RECENT RESEARCH — A public dedication ceremony for the reburial of Emperor Norton in Colma, Calif., was held on 30 June 1934. Those who are familiar with this part of the Emperor's story most closely associate 30 June 1934 with his reburial, as this is the date when the reburial was solemnized — when dignitaries offered eulogies and speeches; musicians from the Municipal Band and Olympic Club of San Francisco played and sang; and a U.S. Army honor guard fired a 3-gun salute before a gathering of some 200 people. But — as we show here — the burial itself took place nearly 3 months earlier.

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Emperor Norton, A Metaphor in His Own Time

April 18, 2024  /  John Lumea

Surely, one sign that a person has achieved the level of “cultural saturation” that we sometimes call “fame” is when when independent sources start using that person’s name as a shorthand to characterize other people.

Here are four stories of people not Emperor Norton who — during Emperor Norton’s lifetime — were labelled in the California press as various kinds of "Emperor Norton":

  • an “Epistolary Emperor Norton” in 1867;

  • “the Emperor Norton of the News” in 1869;

  • "the Emperor Norton of the California press" in 1873; and

  • the “Healdsburg Emperor Norton” in 1878.

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categories / Research, Original sources
tags / name, metaphor, D. Weymyss Jobson, Calvin B. McDonald, John McKeag, William Fields, Oakland, Healdsburg Calif., Happy Jack, Dixon Calif., Roseburg Ore., Gardiner Ore., Oakland Daily News, Oakland Daily Transcript, Russian River Flag, Roseburg Review, 1867, 1869, 1877, 1878, 1886

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