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This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the
United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions.
This article is part of WikiProject Theatre, a
WikiProject dedicated to coverage of
theatre on Wikipedia. To participate: Feel free to edit the article attached to this page, join up at the
project page, or contribute to the
project discussion.TheatreWikipedia:WikiProject TheatreTemplate:WikiProject TheatreTheatre articles
A fact from George Kunkel (theatre manager) appeared on Wikipedia's
Main Page in the Did you know column on 4 July 2024 (
check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that actor George Kunkel(pictured) portrayed in
blackface the character of
Uncle Tom, using it at first to promote slavery during the American Civil War but later to attack it, after his views had changed?
@
4meter4: The Baltimore Museum Theatre is probably the 1830 building of the
Peale Museum, Baltimore, on Calvert Street and Baltimore Street, which is barely mentioned in that article.
Google books confirms that the Jenny Lind Theatre, San Francisco was named for opera star Jenny Lind. However the mention of the Jenny Lind Theatre is not cited in the article.
@
TSventon Unfortunately, I can neither confirm or deny whether the theatre was in the Peale Museum. It's possible the theatre was a
dime museum which is why the word museum was in the theatre's title along the lines of the
Boylston Museum in Boston, or as you guess, it may have been part of a reputable museum like the Peale along the line of the
Boston Museum (theatre). The Maryland Center For History and Culture has a folder containing artifacts on the theatre during the early 1850s (
https://mdhistory.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/archival_objects/12213); and that would be where I would physically go if I were doing original research to start piecing together details about the theatre's location, etc. I can't provide any more illumination.
As for the other theatre, the Jenny Lind Theatre being referred to is in Washington D.C. according to his obituary in the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer (cited in the article). I believe (but can not definitively prove which is why I avoided addressing it) it is the 1850-1857 building of the
National Theatre in Washington D.C. which was possibly christened the "Jenny Lind Theatre" during the 1850s (Lind opened the newly rebuilt 1850 National theatre after the original national burned; it too burned in 1857.). Kunkel recalls managing a Jenny Lind Theatre at the time that it was destroyed by fire that was on the same property as the then standing National Theatre in D.C. in an interview published in "Early Minstrelsy". Saint Paul Daily Globe. June 1, 1884. p. 11. My guess is that it is was the 1857 fire of the rebuilt National Theatre that had possibly been re-named for Lind during the 1850s. It's the only thing that fits the evidence, and if I were writing for a journal I could make that argument; but this is getting into
WP:OR.
4meter4 (
talk)
15:26, 25 June 2024 (UTC)reply
@
4meter4: Google books has a number of sources which connect Kunkel and the 1830 Baltimore Museum, e.g. Maryland: A Guide to the Old Line State (1976, p. 145) "The Baltimore Museum , which had housed Rembrandt Peale's collection of theatrical portraits , was first opened as a theater by Edmund Peale in 1844 ; it was later known as Kunkel's Ethiopian Opera House ." It continues "the theater became rather disreputable in its last years".
The article only mentions the Jenny Lind Theatre in the lead and doesn't say where it was. It would be helpful to add Washington and the citation.
TSventon I think Slout's spelling is best; although some newspaper articles used the other spelling. There wasn't uniformity in spelling at that point in America. I also added a note on Ford's Theatre and John T. Ford per your suggestion.
4meter4 (
talk)
19:01, 25 June 2024 (UTC)reply
@
TSventon I found a source confirming it was indeed the National Theatre. I replaced the Jenny Lind Theatre with that and a cited reference. I did leave a note about Kunkel referring the the National Theatre fire as the Jenny Lind Theatre. Lind sang for the opening the National in 1850 so I wouldn't doubt that some people would have called it the Jenny Lind Theatre during that period.
4meter4 (
talk)
17:57, 27 June 2024 (UTC)reply
@
4meter4:, thank you, the original queries came from
FloridaArmy, so I have added a template to confirm that. My main interest, having written
Peale's Philadelphia Museum is to link mentions of the Peale museums where appropriate, so I will probably link Baltimore Museum Theatre to
Peale Museum#History, once I have added some information about the Calvert Street and Baltimore Street building there.
TSventon (
talk)
18:26, 27 June 2024 (UTC)reply
Did you know nomination
The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as
this nomination's talk page,
the article's talk page or
Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.
... that blackface actor George Kunkel(pictured) originally portrayed the character of
Uncle Tom to promote slavery during the American Civil War, but later used the part to attack it when his views changed?
