Newspaper: Promotional Newspaper for Jenny Lind
Jenny Lind (associated with)
Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion
Blanchet, Harper (created by)
Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion
Blanchet, Harper (created by)
1850 (Date published)
21 in H
X
14 in W
Promotional newspaper for Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind, dating to about 1850, at the time she began her tour of America under contract with P. T. Barnum. The masthead features a portrait of her in the center, with an American flag to the right and a Swedish flag to the left. She is shown with a crown of laurel leaves, and her name is printed beneath in elaborate lettering. The text presents a biography of Jenny Lind, who was popularly known as the Swedish Nightingale because of her extraordinary voice. It also includes numerous poems about Lind, descriptions of her voice and the songs she sang, as well as an article titled, "How to get a Jenny Lind Ticket." The newspaper was published by F. Gleason, Museum Building, Tremont Street, Boston, [Massachusetts]. Gleason's most famous publication, Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, began in 1851. There is no printed date on this newspaper, but it is inferred to be 1850 since Lind performed in Boston in autumn of that year, and because on page 3 there is a column advertising The Flag of Our Union, a weekly paper that Gleason began publishing in 1846, prior to the Pictorial's debut.
Jenny Lind was born in Sweden on October 6, 1820. 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 eventually P. T. Barnum engaged her for a tour of America in 1850-1851, though he had never heard her sing. Lind, previously unknown in the United States, was heavily promoted by Barnum, creating insatiable demand for concert tickets and the innumerable consumer products that were manufactured with her name. Lind was a generous person and gave much of her money to charities and hospitals, especially in support of women and children. Her philanthropy and kind-heartedness played a large part in Barnum's wildly successful promotion of her, since few Americans knew enough about opera to judge her merits in the music world. Halfway through the tour, Lind married pianist Otto Goldschmidt, who had replaced her original accompaniest. The couple had three children, and settled in England. Lind became a professor of singing at the Royal College of Music in London. She performed on concert tours in England, but never returned to North America. She died on November 2, 1887, and was buried at the Great Malvern Cemetery in Malvern, Worcestershire, England.
Jenny Lind was born in Sweden on October 6, 1820. 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 eventually P. T. Barnum engaged her for a tour of America in 1850-1851, though he had never heard her sing. Lind, previously unknown in the United States, was heavily promoted by Barnum, creating insatiable demand for concert tickets and the innumerable consumer products that were manufactured with her name. Lind was a generous person and gave much of her money to charities and hospitals, especially in support of women and children. Her philanthropy and kind-heartedness played a large part in Barnum's wildly successful promotion of her, since few Americans knew enough about opera to judge her merits in the music world. Halfway through the tour, Lind married pianist Otto Goldschmidt, who had replaced her original accompaniest. The couple had three children, and settled in England. Lind became a professor of singing at the Royal College of Music in London. She performed on concert tours in England, but never returned to North America. She died on November 2, 1887, and was buried at the Great Malvern Cemetery in Malvern, Worcestershire, England.
T 2016.016.001