Peabody Room - Georgetown Neighborhood Library

07/18/2024

The Georgetown Courier
July 18, 1874

07/01/2024

https://georgetowner.com/articles/2024/07/01/jerry-mccoy-retiring-georgetown-historian-bequeaths-his-own-lasting-legacy/

“I’ve taken better care of the Peabody Room than I think of my own house,” says Jerry McCoy, who prefers to describe his days working as the Special

06/27/2024

Flashback!

December 6, 2011, Peabody Room special collections librarian Jerry A. McCoy with the 1819 portrait of Yarrow Mamout by Charles Willson Peale.

06/26/2024

(L-R) Robert Devaney, editor-in-chief of the Georgetowner newspaper; George Peabody, “father of philanthropy in the U.S., and Jerry A. McCoy, soon-to-retired special collections librarian of the Peabody Room. There will be an article about me in a future issue.

I gave Mr. Devaney one of my copies of the final edition of the Washington Star (August 7, 1981).

06/24/2024

Nineteenth-century Georgetown artist James Alexander Simpson (who painted the portrait of Yarrow Mamout) in the news!

06/23/2024

Did you know that today is U.S. National Typewriter Day?

The vintage model that is displayed in the Peabody (along with a candlestick telephone) is always a big hit with my Generation Alpha visitors!

06/19/2024

A nice send-off!

Thank you Mark Segraves and NBC 4.

For more than two decades, librarian Jerry McCoy has collected and cared for some of D.C.’s most treasured items in the Peabody Room of the Georgetown Library. As McCoy retires, he spoke with News4 about the fire that almost destroyed the collection and showed some of its most important artifacts....

06/14/2024

06/12/2024

Honored to be interviewed by NBC4’s Mark Segraves with photojournalist Derek this morning to mark my pending retirement from the Peabody Room - Georgetown Neighborhood Library and The People's Archive at DC Public Library after 24 years!

05/16/2024

The Georgetown Courier
May 16, 1874

Bridge = M Street
Congress = 31st Street

05/02/2024

Georgetown Courier
May 2, 1874

04/30/2024

Today is the 17th anniversary of the Georgetown Neighborhood Library Fire.

Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQIaYU-46do

04/20/2024

One hundred and fifty-seven years ago on April 20, 1867, George Peabody, a wealthy merchant and financier who got his start in business in the District of Columbia, established a fund for the purpose of building a library in Georgetown. Peabody expressed his wish to donate a gift to residents in this declaration to his selected Board of Trustees:

"Gentlemen: As most of you are aware, I am, and have been for some time, desirous of making some gift which would be productive of some benefit to the Citizens of Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, where I commenced business for myself in my early youth. I am persuaded that I can not better do so than by endeavoring to assist them in their own endeavors to cultivate a healthful, moral, and intellectual progress; and therefore give, gentlemen, the sum of fifteen thousand dollars to be, by you and your successors, held in trust as a fund for a public library, to be established in the city of Georgetown."

This plaque, which originally was displayed on the ground floor of the Georgetown Neighborhood Library, now graces the main entrance to the Peabody Room, located on the third floor. If you have not visited since the tragic 2007 fire that nearly destroyed this special collections of Georgetown history (whose seventeenth anniversary is April 30th), please stop by during open hours on Tuesday or the 1st Saturday of each month from 10-6.

03/29/2024

Georgetown Courier
March 28, 1874

03/23/2024

The Georgetown Courier
March 21, 1874

03/09/2024

Daylight Saving Time begins tomorrow Sunday at 2:00 am. Remember to set your clocks forward one hour before going to bed tonight.

J. Clinton Tribby Jeweler and Optician, 3115 M Street, NW, was in operation at this address from approximately 1910 to 1928. The building was torn down in 1940. Collection of the Peabody Room - Georgetown Neighborhood Library.

Do you own a clock from a Washington, DC business? If so, post a photo of it here!

03/07/2024

The Georgetown Courier
March 7, 1874

Silver-plated door knocker from the home of Dr. Tyler, 1300 30th Street NW.

Collection of the Peabody Room.

03/05/2024

Sharing.

Citizens Association of Georgetown and The Alliance for New Music-Theatre Presents a Preview of Voices of Zion's DC Emancipation & The Vote

Thursday, March 14th
7:00 PM - Program Begins

Mt. Zion United Methodist Church
1334 29th Street NW

Free and open to the public. A reception to follow.
Registration is not required.

Photo credit: DC Theater Arts
The Citizens Association of Georgetown's Living in History Committee in partnership with the Alliance for New Music-Theatre (ANMT) will present a preview of selections from DC Emancipation & The Vote.

The preview from this work in development is by DC composer Ronald ‘Trey’ Walton who created an original musical score that includes melodies found in historic hymnals in the Mount Zion Church archives. Georgetown University professor and choreographer, Dr. Anita Gonzalez recreated period dance for the production. This preview presentation will also include commentary by area professionals.

