When Emperor Norton Became Protector of Mexico

October 18, 2024 / John Lumea

A certain conventional wisdom holds that Emperor Norton adopted the title "Protector of Mexico" around the time French emperor Napoleon III invaded Mexico in 1862 and installed his puppet ruler Maximilian I in 1864 — and that the Emperor dropped his "Protector" title a few years later.

The documentary record says otherwise.

Evidence suggests that Emperor Norton did not start using "Protector of Mexico" until early 1866, more than halfway into Maximilian’s tenure, but makes clear that he kept using the title — both to advocate for Mexico and for general purposes — for the rest of his life.

A surprising find: Norton I expanded his title to "Emperor of the United States and Mexico" in 1861.

By the time the Emperor assumed his protectorship of Mexico, he had relinquished his emperorship of that country.

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categories / Research, Proclamations, Original sources
tags / Mexico, Emperor of the United States and Mexico, Protector of Mexico, Napoleon III, Maximilian I, Robert Ernest Cowan, Albert Dressler, Allen Stanley Lane, William Drury, Emperor Norton Memorial Association, Woodlawn Cemetery, headstone, 1860, 1861, 1862, 1864, 1865, 1866, 1871, 1874, 1875, 1876, 1879, 1923, 1927, 1934, 1938, 1939, 1986

Music Had Charms for the Emperor Norton

September 10, 2024 / John Lumea

Emperor Norton's reign in San Francisco coincided with the advent and growth of opera in his adopted city.

In one of the Emperor's earlier Proclamations, published in December 1865, he enjoins his subjects to attend and support the opera, writing: "The man that has no music in his soul is fit for Treason, Strategem, and Spoils. Let no such man be trusted....The Nation that supports music shows an advancement in Civilization and Refinement."

In April 1872, Emperor Norton returns to these themes in a Proclamation that focuses on a specific company, the Bianchi troupe, that had been identified with opera in San Francisco for nearly 15 years — but now was failing.

Several episodes in the Bianchi story illustrate the challenges that beset the enterprise of opera in San Francisco during this period — challenges that lay at the heart of the Emperor's recognition that, in order for any opera troupe to nourish the public soul, it first must succeed as a business enterprise.

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categories / Research, Proclamations, Places, Original sources
tags / music, opera, theater, Bianchi, Eugenio Bianchi, Giovanna Bianchi, Maguire's Opera House, Academy of Music (Oakland), Tom Maguire, John Maguire, 1858, 1859, 1860, 1861, 1862, 1865, 1872

The Emperor Norton Cartoon That Got the Jump on Jump

March 28, 2024 / John Lumea

Ask any careful student of the Emperor Norton story to name the most famous early cartoonist of the Emperor and they are likely to single out Edward Jump (1832–1883). They would be right about that.

They might go on to credit Jump as the first artist to depict Emperor Norton with the dogs Bummer and Lazarus. About this they would be wrong.

It's true that, in the early 1860s, Jump created three cartoons that featured the Emperor and the dogs in the same scene — and that these cartoons have been influential in associating the Emp with Bummer and Lazarus in the popular imagination.

But, Jump was not the first artist to make this connection.

That distinction goes to someone who was not even a cartoonist by profession — but whose lithographed and published cartoon, apparently sold as a standalone sheet, showing Bummer and Lazarus sitting near Emperor Norton predates by as much as a year or more Jump's earliest cartoon showing these characters together.

This is the story of the artist and the cartoon that appear to be Edward Jump's conceptual influencer.

That we are aware, this is the first time the story has been told.

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categories / Research, Original sources, ARENA
tags / Art, artist, comic, cartoon, caricature, R.M. Evans, Edward Jump, Benjamin Franklin Butler, Benjamin F. Butler, B.F. Butler, Tompson in a Quandary, lithograph, lithographer, Bummer & Lazarus, George Washington II, Frederick Coombs, James Tompson, 1861, 1862, 1863

Emperor Norton Was a San Francisco Fixture Within 3 Years of Declaring His Reign

January 16, 2024 / John Lumea

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, we document the earliest signs of local awareness that a new player had arrived on the urban stage.

