TO HONOR THE LIFE + ADVANCE THE LEGACY OF JOSHUA ABRAHAM NORTON
RESEARCH • EDUCATION • ADVOCACY
In…
Directory listings showing one of his business interests;
A number of stories about him from his lifetime;
At least one Proclamation by him; and
At least one painting of him done during his life
…there are clues that Emperor Norton had an abiding fondness for cigars and for pipe smoking.
Here, we line up in one place all the evidentiary “dots” we’ve located so far.
Some rare finds here.
Read MoreIt’s well known that souvenir photographs and lithographs of Emperor Norton were sold in San Francisco shops during the Emperor’s lifetime.
Norton biographer William Drury takes it considerably further to claim that, by the early 1870s, there was a whole cottage industry of “Emperor Norton statuettes, Emperor Norton dolls, Emperor Norton mugs and jugs, Emperor Norton Imperial Cigars” — and even that there were peddlers hawking Emperor Norton merch at his funeral.
I find no evidence to support much of what Drury asserts — but…
In 1877 — a couple of years before Emperor Norton died in 1880 — a German immigrant jeweler and sculptor in San Francisco created a highly accomplished statuette of the Emperor that deserves a much closer look than it has received.
Although there is no ready evidence that this nearly-two-foot-tall statuette was sold in shops, there is evidence to suggest that it was a fixture in San Francisco saloons — and even that the Emperor himself had a copy in his apartment.
Among other things, I document here the three known copies of the statuette and offer a glimpse into the life and work of the sculptor.
There even are cameo appearances from historians of Ancient Rome and the Oxford English Dictionary.
It’s a fascinating story, previously untold.
Read MoreAt a special event on Thursday 13 October, titled My Emperor, My Muse, The Emperor's Bridge Campaign will bring together an eclectic and interesting mix of people — artists who've created specific Emperor-themed works and others who have thought deeply about Emperor Norton — for a conversation about the Emperor's abiding cultural import as an avatar of whimsy, openness, tolerance and fair play.
We'll learn why Emperor Norton moves these people; how he has shaped their projects; why they think the Emperor remains a cultural touchstone; and the role that they think art can play in shaping and polishing the stone.
Read MoreA hotel driveway entrance is not the sort of thing to which one generally pays much, if any, attention. It's a hotel driveway entrance. How exciting can it be? But, in the case of the Parc 55 Hilton, in San Francisco, that assumption would be a big mistake. Emperor Norton, it seems, can appear in the most unexpected of places.
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