Post Office Honors George Peabody

The United States Postal Service has issued a special pictorial cancellation commemorating the 130th anniversary of the death of the philanthropist George Peabody.

Mr. Peabody, who was born in 1795 in Massachusetts to a poor family, made his fortune in commerce and trade.

He established numerous museums, libraries, and learning centers, including the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University.

In 1867, in the wake of the Civil War, he established the Peabody Education Fund, donating $2-million to assist in educating poor people of all races in the South. The organization eventually merged with the John F. Slater Fund and the Negro Rural School Fund and in 1937 became the Southern Education Foundation, located in Atlanta.

The cancellation, an ink stamp that carries no postage value, depicts a bust of Mr. Peabody encircled with the quotation, “Education, a debt due from the present to future generations.”

The cancellation may be obtained by mail. Requests must be postmarked no later than December 3, and must include an addressed, stamped envelope or postcard. Mail requests to Pictorial Cancellations, George Peabody Memorial Station Postmaster, P.O. Box 9998, Atlanta 30304-9998.