Four Previously Unpublished Photographs of the Emperor Norton Reburial Ceremony of 1934
San Francisco Examiner Negatives Hidden in Plain Sight
WHAT IS PUBLISHED is what is remembered — but it may not be the whole story.
That would appear to be the lesson in a discovery I made this week.
As part of San Francisco’s great cemetery relocation of the early twentieth century, the remains of Emperor Norton were exhumed from San Francisco’s Masonic Cemetery in October 1932.
Picking up the ball, a small group of members of the city’s Pacific-Union Club — a preserve of prominent male business and civic leaders — constituted themselves as the Emperor Norton Memorial Association, with the goal of securing — which also meant funding — a new grave site and headstone for the Emperor.
The Association’s consummating action was a dedication ceremony held at the new grave — at Woodlawn cemetery, in Colma, Calif. — on 30 June 1934.
News coverage of the ceremony almost invariably featured one, or both, of the following photographs:
At the dedication of Emperor Norton’s new grave and headstone, Woodlawn cemetery, Colma, Calif., 30 June 1934 (l to r): Golden Gate Park superintendent John McLaren (representing San Francisco Mayor Angelo Rossi); William H. Crocker of the California Historical Society; and Charles A. Shurtleff, president of the Society of California Pioneers. Photograph: George Elmer Sheldon. Fang family San Francisco Examiner Photograph Archive Negative Files. © The Regents of the University of California, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. Source: Berkeley Library Digital Collections
Members of the Third Battalion of the 159th Infantry offering a three-volley salute at the dedication of Emperor Norton’s new grave and headstone, Woodlawn cemetery, Colma, Calif., 30 June 1934. Photograph: George Elmer Sheldon. Fang family San Francisco Examiner Photograph Archive Negative Files. © The Regents of the University of California, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. Source: Berkeley Library Digital Collections
The photographs were taken by George Elmer Sheldon (1895–1947), a San Francisco Examiner photog known as the “Flying Photographer.” Here is Sheldon sometime in the 1930s or ‘40s:
George Elmer Sheldon (1895–1947), photographer for the San Francisco Examiner. Source: Philip Sheldon
The second photograph above is the one used for the following Berkeley Library Digital Collections online catalog listing (ninth “Emperor Norton” search result here):
I’ve seen this listing many, many times. But — even allowing for the incorrect title — about which, more shortly…
The photograph has been so familiar to me — and with nothing in the listing to indicate that there was anything here other than this one photo — that I never have clicked the link.
Until this week, when I did click the link and discovered that, on the other side, there is not one photograph by Sheldon but six — all at the Bancroft Library — including the two familiar published photos above plus the following four photos of Emperor Norton’s reburial ceremony that were NOT published:
1
Golden Gate Park superintendent John McLaren (1846–1943), at far left — representing San Francisco Mayor Angelo Rossi — joins others in unveiling the Emperor’s new headstone.
At the speaker’s platform — something I had never seen in any photograph of this event — is Ernest Abram Wiltsee (1862–1947), president of the Emperor Norton Memorial Association and, at the time, first vice-president of the California Historical Society. Wiltsee’s middle name is a nice serendipity, in light of who he was honoring: Joshua Abraham Norton.
Unveiling the headstone at the dedication of Emperor Norton’s new grave, Woodlawn cemetery, Colma, Calif., 30 June 1934. At far left is Golden Gate Park superintendent John McLaren. Emperor Norton Memorial Association president Ernest Abram Wiltsee is at the speaker’s platform. Photograph: George Elmer Sheldon. Fang family San Francisco Examiner Photograph Archive Negative Files. © The Regents of the University of California, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. Source: Berkeley Library Digital Collections
2
McLaren lays one of three wreaths on the Emperor’s headstone.
Golden Gate Park superintendent John Mclaren lays a wreath at the dedication of Emperor Norton’s new grave and headstone, Woodlawn cemetery, Colma, Calif., 30 June 1934. Photograph: George Elmer Sheldon. Fang family San Francisco Examiner Photograph Archive Negative Files. © The Regents of the University of California, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. Source: Berkeley Library Digital Collections
3
William Henry Crocker (1861–1937) of the California Historical Society lays a wreath.
William Henry Crocker lays a wreath at the dedication of Emperor Norton’s new grave and headstone, Woodlawn cemetery, Colma, Calif., 30 June 1934. Photograph: George Elmer Sheldon. Fang family San Francisco Examiner Photograph Archive Negative Files. © The Regents of the University of California, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. Source: Berkeley Library Digital Collections
4
In this view of the front row of the gathering, the person fourth from right, with his arms resting across a cane, may be Robert Ernest Cowan (1862–1942), the author of a well-known 1923 article about Emperor Norton.
Some of those gathered for the dedication of Emperor Norton’s new grave and headstone, Woodlawn cemetery, Colma, Calif., 30 June 1934. Photograph: George Elmer Sheldon. Fang family San Francisco Examiner Photograph Archive Negative Files. © The Regents of the University of California, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. Source: Berkeley Library Digital Collections
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THE MOST CURIOUS thing about this group of six photograph is the title on the San Francisco Examiner file card for them: “Fourth of July exercises — Services at tomb of Emperor Norton.”
San Francisco Examiner file card for staff photographer George Elmer Sheldon’s photographs of the dedication of Emperor Norton’s new grave and headstone, Woodlawn cemetery, Colma, Calif., 30 June 1934. Fang family San Francisco Examiner Photograph Archive Negative Files. © The Regents of the University of California, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. Source: Berkeley Library Digital Collections
First, a small observation: The card indicates that 6 plates were shot, with 3 printed and published and the rest classed as “Editor’s Waste.” I don’t find any photographs from this group published other than the two at the top of this article.
But, the whopper: The ceremony dedicating Emperor Norton’s reburial site and new headstone took place — and the photographs documenting the ceremony were taken — on Saturday 30 June 1934.
Under no definition was this — as the card records — a “July 4th” assignment, with the photos taken on the “Wed” of “7–4–34.”
Here is the Examiner’s own story about the event, with the publication date of “Sunday, July 1, 1934,” printed at the top of the page.
Article, “City in Tribute at Reburial of Mad Monarch; Officials Lay Wreaths, Infantry Fire Salute Over Grave of Celebrated Emperor Norton,” San Francisco Examiner, 1 July 1934, p. 13. Source: Newspapers.com
A “JUL 11” date stamp towards the bottom-left corner of the file card suggests that the card was logged very soon after the June 30 ceremony.
Questions:
Who filled out this card?!! The photographer, George Sheldon? A clerk in the Examiner’s photo office?
How is it possible that an official Examiner file card apparently completed in “real time” includes such fundamentally incorrect information about the context and date of the subject event?
Moreover…
How is it possible that the Bancroft Library — after receiving these photographs more than 70 years later, in 2006, as part of a donation of more than 5 million images from the San Francisco Examiner photo morgue — perpetuated the errors by simply copying and pasting the original erroneous file card title and date into its own catalog description of the photographs — a description that remains uncorrected after nearly 20 years?
I shouldn't complain! Five million is an extraordinary amount of images and information to process and catalog. It’s wonderful that these photographs of Emperor Norton’s reburial and headstone dedication ceremony are included and publicly accessible at all — access that is possible (from the comfort of one’s computer, no less!) because at least the Emperor’s name is there in the catalog title to be used as a search term.
I still hope the Bancroft’s catalog description will be corrected sooner rather than later.
Perhaps when it is, a parenthetical “(set of 6)” can be added to the title — to tip off future researchers that there there is more behind the basic listing than meets the eye!
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