Mary Tyler Peabody Mann

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Mary Tyler Mann (née Peabody; November 16, 1806 – February 11, 1887) was an American teacher, author, reformer. Like her sisters, she was a leader in the development of modern education, kindergarten, and the Transcentalist Movement. She supported the work of her husband Horace Mann, an American education reformer and politician, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Sarah Winnemucca.

Mary Tyler Peabody Mann
Portrait of Mary Peabody Mann
Born
Mary Tyler Peabody

(1806-11-16)November 16, 1806
DiedFebruary 11, 1887(1887-02-11) (aged 80)
Occupation(s)Teacher, writer, education reformer
Known forFriend and adviser in educational matters of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, whose Facundo she translated into English.
Spouse
(died 1859)
Parent(s)Nathaniel Peabody (father)
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (mother)

Personal life edit

Early life edit

Mary Tyler Peabody was born on November 16, 1806 in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, the daughter of Nathaniel and Elizabeth (née Palmer) Peabody.[1][2] The Peabodys were a two-income family. Elizabeth, a teacher, was the main wage earner. Nathaniel was a dentist and wrote about dental health and treatment.

Her sisters were Elizabeth, reformer, educator, and pioneer in establishing kindergarten, and Sophia, painter and wife of Nathaniel Hawthorne.[2] She had three brothers, Nathaniel Cranch Peabody, George Francis Peabody, and Wellington Peabody.

The Peabody family lived in Salem and worshiped at the Second Church (later Unitarian Church) in Salem, Massachusetts. The children received a thorough education at home by their parents.[2] Nathaniel and Elizabeth Peabody had been schoolteachers when they married; after the nuptials, the couple set aside a parlor in their house as a schoolroom.

Marriage and children edit

After knowing each other for a decade, Mary Peabody married Horace Mann, becoming Mary Peabody Mann on May 1, 1843. They were married at the Peabody home in Boston and set sail on the Hibernia for Europe. Newlyweds Samuel Gridley Howe and Julia Ward joined the Manns on their extended honeymoon, which featured visits to prisons, reform schools, insane asylums, and institutions for the blind and the deaf.

The Manns had three children: Horace Mann Jr., born February 25, 1844; George Combe Mann born December 27, 1845; Benjamin Pickman Mann born April 30, 1848.

During her husband's life she shared in all his benevolent and educational work, and her familiarity with modern languages enabled her to assist him greatly in his studies of foreign reforms.[1] Mary Peabody Mann filled the role of president's wife and confidant after Horace accepted the presidency of Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, a new institution committed to coeducation, non-sectarianism, and equal opportunity for African Americans.

Following her husband's death in 1859, Mary and the family returned to Massachusetts. Less than ten years after she buried her husband, Mary's oldest son, Horace Mann Jr. died at the age of 24 in 1868.

Mary Tyler Peabody Mann died February 11, 1887, in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.[1]

Career edit

The Peabody sisters edit

The Peabody sisters, intelligent and capable on their own, were stronger together. They played key roles in the creation of creation of kindergarten programs and influenced modern education. They also contributed to the Transcendentalism movement and supported fellow Transcendentalists Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne.[2] The sisters, and Mary in particular, supported Horace Mann's career.[2]

Educator edit

Mary Peabody left home at eighteen to teach school in Maine. She moved to Boston to assist her sister Elizabeth in the operation of a school for young children; in their mid-twenties, Elizabeth and Mary moved into a boardinghouse. The home of Rebecca Clarke, the mother of James Freeman Clarke, also became Horace Mann's residence in 1833. Later that year, Mary accompanied her sickly younger sister Sophia to Cuba; Elizabeth Peabody and Horace Mann shared a sibling-like closeness and intellectual compatibility that flourished in Mary's absence. While in Cuba, Mary worked as a governess to a Cuban family. The letters she exchanged with Elizabeth contained numerous references to Horace Mann.

Returning to Boston in spring 1835, Mary moved in with her brother George and found employment tutoring students in Italian. After a short interlude of substituting for Elizabeth at Amos Bronson Alcott’s experimental Temple School, Mary returned to Salem, where she established a successful school for little children in her home and began to write educational works for children and parents. Meanwhile, in 1837 Mann was appointed secretary to the Massachusetts board of education and Mary devoted a great deal of time acting as the underpaid statesman's secretary and assistant. Although the board of education's powers were limited, Mann, with Mary's assistance, shaped public opinion regarding school problems and created public support for increasing the pay of teachers and improving their training through the founding of state normal, or teacher-training, schools.

