From the SeaCoast NH.com "Saga of the Jenny Linn figurehead" by J. Dennis Robinson.
Her triumphant arrival and tour of the United States in the early 1850s was quite the bit like the coming of the British Invasion Beatles a 110 years later for those of you who know nothing of the saga of Jenny Linn.
Jenny Lind was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1820 and lived a poor life as a child, but by her early 20s had become the toast of Europe as the soprano "Nightingale." Rather plain-looking and painfully shy, she turned down a marriage offer from author Hans Christian Anderson. Legend has it that he penned "The Ugly Duckling" in her honor. Jenny toured Europe with composer Felix Mendelssohn, whom she fell in love with, but he was married.
People mobbed her concerts. She was very popular.
So popular that all this attracted the attention of one P.T. Barnum, who brought her to the United States in 1850. Essentially, he had the role of Ed Sullivan and the Beatles. She performed in over 100 concerts in the United States. She was bigger than all of Barnum's acts that came before her and they were quite popular. That would include the midget Tom Thumb, Jumbo the Elephant and even Chang and Eng, the famed Siamese Twins.
That is surely saying a lot.
--Old B-Lind
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