RECENT RESEARCH — A newly unearthed photograph showing the north side of the 600 block of Commercial Street, San Francisco, in the aftermath of the earthquake and fires of 1906 reveals, for the first time, visual evidence of the fate of the building that housed the Eureka Lodgings, where Emperor Norton lived from 1864–65 until his death in 1880. Our analysis of the photo sharpens the focus on the identities and locations of the buildings along this stretch — and exactly what each building suffered in 1906. Includes our highly researched new infographic that can be used as a tool for understanding the history of this location.

The Emperor Norton Trust

TO HONOR THE LIFE + ADVANCE THE LEGACY OF JOSHUA ABRAHAM NORTON

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Filtering by Tag: D. Weymyss Jobson

Filtering by Author: John Lumea

Emperor Norton, A Metaphor in His Own Time

April 18, 2024  /  John Lumea

Surely, one sign that a person has achieved the level of “cultural saturation” that we sometimes call “fame” is when when independent sources start using that person’s name as a shorthand to characterize other people.

Here are four stories of people not Emperor Norton who — during Emperor Norton’s lifetime — were labelled in the California press as various kinds of "Emperor Norton":

  • an “Epistolary Emperor Norton” in 1867;

  • “the Emperor Norton of the News” in 1869;

  • "the Emperor Norton of the California press" in 1873; and

  • the “Healdsburg Emperor Norton” in 1878.

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categories / Research, Original sources
tags / name, metaphor, D. Weymyss Jobson, Calvin B. McDonald, John McKeag, William Fields, Oakland, Healdsburg Calif., Happy Jack, Dixon Calif., Roseburg Ore., Gardiner Ore., Oakland Daily News, Oakland Daily Transcript, Russian River Flag, Roseburg Review, 1867, 1869, 1877, 1878, 1886

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