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It is a strange phenomenon, looking back in history 150 years. Todayyou can purchase a compact disc of singer, Brittany Spears, but whenour story begins, there was no recorded music any where in the world.The phonograph was invented much later by Thomas Edison, an Ohioinventor. Her pictures were hand drawn lithographs and hand paintedby artisans.

Jenny Lind was born on October 6, 1820, in Stockholm, Sweden.Jenny Lind’s full name was Johanna Marie Lind. She sang her firstopera at age seventeen, in Stockholm, Sweden.

Her parents were entertainers and Jenny played the piano as a child.She later performed in Swedish Operas.

All of Europe was enchanted by her beautiful, unique voice. Asindicated, technology followed too late, and her voice was never recorded.Jenny Lind Fever swept throughout Europe. Queen Victoria attended aJenny Lind Performance on April 22, 1846 and stated that Jenny hadthe most exquisite, powerful, and unique voice.

Jenny made her American debut at the Castle Garden Theater inNew York City on September 11, 1850.

Jenny Lind had a natural aptitude for music, and attended the RoyalTheater School in London. She studied piano, acting, singing, languages,and dancing. Jenny had a sweet, unique, soprano voice and she soonbecame the most popular singer throughout Europe. Jenny later gaineda reputation as the Greatest Artistic Performer in the World.

Jenny Lind was known throughout Europe as “The SwedishNightingale.” Jenny Lind was greeted by four thousand people whohad been enticed to meet her, by Phineas T. Barnum’s press stories.

Interestingly, a New York Hudson River Steamer was named the “JENNY LIND”prior to her arrival. This ship was owned by the American Steamboat Company ofNew York. An artistic rendering of the “JENNY LIND” was painted in 1850 by theBard Brothers, this ship may have been built in 1845.

Jenny Lind’s opening concert was to take place in New York’s Castle Garden.Her manager, Phineas T. Barnum auctioned off the first ticket, which was purchasedby John Genin, a New York Hatter, for $225. The remaining tickets sold for anaverage price of $6.38.

Let’s take a further step back in time and ponder the ship on which Jenny Lindcrossed the Atlantic Ocean. Jenny’s ship was casually named the “ATLANTIC”. Shewas the first ship built by the Collins Line.

Jenny LindWorld Reknowned Singer

The Collins Line was founded byEdwin Knight Collins in 1836. Edwinwas born in 1802 and died in 1878.

Collins early sailing type ships tookthe main Atlantic crossing from New Yorkto London. Collins won the U.S. PostalService contract to carry mail across theAtlantic, in March 1847.

The Collins Line ordered four shipsto meet their Postal Service Contract. Allfour were launched in 1850. These werethe ATLANTIC, ARCTIC, PACIFIC, andBALTIC. They pushed these ships veryhard, at full speed and subsequently madefrequent repairs.

At the end of her first year, inDecember of 1850, the main shaft of theATLANTIC broke from fatigue and shefoundered 900 miles from Halifax. Thiswas only three months after Jenny Lind’sfirst crossing.

The ATLANTIC’S sister ship, theARCTIC had a few good years and a goodreputation for fast Atlantic Oceancrossings. She hit a few rocks, but wasnot seriously damaged.

In September 1854, the ARCTICsailed from Liverpool to New York. Heavy

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fog along the US coast was treacherous.She sailed up to Newfoundland to get outof the fog.

The ARCTIC crashed into theschooner, VESTA in September, 1854 andwas totally destroyed. 365 people diedincluding all of the women and children.The men ran to the lifeboats first andmany of them survived. That was theworst US maritime disaster at that time.

The PACIFIC also came to a horribleend when its boiler exploded in the middleof the ocean in 1856. 320 passengers died.

Another bad omen! The White StarLine had built a 420 foot long new shipin 1871, again named the ATLANTIC. InMarch, 1873, the ATLANTIC ran out ofcoal due to rough seas. She crashed intothe rocks of Nova Scotia and 585 peoplelost their lives.

Jenny’s New York performance wasexquisite. Her first concert in the U.S.included beautiful songs by Bellini andRossini and “The Headsman’s Song,” alsoknown as the “Echo Song,” for whichJenny was most famous throughoutSweden and Europe.

