Sophia Amelia Peabody Hawthorne (September 21, 1809 – February 26, 1871) was a painter and illustrator as well as the wife of American author Nathaniel Hawthorne. She also published her journals and various articles.
Sophia Amelia Peabody was born September 21, 1809, in Salem, Massachusetts, and named after two of her aunts. Peabody's father was the dentist Nathaniel Peabody, while her mother was the strong Unitarian Elizabeth Palmer. She had thr...
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Sophia Amelia Peabody Hawthorne (September 21, 1809 – February 26, 1871) was a painter and illustrator as well as the wife of American author Nathaniel Hawthorne. She also published her journals and various articles.
Sophia Amelia Peabody was born September 21, 1809, in Salem, Massachusetts, and named after two of her aunts. Peabody's father was the dentist Nathaniel Peabody, while her mother was the strong Unitarian Elizabeth Palmer. She had three brothers; her sisters were Elizabeth Palmer Peabody and Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, later Horace Mann's wife. Her sister Elizabeth educated Sophia, focusing on geography, science, literature and both American and European history; eventually, she learned to read in Latin, French, Greek, Hebrew, and knew some German as well.
Sophia's health had been questionable since infancy and she was an occasional invalid. One possible cause was a fashionable treatment her dentist father prescribed for her teething pains that included mercury. In later life...
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