Reformer edit

Mary, like her husband, was a reformer. Overeating was one of the vices that Mary campaigned to change; her Christianity in the Kitchen: A Physiological Cookbook purported to serve as a moral guide to good eating. It was the housewife's duty, Mary believed, to educate herself in the latest scientific knowledge in order to keep her family healthy. Citing the research of scientists, she warned her readers against rich and fatty foods and advised moderation in spices and abstinence from alcohol.

Author edit

In addition to teaching and helping Horace Mann, Mary found time to write. Her children's book, The Flower People: Being an Account of the Flowers by Themselves; Illustrated with Plates, was published in 1838. The horticultural guide, a collection of tales about a little girl named Mary who makes the acquaintance, one by one, of common garden plants. These imaginary conversations with crocuses, violets, anemones, and geraniums, proved popular with both children and their parents.

Writing her husband's biography and editing his works helped Mary through her grief after Horace died. Life and Works of Horace Mann contains only one reference to Mary: "On 1 May 1843, Mr. Mann was again married, and sailed for Europe to visit European schools, especially in Germany, where he expected to derive most benefit."

As a widow, Mary wrote for a variety of periodicals on topics related to education (no matter how obliquely), translated works from the Spanish, supervised the education of her sons, participated actively in philanthropic work, and aided her sister Elizabeth in her kindergarten in Boston.

Her writings, especially those on the kindergarten system, with her sister, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, are distinguished for vigor of thought and felicity of expression. She published “Flower People” (1838); “Christianity in the Kitchen, a Physiological Cook-Book” (Boston, 1857); “Culture in Infancy,” with Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (1863); “Life of Horace Mann” (1865); and “Juanita, a Romance of Real Life in Cuba,” published after her death (1887).[1]

The collaboration of Mary and Elizabeth included promoting the speaking career of Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins, the first Native American woman known to secure a copyright and to publish in the English language. In addition, Mary helped Hopkins with her book, Life among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims (1883).

In her eightieth year, Mary began to write her first novel; Juanita: A Romance of Real Life in Cuba Fifty Years Ago (1887) appeared posthumously. Elizabeth Peabody commented, "The story is fiction; but the principal characters and the most important incidents are real—it was this that made the author keep back the book from publication till all were dead….It was the merest accident that the work was not published before my sister's death, as she so earnestly desired it should be."

Publications edit

  • Mann, Mary Tyler Peabody (1888) [1838]. The Flower People: Being an Account of the Flowers by Themselves; Illustrated with Plates. Boston: Lee and Shepard.
  • Mann, Mary Tyler Peabody (1851) [1841]. A primer of reading, spelling, and drawing. Philadelphia: William P. Hazard.
  • Mann, Mary Tyler Peabody (1857). Christianity in the Kitchen, a Physiological Cook-Book. Boston: Ticknor and Fields.
  • Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer; Mann, Mary Tyler Peabody (1863). Moral Culture of Infancy, and Kindergarten Guide: With Music for the Plays. Boston: T.O.H.P. Burnham.
  • Mann, Mary Tyler Peabody (1869). "New Methods for Improving Domestics". Herald of Health.
  • Mann, Mary Tyler Peabody (1872). "A Woman's View of Intemperance". Arthur's Lady's Home Magazine.
  • Winnemucca, Sarah (2019) [1883]. Mary Tyler Peabody Mann (ed.). Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims . Franklin Classics. ISBN 978-0-341-69556-1.
  • Mann, Mary Tyler Peabody (1887). Juanita: A Romance of Real Life in Cuba Fifty Years Ago. D. Lothrop Company.
  • Mann, Mary Tyler Peabody (1891). G. C. Mann (ed.). Life and Works of Horace Mann (three volumes). Extended edition in five volumes.

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d   This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain. Isa Carrington Cabell (1900). "Mann, Horace" . In Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J. (eds.). Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
  2. ^ a b c d e "The Peabody Sisters". Salem Public Library (Massachusetts). May 21, 2022. Retrieved March 28, 2024.

Further reading edit

  • Elbert, Monika M; Julie E Hall; Katharine Rodier, eds. (2006). Reinventing the Peabody Sisters. University of Iowa Press. ISBN 978-1-58729-504-1.
  • Hall, Louise Hall (1977) [1953]. Until Victory: Horace Mann and Mary Peabody. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-8371-9653-4.
  • Hall, Louise Hall (1988) [1948]. The Peabody Sisters of Salem. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-316-83920-4.
  • Marshall, Megan (2006). The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism. Mariner Books. ISBN 978-0-618-71169-7.
  • Seavey, Lura Rogers (2004). More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Massachusetts Women. Twodot. ISBN 978-0-7627-2599-1.
  • Straker, Robert L. (September 1941). "Thoreau's Journey to Minnesota". The New England Quarterly. 14: 549–555.

External links edit