Papers of Francis Greenwood Peabody

Francis Greenwood Peabody (1847–1936), Plummer Professor of Christian Morals, was associated with Harvard College and Harvard Divinity School from 1880 to 1912, serving as a lecturer, professor, and dean. He received his Harvard AB in 1869 and graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 1872; while a junior, Peabody was first baseman on the first Harvard baseball team to play against Yale. In 1874, he was ordained as minister of the First Parish in Cambridge, a position he maintained until 1880, when he resigned due to poor health. Harvard Divinity School Dean Everett then asked Peabody to lecture, but President Eliot, whose first wife was Peabody’s eldest sister, opposed the appointment due to nepotism. Later that year, however, he was appointed lecturer on ethics and homiletics. His courses, “The History of Ethics,” and “Practical Ethics” were the first of their kind in American theological education. While at Harvard, he ended compulsory worship and helped transform the Divinity School from a denominational seminary into a non-denominational theological school.

Peabody was named Parkman Professor of Theology in 1882, and became Plummer Professor of Christian Morals in 1886, also taking charge of Harvard College's Appleton Chapel. He retired in 1913. Peabody also served as Acting Dean of the Divinity School on two occasions during the absence of Dean Everett, and was Dean himself from 1901 to 1905. Throughout his career, Peabody published many works, served as an Overseer of Harvard College, and was on the Board of Trustees of the Hampton Institute. Peabody died in 1936.