Emperor Norton Was a San Francisco Fixture Within 3 Years of Declaring His Reign
Early Signs of Local Awareness That a New Player Had Arrived on the Urban Stage
FROM THE TIME that Joshua Norton publicly declared and signed himself “Norton I, Emperor of the United States” in his Proclamation published in the San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin of 17 September 1859, there was a more or less steady pulse of newspaper publications of his subsequent Proclamations — as well as newspaper reports of activities and sightings of the new Emperor.
But, at what point was there evidence of a separate public consciousness that this “Emperor Norton” might be a new character that was here to stay — a public awareness of the Emperor’s early ubiquity and fame?
When did Emperor Norton start to go meta?
Here’s a start…
On 28 October 1863, the Daily Alta California noted that the paper had been shown a large sketch by a German artist, "T. Grob," that depicted Emperor Norton as part of a large cast of characters who — two weeks earlier, on October 14th — had attended the closing exercises of a military training camp on Alameda Island.
Highlights of the event were a “sham,” or mock, battle, followed by drills and a ceremonial review.
Item on new sketch by T. Grob, featuring Emperor Norton, Daily Alta California, 28 October 1863, p. 1. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
Here’s the lithograph of the Grob sketch:
First Annual Encampment of the Second Bridge C.M.; Brigadier General Ellis, Commanding; Reviewed by His Excellency Gov. Stanford; Brigade Drill and Shamfight, Oct. 14th 1863 (1863), by T. Grob. Lithograph. Stanford University Archives.
Keen observers will spot the Emperor in the following little cluster at the bottom left of the sketch: An unidentified gentleman stands between Emperor Norton on the left and, on the right, Frederick Coombs a.k.a. George Washington II (1803–1874).
In its next-day coverage of the event, the Alta reported the attendance of an impressive throng of dignitaries and spectators.
It’s telling that it was important to Grob to include Emperor Norton in his representative sample.
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EARLIER in October 1863, the San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin provided one measure of how notable Emperor Norton already was by this time.
In its obituary for the best friend of local dog-legend Bummer, the Bulletin compared the Emperor to Bummer and Lazarus by writing that Emperor Norton was “an institution…whom everybody knew.”
Excerpt from obituary, “Lament for Lazarus,” San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, 3 October 1863, p. 2. Source: Genealogy Bank
Cartoonist Edward Jump (1832–1883) may have been the greatest influence in forging a connection between the Emperor and the dogs in the public imagination.
Jump featured Emperor Norton in several of his cartoons, a credential that — according to a humorous editorial that appeared in the Gold Hill (Nev.) Daily News in March 1866 — validated the Emperor as “being ranked…among the characters of San Francisco”
Probably the earliest of Jump’s cartoons to feature Emperor Norton is the following — dated as being drawn sometime between 1861 and 1863. Clearly, the Emperor was on Jump’s shortlist of San Francisco characters.
Stock Brokers; And Still They Are Marching On, c.1861–63, by Edward Jump (1832–1883). Collection of the Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. Source: Calisphere
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THE EDITORIAL use of the word “familiar” was one way that newspapers signaled that Emperor Norton was part of the furniture.
In May 1863, the San Francisco Bulletin ran a lengthy letter to the editor against piracy, in which the writer, signed “Look Out,” laments that “[e]very arrival from [England] brings intelligence of the completion and dispatch of another tangible war vessel for some mythical monarch whose kingdom is in the moon. We should not be at all surprised to next learn that there was a ship on English stocks intended to swell the navy of our own familiar potentate — Emperor Norton.”
Excerpt from letter to the editor, “Piratical Possibilities and Probabilities,” by “Look Out,” San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, 1 May 1863, p. 1. Source: Genealogy Bank
Seven months earlier, in October 1862, the San Francisco Sunday Mercury published a humorous fiction about an anonymous hard-luck fellow — clearly meant to be representative of a type — who had found his way to San Francisco for a season.
Midway through the brief story, we learn that “[h]e became, at last, as familiar to the town as the signs on the buildings or even the Emperor Norton.”
Excerpt from story, “A Man’s Dress Is Only the Shell,” in “Humors of the Town” (column by “The Sidewalk Philosopher”), San Francisco Sunday Mercury, 5 October 1862, p. 3. Source: Genealogy Bank
The suggestion here is that Emperor Norton is “even” more “familiar to the town” than “the signs on the buildings” — and, this is only 3 years and a couple of weeks after he publicly declared himself on 17 September 1859.
No one ever accused the Emperor of not knowing a thing or two about personal branding. But, truly, he must have been on the streets and in the saloons, parks, reading rooms, lecture halls, and editors’ offices — and making and building acquaintances and friendships in those places — every single day.
It wasn’t so long ago that, during a U.S. presidential election season, we talked more about “retail campaigning”: the idea that “media buys” can help a relatively unknown candidate get onto the public’s radar, but that, ultimately, there is no substitute for getting out on the hustings, pressing actual flesh, and speaking with people one-on-one — and that some candidates are better at this than others.
To be sure, Emperor Norton was “out there” because he had to be — as a matter of necessity and survival. And, yes, newspapers were instrumental in promoting the Emperor’s cause over the 20-year period of his reign.
But, artists working in San Francisco between 1861 and 1863 wouldn’t have been able to depict Emperor Norton as a person “on the scene” — and local newspapers in those years wouldn’t have been able to characterize him as a “familiar” “institution” — if the Emperor hadn’t already made himself a real presence, by fighting to make their city, state, and country a better place; and by returning their kindnesses in whatever small ways that he could.
Is it too much to suggest that Emperor Norton was the original retail campaigner?
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