Two of the Earliest Sightings of Emperor Norton in Regalia
New Evidence Shows the Emperor in Uniform 2 Months Earlier Than Indicated By Our Previous Findings
A DAILY ALTA CALIFORNIA newspaper column about the Friday evening promenade of 25 May 1860 on San Francisco’s Montgomery Street noted that
…the Emperor Norton again donned his epaulettes and recommenced strutting up and down the sidewalk….
Excerpt from “Blue Skies Again,” in City Items, Daily Alta California, 26 May 1860, p. 1, col. 2. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
That word, “again,” tells us that this isn’t the first time that Emperor Norton was seen wearing epaulettes in public. But, the fact of the “again” observation suggests that the Emperor hadn’t been wearing epaulettes for long — and that his doing so still was a novelty.
The earliest extant photograph of Emperor Norton shows him wearing a cast-off Army coat and cap with civilian trousers — and is the only photo of him as Emperor in which he is not wearing epaulettes. Indeed, while the effect of the ensemble is military, it doesn’t quite rise to the level of a uniform.
The Emperor Norton Trust has dated this photograph as being taken sometime between the Emperor’s original Proclamation of 17 September 1859 and 25 May 1860 — given our belief that the Alta excerpt of 26 May 1860 was the first documented report of the Emperor’s having elevated his attire to the level of a uniform or, arguably, regalia.
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OF COURSE, the “best available evidence” is the “best” only until it is supplanted by something better.
This past week, I found two such pieces of evidence: contemporaneous reports of Emperor Norton wearing a uniform in March of 1860 — two months earlier than our previous findings indicated.
One report is included in the San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin’s review of a performance of Richard III that was staged at Maguire’s Opera House, Washington Street between Montgomery and Kearny, on 28 March 1860.
After noting that “a party of Japanese from the [ship] Candinmarro* were among the audience last night,” the Bulletin continued:
The Emperor Norton I., who was dressed in full naval uniform, also honored the theatre with a visit. No one was desirous to intrude upon his Imperial Majesty, and so he had a row of front seats all to himself. He looked “every inch a king.” His nose particularly — and this is the feature of which he feels most proud — is said to closely resemble that of George IV. — and thereby hangs a tale. Blood will tell.
Review of performance of Richard III at Maguire’s Opera House, San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, 29 March 1860, p. 3. Source: Genealogy Bank
* The correct name of the ship was Kanrin Maru.
It stands to reason that the Emperor’s “full naval uniform” included epaulettes.
Here’s a detail from a stereograph of Maguire’s Opera House (the large building at right) taken by Eadweard Muybridge (1830–1904) in 1870. [Click and zoom the image to see Muybridge’s mobile “Flying Studio” at bottom left and the inscription of his alias, “Helios,” at the bottom-right corner of the billboard at the bottom right of the image.]
Detail of stereograph of Maguire’s Opera House, San Francisco, 1870. By Eadweard Muybridge (1830–1904). Maguire’s, on the right, was located on Washington Street between Montgomery and Kearny. The view here is looking west towards Kearny. Source: Getty (stereocard)
The billboard and signs in front of Maguire’s show that the British Blonde Burlesque Troupe was playing when Muybridge took his stereograph. The front-page review of the Troupe’s show of 16 June 1870 that appeared in the next morning’s Daily Alta harbors a serendipity: One of the Troupe’s songs name-checked Emperor Norton:
Mr. Harry Beckett, the low comedian of the troupe, made an immense hit, as Actaeon, and especially in his singing of little local allusions in the "A, B, C," song; he hit Sam Brannan, Michael Reese, the Mercantile Library Gift Concert, Prince Alfred, Emperor Norton, and Woodward's Gardens, each sally bringing out an enthusiastic recall.
Review of performance of the British Blonde Burlesque Troupe at Maguire’s Opera House, San Francisco, on 16 June 1870, Daily Alta California, 17 June 1870, p. 1. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
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A SECOND REPORT of Emperor Norton in regalia was published 6 weeks later — but, it refers to a sighting from a week-and-a-half earlier, on 17 March 1860.
The vehicle for the report is a letter from the San Francisco correspondent — pen name, “William Credulous” — of the Mountain Democrat newspaper of Placerville, Calif. The letter was published in the paper’s edition of 12 May 1860.
According to the writer:
Joshua Norton on the 17th day of March last, astounded our good people by his appearance upon the most noted of our thoroughfares...in a complete change of wardrobe....O, it was a fearful time when, from mouth to mouth, fiercely ran the consternating intelligence that Joshua Norton had incased his person in a regimental suit....
The maddened and infuriated waves of humanity rolled upon Montgomery street, our principal thoroughfare. They saw Joshua Norton in military garb, with a sword suspended to his side. They saw this man of mighty enterprise slowly perambulating the street, betraying his usual lack of concern. Mild and pacific as is his wont, he strolled along, regardless of the unusual and excited concourse....
Europe never watched with more earnest and jealous eye, the movements of the elder Napoleon, than do the denizens of this metropolis, the slightest change in garb or attirement of Joshua Norton. He is an incarnate volcano that may break forth at any moment.