DC Emancipation & The Vote includes scenes taken directly from historical records of several African American residents. For example, Alfred Pope and his wife Hannah, once reunited after The Pearl Affair and manumitted, took up residence in Georgetown, where the house still stands. Pope helped many others gain their freedom, and even had the opportunity to speak in front of Congress. Along with his friend and fellow elder, Hezekiah Turner, at Mount Zion Church, they became two of the very first African American males to cast their votes in a national election, voting that took place in Rose Park in Georgetown. Their stories are woven together with others like Jacob Ross, from Kentucky who was ordained by the Methodist Church while still enslaved, but when manumitted came to live in Georgetown with his wife and became an itinerant preacher well-known around the area’s church circuit.

New Music-Theatre has successfully developed and mounted original works, with an emphasis on cross-cultural processes and stories, and believes that in our multi-cultural community that is Washington these stories can most movingly be told through hybrid forms of music-and-text that can prove transformative.

The creative team for this production represents a vast collaboration including Susan Galbraith, ANMT Artistic Director; Evelyn Simpson, Music Director; Lisa Fager, Executive Director, Black Georgetown; Neville Waters, multi-generational Georgetown resident; Garrett Lowe, Director Headstones & Histories, Paul Grant, Director, Multimedia and Projections, Tom Duckenfield, Director, Headstones & Histories, Genealogist, Frankie Bethea, Director, Costume Program, Howard University.

03/05/2024

Sharing.

Thanks to all who supported our production of Voices of Zion last May 2022. The project was very successful in its initial iteration.

03/02/2024

This circa 1936 oil on board by Georgetown artist Alice Acheson (1895-1996) is titled "Georgetown Canal." The view is looking west down the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal at the 31st Street bridge, with a portion of the arched Wisconsin Avenue bridge visible in the background.

Mrs. Acheson was the wife of Dean Acheson, Secretary of State during the Truman administration. They lived for over 30 years at 2805 P Street, the 1869 house famous for the gun barrel fence in the front yard.

To learn more about this underappreciated artist, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Acheson

. . .

02/28/2024

The Georgetown Courier
February 28, 1874

This unfortunate oak tree was located on the grounds of the 1784 Beall-Washington House, located at 2929 R (Road) Street on the se corner of 30th Street (Washington). Better known as the Katharine Graham House, the property was occupied by Henry D. Cooke, first governor of the District of Columbia from 1871-1873.

02/23/2024

One day the Peabody Room will make the list!

Libraries offer a place to learn, read, study and (quietly) socialize with friends. Certain libraries in the U.S. draw more appeal with the beautiful agriculture they offer.

02/20/2024

The Georgetown Courier
February 21, 1874

(The dilapidated structure was replaced in 1878 by 3200 M Street.)

02/18/2024

Learn more about Mr. Peabody at

https://www.salemnews.com/news/local_news/historical-society-celebrates-george-peabodys-225th-birthday/article_34eec070-da2a-5941-b0b2-1b2b2a0b8fca.html?fbclid=IwAR1SlfFcXuzqqdMeiJKY81wFha8umabZhv64zR0nOgscc5phi5eKpVH6EwI

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=BG8ZjHL-sWY&fbclid=IwAR1gEvecrHAWc3Dq-he7mlUbIndryMJ5USmdwbwbc6s1QNa4EsHHwVqMGw0

02/14/2024

Happy Valentine's Day!

(Photo taken at Pâtisserie Poupon, 1645 Wisconsin Avenue, NW.)

02/13/2024

Happy 150th Birthday 3406-08 N Street NW!

The Georgetown Courier
February 14, 1874

02/06/2024

The Peabody Room always enjoys seeing archival images from its collections used by the media! https://www.washingtonian.com/2024/02/05/barnes-and-noble-is-returning-to-georgetown-what-other-spots-should-come-back/?fbclid=IwAR3UKtC1BXZOd_O-tUVdXUnSZQGIwoHLBIXScUmg6tYUMMGyAqiQYtT9i5Y

A movie theater, a record store, and more.

01/27/2024

Today the Peabody Room remembers the crew of Apollo 1. On January 27, 1967, (L-R) Gus Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee perished tragically in a fire during a routine “plugs-out” test in a practice command module on the ground. Unfortunately, these heroes would not be the last NASA astronauts to give their last full measure of devotion to space exploration.

White was a June 1948 graduate of Western High School. This is his senior photo in the 1948 “Westerner" yearbook.

Collection of the Peabody Room.

11/23/2023

Happy Thanksgiving!
Georgetown News, November 24, 1939

11/15/2023

Happy 187th Birthday to Sgt. Hiram Augustus Peck, whose portrait hangs in the Peabody Room. View it tomorrow, November 16th, from 1-7 pm!

Thanks to Jerry A McCoy who found the following in 2012: Housed in the Georgetown Neighborhood Library's Peabody Room is an unusual art collection consisting of portraits of 19th century Georgetown residents and 20th century Georgetown landscapes. All of these works suffered water damage that occurr...