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Peabody, Henry Greenwood (1855-1951) USA

Category: PHOTOGRAPHS

PeabodyVHenry Greenwood Peabody (1855-1951), photographer, lecturer, and publisher of educational slides and films, enjoyed a remarkable career spanning nearly sixty years. Peabody produced thousands of photographs, slides, and films documenting the American landscape, worked in virtually every photographic process, delivered lectures describing the scenery that he so lovingly photographed, and published books that visually described...

... the landscapes and scenery in which he specialized.

Peabody was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of a minister. He attended Washington University in St. Louis, the Pennsylvania Military Academy, and Dartmouth College, where he graduated in 1876. It was while a senior at Dartmouth that Peabody first became interested in photography, producing views of the Dartmouth campus and scenes along the New England coast.

Peabody1After graduation, Peabody spent a year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology studying architecture, electricity, and physics. He then went to work briefly as an engineer for the Western Electric Company in Chicago and New York. In 1879 Peabody set up a studio with Alexander Hesler in Chicago. While there, he met and married Dora Phelps, and the two relocated to Boston where Peabody opened a studio in 1886. He specialized in marine, landscape and architectural photography. He also served as the official photographer for the Boston and Maine Railroad and the Great Northern Railway, photographed the Americas Cup races, and published Representative American Yachts and The Coast of Maine. In 1899, he traveled to Mexico as photographer to the American Architectural Expedition; his photographs were published in Spanish-Colonial Architecture in Mexico by Sylvester Baxter. Peabody won numerous awards for his photography.

After Dora's death in 1898, Peabody needed security for his only child Mildred, and accepted a position with the Detroit Publishing Company, the largest postcard publisher in the United States. From 1900-1908 he served as field photographer on both the east and west coasts. Famed landscape photographer and company founder William Henry Jackson selected Peabody for this position because of the high regard in which he held Peabody's outdoor work. Because of copyright arragnements, many of the images Peabody created for the Detroit Publishing Company have been wrongly identified as those of Jackson.

Peabody2

Shortly after joining the Detroit Publishing Company, Peabody relocated with his young daughter to Pasadena, and his primary focus shifted to the landscape of the American West. He also traveled to England and France in 1908 to photograph cathedrals and other architectural monuments for the Horace K. Turner Company of Boston.

Peabody3From about 1910 to the end of his career, Peabody produced photographs and slides of the American landscape for educational purposes. He published series of educational lantern and film slides and educational films (the "Swastika Educational Series") with accompanying narratives that focused on national parks in the American West. He also delivered illustrated lectures that covered the Grand Canyon, the California Missions, Yosemite, and Mexico. By the early 1930s, he was making audio recordings designed to synchronize with the slide shows; he called these his "talking films" and they were included in his educational offerings.

Peabody spent his later years selling photographic equipment and photographing the landscape around his home in the San Gabriel Valley. He died at his home in Glendora, California, just one month shy of his ninety-sixth birthday. His life, according to one historian, "embraced the whole cycle of photography from its earliest days as a novelty to the era when every man could be his own camera expert. He exerted a vital influence on the profession and on the acceptance of photographs in the public interest. Among critics and collectors his work stands high in artistic merit" (Ralph W. Andrews, Photographers of the Frontier West. Seattle: Superior Publishing Company, 1965, p. 169.).

Henry G. Peabody and America's Cup - 57 PHOTOS
Henry G. Peabody
Galatea
Henry G. Peabody
Ambassador, Puritan, Volunteer, Marblehead Harbor. ([ca. 1892])
Henry G. Peabody
The Volunteer
Henry G. Peabody
Agnes & Volunteer. ([ca. 1892])
Henry G. Peabody
Dauntless
Henry G. Peabody
Atlantic
Henry G. Peabody
English cutter Galatea winning the race at Harwich, June 9, 1886. (1886)
Henry G. Peabody
Priscilla, 7/6/86.
Henry G. Peabody
Magic, Cup defender.
Henry G. Peabody
Volunteer
Henry G. Peabody
Puritan
Henry G. Peabody
Mayflower
Henry G. Peabody
Mayflower. ([ca. 1892])
Henry G. Peabody
Colonia, September 7, 1893.
Henry G. Peabody
Jubilee
Henry G. Peabody
Colonia
Henry G. Peabody
Colonia, September 9, 1893.
Henry G. Peabody
Pilgrim, September 9, 1893.
Henry G. Peabody
Pilgrim, September 9, 1893.
Henry G. Peabody
Jubilee, September 9, 1893.
Henry G. Peabody
Colonia, September 9, 1893
Henry G. Peabody
Start of the trial race, September 9, 1893 : Pilgrim, Colonia, Jubilee, Vigilant. (1893)
Henry G. Peabody
Colonia and Vigilant, September 9, 1893. (1893)
Henry G. Peabody
Vigilant, September 9, 1893. (1893)
Henry G. Peabody
Trial race, nearing outer mark, September 9, 1893 : Jubilee, Pilgrim, Colonia, Vigilant. (1893)
Henry G. Peabody
Jubilee, September 9, 1893.
Henry G. Peabody
Jubilee
Henry G. Peabody
Colonia, September 11, 1893
Henry G. Peabody
Vigilant
Henry G. Peabody
Start, American Cup Race.
Henry G. Peabody
Valkyrie setting spinnaker.
Henry G. Peabody
Valkyrie, October 5, 1893. (1893)
Henry G. Peabody
Valkyrie nearing outer mark
Henry G. Peabody
Valkyrie nearing outer mark
Henry G. Peabody
Start, American cup race
Henry G. Peabody
Start, American cup race. Oct. 7, 1893.
Henry G. Peabody
After the start, October 7, 1893.
Henry G. Peabody
The Vigilant rounding the outer mark, October 7, 1893
Henry G. Peabody
Valkyrie rounding outer mark
Henry G. Peabody
Valkyrie before the start.
Henry G. Peabody
The start, October 9, 1893
Henry G. Peabody
After the start.
Henry G. Peabody
Valkyrie [and] Vigilant, after the start, October 9, 1893. (1893)
Henry G. Peabody
Finish of the Valkyrie
Henry G. Peabody
Vigilant
Henry G. Peabody
Valkyrie II
Henry G. Peabody
Jubilee, Sept. 11, 1893.
Henry G. Peabody
Valkyrie before start.
Henry G. Peabody
Manoeuvering for the start, October 11, 1893.
Henry G. Peabody
Vigilant [and] Valkyrie [at] the start, October 11, 1893. (1893)
Henry G. Peabody
Vigilant, before the start, Octber 13, 1893. (1893)
Henry G. Peabody
Vigilant, on the line, October 13, 1893. (1893)
Henry G. Peabody
Finish of Valkyrie.
Henry G. Peabody
Shamrock II & Columbia just after start, Oct. 1, 1901
Henry G. Peabody
Columbia at the finish, Oct. 3rd, 1901
Henry G. Peabody
Shamrock II at the finish, Oct. 3rd, 1901
Henry G. Peabody
Reliance and Shamrock III maneuvering for the start
     

 

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