Beinecke Library and The Emperor Norton Trust Partner to Correct Description of Carte de Visite
At the suggestion and request of The Emperor Norton Trust, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University has corrected its description of a carte de visite photograph misidentified as being possibly of Emperor Norton.
AROUND 2010, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library — part of the Yale University Library system — acquired from historical photograph collector Carl Mautz (b. 1943) a group of 145 cartes de visite that now is known as the Carl Mautz Collection of Carte-de-visite Photographs Created by California Photographers.
The following carte de visite in the collection is inscribed “Emp Norton” on the verso (back). In acquiring this card, the Beinecke Library titled and catalogued the card “Photograph of Emperor Norton [?]” and dated it “ca. 1860.”
Carte de visite showing an unidentified man or boy wearing a military uniform or costume, likely c.1867–1871. Photograph by Jacob Shew (1826–1879). Carl Mautz Collection of Cartes-de-visite Photographs Created by California Photographers. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Source: Yale University Library
The Emperor Norton Trust first became aware of this photograph in 2014, and — based on visual cues alone — we immediately were dubious about the possibility that the person in the photo was Emperor Norton.
By 2016, I’d done some additional research into the photographer, Jacob Shew (1826–1879) — including the dates when his studio was located at the Clay Street address printed on the card — and determined that the photo could not be of the Emperor.
In September 2016, the Trust sent the Beinecke Library our analysis. But, as can happen, the request fell through the cracks, and we moved on to other things.
But, we did publish our analysis at the end of 2016. You can read it here.
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LAST WEEK, I re-engaged the Beinecke Library — this time, with a more gratifying result.
The Beinecke Library agreed with The Emperor Norton Trust’s analysis of the misidentified Jacob Shew carte de visite — and has changed the Library’s metadata and its associated records and labels for this card to disassociate the card from Emperor Norton or Joshua Abraham Norton.
Beinecke archivist Matthew Mason writes:
Thank you for providing information about the misidentification of a carte-de-visite as Emperor Norton, which instead depicts an unidentified man wearing a military uniform, as well as the erroneous dates attributed to the item. I collaborated with my colleagues in our digital library to correct the metadata in the system. I also updated the catalog record for the collection and the folder label for the carte-de-visite.
Again, thank you for bringing this error to our attention, especially because we did not act on your earlier message in 2016. I apologize that we did not correct it then, and the error persisted for so long. The expertise of patrons, like you, enriches our description. We appreciate your willingness to contact us again.
Beinecke URLs that previously directed to a dedicated page for this carte de visite — a page that that included images of the recto (front) and verso (back) of card, as well as the “Emperor Norton” title — now direct to this Yale University Library page for the Mautz collection as a whole. On this page, the two images of the card are numbers 75 and 76 (of 290) in a viewer that presents images of all the cards in the collection — but, there are no details about the card.
Notice, too, that — apropos the Beinecke’s changes to the card’s metadata — “Norton, Joshua Abraham” no longer is included in the subject lists for the collection (shown lower on the page, below the viewer).
Another example of the correction: Previously, a Yale University Library URL for this carte de visite directed to a dedicated page that looked, in part, like this:
Now, the same URL directs to a page notifying users: “Sorry, you have requested a record that doesn’t exist.”
Lingering traces of the misidentification persist in a few “satellite” spaces — Wikimedia Commons; Flickr — where the Beinecke previously created a digital presence for this carte de visite. These will be corrected in due time. But, even here, the listed permalinks now direct to the Yale University Library page for the Mautz collection — not to a dedicated page that preserves the earlier inaccuracy.
Most important: The Beinecke Library — and the Yale University Library system of which the Beinecke is a part — have updated their records to set this right.
The Emperor Norton Trust is gratified to have been able to play a part.
Many thanks to Lucy Mulroney, Director for Collections, Research, and Education; Matthew Mason, Archivist of Visual Resources; and their colleagues at the Beinecke Library for responding so thoroughly and diligently to our request, and for correcting this erroneous information — so that the story of Emperor Norton can be told just that little bit more accurately.
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UPDATE — 27 Apr 2023
In publishing the announcement above, I noted: "Lingering traces of the misidentification persist in a few 'satellite' spaces — Wikimedia Commons; Flickr — where the Beinecke previously created a digital presence for this carte de visite. These will be corrected in due time."
Shortly after that, I learned from Matt Mason, the Beinecke Library archivist who has been shepherding the correction, that the Beinecke lost access to its Flickr account some time ago — which I take as meaning that the error probably will persist on Flickr for the foreseeable future.
But, I'm happy to report that the Beinecke corrected the Wikimedia Commons page this morning:
The image file name has been changed from "Photograph of Emperor Norton?" to "Portrait of a man wearing a military uniform."
The following description has been added: "Portrait of a man wearing a military uniform, formerly erroneously identified as potentially Joshua Abraham Norton, also known as the self-declared 'Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico."'
And: "Norton, Joshua Abraham" has been been removed from the Subject classification.
Also gratifying is that, in the revision history for the Commons page, the Beinecke librarian implementing the corrections notes [emphasis mine]:
This item was previously erroneously identified as Emperor Norton; archivists at Beinecke Library and members of the Emperor Norton Trust have confirmed that it is not Norton.
Detail of Wikimedia Commons page for carte de visite previously misidentified as being possibly of Emperor Norton, as corrected by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University in April 2023. Source: Wikimedia Commons
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