George and Elizabeth Peckham - Lives and Careers

Lives and Careers

George Peckham was born in Albany, New York. At age 18, he enlisted in the U.S. Army to fight in the American Civil War, reaching the rank of first lieutenant. After the war, he resumed his studies and earned his M.D. in 1872. Rather than practice medicine, however, he chose to teach biology at East Division High School of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 1880 he organized the first American biological laboratory program in any high school. He married his colleague, Elizabeth Maria Gifford, one of the first science graduates from Vassar. In 1888, Peckham became principal of East Division, and in 1891, an inspector for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. In 1897, he became the director of the Milwaukee Public Library, in which position he served until retirement in 1910. He died on January 10, 1914, at the age of 68.

Elizabeth Maria Gifford (later Peckham) was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1854. She graduated from Vassar College in 1876. She was active in the women's suffrage movement both at the state and national level and testified before legislative committees on several occasions. She served as one of the first librarians in the city of Milwaukee. Elizabeth Peckham died of pneumonia on February 11, 1940, at the age of 85.