With eager eyes, Jenny Lind sailed to New York on August 21, 1850 to begin her American journey. Lind conveyed an impression of goodness and benevolence in her private feminine virtues and desire to help others. Lind embodied the story of the American Dream as she grew up as a poor girl and transformed into a successful, independent woman. Lind enthusiasts fixated on her Christian nature, her elegant angelic figure, her professional success, and her tasteful feminine dress. Her angelic skin and light eyes resembled a musical gift from heaven to the American public. Spread by word of mouth and through the press, she was welcomed with a full deck of Lind inquirers eagerly awaiting her arrival and curious to hear her sing. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Upon her arrival, P.T. Barnum transformed Jenny Lind\u2019s name into a <\/span>marketing device<\/span><\/a> that spread across the front pages of U.S. newspapers. Barnum\u2019s publicity drew distinguished visitors to Lind\u2019s performances and invited audience participants to engage in Lind fascination through consumerism. Americans found Lind staples accessible as they appeared in popular culture and in fashion. Lind shawls, gloves, and bonnets were modeled in shopping windows and were fashioned in the public sphere by American women. Meanwhile, American gentlemen advertised Lind polkas and smoked Lind cigars. \u2018Lindiana\u2019 or Linda mania branded \u00a0Lind Tea Kettles, \u2018Jenny Lind Coat, and even \u2018Jenny Lind\u2019 sausages. The fanfare for Lind\u2019s fashions and souvenirs spread around the country with advertisements for Lind wreaths, opera glasses, head-dresses, and sheet music of popular songs. Lind\u2019s popularity created a thirst for souvenirs, and a desire for the production and sale of pictures of the \u201cangelic\u201d <\/span>Swedish Nightingale<\/span><\/a>. Indeed, these consumer products and souvenirs depicted her as a gift from heaven, with light illuminating her being. Barnum sold Lind as a package filled with musical talent, sincerity, modesty, and charm, and thus capitalized on, and helped produce, an \u00a0American ideal of femininity.<\/span><\/p>\n American audiences responded. In rain or shine, Lind was welcomed with cries, cheers, fireworks, and serenades from everyone from prisoners and orphan children, to military \u00a0officers. Lind followers gave her standing ovations and showered her with bouquets. Many Lind believers traveled from near and far to splurge their \u201cLind Funds\u201d and pay exuberant amounts to indulge in a single Lind concert. As her popularity and fame grew in numbers, <\/span>P.T. Barnum <\/span><\/a>sparked riots by selling more tickets than seats available. Entertained by musicians and fed with luxury, Lind was treated like a queen. With swarming mobs and persistent phone calls, Lind\u2019s celebrity status grew as she was idolized by the American public.<\/span><\/p>\n Lindmania extended across the pond as the British found comedic relief in America\u2019s obsession with Lind. <\/span>London Punch <\/span><\/i>featured a <\/span>British cartoon<\/span><\/a> illustrating a mockery of Lind enthusiastic American audiences. British and American commentators fixated on the crowds Lind drew to her ticket auctions and mocked their showcase behavior revealing the celebrity angel. The <\/span>cartoon label<\/span><\/a> mocks auctioneer announcements with \u201csee the greatest wonder of the age – the real Swedish Nightingale, the only specimen in the Country\u201d. Lind\u2019s fame spread in the media from fixation to mockery, consumed by the American and British public spheres. <\/span><\/p>\n After Boston, New York, and other northern cities, Barnum’s tour took Lind to the American South. In Charleston and Nashville, audiences showed that they were more discerning–and more critical–than the cartoon images of American mobs. \u00a0While South Carolinians praised the mellowness of Lind\u2019s singing, <\/span>The Sumter Banner<\/span><\/i> commented that her voice lacked the high-quality of Italian singers. They suggested that Lind enthusiasts who lacked musical knowledge would soak up her voice whereas, those who appreciate vocal music would fail to be enchanted. With a similar outlook, most Tennesseans were less \u00a0enchanted with her voice; than her image and style. Tennesseans labeled Lind, far-famed, since her superior vocals did not match the exceedingly high admission fee. Her fashionable sense left a mark in Tennessee where women requested that she model in a gallery. Lind\u2019s angelic nature was reflected in her response as she wished to not exhibit her own image in a selfish fashion but offered the exhibition of her poodle. Lind enthusiasts who lived in Tennessee fixated on the Lind marketing device; fueled by fashion curiosity and advertisements of \u2018Jenny Lind Caps\u2019 and Jenny Lind gentlemen\u2019s wear flooding the newspapers.