JENNY LIND AND SWIFT-MANIA

Earlier this year, the news media widely reported issues that arose with tickets to concerts to be given by the singer Taylor Swift. Coverage was given to the frustrations experienced by many fans trying to obtain tickets to her performances, as well as to their extreme devotion to the singer. This is nothing new. For most of the twentieth century, popular singers were idolized by their young fans, often to the bewilderment, or chagrin of their parents. It seems that every ten or twenty years a new figure emerged: Rudy Vallée, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and most recently Taylor Swift. The nineteenth century was no exception to this, though one figure stands high above the rest — Jenny Lind.

Although little is known about her by the general public today, Jenny Lind was one of the most celebrated and popular singers in the mid-nineteenth century, with a world-wide following that could only be thought of in terms of her modern counterparts. Generally known as the Swedish Nightingale, Jenny Lind was brought to the United States for a series of concerts by P. T. Barnum, whose Museum was a popular attraction in lower Manhattan. Although he had never actually heard her sing, Barnum offered Miss Lind a very generous contract based solely on her reputation as an artiste and public benefactor. News of the concert tour was first published in the American newspapers on February 11, 1850. The contract called for 150 concerts for which Barnum would pay Lind $1000 each, plus expenses, which included a companion, her accompanist and conductor, Julius Benedict, and the baritone Giovanni Belletti.

Thanks to the skills of the master promoter, Barnum began placing letters and other notices in newspapers announcing the upcoming visit by a lady whose vocal powers have never been approached by any other human being, and whose character is charity, simplicity, and goodness personified. Barnum also stressed Miss Lind's charitable works, and that she would be allowed to hold additional concerts for that purpose. Curious as it may seem, Barnum's pronouncements were actually low-key in comparison to some others. On February 16, the New-York Semi-Weekly Tribune reported that the Realm of Song is agitated with the delightful news that the Northern Nightingale is positively coming to America; the hearts of all true worshipers at the shrine of Genius and Virtue are made glad by the hope of her advent; the music dealers will soon wear no livery but that of this Queen of Song, and no notes will pass at par unless endorsed by Jenny Lind.

On September 1, 1850, Jenny Lind arrived in New York to a crowd of thousands and decorations that included two triumphal arches, whose appearance was admittedly the work of the great showman. That evening, Lind was treated to a performance outside her hotel by two hundred musicians from the New York Musical Fund Society, who were escorted by a torchlight parade of three hundred firemen. Lind's first concert took place at Castle Garden on September 11. Most of the tickets for the first concert were sold at an auction held September 7, 1850 at the Castle. Some 3,000 people reportedly paid a twenty five cent admission fee to the auction venue, though quite a few were only there for the entertainment of watching the sale. The first ticket was sold for the astounding price of $225 to the well-known Broadway hatter Mr. Genin, who received substantial publicity as a result. The next thousand seats sold for between $10 and $25, after which the remaining five thousand brought an average of $4, still a significant amount in 1850. Curiously, the highest price bid for a ticket was for her concert in Providence, R.I., by a Col. Ross, who paid $650 and then failed to attend the performance!

The entire country was caught up in what the newspapers regularly referred to as Lind-Mania. One Boston newspaper quoted the New York Express as saying the nightingale is to lead the ton in the fashionable world, and that nothing will do this season except Jenny Lind blondes, and Jenny Lind berthas, Jenny Lind watches and Jenny Lind chains, Jenny Lind shoes and Jenny Lind petticoats, Jenny Lind hats and head-dresses, and Jenny Lind body-dresses, and a new article called Jenny Lind wrappers.

 

Numismatically, Jenny Lind is well represented in a variety of items, including appearances on several private banknotes. One of these was issued by the Pequonnock Bank of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Since Barnum was president of the bank, it should come as no surprise that at least one of its notes would include vignettes of Barnum, Lind, and his mansion, Iranistan. These notes proved popular with the public, but in a way that would make any collector today cringe. On February 6, 1852, The Schenectady Reflector reported that so many of Barnum's bills were mutilated by having the portraits cut off, that the directors of a local bank announced they would refuse all bills with the ends torn. Lind also appeared on a number of medals, with 32 pieces described in a monograph by Leonidas Westerveldt entitled The Jenny Lind Medals and Tokens, published by the The American Numismatic Society in 1921.

 
Copper Medal, United States, 1850. ANS 1933.64.51

To read the complete article, see:
Jenny Lind and Swift-Mania in Nineteenth-Century America (https://numismatics.org/pocketchange/miller-lind/)

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
TAYLOR SWIFT AND NUMISMATICS (https://www.coinbooks.org/v26/esylum_v26n47a12.html)
NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: NOVEMBER 26, 2023 : Taylor Swift and Jenny Lind (https://www.coinbooks.org/v26/esylum_v26n48a15.html)

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