Peabody Room - Georgetown Neighborhood Library

11/04/2025

08/01/2024

Happy 245th Birthday Francis Scott Key!

Did you know that this 1948 U.S. postage stamp is the only one ever issued that depicts a Georgetown building? Key's M Street home is in the lower left corner and it was demolished less than two years after the stamp was issued for construction of the Whitehurst Freeway!

07/30/2024

I wish to let Peabody Room's Facebook friends know that this Saturday, August 3rd, will be my last day as special collections librarian at the Peabody Room.

I'm retiring!

It has been my deep honor and privilege to serve as steward of this amazing collection of Georgetown neighborhood history for the past 24 years. I have assisted local and national researchers as well as met visitors from all over the US and world. With all I endeavored to have them leave knowing a little more about this special 273-year-old neighborhood than when they arrived.

If you have never visited the Peabody Room, or just want to say hi/bye, please stop in on Saturday from 10 to 6.

Best,

Jerry A. McCoy

Photo taken of me in 2019 unpacking the Peabody Room's "crown jewel," the 1822 oil on canvas portrait of Yarrow Mamout (1736-1823) by James Alexander Simpson (1805-1880). The painting was on a three-year loan to the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture - Smithsonian American Art Museum and The National Portrait Gallery. Photo by Wendell Kellar.)

07/18/2024

The Georgetown Courier
July 18, 1874

07/01/2024

https://georgetowner.com/articles/2024/07/01/jerry-mccoy-retiring-georgetown-historian-bequeaths-his-own-lasting-legacy/

“I’ve taken better care of the Peabody Room than I think of my own house,” says Jerry McCoy, who prefers to describe his days working as the Special

06/27/2024

Flashback!

December 6, 2011, Peabody Room special collections librarian Jerry A. McCoy with the 1819 portrait of Yarrow Mamout by Charles Willson Peale.

06/26/2024

(L-R) Robert Devaney, editor-in-chief of the Georgetowner newspaper; George Peabody, “father of philanthropy in the U.S., and Jerry A. McCoy, soon-to-retired special collections librarian of the Peabody Room. There will be an article about me in a future issue.

I gave Mr. Devaney one of my copies of the final edition of the Washington Star (August 7, 1981).

06/24/2024

Nineteenth-century Georgetown artist James Alexander Simpson (who painted the portrait of Yarrow Mamout) in the news!

06/23/2024

Did you know that today is U.S. National Typewriter Day?

The vintage model that is displayed in the Peabody (along with a candlestick telephone) is always a big hit with my Generation Alpha visitors!

06/19/2024

A nice send-off!

Thank you Mark Segraves and NBC 4.

For more than two decades, librarian Jerry McCoy has collected and cared for some of D.C.’s most treasured items in the Peabody Room of the Georgetown Library. As McCoy retires, he spoke with News4 about the fire that almost destroyed the collection and showed some of its most important artifacts....