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categories / Research, ARENA, Original sources
tags / fame, reputation, newspaper, report, editorial, humor, Art, cartoon, sketch, lithograph, T. Grob, Edward Jump, 1859, 1861, 1862, 1863

Emperor Norton Does Art Criticism With a Borrowed Jackknife — And the Crowd Loves It

December 28, 2023 / John Lumea

By 1861 — and for the 18-plus-year remainder of his reign — Emperor Norton was a favorite and enduring subject for San Francisco cartoonists and theater troupes, who found that local audiences enjoyed the good-natured lampooning of their Emperor.

The Emperor himself was less amused — and, there are a couple of oft-cited examples of the Emperor’s expressing his royal displeasure over how he was portrayed in these contexts.

Recently, we uncovered an “episode of displeasure” that is even better documented than the familiar examples.

The occasion was the mounting of an advertisement using Emperor Norton’s image on a construction fence at Montgomery and California Streets. The Emperor borrowed a jackknife; cut out the image of himself; and sliced the image to shreds.

The crowd, as they say, “went wild.”

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categories / Research, Places, Original sources, ARENA
tags / Art, cartoon, comic, caricature, photograph, theater, depiction, portrayal, Safe Deposit Building, Montgomery Street, California Street, advertisement, ad, George Frederick Keller, Eadweard Muybridge, Edward Jump, San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, San Francisco Chronicle, Michael Reese, 1861, 1863, 1869, 1873, 1874, 1875

Emperor Norton vs. the Rev. Mr. Hammond

July 12, 2023 / John Lumea

Edward Payson Hammond was a celebrity preacher — a Billy Graham of his day.

Today, Hammond is much less well-known in the annals of American religion than his crusading contemporary, Dwight Lyman Moody.

But, in the 1860s and 1870s, E.P. Hammond was a phenomenon.

In February 1875, Hammond brought his traveling revival road show to San Francisco for what turned out to be a two-month stand.

To get preaching gigs like this, Hammond claimed to produce hundreds — even thousands — of “conversions” everywhere he went.

To gin up these numbers, Hammond’s stock-in-trade was badgering tiny children into believing that they were evil sinners in danger of hellfire.

Emperor Norton was not down with this — and, he found a way to say so in a Proclamation that was published on both sides of San Francisco Bay in March 1875.

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categories / Research, Proclamations, Original sources
tags / Edward Payson Hammond, preacher, revival, conversion, children, child, San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, Oregon, Andrew L. Stone, Peter Anderson, Pacific Appeal, Oakland Tribune, 1858, 1859, 1860, 1861, 1862, 1863, 1867, 1868, 1874, 1875

Emperor Norton at Swimley's

February 24, 2023 / John Lumea

Joshua Norton made many visits to Sacramento in the early 1850s.

But, after declaring himself Emperor in 1859, his first imperial visit to California’s capital was in December 1863.

By 1863, Emperor Norton already was becoming a legend.

And, on this 1863 visit, he is reported to have dined at a restaurant run by someone who was becoming a legend of his own.

The restaurant was the Cincinnati. The proprietor was William Swimley. And the eatery — known locally as “Swimley’s” — was half-way through a 20-year run as “oldest, neatest, best and cheapest” food spot in Sacramento.

The building where Swimley’s was located from c.1861 until its closing in 1871 occupies a fascinating place in the history of early Sacramento.

In the course of researching this wonderful story, we’ve found evidence that the building is older than has been believed.

Deep documentation and rare photographs included.

