The Emperor Norton Trust

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

RESEARCH • EDUCATION • ADVOCACY

Filtering by Tag: uniform

Two of the Earliest Sightings of Emperor Norton in Regalia

In September 2020, The Emperor Norton Trust uncovered a San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin article from 26 May 1860 reporting that Emperor Norton had “again donned his epaulettes” for the previous evening’s promenade on San Francisco’s Montgomery Street.

The suggestion was that the Emperor had been seen wearing epaulettes before. But, the May 1860 article was — and has remained — the earliest documented sighting of the Emperor wearing his uniform in public.

Of course, the “best available evidence” is the “best” only until it is supplanted by something better.

This past week, we found two such pieces of evidence: contemporaneous reports of Emperor Norton wearing a uniform in March of 1860 — two months earlier than our previous finding indicated.

In one report, the Emperor debuted his new regalia during the St. Patrick’s Day festivities of 17 March 1860.

In another, he wore it to a performance of Richard III that was staged at Maguire’s Opera House, Washington Street, on 28 March 1860.

Part of the new documentation is a superb lengthy letter from the San Francisco correspondent of the Mountain Democrat newspaper of Placerville, Calif. — about “the movements of Joshua Norton.” The letter is worth the price of admission!

Click below for details.

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Let the Emperor Wear What He Wants

During Emperor Norton’s lifetime, his uniform was regular grist for the fourth estate.

Editorial commentary about the imperial regalia fell mainly into two categories:

  • Bemused — or outright amused — descriptive lists of the elements that made up the Emperor’s dress: The second-hand military coat with a second-hand blossom in the lapel. The oft-tarnished epaulettes. The feathered beaver hat. The hand-carved walking stick. The sword. The Chinese umbrella. The shoes into which the Emperor had cut holes to relieve his corns.

  • Laments about the “seedy,” dilapidated state of the uniform.

Rarely seen are opinions as to what might justify such an ensemble in the first place — other than the Emperor’s own notions of regality — or whether, indeed, the ensemble could be justified at all.

Read on for two examples, recently discovered.

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Did San Francisco City Government Really Buy Emperor Norton a New Suit?

For nearly a century, one of the favored “chestnuts” served up in biographical accounts of Emperor Norton has been the claim that, when the Emperor’s uniform became tattered, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors — the City’s elected government — bought him a new one.

It now appears that this undocumented story may have gotten its start in a little book about the Emperor that was published in the late 1920s — nearly 50 years after his death.

But, during the period of Emperor Norton’s reign, 1859–1880, neither San Francisco’s newspapers nor the City’s own Municipal Reports have any record of such official government largesse.

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