Peabody Institute of Music

The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University (JHU) is a conservatory and university-preparatory school in the Mount Vernon-Belvedere neighborhood of northern Baltimore, Maryland, United States, facing the landmark Washington Monument circle at the southeast corner of North Charles and East Monument Streets (also known as intersection of Mount Vernon Place and Washington Place).

The Peabody Institute was founded in 1857 and opened in 1866 by famous merchant/ financier and philanthropist George Peabody, (1795–1869), and is the oldest conservatory in the United States. Its association in recent decades begun in 1977 with JHU allows students to do research across disciplines.

George Peabody, (1792-1869), founded the Institute with a bequest of about $800,000 from his fortune made initially in Massachusetts and later augmented in Baltimore, (where he lived/worked from 1815 to 1835) and vastly increased in banking and finance during following residences in New York City and London, where he became the wealthiest American of his times.

Completion of the white marble Grecian-Italianate west wing / original building housing the Institute, designed by Edmund George Lind, was delayed by the Civil War. It was dedicated in 1866, with Peabody himself, traveling across the North Atlantic Ocean, speaking at the ceremonies on the front steps in front of landmark Washington Monument circle before a large audience of notaries and citizens including hundreds of assembled pupils from the Baltimore City Public Schools. Under the direction of well-known musicians, composers, conductors, and Peabody alumni, the music conservatory, concerts, lecture series, library and art gallery, led by men of literary and intellectual lights along with an annual awarding of gold, silver and bronze medals with certificates and cash prizes to top graduates of the city, known as the "Peabody Prizes", attracted a considerable national attention to the Institute and the city's growing culture. Under strong academic leadership, the Peabody evolved into an internationally renowned cultural and literary center through the late 19th and the 20th centuries, especially after a major expansion in 1877-1878, with the completion of its eastern half housing the George Peabody Library with iconic five stacked tiers of wrought iron balconies holding book stacks/shelves, surmounted by a beveled glass skylight, one of the most beautiful and distinctive libraries in America.