The Emperor Norton Trust

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

RESEARCH • EDUCATION • ADVOCACY

Filtering by Tag: signature

Emperor Norton Was Tuned in to Women's Suffrage Years Before He Signed an 1878 Petition in Favor of It

November 18, 2025  /  John Lumea

It long has appeared that Emperor Norton’s reputation for supporting women’s right to vote rests entirely on his having signed an October 1878 petition advocating for the right.

Comes our new discovery that the Emperor attended a women's suffrage convention in San Francisco seven years earlier — in May 1871.

Emperor Norton's apparent early interest and engagement on suffrage raises the question: Why has there yet to surface a Proclamation in which the Emperor offers his take on women’s right to vote? 

Included here — in addition to the discovery from 1871 — are new details about the 1878 petition and what we believe is the first publication of (a) images of this petition, including Emperor Norton's signature, and (b) a link to the petition that identifies the Emperor's connection to it.     

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categories / Research, Original sources, Places
tags / woman, women, suffrage, vote, convention, petition, signature, California Woman Suffrage Association, Pacific Slope Woman Suffrage Convention, Pacific Hall, Pacific Music Hall, California Theatre, California Theater, Lyceum of Self-Culture, Common Sense (journal), 1869, 1870, 1871, 1874, 1878, California Constitutional Convention of 1878–79

Joshua Norton On His Way Out of the Democratic (Or Any Other) Party

July 26, 2024  /  John Lumea

Throughout and beyond the period, 1853–56, of Joshua Norton’s bruising legal and financial trials prompted by his rice contract dispute with the firm of Ruiz Hermanos — even as a succession of creditors were suing Joshua to recover their debts and the lower courts were resolving these lawsuits by foreclosing on Joshua’s properties — Joshua remained politically engaged.

In May 1855, Joshua ran as a Democratic candidate for San Francisco tax collector.

In August 1858, he presented himself as an independent candidate for U.S. Congress.

New information has surfaced showing that, in between these two moments — in February 1856 — Joshua Norton joined nearly 1,000 other members of San Francisco Democratic Party in signing a public statement protesting corruption in the local party; “refus[ing] further allegiance to the General Committee,” i.e., the local party leadership; and pledging to re-establish the local party according to its original ideals.

Joshua’s action sheds light on his pivot away from party politics towards engaging as a political independent.

It is an important, previously unreported episode in Joshua’s evolution towards becoming the figure who, as Emperor, critiqued public institutions as one who once was inside them but now stood outside.

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categories / Research, Original sources, Proclamations
tags / Joshua Norton, Democratic Party, Democratic General Committee, Democratic Central Committee, protest, reform, statement, signature, Purifiers, Julius K. Rose, Milton Slocum Latham, Sacramento, People's ticket, independent, San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, Daily Alta California, 1855, 1856, 1858, 1859

1870s Forecasts of a Market for Emperor Norton Photographs & Signatures

February 18, 2024  /  John Lumea

In 1872 — two years before the first commercially retailed photographic portrait of Emperor Norton — an editor in Oakland wondered whether there might be a market for photographs of the Emperor and how much collectors might be willing to pay.

Five years later, in 1877, a San Francisco paper carried an editorial on the prices paid at a recent New York sale of autographs of U.S. presidents, European monarchs, and other notables. The writer observed that Emperor Norton's signatures were "going at a low rate" and suggested that this would remain the case with the Emperor’s ongoing sales of signed promissory notes continuing to glut the market — but that, in the future, the Emperor’s signature could become a more precious commodity.

In light of the four- and five-figure sums now commanded by photographs and signed promissory notes of Emperor Norton, it’s worth noting these two early — and, we believe, previously unreported — indicators that, even during the Emperor’s lifetime, there were those who saw that the Emperor eventually could find his way to the collector’s market.

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categories / Research, Original sources
tags / photograph, signature, autograph, currency, promissory note, market, collector, San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin, Oakland Daily Transcript, Heritage Auctions, Bonhams, 1872, 1874, 1875, 1877

Did the Social Drinker Emperor Norton Close Out as a Teetotaler?

March 26, 2023  /  John Lumea

By reputation, Emperor Norton did not drink much. But, he did enjoy the occasional tipple — especially if he was being treated, perhaps by a well-wisher at one of the free-lunch taverns that he often frequented.

Indeed, the Emperor issued at least one Proclamation, in 1874, that called for abstaining from "ardent spirits, as a beverage, except only for medical purposes," and that banned the manufacture, import and sale of these spirits” — but that drew a careful distinction between “ardent” liquor and “malt liquors for the working man, and ‘wine for the stomach’s sake.’”

But, in January 1879, with the temperance movement growing ever more insistent on complete abstinence, with no exceptions or carve-outs, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Emperor Norton signed an abstinence pledge.

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categories / Research, Places, Proclamations, Original sources
tags / drinking, temperance, abstinence, pledge, signature, reform, Platt's Music Hall, Lyceum for Self-Culture, Common Sense (journal), Dashaway Hall, Pacific Appeal, 1874, 1879

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