Jenny spent a year in the U.S. on tour.Her upper class audience includedPresident Millard Fillmore, PoliticianHenry Clay, General Winfield Scott andauthors: Washington Irving, DanielWebster and Henry WadsworthLongfellow.

Jenny was on tour of many citiesincluding New York, Wilmington, Bostonand Richmond. The crowds formed longlines to purchase tickets. P. T. Barnumwas always the showman. Jenny and Mr.Barnum parted company because of

different expectations and promises. Thiswas in June, 1851 after her 93rd concertin their contract.

In less than a year, Barnum had made$535,000 and Jenny was paid $176,000.She donated $10,000 of her first concertto charity.

Jenny continued to tour with hertroupe and performed in Canada,Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Yorkand Connecticut, including Hartford andNew Haven.

Jenny Lind’s orchestra conductor,Julius Benedict, accepted a new positionand sailed back home to London. Jennywrote to her friend, Otto Goldschmidt, agifted German pianist and asked him tojoin her orchestra in the U.S. and heaccepted.

Jenny and Otto had long admiredeach other and were married in February,1852, in Boston. They returned to Europelater that year, sailing home on therepaired ATLANTIC. I wonder if sheknew about all of the safety risks of theCollins Steamship Line.

Jenny continued to perform through1883. She died on November 2, 1887 andwas buried in England. She was only 63years old.

Phineas T. Barnum was alwayslooking for promotional activities.Barnum purchased a copper plateengraving of Jenny’s likeness from aSwedish artist and promoted Jenny Lindfor six months prior to her arrival in NewYork..

At the time of Jenny’s arrival, therewere Jenny Lind shawls, Jenny Lindbonnets, Jenny Lind gloves, riding habits,mantillas, robes, chairs, sofas, and pianos.Jenny arrived to a splendid celebration ofthousands of fans.

One of the popular Jenny Lindsouvenirs was whiskey flasks. What agreat way to celebrate! At least six glasshouses created twelve styles of Jenny Lindflasks.

The Swedish copper plate image thatP.T. Barnum had was probably used bythe glass mold designers. Most of herportraits look similar.

Of the twelve styles of Jenny Lindflasks, one is a pint, two are quarts, andnine are calabashes. Calabash bottleswere popular in the 1850s. They werebasically spherical in shape at the bottom,attached to a very long and slender neck.A calabash is a tropical fruit which hangson a calabash tree, perhaps nine inches

in diameter and could be dried and usedas a dish.

The first Jenny Lind flask has herimage on the front and also has a bannerwith her name on it. She is surroundedby a wreath of lotus leaves. On the backof the flask there is an image of a factorybuilding. This is the FislervilleGlassworks. It was located in Fislerville,New Jersey, proprietor Jacob P. Fisler.Their glassworks was started in 1850 andwas shut down in 1856.

Thomas Stranger purchased a JennyLind flask mold in September of 1854from Samuel Huffsey, who owned a storein Philadelphia and was a broker for localglass factories, supplying equipment, toolsand materials. Thomas Stranger’s glassfactory was called the Isabella GlassFactory and was located in New Brooklyn,New Jersey.

WHAT SINGER JENNY LINDTAUGHT US

CENTURY MAGAZINE – May 1897Jenny Lind left deep impressions

upon her audience. She had fouroutstanding qualities in one person. Avoice unique in power, musical beauty, aswell as a dramatic quality. She had perfectmusicianship; unusual intellectualculture; and spirit of generosity, kindness;and high moral values. Jenny had insightinto a variety of emotions, especially inreligious music, possessed by her alone.

Jenny reviewed each song from theperspective of a Master Musician. Shedeveloped its dramatic possibilities as awoman of ardent temperament, enhanced

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by high social culture. Her owninner spirit developed a groupof expressions of an outstandinggracious character. The authorof this article was an artist, whowas profoundly impressed withJenny Lind.

Those people who havenever heard Jenny, are prone tothink that the hold which shepossesses upon the imaginationand spirit of those who have heard her isno proof of her greatness. She is stillsupreme in memory because she was thefirst great artist that sang to everyone.

Jenny Lind was different than allother great artists. She could not becompared with any other singer. Her artwas completely different in itspresentation. The people were veryexcited about Jenny.

