Emperor Norton in Mourning

In Two Late-1870s Studio Photographs of the Emperor Taken During the Same Sitting, A New Detail Comes Into Focus

IN VICTORIAN-ERA Britain and the United States, the mourning of a loved one or public figure was guided by an elaborate set of rituals and customs.

Among these: A man in mourning wore a black armband on his upper left arm. This could be a properly sewn and hemmed item — whether “homemade” or professionally manufactured — or, more simply, a hand-tied strip of black crape.

Although a civilian man was expected to wear a black mourning suit as well as a black armband, it was acceptable for a member of the military to wear a black armband with his uniform.

Here is a photograph of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman (1820–1891) taken by Matthew Brady, possibly in 1865 after the death of Abraham Lincoln.

Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, c.1865, wearing a black mourning band on his left arm, possibly for Abraham Lincoln. Photograph by Matthew Brady. Source: Civil War Talk via National Archives

Here’s another photo — a familiar Bradley & Rulofson portrait of Emperor Norton dated c. 1878:

Emperor Norton, c.1878. Photograph by Bradley & Rulofson. Cabinet card. California Historical Society Collection at Stanford.

The tone, shading, and contrast of this photograph of Emperor Norton makes it very difficult to see anything on the Emperor’s left arm other than his coat sleeve.

But, a recent colorization of this photo by Ryan Bautista, one of The Emperor Norton Trust’s followers on Facebook, finds something in the folds:

Colorized Bradley & Rulofson photograph of Emperor Norton, c.1878. Colorization by Ryan Bautista, December 2025. Source: Chadulifera Colors

The following Bradley & Rulofson photograph, taken during the same sitting as the one shown above, makes even clearer what we should have seen all along ― but what we’ve never seen anyone else notice either: Emperor Norton has a black mourning band tied to his left arm.

Emperor Norton, c.1878. Photograph by Bradley & Rulofson. Cabinet card. Collection of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.

Here’s the key detail:

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Mercedes of Orléans, Queen of Spain (1860–1878). Photograph uncredited and undated. Published in Los Borbones: Imágenes para la historia de una familia real (2007). Source: Wikipedia

SO, WHOM was Emperor Norton mourning?

The primary candidate has to be Mercedes of Orléans, the Queen (Consort) of Spain (1860–1878).

Mercedes had become Queen in virtue of marrying King Alfonso XII in January 1878. The marriage was widely reported as a “love match” and was all the more celebrated because both Alfonso, 20, and Mercedes, 17, were regarded as young, attractive. and intelligent.

Mercedes died of tubercolosis only 5 months later, on 26 June 1878. She had just turned 18 on the 24th.

The new Queen’s illness had been widely reported — and news of her death spread quickly across Europe and the Americas.

Of note: The Emperor is reported to have claimed, on occasion, that he was a lost French Bourbon prince.

Mercedes — full name, María de las Mercedes Isabel Francisca de Asís Antonia Luisa Fernanda de Todos los Santos de Orléans y Borbón [emphasis added] — was a member of the Spanish branch of the Bourbon house, meaning that Emperor Norton could have justified mourning her not only as a life and a love story cut tragically short — but also as a family member.

By June 30, the Emperor was seen wearing a mourning band. The San Francisco Chronicle took note on the front page:

Item, “The Emperor Mourns,” San Francisco Chronicle, 30 June 1978, p. 1. Source: Newspapers.com

In general, the mourning customs for men were much less formal and rigid than those for women — especially when the person being mourned was not close family, such as a child, parent, grandparent, or sibling.

Most likely, Emperor Norton would not have worn a band for the Queen of Spain for more than a few weeks at most.

Which suggests that if indeed the band shown in the two photographs of the Emperor above is the one he is reported to have tied for Mercedes, the photographs were taken in July 1878 — August at the latest.

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ONE QUESTION this new information raises:

Were there other deaths during Emperor Norton’s reign — Lincoln’s being the most obvious possibility — that affected the Emperor strongly enough for him to wear a black mourning band?

If so, whose?

Answers are elusive — but it may be that another photo-documentation of Emperor Norton in mourning is Eadweard Muybridge’s February 1869 photo of the Emperor astride a velocipede.

Corollary to the Victorian custom of a man’s wearing a black armband to signify mourning was his wearing a black band around his hat. The greater the intimacy, the taller the band — so, a tophat-wearing man who was mourning his wife initially would wear a black hatband extending nearly the full height of the barrel, reducing the height over time as he emerged from “full mourning.”

In the hand-tied version of this, a long end of black crape was allowed to trail the knot. A hatband worn this way was known as a “weeper.”

Notice the black band with the trailing end that the Emperor has tied around his hat in the Muybridge photo:

Emperor Norton astride a velocipede, February 1869. By Eadweard Muybridge (1830–1904) a.k.a. Helios. Lone Mountain College Collection of Stereographs by Eadweard Muybridge, 1867-1880), Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley. Source: Bancroft Library

I long have read Emperor Norton’s hat ribbon here as an example of jaunty style — but perhaps it was quite the opposite.

Who might the Emperor have been mourning in February 1869?

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