RECENT RESEARCH — A public dedication ceremony for the reburial of Emperor Norton in Colma, Calif., was held on 30 June 1934. Those who are familiar with this part of the Emperor's story most closely associate 30 June 1934 with his reburial, as this is the date when the reburial was solemnized — when dignitaries offered eulogies and speeches; musicians from the Municipal Band and Olympic Club of San Francisco played and sang; and a U.S. Army honor guard fired a 3-gun salute before a gathering of some 200 people. But — as we show here — the burial itself took place nearly 3 months earlier.

The Emperor Norton Trust

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

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Emperor Norton at Ease

One of the most arresting and enigmatic images of Emperor Norton is an 1870s watercolor of him — in street clothes and smoking a pipe — that hung for more than 30 years in the library of the Bohemian Club, in San Francisco. No doubt known by the Emperor himself during his lifetime, this painting later made its way into the Overland Monthly — thanks, in part, to a member of Robert Louis Stevenson's extended family.

Here's the story of this wonderful portrait.

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