Wherever she sang, every windowand roof for blocks from the concert hall,was packed with people waiting to watchher pass by. In America were similarscenes of London, where the frantic rushof fans fighting their way toward her, inthe concert hall had developed a newname: “The Jenny Lind Crush”

Jenny Lind united in her concertsthree fields of music usually quite distinct,and was equally excellent in all. She sangthe greatest of the oratorio arias, as wellas a variety of folk music. In all of hermusic their was a pathetic attribute in hervoice that vibrated in the feelings, oftento tears.

The author was a violinist, whoperformed with Jenny at Tripler Hall.Jenny had light blue eyes, and her hairwas natural Swedish blond. She gave theimpression of great dignity. Her mannerswere that of the nobility. Very simple,modest, and yet stately.

Jenny’s voice was a soprano, inrichness more like singer Parepa’s thanthat of any other modern singer. Her voicehad the timbre like a clarinet, penetratingand tearful and sweet.

When Jenny sang in Rochester,people paid for standing room in thearcade, across the hall from CorinthianHall. She possessed two qualities of voice– one somber, the second of a clear sunnyring, brilliant and sparkling.

Jenny Lind was a perfect opera singerfor Meyerbeer, whose strong friendshipwith her is well known. In her operaticsinging she threw herself with absoluteconcentration into each character, and

sang with alternate tendernessand fire of passionate intensity.

Jenny was a close friendof composer, Mendelssohn. Hehimself taught Jenny the spiritand expression of oratoriomusic. He quotes her as aMember of that ChurchInvisible, and delighted in hersplendid enthusiasm.

She was only fulfillinghis inspiration when she gave vent to theexaltation of artistic – religious feelingin such strains. “I Know That MyRedeemer Liveth”, she sang with such afever of religious passion that it caughtone up, as it seemed, into a heavenlyexperience.

Jenny’s presentation of music wasgrafted upon a religious nature so deepthat practical Christianity was the masterspring of her life. Jenny - a ballet danceras a child, a comedy actress in her teens,a highly passionate, and yet feminine inher tragic roles of opera - was in Americato be the daughter of a Lutheran Minister.

Jenny’s childlike sympathy ofcharacter came out so clearly in her balladsinging. She reveled in the ventriloquialdisplays of her bird song; she threw herselfwith delight into the homely lieds ofSweden.

No one ever heard her sing “HomeSweet Home” without crying. The qualityof tone as she sang the words wrung yourheart. She was perfectly original in all ofher songs.

The great power of her voice made itimpossible for her to equal the coloraturaof singers possessing a lighter timbre.This great voice she had under very highcultivation. She sang clearly without atremolo, and she could pass from the mosttremendous crescendo to the most delicatepianissimo. Her climax in singing“Agatha” was the acme of passion.

“I was present at Jenny Lind’s lastconcert. The late Mr. Scharfenberg, oneof New York’s pioneer musicians, satbeside me. ‘What do you think?’ I askedhim. ‘She will never sing again,’ heanswered. Glorious as her voice still was,there had come a veil over the upper tones,once so brilliant; the delicacy andsympathy were gone from the lower – theyhad become harsh and cold.

“I did not hear her voice in the futuretriumphs in oratorio of which herBiographers write so enthusiastically. Tomy mind, her fiery temperament, whichshe had thrown against her voice, hadworn her and her voice out together. TheAmerican Tour had destroyed her.”

– Henri Appi

WHAT JENNY LINDDID FOR AMERICA

Jenny Lind’s extensive travelthroughout America was quite successful.Her charitable contributions developed achain of many institutions where orphansand sick people were nurtured. Therapture of her music created a standard

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by which the success of every other artisthas been measured.

The tradition of her pure and noblewomanhood has remained to music abulwark against which the scandal andcorruption of the operatic and musicalworld has broken in vain.

In the memory of every person whoheard her, her singing has rung to the endof life as one perfect and sublimerevelation of the beauty and ecstasy ofmusic itself.

America owes Jenny one other andgreater debt that has never beenrecognized. She brought the musicaltemperament of America to an awakening.Her presence was the supreme momentin our national heritage, when youngAmerica, ardent, enthusiastic,impressible, heard and knew its owncapacity for musical feeling forever.

