Browse Items (63 total)

In the summer of 1963, President Kennedy sent a letter to schools across the country requesting a report on their implementation of non-discriminatory admission policies. William Marbury, Charles Kent, and U.S. Commissioner of Education Francis…

Photograph of the grand opening of the Peabody Institute in 1866.

In 1952, Conservatory Dean Virginia Carty received a letter from Walter E. Hager, President of Wilson Teachers College in Washington, D.C., as a follow up to a 1950 Regional Conference on Discrimination in College Administration. Hager asked for a…

Although he studied with Peabody faculty members off campus, pianist Ellis Larkins could not officially enroll at Peabody because of his race. He received this acceptance and scholarship letter from the Juilliard School of Music during the summer…

Pianist Ellis Larkins, a Baltimore native and child prodigy, was never allowed to enroll at the Peabody campus. This enrollment record from the 1939-1940 school year notes his studies with Peabody faculty member Pasquale Tallarico who taught him at…

Ellis Larkins was a childhood piano prodigy from Baltimore, MD. He was famous within Baltimore at a very young age, making his debut with the City Colored Orchestra in 1934 at the age of six. Although taught by Peabody faculty members, Larkins was…

In 1936, young pianist Ellis Larkins performed this recital at the Phipps Auditorium (likely at Johns Hopkins Hospital) for the benefit of the Peabody Institute. Larkins was used to raise funds for Peabody despite their refusal to accept him to the…

This is an interview involving Peabody and non-Peabody affiliates, in which the purpose and other details of the Summer Youth Program are discussed.

Crystal Larkins sent this letter to Peabody Public Relations Director Anne Garside following Ellis Larkins’ receipt of an honorary Bachelor’s Degree from Johns Hopkins the month before.

In 1984, the year before Ellis Larkins received an honorary Bachelor's Degree from The Johns Hopkins University, his wife, Crystal Larkins, sent this letter to Robert Pierce, Director of the Peabody Conservatory.