American merchant banker in London who became the template for large-scale philanthropy — founding the Peabody Trust (affordable London housing), Peabody Institute, Peabody Museum, and giving away most of his $20M fortune.
The Peabody philanthropy model: Peabody gave away roughly two-thirds of his $20M fortune during his lifetime — to libraries, museums, scientific institutions, and worker housing in London. The Peabody Trust (1862), which built affordable housing for London's working poor, is still one of London's largest social housing providers. His protégé was Junius Spencer Morgan, whose son J.P. Morgan built on Peabody's London banking network. Peabody represents the first large-scale American philanthropist and the template that Carnegie and Rockefeller later followed.
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