<\/span><\/p>\n Marked by her fashion sense, Lind arrived to Richmond with modes of transportation ornamented in the Swedish and American flags. In preparation for the famous singer, Richmond refitted the old Theatre to accommodate for Lind\u2019s spectacle. Upon arrival to Richmond, <\/span>Richmonders eagerly waited<\/span><\/a> in the pouring rain to catch a glimpse of Lind and proceeded to mill in and out of her hotel. Others rose to their feet to salute her. Richmonders\u2019 hearty enthusiasm to hear Lind\u2019s voice is representative in the battle for tickets and willingness to pay more than necessary. Barnum had never seen such an enthusiastic crowd prior to Richmond, which highlights where her true fandom lied. One Lind enthusiast expressed the angelic image of the Swedish Nightingale in a poem dedicated to Lind, published in the <\/span>Richmond Enquirer<\/span><\/i><\/a>,<\/span><\/i> by suggesting that Lind was destined to sing in Heaven and by referring to her music notes as gifts from above. Richmonders were swayed even more to become Lind believers when the press revealed that Lind did not give money to abolitionists and that she argued with Barnum to lower ticket prices to extend open invitations to poorer classes and donate to local charities. The Swedish Nightingale\u2019s generous donation to local orphanage charities fueled Richmonders\u2019 fixation on Lind and added the image of her as an \u00a0angelic figure. Many Richmonders <\/span>advocated for another Lind concert<\/span><\/a>. However, Barnum halted a second concert due to their prior traveling arrangements.<\/span><\/p>\n The Swedish Nightingale\u2019s presence in the American public sphere remained the hot topic of discussion and tended to overshadow the pressing debate of slavery. As the spectacle continued, the press developed a new fixation on Lind\u2019s unmarried status while alluding to her \u2018Mary the Blessed Virgin\u2019 nature. Gossip about Lind\u2019s unmarried status as a thirty year old fluttered as women typically married young in the 1850s. Curiosity stretched public minds as humor was added in inventing an ideal husband for the \u201cDivine Jenny\u201d. The public\u2019s obsession with Jenny\u2019s ideal husband played with impulses to maintain her as virginal and pure while also fitting her into the norm of the married women\u2019s sphere.<\/span><\/p>\n In reflecting on her long tour with Barnum, Jenny had gained confidence through her ability to please her American public audience. With no flowers at her feet, Lind gave her last bow in the same place as her first in America, hinting at the closure of her \u2018Lindania\u2019 obsessions with her celebrity status. Americans were enchanted by Lind\u2019s angelic character, innocent demeanor, and overt beneficence. Lind was a commodity who appealed to all social classes and embodied a private woman who held public silence in a world of emerging feminine activism. The Swedish Nightingale altered the American entertainment realm through her appeal to popular culture and her construction of new forms of mass consumption. Jenny Lind embodied a version of the Mary icon, an angel, and a symbol of hope with her heavy presence in the press, in fashion, and in gossip as she became for the \u00a0the American public a new ideal of female celebrity.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Further Reading Bibliography<\/b><\/p>\n Frances Cavanah, <\/span>Jenny Lind\u2019s America<\/span><\/i><\/a>. <\/span><\/i>Ann Arbor: Chilton Book Company, 1969.<\/span><\/p>\n Ezra Greenspan and Jonathan Rose, eds.<\/span> Book History. Volume 1. \u201cReading Lind Mania\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/a> University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1998, 94-104<\/span><\/p>\n Rosenberg, C.G<\/span>.<\/span><\/i> Jenny Lind in America<\/span><\/i><\/a>.<\/span><\/i> New York: Stringer & Townsend, 1851.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Courtesy](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/files\/2016\/04\/jenny_lind_cigars-300-282x300.jpg?resize=282%2C300&ssl=1\")
<\/a>![\"Courtesy](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/files\/2016\/04\/QueenJenny-300x227.jpg?resize=300%2C227&ssl=1\")
<\/a>
\n<\/span>Porter Ware and Thaddeus C Lockard Jr., <\/span>.<\/span><\/i> P.T. Barnum Presents Jenny Lind<\/span><\/i><\/a>. <\/span><\/i>Baton \u00a0Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1981.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"