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to
join the project and
contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the
documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the
United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions.
This article is part of WikiProject Theatre, a
WikiProject dedicated to coverage of
theatre on Wikipedia. To participate: Feel free to edit the article attached to this page, join up at the
project page, or contribute to the
project discussion.TheatreWikipedia:WikiProject TheatreTemplate:WikiProject TheatreTheatre articles
A fact from George Kunkel (theatre manager) appeared on Wikipedia's
Main Page in the Did you know column on 4 July 2024 (
check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that actor George Kunkel(pictured) portrayed in
blackface the character of
Uncle Tom, using it at first to promote slavery during the American Civil War but later to attack it, after his views had changed?
@
4meter4: The Baltimore Museum Theatre is probably the 1830 building of the
Peale Museum, Baltimore, on Calvert Street and Baltimore Street, which is barely mentioned in that article.
Google books confirms that the Jenny Lind Theatre, San Francisco was named for opera star Jenny Lind. However the mention of the Jenny Lind Theatre is not cited in the article.
@
TSventon Unfortunately, I can neither confirm or deny whether the theatre was in the Peale Museum. It's possible the theatre was a
dime museum which is why the word museum was in the theatre's title along the lines of the
Boylston Museum in Boston, or as you guess, it may have been part of a reputable museum like the Peale along the line of the
Boston Museum (theatre). The Maryland Center For History and Culture has a folder containing artifacts on the theatre during the early 1850s (
https://mdhistory.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/archival_objects/12213); and that would be where I would physically go if I were doing original research to start piecing together details about the theatre's location, etc. I can't provide any more illumination.
As for the other theatre, the Jenny Lind Theatre being referred to is in Washington D.C. according to his obituary in the Wheeling Daily Intelligencer (cited in the article). I believe (but can not definitively prove which is why I avoided addressing it) it is the 1850-1857 building of the
National Theatre in Washington D.C. which was possibly christened the "Jenny Lind Theatre" during the 1850s (Lind opened the newly rebuilt 1850 National theatre after the original national burned; it too burned in 1857.). Kunkel recalls managing a Jenny Lind Theatre at the time that it was destroyed by fire that was on the same property as the then standing National Theatre in D.C. in an interview published in "Early Minstrelsy". Saint Paul Daily Globe. June 1, 1884. p. 11. My guess is that it is was the 1857 fire of the rebuilt National Theatre that had possibly been re-named for Lind during the 1850s. It's the only thing that fits the evidence, and if I were writing for a journal I could make that argument; but this is getting into
WP:OR.
4meter4 (
talk)
15:26, 25 June 2024 (UTC)reply
@
4meter4: Google books has a number of sources which connect Kunkel and the 1830 Baltimore Museum, e.g. Maryland: A Guide to the Old Line State (1976, p. 145) "The Baltimore Museum , which had housed Rembrandt Peale's collection of theatrical portraits , was first opened as a theater by Edmund Peale in 1844 ; it was later known as Kunkel's Ethiopian Opera House ." It continues "the theater became rather disreputable in its last years".
The article only mentions the Jenny Lind Theatre in the lead and doesn't say where it was. It would be helpful to add Washington and the citation.
TSventon I think Slout's spelling is best; although some newspaper articles used the other spelling. There wasn't uniformity in spelling at that point in America. I also added a note on Ford's Theatre and John T. Ford per your suggestion.
4meter4 (
talk)
19:01, 25 June 2024 (UTC)reply
@
TSventon I found a source confirming it was indeed the National Theatre. I replaced the Jenny Lind Theatre with that and a cited reference. I did leave a note about Kunkel referring the the National Theatre fire as the Jenny Lind Theatre. Lind sang for the opening the National in 1850 so I wouldn't doubt that some people would have called it the Jenny Lind Theatre during that period.
4meter4 (
talk)
17:57, 27 June 2024 (UTC)reply
@
4meter4:, thank you, the original queries came from
FloridaArmy, so I have added a template to confirm that. My main interest, having written
Peale's Philadelphia Museum is to link mentions of the Peale museums where appropriate, so I will probably link Baltimore Museum Theatre to
Peale Museum#History, once I have added some information about the Calvert Street and Baltimore Street building there.
TSventon (
talk)
18:26, 27 June 2024 (UTC)reply
Did you know nomination
The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as
this nomination's talk page,
the article's talk page or
Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.
... that blackface actor George Kunkel(pictured) originally portrayed the character of
Uncle Tom to promote slavery during the American Civil War, but later used the part to attack it when his views changed?