Peabody College: From a Frontier Academy to the Frontiers of Teaching and Learning

464 Pages·2002·5.04 MB·English

by  Paul Keith Conkin

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P E A B O D Y C O L L E G E
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PEABODY
COLLEGE
From a Frontier Academy to the Frontiers
of Teaching and Learning c c c
P A U L K . C O N K I N
                         • Nashville
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Copyright © Vanderbilt University Press
All rights reserved
First Edition 
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Manufactured in the United States ofAmerica
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Conkin, Paul Keith.
Peabody College : from a frontier academy to the
frontiers ofteaching and learning / Paul K.
Conkin.— 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
 ---(cloth : alk. paper)
. Vanderbilt University. George Peabody
College for Teachers. I. Title.
LB.Nc 
.’—dc

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I dedicate this book to the corps of Peabody-trained teachers.
From the first thirteen young women who enrolled
in a new State Normal College in December 
to the present, thousands of women and men,
teachers or prospective teachers, have come to Peabody
to gain needed skills in their chosen calling.
They have eschewed wealth or the lofty status
that too often attaches to high incomes.
They have left education, but with a hightened idealism
and a stronger commitment to a life of service.
More than anyone else, they embody the Peabody ideal.
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C o n t e n t s
List of Illustrations xi ONE TWO
Davidson Academy and The Educational Mission
Preface and Cumberland College  of Philip Lindsley 
Acknowledgments xiii Beginnings  Lindsley and the College
Presbyterianism and of New Jersey 
Classical Academies  Building the University
Financing and Governing of Nashville 
Davidson Academy  What a Great University
Cumberland College  Entails 
The Revival of Lindsley as Citizen
Cumberland College  and Clergyman 
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Contents
THREE FOUR FIVE
Princeton West  Crisis Years for the The State Normal College
Academic Culture  University of Nashville, of Tennessee,
Faculty  ‒  ‒ 
Students 
Financial Problems  John Berrien Lindsley and George Peabody and His Fund 
The Sad End Game  the University of Nashville The Normal School Movement 
Medical Department  A Normal College for Nashville 
The Literary Department The Trials and Tribulations
and the Western Military of President Eben Stearns 
Institute  The Crisis of  
The University of Nashville The Final Years under Stearns 
during the Civil War 
Montgomery Bell Academy 
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Contents
SIX SEVEN EIGHT
Peabody Normal The Long and Painful Creating the
College, ‒  Birth of George Peabody George Peabody
William Payne’s College for Teachers, Campus, ‒ 
Early Career  ‒  The Governing Board
Academic Reform  Early Conspiracies  and a New Campus 
Payne’s Art and The Second Payne 
The Commitment
Science of Teaching  to Nashville  The Great Campaign of 
The Wonderful Legal Complications  Designing the Campus 
Students  Conflict with Vanderbilt 
The Controversy
The Final Years under over Location  Completing the Campus 
William Payne  The Peabody Education
The Benign Presidency Program 
of Governor Porter 
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Contents
NINE TEN ELEVEN
The Academic Side, Depression and War, The Peabody of
‒  ‒  Henry H. Hill 
Dual Missions  The Great Depression Henry Harrison Hill 
Service and Democracy  at Peabody  Self Studies and Reviews 
Academic Policies  New Strategies of The Boom Years 
The Early Faculty  Governance  Racial Integration 
The Great Summer School  Money Problems  The Faculty 
The Vanderbilt Connection  Shifts in Faculty  Peabody Abroad 
Knapp Farm  The Policies of President Retrenchment 
New Schools and Sidney C. Garrison 
New Programs  Joint University Libraries 
Unclear Missions  World War II and Peabody 