About this guide:
This guide was collated over the summer of 2025 by the Peabody Historical Society and Museum. It’s purpose is to provide educators and community members a place-specific tool for learning about Peabody’s long history of immigration. Each page includes background information, examples of primary sources, and prompts to engage the reader.
This guide highlights valuable sources in the Peabody Historical Society archival collections that provide a glimpse into the past of dozens of diverse ethnic groups who make up the City of Peabody. Interested in learning more? These are just a small sampling of what our archives have to offer.
How to use it:
The education guide can be accessed in two formats. There is a PDF and a powerpoint. Each of these has pages with prompts and primary sources that can be integrated into classroom assignments.
Interested in highlighting civic leaders in Peabody beyond George Peabody? This guide focused on identifying individuals and organizations that celebrate the many community and civic leaders of Peabody’s past.
Curriculum Standards Covered: [3.T1.3]; [4.T4a]; [8.T4]; [USI.T6]
Click on these links to access the guide:
A-Z History of Immigration in Peabody, 1890-1990, Local History Series Education Guide – PDF
Have a story you think should be highlighted?
From just these twenty-six examples, it is clear that Peabody’s history has been written by its immigrant residents. The list of individuals, places, events, and themes are not in any way exhaustive. We hope that this guide encourages its readers to reflect on and share their own stories. We look forward to hearing them.
Thank you to Peabody Historical Society and Museum intern Isabella Crognale for your work designing this project, gathering these stories from within the PHS collections, and creating this guide. We hope that it will inspire others to access and share this history as well.
Bella joins us from Danvers, Massachusetts, but she also spent part of her childhood in Kenya. She is majoring in History and minoring in Spanish and Math at Messiah University in Pennsylvania. History helps her understand how familiar places change over time. In particular, she enjoys the history of colonial Massachusetts.