James Reid Lambdin, American (1807-1889) Portrait of George Peabody (1795-1869) 1857, Oil on Canvas Private Donation, MSA SC 4680-10-0059
George Peabody's benefactions, totaling more than seven million dollars,
were made during his lifetime. He began the practice of giving as a young
Baltimore merchant long before he acquired his fortune. Hailed in his day
as "the most liberal philanthropist of ancient or modern times," he is today
regarded as the founder of modern philanthropy.
The Work of One Vigilant Woman
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| Sarah Josepha Hale painted by James Reid Lambdin in the early 1800's (AP Photo) |
After the big bash of 1621, thanksgiving celebrations were
held sporadically in various colonies, and President George Washington proclaimed
Thursday Nov. 26, 1789 to be a day of national Thanksgiving?with Congress
calling it a ?solemn occasion.? Aside from the usual local harvest feasts,
no one paid too much attention until the civil war years, when Sarah Josepha
Hale, an editor of the fashion periodical Godey?s, zealously wrote editorials
promoting ?a uniform day throughout the country to express thanks for the
blessings of the year.? President Abraham Lincoln was prompted by her campaign
to proclaim the last Thursday in November 1863 as a national Thanksgiving
day. Each year after that, with two exceptions, presidents made the same proclamation,
until 1939, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to move Thanksgiving
up one week to allow more time for purchases. An outcry ensued, and Roosevelt
abandoned the plan. Congress then ruled, once and for all in 1941, that the
fourth Thursday of November?usually the last?would be the legal federal holiday
of Thanksgiving.