The Emperor Norton Trust

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

RESEARCH • EDUCATION • ADVOCACY

Filtering by Tag: drawing

Emperor Norton Through the Eyes of a Young San Francisco Artist in 1879

In 1879, an 18-year-old Charles Andrew Gunnison (1861–1897) took a trek across the United States from his home in San Francisco, visiting several cities on the Eastern seaboard and venturing up to Montreal and Quebec City before returning to San Francisco via Panama and Central America.

Gunnison brought with him an autograph book that he converted into a sketchbook to help him record what he saw.

One of the last sketches in the book — done as Gunnison arrived back home at the end of his trip — is of Emperor Norton.

Apparently drawn in December 1879, a month before the Emperor’s death in January 1880, this is one of the last (and possibly the last) extant artistic rendering of Emperor Norton — painting, sketch, or otherwise — done during the Emperor’s lifetime.

A separate sketch on the same page and another sketch on the previous page provide clues that reflect the anti-Chinese mood of San Francisco —and possibly also of the artist — in 1879. Given the Emperor's own long-standing defense of the Chinese, the juxtaposed sketches make for a telling — if unintended — commentary.

Charles Gunnison died only 18 years later. One hopes that, if — in 1879 — a late-teen Gunnison did share in the prevailing anti–Chinese attitudes of 1879 San Francisco, he was able to wrest free of those attitudes before the city did.

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Emperor Norton in the San Francisco Illustrated Wasp

The magazine of satire variously known as The San Francisco Illustrated Wasp, The Illustrated Wasp, or simply The Wasp debuted in August 1876.

For its first seven years, until 1883, the Wasp's chief artist was George Frederick Keller. Emperor Norton featured in a number of Keller's cartoons for the magazine. And it mostly has been in this context that The Emperor Norton Trust has discussed the Wasp — the notable exception being the magazine's obituary of the Emperor, which was accompanied by a lovely front-cover portrait by Keller.

In fact — as one would expect — Emperor Norton was a regular subject for the Wasp's writers and wags. But, this piece of the historical record hasn't made its way into accounts of the Emperor.

To help correct this oversight, we present here a chronological roundup of 15 of the Wasp's best columns, items, quips, and asides mentioning Emperor Norton between 1876 and 1879.  

By and large, the Wasp treated the Emperor as a figure of fun. But, as in the Daily Alta newspaper — another local publication that made a habit of using Emperor Norton as “content” — the Wasp’s apparent ironic detachment from the Emperor often betrays a note of sympathy just under the surface.

Bonus: In the course of our research, we discovered a cartoon we'd never seen — and whose publication here may be the first publication or notice of the cartoon since its original appearance in 1876.

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