Historical Reminiscing with Robert B.
Hitchings
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Jenny Lind
A few days ago my wife changed the center piece on our dining room table. She does this quite often when she has cut flowers from our garden. But this time, being February, she decided to have an old transferware pitcher, black and white with a few small brown cracks, on the table. The pitcher does show its age. At the base of the pitcher was another stand that made the pitcher stand out. I quickly noticed that it was a family piece that I had not seen in a very long time. How this pitcher got into the family I do not know. Apparently, it was a souvenir from a concert of the famous opera singer, Jenny Lind, when she toured the United States in 1850.
Jenny Lind was born in Sweden, as Johanna Maria Lind (1820-1887) and was known as the Swedish Nightingale throughout the world. She had many composer friends, especially one called Felix Mendelssohn. It would be P. T. Barnum (1810-1891) the greatest showman on earth here in the United States that recognized her talent. He proposed to her 150 concerts in 18 months. She did 93 concerts for P. T. Barnum and under her own management did the remaining concerts. The citizens of the United States fell in love with this little lady and she had the American audience at her feet, she was this popular.
In Richmond, Virginia, she was the Queen of Song, and played at the Marshall Theatre on 7th and Broad Street on December 20, 1850. Every seat was taken. Her concert was a huge success in Richmond, Virginia, and all others in the United States. It is estimated she made over $350,000.00, a very hefty sum in those days.
Governor John B. Floyd (1806-1863) of Virginia gave her a grand tour of our Capital and our Governor’s mansion in Richmond. She was amazed at seeing the statue of George Washington. She also toured and adored Mount Vernon.
Jenny Lind did not get to Norfolk to perform, for her next concert was in Charleston, South Carolina. Shop keepers and other businesses across our country were able to catch onto the Jenny Lind fever, making hefty sums of money on Jenny Lind souvenirs, like Jenny Lind dolls and paper dolls, china, furniture and even Jenny Lind steamer trunks. Today one can buy many of the items at antique shops and on-line stores. In her reprotrior with her musicians, she sang many arias by composer Vincenzo Bellini. She was most famous as Amina in La Sonnambula. The other role Jenny Lind loved was the Daughter of the Regiment by Donizetti.
That spectacular night at the Richmond’s Marshall Theater, the local newspaper Richmond Enquirer had this to say, “We have never seen a person of “world-wide-fame” who has been so much admired in every country which she has visited, so little affected and perverted by the triumphs she has won. Still simple in her in her habits; alive to all the purest touches of her nature.”
Jenny Lind retired from the stage at the age of 28, settling in Wynds Point, Herefordshire, England, with her husband, Otto Goldschmidt. She had three children. Queen Victoria loved her concerts and attended every one. In fact, at her last concert the Queen gave Jenny Lind on stage a beautiful bouquet of flowers personellly herself. She died at the age of 67 on November 2, 1887.
Today, her voice is silent, for she died without any recordings. However, it is amazing how a simple china pitcher on my dining room table can conjure up history of a long, forgotten soprano, a woman called Jenny Lind.
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Robert B. Hitchings is a seventh generation Norfolk resident, graduating with an Associate's Degree in Biology from Old Dominion University and BA in history from Virginia Wesleyan University. During his studies he was awarded a scholarship at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, England, and he was an exchange student at Brooks-Westminster College, Oxford, England. From 1999-2014 he worked as head of the Sargeant Memorial History Room at Norfolk Public Library, and since then has headed the Wallace History Room at Chesapeake Public Library. He is also the President of the Norfolk County Historical Society, and for six years was a columnist for The Virginian-Pilot. Robert may be reached at nchs.wallaceroom@gmail.com