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categories / Research, Original sources, Places
tags / Sacramento, Cincinnati Restaurant, Charles Franklin Swimley, Charles F. Swimley, Swimley's, Swimley's Boarders, 21 K Street, 25 K Street, Second Street, Verandah Hotel, Union Hotel, James Lansing, Union Hotel annex, restaurant, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, 1850, 1852, 1853, 1855, 1856, 1858, 1859, 1861, 1863, 1864, 1865, 1866, 1867, 1871, 1873, 1879, 1940, 1960, 1980s

Joshua Norton at the Transamerica Pyramid

December 14, 2022 / John Lumea

For some 35 years, students of the Emperor Norton story have followed William Drury’s account, in his 1986 biography of the Emperor, of the events surrounding Joshua Norton’s declaration of himself as Emperor on 17 September 1859.

According to Drury: George Fitch was editor of the San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin on that day. Fitch’s office was in an upstairs room at 517 Clay Street. Joshua Norton marched his Proclamation into Fitch’s office that morning, and Fitch published it that afternoon.

But, that’s not how it went.

The Bulletin didn’t have an outpost on Clay Street until 1861. In 1859, the paper’s only offices were on Montgomery Street — on a site now occupied by the Transamerica pyramid.

And: Although George Fitch was a partner at the Bulletin in September 1859, he didn’t emerge as “the editor” — as the one with the power to decide what would and would not be published in the paper — until later.

That power resided with the person who actually was the editor on the day Joshua Norton appeared: James W. Simonton.

Read on for another course correction from The Emperor Norton Trust.

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categories / Research, Proclamations, Places, Original sources
tags / Joshua Norton, San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, Montgomery Street, Merchant Street, Montgomery Block, 517 Clay Street, Christian O. Gerberding, C.O. Gerberding, James King of William, Thomas Sim King, Thomas S. King, James W. Simonton, George Kenyon Fitch, George K. Fitch, George Fitch, William Drury, Transamerica Pyramid, 1855, 1856, 1859, 1860, 1861

The Mixed Economy of the Eureka Lodgings Building of Commercial Street

October 28, 2022 / John Lumea

When one reads that Emperor Norton lived in "the Eureka Lodgings" at "624 Commercial Street," it's tempting to imagine that the Eureka was in a building with one address and one use — and that the Eureka was it.

In fact: There were two buildings on the Eureka site between c.1850 and Emperor Norton's death in 1880, with the Eureka building arriving in 1857. Both buildings had three addresses and a variety of business tenants — with the second of the two buildings hosting the Eureka and two previous hotel/lodging establishments that each occupied only a portion of the top two floors.

At various times during the 1860s ― including while the Emperor was living here between 1864/65 and 1880 — the second building was home to some of the best-known and -respected businesses in early San Francisco history.

Both of the buildings on the Eureka site were located between Montgomery and Kearny Streets, with frontages on both Commercial and Clay Streets.

What follows is, we believe, the first published attempt to establish a "tenant timeline" of the Commercial Street frontages of these buildings between c.1850 and 1880.

Read on for some fascinating history — and some terrific advertisements!

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categories / Research, Places, Original sources
tags / Commercial Street, Montgomery Street, Kearny Street, Eureka Lodgings, Arcade, Arcade Saloon, Hotel Richelieu, Benton House, Aaron Babcock, David Hutchinson, John Cabaniss, A.C. Gamble, Pierre Trapet, Felix Hanlon, Meussdorffer, hatter, Lawrence & Houseworth, John W. Cherry, Contra Costa Laundry, Kohler Chase & Co., directories, advertising, advertisement, Daily Alta California, San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, San Francisco Daily Herald, 154 Commercial, 156 Commercial, 158 Commercial, 624 Commercial, 626 Commercial, 628 Commercial, 1851, 1852, 1853, 1854, 1855, 1856, 1857, 1858, 1859, 1860, 1861, 1864, 1865, 635 Commercial, 637 Commercial, 175 Clay, 177 Clay, 637 Clay

Recovering Emperor Norton’s 1861 Proclamation Against Privateering

August 12, 2022 / John Lumea

In June 1861, Emperor Norton issued a Proclamation against privateering — which basically was state-sanctioned piracy.

