Sheet music: Cover for "Jenny Lind's Songs"

Sheet music: Cover for "Jenny Lind's Songs"


Jenny Lind (associated with)
1850 – 1869 (Date manufactured/created)
Cover for "Jenny Lind's Songs" containing musical notations for "The Dream" and "My Home, My Happy Home."  

The cover illustration depicts Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind in a pose similar to other print images of her: one arm is gracefully at her side with lace handkerchief in hand, while the other arm is raised halfway, with her hand in a slight gesture.  She is shown wearing a dark gown that appears to be velvet, the full skirt so long it puddles at her feet, where a dainty, slippered foot is barely visible.  The gown's bodice is tightly fitted and forms a deep point below the waist. The wide, low neckline is decorated with a lace collar called a bertha, which covers the upper bust and tops of her arms.  A brooch ornaments the bodice at the center front.  Lind wears short white kid gloves, and on one arm a cuff bracelet.  Her wavy hair is parted in the center and frames her face at the sides with slight curls, the ends then pulled to the back. Unlike many images of Jenny Lind, in this one she wears no flowers or ornaments in her hair.  

The black and white lithograph print is by Buffords, as noted at the bottom left corner of the illustration. No year is given, but most likely it is 1850 or 1851.  The sheet music was published by Geo. P. Reed, 17 Tremont Road, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Jenny Lind  (October 6, 1820 -  November 2, 1887) was a Swedish opera singer, popularly known as The Swedish Nightingale.  The exceptional quality of her voice was recognized when she was young, and she received training at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Sweden, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.  She reached high acclaim in Europe, and was especially popular with English audiences prior being engaged by P. T. Barnum to give a concert tour in North America in 1850-1851.  Lind, previously unknown in the US, was heavily promoted by Barnum, creating an insatiable demand for concert tickets and the innumerable consumer products that were manufactured with her name or general likeness.  "Lindmania" took hold of the popular imagination and continued for decades though Lind's time in America was relatively short.  While in America, Lind married her accompanist, Otto Goldschmidt.  The couple later settled in England and raised three children.  Lind became a professor of singing at the Royal College of Music in London.  She is buried at the Great Malvern Cemetery in Malvern, Worcestershire, England.
T 2016.050.001
Lind, Jenny, 1820-1887