Record of Mr. Alcott's School, Exemplifying the Principles and Methods of Moral Culture

by Elizabeth P. Peabody, Making of America Project (Creator)

Excerpt from Record of Mr. Alcott's School, Exemplifying the Principles and Methods of Moral Culture
The methods of education so successfully tried in the Temple long ago are so kindly welcomed now, even the very imperfect hints in the story, that I cannot consent to receive the thanks and oommen dations due to another.

310 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1874

About the author

Elizabeth Palmer Peabody was a central and formidable figure in the American Romantic and Transcendental literary movements. Peabody opened and operated a bookstore, Peabody's West Street Bookstore and a printing press at her home in Boston. Peabody's bookstore specialized in foreign language books, Women's History, Transcendental tracts, and popular Sermons.

Peabody hosted feminist pioneer, Margaret Fuller at the her bookshop. Fuller held "conversations" strictly for women covering such topics as History, Literature, Nature, and Women's Rights.

Peabody worked as a teacher's assistant to Amos Bronson Alcott at his experimental Temple School. She championed the writings of and assisted in publishing her contemporaries, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Ellery Channing, and Nathaniel Hawthorne (who married Elizabeth's younger sister, Sophia.) Peabody also served as the business manager for the Transcendentalist publication, The Dial.

Peabody was also an innovative educator who championed early childhood education and argued that creative play was important to a child's well being and development. Peabody is often credited with bring the concept of kindergarten to American public education.