Joshua Abraham Norton ("c." 1819 - January 8, 1880), also known as His Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton I, was a celebrated citizen of San Francisco, California who proclaimed himself "Emperor of these United States" and later "Protector of Mexico" in 1859. Born in London, Norton spent most of his early life in South Africa; he emigrated to San Francisco in 1849 after receiving a bequest of $40,000 from his father's estate. Wikipedia
So much has been written about Emperor Norton, and interest in this ninteenth-century character continues into the twenty-first century. www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/norton.html
Oh ye frameless person, the Emperor takes pity on you and presents this cluttered, but frameless version of his proclamations www.notfrisco.com/nortoniana/
The definitive Wikipedia entry for Joshua A. Norton. Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_A._Norton
See the Norton Archive for more. Many of the decrees attributed to Norton I were fakes; written in jest by newspaper editors at the time for amusement, or for political purposes. www.zpub.com/sf/history/nort.html
More than a century after a quirky San Francisco character who called himself Emperor Norton I ordered a bridge be built spanning the bay, a move is under way to name the later-day Bay Bridge in his honor. www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/12/15/M...
and each constituted a larger part of Norton's campaign to enhance community spirit with over-the-top fanfare and not-so-subtle nonsense. www.rotten.com/library/bio/royalty/america/emperor-norton/
