Peter, Sarah Worthington (1800–1877)

American charity worker and philanthropist. Born Sarah Anne Worthington on May 10, 1800, near Chillicothe, Ohio; died of a coronary thrombosis on February 6, 1877, in Cincinnati, Ohio; daughter of Thomas Worthington (a farmer, later a governor and then a senator) and Eleanor (Van Swearingen) Worthington; educated at private girls' schools in Frankfort, Kentucky, and Baltimore, Maryland; married Edward King, on May 15, 1816 (died February 1836); married William Peter, on October 21, 1844 (died 1853); children: (first marriage) Rufus (b. 1817); Thomas Worthington (b. 1820); Mary Alsop (b. 1821, died young); Edward (b. 1822, died young); James (b. 1828, died young).

Helped to found the Cincinnati Protestant Orphan Asylum (1833); established the Philadelphia School of Design (1848); founded and was the first president of the Ladies' Gallery of Fine Arts (now the Cincinnati Academy of Fine Arts); raised funds for and established several convents and charitable organizations.

Born near Chillicothe, Ohio, on May 10, 1800, as the second of ten children in a wealthy family, Sarah Worthington was the daughter of Thomas and Eleanor Van Swearingen Worthington . Her father had freed his slaves and moved his family from Virginia in 1797, and he subsequently served as governor of Ohio and then as a senator. Among the public figures Sarah met during her childhood at Adena, the Worthington family mansion, were Aaron Burr and Henry Clay. She was sent at age eight to Mrs. Louise Keats' school, a private girls' institution near Frankfort, Kentucky, and later attended Mrs. Hayward's Academy, a prestigious finishing school in Baltimore, Maryland, from which she graduated in 1815. While her formal studies focused on French, art, and music, subjects then considered appropriate to women, on her own Sarah also studied history and literature.

In 1816, Sarah married Edward King, with whom she would have five children, although only the two oldest sons survived to adulthood. After her marriage, she continued her studies in French language and literature and also began studying medieval history and the natural and physical sciences. She and her family moved to Cincinnati in 1831. Interested in assisting the less fortunate since she was a young woman, Sarah helped found the Cincinnati Protestant Orphan Asylum (now the Children's Convalescent Home) in 1833. Her husband died three years later, and to be nearer her two sons, who were attending Harvard, she moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. She took advantage of the opportunities offered in the academic community and reportedly studied German under poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Sarah remained in Cambridge after her sons graduated from college, and on a visit to her son Thomas in Philadelphia met William Peter, the British consul of the city. They were married on October 21, 1844, in Chillicothe, and made their home in Philadelphia, where Sarah Peter again became involved in various charitable enterprises. Among these were an association she organized to provide assistance to seamstresses and fund raising for a shelter for reformed prostitutes, the Rosine House for Magdalens (prostitutes were popularly called Magdalens in reference to Mary Magdalene ). Peter was concerned about the plight of women left on their own without means of support, and it occurred to her that they could be taught to produce commercial designs for such items as carpet, wallpaper, and household items that American manufacturers generally imported from Europe. This led her to establish, in 1848, the Philadelphia School of Design, where women learned commercial design as well as wood engraving and lithography. The school provided the first opportunity for American women to learn a financially solvent trade, and while it began in just one room of her home, with a single paid teacher, it was highly publicized by Peter's friend Sarah Josepha Hale , editor of Godey's Lady's Book. In 1850, it became affiliated with the Franklin Institute, the first school of industrial arts in America. (The school was still flourishing in 1932, when it became part of the Moore Institute of Art, Science, and Industry.)

In 1851 and 1852, Peter visited Rome and Palestine, and her interests began to turn toward religion. This change may have been accentuated by the death of her son Thomas in 1851, a loss that was followed in 1853 by the death of her second husband. She then joined her only remaining child, Rufus, in Cincinnati, where she again became involved in the artistic world and was the benefactor of several young artists. In 1853, she founded and became the first president of the Ladies' Academy of Fine Arts (now the Cincinnati Academy of Fine Arts). That same year, she left on a two-year visit to Rome, where she converted to Catholicism in 1855. Peter thereafter channeled her efforts toward the church, particularly in the Cincinnati area. She traveled to Europe to raise money for her endeavors and ultimately was responsible for the founding of several local charitable organizations and convents belonging to various orders, including the Sisters of the Good Shepherd (1857), which helped female prisoners, the Sisters of Mercy (1858), which participated in social work and educational efforts, the Order of the Poor of St. Francis (1858), and the Little Sisters of the Poor (1868); she also helped to establish the Cincinnati convent and school of the Order of the Sacred Heart (1869).

Peter visited military prisons during the Civil War, and after the Battle of Shiloh assisted nursing sisters from the Order of the Poor of St. Francis in caring for the wounded. For several years after the war's end she supported an asylum for children orphaned by the conflict. In the late 1860s, she translated De l'Education des Méres de Famille by Louis Aimé-Martin and part of Histoire Générale de l'Eglise by Joseph Épiphane Darras from the French. Having turned her home in Cincinnati, and much of the proceeds from sales of her possessions, over to the sisters of St. Francis, she lived her last years among them and died of a coronary thrombosis on February 6, 1877.

sources:

James, Edward T., ed. Notable American Women, 1607–1950. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971.

McHenry, Robert, ed. Famous American Women. NY: Dover, 1980.

Read, Phyllis J., and Bernard L. Witlieb. The Book of Women's Firsts. NY: Random House, 1992.

suggested reading:

King, Margaret R. Memoirs of the Life of Mrs. Sarah Peter, 1889.

McAllister, Anna Shannon. In Winter We Flourish: Life and Letters of Sarah Worthington King Peter, 1939.

collections:

Letters from Peter to members of her family are in the Rufus King Papers at the Cincinnati Historical Society, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Kari Bethel , freelance writer, Columbia, Missouri