Peabody in Vintage Postcards. This item is unavailable.Peabody in Vintage Postcards

Peabody was settled in 1626 as Brooksby Village and was originally a part of the town of Salem. In 1752, citizens joined in the area of town known as Salem Village to form the town of Danvers. The separation of the two towns into Danvers and South Danvers took place in 1855. In 1868, the name of South Danvers was changed to Peabody to honor its native son George Peabody.

In Peabody, vivid postcards offer a contrasting view of what it was like to live and work in a community having two distinct characters: the town center, with its bustling tanning industries, which soon earned Peabody the sobriquet of "Leather Capital of the World," and the pastoral farming villages of Brookdale, Locustdale, Brooksby, and West Peabody, which portray a sense of life in rural America during this same era.

William R. Power is the chairman of the Peabody Historical Commission, vice president of the Peabody Historical Society, and cofounder and chairman of the Peabody Historic Graveyard Coalition. He also serves on the executive committee of the Essex National Heritage Commission.