The letter addresses “the movements of Joshua Norton.” And the passages above are just a taste of the deliciously florid and overwrought “full course” reprinted below (with paragraphs added for readability) — and almost certainly originally penned as satire.
Treat yourself to the whole thing — it’s gold! — then stick around for a couple of final observations.
“San Francisco Correspondence” by “William Credulous,” dated “May, 1860,” The Mountain Democrat (Placerville, Calif.), 12 May 1860, p. 3. Source: California Digital Newspaper Collection
[We are sorry to inform our readers that our San Francisco correspondent is painfully exaggerative, and of a nature extremely timorous. That our readers may understand the tenor of the following letter, we beg leave to tell them that Joshua Norton is a citizen of San Francisco, who was once a man of wealth and standing. He has lately become deranged and fancies himself Emperor of the United States. He talks constantly of his royal intentions. Lately some facetious individuals furnished him with a military suit and sword, which he constantly wears upon the streets.]
SAN FRANCISCO CORRESPONDENCE.
The Movements of Joshua Norton Arouse the Fears Of Our Correspondent.
San Francisco, May, 1860.
I am about to communicate to rusticdom a matter of much importance. When the mellow sunbeam is pleasantly illuminating this Pacific metropolis, and AEolus, the storm-king, has modulated to decorum the wild winds that sometimes sweep with rage our dusty thoroughfares, may be seen an individual who is destined to enter largely and vigorously in the great Future of our loved country.
In boisterous weather, Joshua Norton does not stir abroad. As I see him coursing along our streets with leisure gait, when the blue empyreal is cloudless, and the elements are hushed to repose — l sometimes liken him to those birds the mariner descries when his bark is on mid-ocean. No breeze ruffles the surface of the glassy water. All is as sweet and calm as a maiden's heart ere the passions of love mutinies and swells into dire commotion. But the experienced sailor watches that bird, as it floats in the atmosphere, or dips down to the green fluid, with intense interest and dismay. That little winged fugitive is ominous of elemental wrath. It portends the rushing of fierce winds and mountain waves. It may be prophetic of creaking timbers, and dismantled vessel and shrieking mariner and engulphed argosy.
Thus, upon a calm day, as I see Joshua Norton strolling along at his ease, with eye fixed on vacancy, do I connect him with future civil commotion, with rivers of human blood and fearful revolution. The steam engine, with its huge arms of iron, its wheels of vast circumference and weight of massive metal, is harmless and innocent in repose; but arouse it by application of condensed vapor, and it becomes an instrument of terrific power and energy. Quiet and composed is Joshua Norton at the present time. None know how soon he will emerge from his lethergeric state and deluge our fair land with intensest commotion.
Joshua Norton reached his forty-ninth year on the first day of April last. His most intimate friends have never known him to smile. Nestor himself was never less addicted to jesting; and yet has he been known to say in allusion to his somewhat eccentric birthday, that the Fates indicated thereby how much his final brilliancy would be the fool to his earlier life of obscurity. He utters this sentiment with earnest voice and grave features, betraying not the slightest approximation to levity.
We should say the height of this individual, destined to such future remarkable notoriety, was in the neighborhood of five feet and nine inches. For the last two or three years his figure has betrayed a proclivity to corpulency. His general contour and appearance does not differ essentially from George IV, in the latter days of his reign. His step is perhaps less elastic, and his movements more dignified than was characteristic of the English Monarch. The different positions of the two men will easily reconcile us to this dissimilarity. The one was a Sovereign, securely seated upon his throne, surrounded by a parasitic horde of attendants, ready to relieve him from all care and anxiety; while the other is crowded with undeveloped emprise. The one was a listless and careless king; the other is pondering gigantic schemes, whose fruition is yet to gleam upon the world. While George was reveling in the pomp of acquired royalty, Joshua is yet nursing the wrath of generations of serfdom.
I know not why Joshua Norton clings with such tenacity to a somewhat worn and certainly antiquated hat. Yet have we gleaned from the historic page, that with men who have fastened their impress upon great enterprises, is a strong undercurrent of unaccountable superstition. This peculiar development has been a subject of comment with the biographers of Frederic the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte. Strange as it may seem, both of those distinguished warriors were accustomed to attach a wonderful significancy and importance to certain portions of their attire. They could never be induced to incur the hazard of a battle unless the treasured vestment was upon their person. To some such motive as this have I ventured to ascribe the strange adherence of Joshua Norton to a somewhat decayed and unfashionable hat. It may be that when he has matured his exalted designs and revealed himself in his true character, he will doff aside the obsolete head gear, and assume another more fitting to his elevated rank.
Until within a few months past, the distinguished subject of my comments was in the habit of arraying himself in the most homely character of citizens' dress. In fact, it became a subject of wonderment to his fellow citizens who were familiar with his portentous ambition, and the vastness of his schemes that he should reveal himself in such humble and threadbare and frequently tattered vestments.
