbred horses. For many years, she was the Chairman of the Arts and Skills Service of the American Red Cross, which promoted art therapy for wounded servicemen during World War II, and continued to promote art therapy for hospital patients of all kinds after the War. She maintained her family home at 120 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, as well as Mill Farm, her residence in Dover, Mass., and Powisset Farm, also in Dover, with a number of other land holdings in that town. Amelia Peabody died of natural causes in 1984, leaving the bulk of her vast estate to charity.

William Storer Eaton (1854-1949), a longtime bachelor who pursued outdoor activities in North Rochester and Marblehead, Mass. and maintained his family fortunes, married in 1920 Gertrude Bayley Peabody, the widow of his long-time friend Frank Everett Peabody. William Storer Eaton owned a large yacht, Taormina, on which the couple lived in the summer months. They also owned a house ("The Bog") in Lakeville, Mass. William Storer Eaton was the son of William Storer Eaton (1817-1902) and Frederica Warren Goddard (1822-1894). He was descended from the Quincy and Storer families through his father. His siblings were Georgiana Goddard Eaton (1857-1911) and Francis Storer Eaton. William Storer Eaton died in 1949, leaving the bulk of his estate to his step-daughter Amelia Peabody.

Source

Rhoads, Linda Smith. Amelia Peabody. Boston, 1998.

Collection Description

This collection contains 5323 photographs and 546 postcards, both collected and taken by Amelia Peabody and her family from ca. 1845-1960. They are arranged into 6 boxes, 2 oversize boxes, 30 volumes, and 2 oversize volumes.

6 boxes and 2 oversize boxes contain loose photographs not stored in volumes. These photographs mostly consist of portraits of various Peabody and Eaton family members and their ancestors, taken ca. 1845-1940. These portraits include daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and opalotypes, among other paper-based photographs. There are also photographs of the Frank Everett Peabody family's travels to Egypt, the Panama Canal, and the Caribbean, 1909-ca. 1930; views of horses and other animals, sailboats, Peabody and Eaton family homes, and automobiles; and photographs of Amelia Peabody's sculptures.

30 volumes mostly contain informal snapshot photographs taken between 1895-1925 of Amelia Peabody and her family at the Peabody family summer home in Marblehead, Mass., at the Peabody's Snipatuit Farm in North Rochester, Mass., and at William Storer Eaton's Reed Island Camp on Great Quittacas Pond, also in North Rochester. The photographs in these volumes depict Amelia Peabody as a child and young adult, as well as Frank Everett Peabody, Gertrude Bayley Peabody Eaton, Everett Peabody, William Storer Eaton, and the Charles Henry Wheelwright Foster children, among other family and friends. Many of these photographs depict Eaton and the Peabodys on sailboats and horses. There are also a number of volumes containing photographs of the Frank Everett Peabody family's travels in Europe and the Western U.S. from 1900-1913; the Eaton family's travels in Italy in 1930; Amelia Peabody's travels to Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, ca. 1930s; Amelia Peabody's involvement with horses and horse shows, and the American Red Cross. There are also a number of photographs in these volumes of Amelia Peabody's sculpture.

2 volumes contain postcards collected by Amelia Peabody during her travels in Europe, the United States, the Middle East, Asia, Cuba, the Panama Canal, and the Bahamas. These postcards date from ca. 1930-1940. PLEASE NOTE that they are stored apart from the collection by format in the Amelia Peabody postcard collection (Postcard Coll. 16.3).

1 box also contains 6 glass plate negatives of portraits various members of the Peabody family, among other subjects. PLEASE NOTE that these photographs are restricted and are stored apart from the collection by format in the Amelia Peabody glass plate negatives (Photo. Coll. 6.6M). Glass plate negatives of any size are not available for research use. Consult the Reference Librarian for more information.

Photographers represented in this collection include Amelia Peabody and William Storer Eaton, as well as James Notman, John Adams Whipple, James Wallace Black, and Southworth & Hawes (all of Boston, Mass.). Most of the photographers of the images in the volumes are not identified.

This collection contains postcards, cartes de visite, cabinet cards, tintypes, daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and opalotypes, as well as other paper-based photographs. These include both black-and-white and color photographs. PLEASE NOTE that daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and opalotypes are stored apart from the collection by format: Daguerreotypes (Photo. Coll. 1), Ambrotypes (Photo. Coll. 2), and opalotypes in Miscellaneous glass photographs (Photo Coll. 5). See the Photograph List for details and request these photographs based on the call numbers listed in bold there.

Related Materials

The Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) holds the following collections related to the Amelia Peabody photographs:

Amelia Peabody papers, 1722-1995. Ms. N-314. Finding aid available at: http://www.masshist.org/findingaids/doc.cfm?fa=fa0046.

Acquisition Information

This collection was removed from the Amelia Peabody papers (Ms. N-314), which were given to the Massachusetts Historical Society by the Amelia Peabody Charitable Fund on 30 December 1998.

Organization of the Collection

The collection is organized onto the following series. Each series title links to the corresponding section of the Detailed Description of the Collection.

Detailed Description of the Collection

Preferred Citation

Amelia Peabody photographs, Photo. Coll. 28, Massachusetts Historical Society Photo Archives.

Access Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in ABIGAIL, the online catalog of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related persons, organizations, or subjects should search the catalog using these headings.