Barnum, Humbug & Jenny Lind

The Creation of Modern Popular Culture & America’s 1st Star

Background: Main Themes

• Urbanization• Industrialization• Immigration• Popular Entertainment

Urbanization

• e.19th c. explosive growth in cities of the NE• NYC population:

1820-123,0001830-202,0001840-312,0001850-515,000

Industrialization

• Industrial Revolution• Northeastern states early adopters• Began in earnest in 1820s in MA• 1st in rural areas near rivers for power• Then in cities• A gradual process • Took place over several generation

Immigration

• Explosive growth• Rates of immigration

1820-8000+1830-23,000+1840-84,000+1850-114,000+

Popular Entertainment

• Theater• Trompe l’oeil panorama paintings• Magicians• Attractions & curiosities• Minstrel Shows• Melodrama

Signor Antonio Blitz

Minstrel Shows

P.T. Barnum

• b. Bethel, CT 1810• 3rd generation American• Born salesman• Had many jobs before showman• Involved in 1st US lottery• Lotteries banned in CT in 1834• Sells store & moves to NYC

Young Barnum

Joice Heth: Background

• African American woman• A slave• A “curiosity” when Barnum learns of her• Blind• Paralyzed in both legs & one arm• Toothless• Long curving fingernails

Barnum & Joice Heth

• Contract bought for $1000 August 1835• Barnum books her for 10 months • Broadway & Prince Streets, NYC,• An entertainment district• Remained enslaved

Joice Heth: Exhibition

• George Washington’s “mammy”• Told stories with a patriotic bent• 161 years old • Sang Baptist hymns in the 18th c. style• Pseudo scientific language used by MC• Racist gawking• 12 hour exhibition days

• “JOICE HETH is unquestionably the most astonishing and interesting curiosity in the World! She was the slave of Augustine Washington, (the father of Gen. Washington,) and was the first person who put clothes on the unconscious infant, who, in after days, led our heroic fathers on to glory, to victory, and freedom. To use her own language when speaking of the illustrious Father of his Country, 'she raised him.' JOICE HETH was born in the year 1674, and has, consequently, now arrived at the astonishing AGE OF 161 YEARS." ( December 1835

Joice Heth: Tour

• Providence, RI-Proceeds to free 5 great-grandchildren

• Boston-competes with an automaton chess-player for customers

• Heth’s humanity questioned• Perhaps she’s an automaton?• Ends with Heth’s death in February 1836

Heth’s Autopsy

• Barnum says he’ll prove she’s 161• Sells tickets for 50 cents• Physicians, students, clergymen, editors• Barnum confesses later that she’s 80• At the time, convinces one editor she’s not

dead

Racist Elements

• Heth pictures as physically “strange” “exotic”• A faithful slave• Nurturing black nursemaid• Deeply pious• Musical• Unique only in its comprehensiveness • Flexible & changeable based on audience

Conclusions

• Heth created her persona• She had no hand in controlling it• Humbug & artful deception popular• Overlapping modes of trickery• Plausibility isn’t certainty• “The public appears to be disposed even

amused when they are conscious of being deceived” (Barnum)

Main Themes in Adams

• Separate Spheres• Cult of Domesticity• Rise of the American middle class• Change in Barnum’s public persona• Lindomania

Separate Spheres

• Began in US in 1820s• Tied to demise of the apprentice system• And the advent of industrialization• Men’s sphere-public• Women’s sphere-home• Rigidly divided worlds• A middle class ideology

Cult of Domesticity

• 4 cardinal virtues: piety, purity, submissiveness, & domesticity

• Women endowed children with morality• Delineated in women’s magazines• Encouraged by churches & religious literature• Middle class & largely white & Protestant• In practice, acceptance & challenge

Rise of the Middle Class

• Tied to industrialization & urbanization• Fortunes precarious in antebellum US• Separate spheres • Visible display & possessions essential• Happened unevenly in US • Different regions happened later• Entertainment also becomes classed

Barnum

• Known for humbug & journalistic puffery• Lind tour marks a change• Offers his reputation as a foil to True

Womanhood• Barnum’s greed contrast with Lind’s altruism• A far cry from Joice Heth & the American

Museum exhibits

Jenny Lind

• Born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1820• An opera star in Europe, a soprano, retires

1849 before US tour• Had a pure vocal style• Stage persona a humble woman • Queen Victoria a fan, due to Lind’s humility• Barnum reaches out in 1849• Contracts for 150 dates for $187,000

Lindomania

• Invokes True Womanhood on US tour• Becomes the 1st American entertainment

sensation• Has near universal approval• Tour dates reveal rifts between classes• Reveals the nascent US middle class & its

tastes

US Tour

• Lind arrives in US September 1, 1850• Barnums’ promotion machine in high gear• 30,000 greet her arrival• Barnum positions Lind as humble woman with

God-given talent • Barnum plays up that she’s singing for charity• Gives $50,000 to “worthy” charities

Tour Facts

• Tour lasts from 1850-1852• Lind & Barnum part after 93 dates• Barnum grosses over $700,000 • In 1852, while on US tour, Lind marries• Husband Otto Golschmidt, her accompaniest• Takes his name, tour ends 1852• Seldom sings publicly after US tour

Class Divisions

• Tickets too expensive for most • $5 a week’s wage for many• Public space contested• Commercial entertainment becoming classed• Working class women have to work• Cult of domesticity unavailable to them• Opera seen as too high culture (middle class)• Folk songs seen as too low culture (upper class