Recently, we discovered — or, more accurately, recovered — an image of the Emperor’s handwritten manuscript of the Proclamation that was published in a tiny magazine of California history in 1956. The print copy of the relevant issue of the magazine is at the San Francisco Public Library and was scanned and added to the Internet Archive in 2014.

We’ve not yet been able to determine whether the Proclamation was published. What seems clear, though: The existence of the Proclamation flew under the radar between 1861 and 1956; the publication of the manuscript in 1956 made little or no impression; and the Proclamation has continued to fly under the radar for the nearly 70 years since.

We’re delighted to be able to bring it back to the surface now.

One reason why this Proclamation is of interest: It offers a possible clue for explaining the still-undocumented claim that Emperor Norton called for a “League of Nations.”

Also included in this article: Details about the pioneer San Francisco bookseller Jefferson Martenet (1826–1906), whose preservation of the Norton manuscript in a personal scrapbook made it possible for us to find the manuscript in 2022.

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categories / Research, Original sources, Proclamations
tags / privateering, piracy, Paris Declaration Respecting Maritime Law, international law, Jefferson Martenet, Epes Ellery, Daniel Schley, bookseller, stationer, stationery, printer, California Herald, League of Nations, 1854, 1861, 1862, 1956

Did Emperor Norton Really Live at the Eureka Lodgings on Commercial Street for 17 Years?

January 14, 2022 / John Lumea

The received wisdom, since the time of Emperor Norton’s death in January 1880, has been that the Emperor lived at his final and most famous San Francisco residence — the Eureka Lodgings, at 624 Commercial Street between Montgomery and Kearny — “for seventeen years.”

That was the phrase that a number of San Francisco papers used in their obituaries and funeral notices. The most influential Norton biographers of the twentieth century extrapolated from this that the Emperor lived at the Eureka from 1863 to 1880. And, now, this claim is firmly ensconced as one of the most oft-invoked tenets of the biographical catechism of Norton I.

But, the directories of the period don’t support an 1863 arrival date.

Rather, they suggest that the Emperor might have taken up his room at the Eureka Lodgings as late as summer 1865.

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categories / Research, Original sources, Places
tags / San Francisco directories, Metropolitan Hotel, Benton House, Eureka Lodgings, 624 Commercial, Felix Hanlon, Aaron Babcock, David Hutchinson, obituaries, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Morning Call, Daily Alta California, Robert Ernest Cowan, Allen Stanley Lane, David Warren Ryder, William Drury, E Clampus Vitus, 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865, 1867, 1868

Emperor Norton's Sister, Aficionado of Anemones

August 26, 2021 / John Lumea

Pull up a chair for the fascinating and enigmatic story of Emperor Norton’s younger sister, Selina Jane.

Born on the Cape of Good Hope in 1824, when Joshua, the future Emperor, was 6 years old, Selina “married Scottish” and married well — twice.

Selina had moved to England by age 20. She had four daughters with her first husband, a MacLeod, living first in Kent, then near Glasgow, then back down in Devon.

Shortly after her first husband died, Selina married a Mackenzie, whose prominence as a Scottish lawyer brought her to Edinburgh.

Two years later, this second husband died. A few years after that, Selina moved from Edinburgh to the North Sea cloister of St. Andrews and was gone herself within a year or so — at 45. But, her three surviving daughters continued to live in, and next door to, the St. Andrews house for another 20 years.

Along the way, Selina in 1861 wrote and published a lovely, finely observed article about her sea anemones — whom she called her “drawing-room pets.”

The article — and many, many other details — are documented here thoroughly, if not very deeply.

It’s tantalizing evidence that makes me want to learn more of the Emperor’s little sister.