From that time it had received ordenied the world’s greatest artists, whotraveled here, great in its ownconsciousness of its artistic needs andtemperament.

In the preceding article, Mr. Appy hassummed up the musical attributes of JennyLind, and if we apply his analysis to theeffect of these gifts on ourselves, it willhelp us to see ourselves from the outside.

Our nation left home to plant itselfin the woods for a religious idea; thatfought for a moral idea, a bloody anddevastating Civil War. It builds its homeson an ideal of love, and has taught its sonsand daughters to believe that romance isa short word for the happy end of a trueaffection.

This is the world to which Jennysang. And since then, whatever followingmusicians may have had for other gifts, itis the idealist and the poet who havegathered the consent of the whole nation.No longer – America has idealized thecharacter of life and of every genius ithas loved from that day to this.

The second criterion of ourbehavior follows from the original.While Jenny was the one perfectsinger for the composer of “RobertLe Diable”, she was surely thegreatest interpreter of suchstrains.

It is a singer of religiousmusic that America lovesmost. She touched the masterchord of a profoundlyreligious people, and this isthe highest cause and

revelation of music, will be most potentto its temperament.

Hans Christian Anderson stated thatthrough her he had learned that one mustforget ones self in the service of theSupreme. “No books, no men, have hada more ennobling influence on me as apoet than Jenny Lind.” In fact, sherevered her own art, not only as amusician, but as a dramatic artist.

Jenny was clear in all of herinterpretations. She maintained herdramatic power in reserve, with areticence which none but the greatestartists are ever known to exercise. Thiswas at the predetermined situations inwhich she felt that it could be successfullyexhibited with logical consistency and thedeepest reverence for dramatic truth.

Her art is of a very intellectual nature.With this honesty, she brought HansChristian Anderson to tears, while onstage. It would be an exaggeration to saythat no American audience has everconfused blind temperament withdramatic expertise: but it is certain thatAmerica has never for very long mistakentemperamental excess for the ecstasydeveloped by such spiritual art as JennyLind’s.

The depth and intensity of passionatefeeling that America recognized in her,became the criterion of its future favor,and precisely a criterion of our nationitself. Less fire than her climax, moreapathy than her silence has never sinceconvinced. From then until now, everyartist who lived among us has been forcedby his listeners into greater heights anddepths in his effort to win his public.Without temperament, no one winsAmerican listeners.

Jenny had her greatest success whenshe captivated the musical world byexpressing the greatest types and

revelations of character. Her artisticdisplays were essentially normal,healthy and direct.

In “La Sonnambula”, her dignityand innocence convinced her listeners

and brought them to tears. Sheappealed to the very feelings and

emotions that not only are mostnatural, but are mostsedulously cultivated, inAmerican Women. LetAmerica sing her own song onthe high themes where first shefound her voice.

I have shown the choice

which Jenny made of the emotions, whichshe would impose on her listeners. Itallows that she was sincere. If she workedup a climax, she did it within the intentionof the composer. She could expresssympathy in a true manner. It was thecharacter of Jenny Lind behind her musicthat made her America’s Ideal.

Lastly – and this is the one truecharacteristic of the highest art, Jenny wasfull of sweetness and kindly light. Hermessage was optimistic. Thecharacteristics presented in this article arethose of the very heart of Americantemperament, and that has determined thesuccess of every visiting artist. Let themspeak simply and directly and we willlisten.

References:Smith, Fanny Morris. Century

Magazine, May, 1897.

Photos:Figure 1: 1847 painting of Jenny Lind

by R. J. Lane, Esq.Figure 2: Steamship “Jenny Lind”

painted by Bard Bros., 1850.Figure 3: 1850 lithograph of Jenny

Lind, Bard, N.Y..Figure 4: 1850 daguerreotype by Root.Figure 5: Queen Victoria (with the

Prince of Wales) painting, 1846.Figure 6: Kovel’s Antique Bottles

Price Guide, Jenny Lind flasks, 1985.Figure 7: Jenny Lind flask, Glass

Works Auction.

Fig. 7

Donald Yates8300 River Corners RoadHomerville, OH 44235donaldbetsyyates@earthlink.net