George Peabody establishes the Peabody Education Fund…
March 1867 CE
George Peabody establishes the Peabody Education Fund in 1867 for the purpose of promoting "intellectual, moral, and industrial education in the most destitute portion of the Southern States."
The retired investment banker's philanthropies include the Peabody Institute of Baltimore, comprising the Peabody Conservatory of Music and a large reference library; a natural history museum at Yale; and an ethnology and archaeology museum at Harvard.
The gift of foundation consists of securities to the value of two million one hundred thousand dollars, of which one million one hundred thousand dollars are in Mississippi State bonds, afterward repudiated.
"The fund introduced a new type of benefaction in that it was left without restriction in the hands of the trustees to administer. Power to close the trust after thirty years was provided on condition that two-thirds of the fund be distributed to educational institutions in the Southern states." (Orr, D. (1950). A History of Education in Georgia. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. p. 409)
The rules of the Peabody Education Fund are strict, allowing for the distribution of about $80,000 per year over a period of thirty years.
In 1869 an additional one million dollars will be given by Mr. Peabody, with three hundred and eighty-four thousand dollars of Florida funds, also repudiated later.
The main purpose of the fund is to aid elementary education by strengthening existing schools.
Because it is restricted from founding new schools, it will not benefit freedmen in the South, as there are no established schools for blacks.