With me the matter assumed a far more different and lofty attitude. I recollected instances of begging and bare-footed palmers, who suddenly revealed themselves greaved and helmeted warriors. I thought of the poor turnspit who afterwards became the Great Alfred of England. I remembered that the valiant Hector once clothed himself in female attire. A most admirable mode it is to disguise magnificence of purpose and workings of a mighty mind, beneath the garb of humanity. I did not marvel when I saw Joshua Norton in the guise of a tatterdemalion. It is now gaining credence that our eminent fellow-citizen is upheaving to the surface, his Titanic views, and that in a brief period he will concentrate and launch into successful and open effort the majestic plans he has been maturing for so long a period.
The public are gathering this intimation from the ominous circumstance that Joshua Norton on the 17th day of March last, astounded our good people by his appearance upon the most noted of our thoroughfares, save in the matter of the hat to which I have alluded, in a complete change of wardrobe.
It would be difficult to portray to your quiet mountain readers, the intensity of excitement that perfused all classes of our population as the news of this astounding metamorphosis became prevalent. Who dwells in rural regions little reeks of the delirium that sometimes maddens a dense human throng. A sympathetic, lurid fire leaps from soul to soul. In an instant, reason routed, a blind, animal rage animates and heaves and sways the whole mass as though it were individual and unity. Thus it is that a human mob concentrate into a single muscle and a single impulse.
O, it was a fearful time when, from mouth to mouth, fiercely ran the consternating intelligence that Joshua Norton had incased his person in a regimental suit.
In ere and autumn time, in lands where stretch boundless sweep of prairie, the careless traveler sometimes ignites the parched and arid growth of grass. Upon the instant the flame shoots up and flushes abroad with fierce activity. At first the affrighted wild beast starts up, and then pauses in deep amaze, then frantically springs he in his might and flees before the pursuing and raging and roaring blaze. In an instant is he joined by a dense and serried concourse of prairie tenants — all bounding before the mad element.
In like amaze, and in like consternation, rushed forth the thick population of this Pacific metropolis. In each soul was bubbling apprehension of some dire and immediate calamity, — in each heart pulsated dread of some terrific civil hurricane. The rider of the overwhelming storm was Joshua Norton.
The maddened and infuriated waves of humanity rolled upon Montgomery street, our principal thoroughfare. They saw Joshua Norton in military garb, with a sword suspended to his side. They saw this man of mighty enterprise slowly perambulating the street, betraying his usual lack of concern. Mild and pacific as is his wont, he strolled along, regardless of the unusual and excited concourse. There were no outbreaks of violence that day, and ere the god of day, reddened by the hazy atmosphere, retired behind the hills that skirt our fair city, the serried masses had betaken themselves to their homes and varied avocations.
Europe never watched with more earnest and jealous eye, the movements of the elder Napoleon, than do the denizens of this metropolis, the slightest change in garb or attirement of Joshua Norton. He is an incarnate volcano that may break forth at any moment.
May the good spirits who watch over the destiny of our young Republic, guard against the machinations of the ambitious. May they long avert from us the horrors of civil war, and the desolations of revolutions. Such is the continuous prayer of your faithful but patriotic and fearful correspondent,
WILLIAM CREDULOUS.
Hyperbolic and tongue-in-cheek though the prose may be, the correspondent’s assessments of 1860 — seen in hindsight — have a prophetic ring.
He writes that Joshua Norton is…
“an individual who is destined to enter largely and vigorously in the great Future of our loved country”;
that he may soon “emerge from his lethergeric state and deluge our fair land with intensest commotion”;
that he is “crowded with undeveloped emprise” and is “pondering gigantic schemes, whose fruition is yet to gleam upon the world”;
“that our eminent fellow-citizen is upheaving to the surface, his Titanic views, and that in a brief period he will concentrate and launch into successful and open effort the majestic plans he has been maturing for so long a period”; and that
“[h]e is an incarnate volcano that may break forth at any moment.”
Wasn’t all of this true, in its way, in 1860? And wasn’t the specific substance of this truth revealed over the following 20 years of Emperor Norton’s reign?
Isn’t it also true when Emperor Norton “[had] matured his exalted designs and revealed himself in his true character,” he did in fact “doff aside the obsolete head gear, and assume another more fitting to his elevated rank”?
As to the date of the Emperor’s “regalia reveal”: March 17 seems too specific to dismiss out of hand. One can imagine that “William Credulous” could have observed the “sartorial switch” at the time and jotted it in his notebook for future reference.
Indeed, March 17 was St. Patrick’s Day — and it fell on a Saturday in 1860. If Emperor Norton wished to maximize visibility for his new imperial “kit,” he couldn’t have picked a better day.
Parting upshot…
Whether one leans into the reported sighting on St. Patrick’s Day or the slightly later one at Maguire’s Opera House, mid to late March 1860 — not late May 1860 — now is the earliest documented report of Emperor Norton in a uniform.
This probably narrows, by at least 2 months, the window for when the earliest photograph of the Emperor — sans epaulettes — was taken.
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