Discovering George Foster Peabody with Glenn Underwood
Glenn Underwood is an artist, author, and historian from Upstate New York whose family operates Twin Birches Cottages in Lake George, a property that stands on the former grounds of Abenia, the summer estate of banker and philanthropist George Foster Peabody.
In 2017, Underwood began a research journey at the New York Public Library’s Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room for Rare Books and Manuscripts, where he examined the Yaddo Records and George Foster Peabody files. What began as an effort to find photographs or documents connecting Peabody to the land now home to Twin Birches soon evolved into a much larger discovery.
Through Peabody’s letters and correspondence with family, friends, governors, presidents, and leading cultural figures of his era, Underwood uncovered the story of a man whose influence extended far beyond Lake George, shaping Saratoga Springs, New York State, and even the nation.
Over the past eight years, Underwood has meticulously researched and documented Peabody’s friendships with Edward Morse Shepard, Spencer and Katrina Trask, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Adolph Ochs, and John Howard Melish, among others. His work also explores Peabody’s role in regional projects such as Prospect Mountain, Shepard Park, Diamond Island, the Wiawaka Center for Women, the Lake George Association, the Caldwell-Lake George Library, the Saratoga Reservation Commission, Saratoga Spa State Park, the New York State Forest Tree Nursery, and Yaddo.
The culmination of this research is Underwood’s new book, Discovering George Foster Peabody, a comprehensive work that brings together archival research, correspondence, and rare photographs to reintroduce one of New York’s most quietly influential figures to modern readers.