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categories / Research, Original sources
tags / Selina Jane Norton, Selina Jane MacLeod, Selina Jane Mackenzie, Donald Hume MacLeod, Emmeline MacLeod, Louisa MacLeod, Lavinia MacLeod, Frances MacLeod, James Hay Mackenzie, Kent, Devon, Dawlish, Glasgow, Edinburgh, St. Andrews, St. John's Episcopal Church, anemones, Once A Week, writing, writer, 1824, 1843, 1861, 1863, 1869

The Latter-Day Twain-ification of an Early Theatrical Depiction of Emperor Norton

August 18, 2021 / John Lumea

Emperor Norton biographer William Drury made the grandiose claim, in 1986, that the first theatrical depiction of Emperor Norton took place on 17 September 1861 — the second anniversary of the Emperor’s self-declaration in 1859 — and that this was the inaugural production of the theater itself, which opened on this date.

This isn’t true. And, that’s putting it mildly.

But, as born out by historical newspaper documents from 1860 and 1861 — probably getting their first truly public broadcast here — what is true is interesting on its own.

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categories / Research, Original sources, Places
tags / Tucker's, Tucker's Hall, Academy of Music, Norton the First, Emperor for a Day, burlesque, melodeon, The Golden Era, San Francisco Evening Bulletin, San Francisco Morning Call, Walter Bray, Montgomery Street, William Drury, 1859, 1860, 1861

Joshua Norton in Occidental Lodge No. 22 of Free and Accepted Masons

June 08, 2021 / John Lumea

Popular accounts of Emperor Norton — including the respected 1986 biography by William Drury — have Joshua Norton as a “charter member” of Occidental Lodge No. 22 of Free and Accepted Masons.

This is inaccurate. It also is not the point.

For what bears real consideration is that Joshua sought and was granted membership in the Occidental Lodge between May 1854 and May 1855, the very moment when — at every professional, legal, financial and personal level — he was approaching the depths of his instability, vulnerability and failure.

Also documented here: Two illustrious San Franciscans who were members of the Occidental Lodge at the same time that Joshua Norton was.

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categories / Research, Original sources
tags / Joshua Norton, Mason, Masonic, Occidental Lodge, Joseph Eastland, Frank Soulé, 1852, 1854, 1855, 1858, 1859, 1860, 1861

"To Dream of the Emperor Norton"

March 11, 2019 / John Lumea

In January 1865 — back in his native New York for a year, after spending the previous five years in San Francisco — David Montross Gazlay debuted a new magazine that he called Gazlay’s Pacific Monthly. The purpose of the magazine was to evangelize an East Coast readership as to the virtues — and the opportunities — of the Pacific states and territories.

The inaugural issue of the Pacific Monthly featured a reprint of a charming item of literary humor originally published elsewhere — apparently in the early 1860s — and which includes a poignant reference to Emperor Norton.

As it happens, Gazlay and the Emperor had occasion to meet in February 1861, when both men attended a citizens’ meeting — called by San Francisco Mayor Henry Teschemacher — to plan a major pro-Union rally.

Click below for the whole story.

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categories / Original sources, Research
tags / David Montross Gazlay, David M. Gazlay, David Gazlay, Gazlay's Pacific Monthly, Union, Daily Alta California, Sacramento Daily Union, magazines, periodicals, 1865, 1861

Did Joshua Norton Really Leave San Francisco Between Declaring Himself Bankrupt in 1856 and Emperor in 1859?

May 15, 2017 / John Lumea

Here's a "mystery" about Emperor Norton that may be less mysterious than many seem to think. Despite persistent speculation that Joshua Norton left San Francisco for a period of months or years just before declaring himself Emperor in 1859, the available evidence points to a narrative in which, most likely, the eventual Emperor remained a resident of the City from his arrival until his death.

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categories / Open Questions, Research
tags / 1856, 1857, 1858, 1859, 1860, 1861, Tehama House, 255 Kearny, Metropolitan Hotel, business ads, directories, Daily Alta California, Henry Langley

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