The Extinction of the Nightingale

There’s a theme, so far, on this blog - focusing about lesser known and/or underappreciated aspects of history. One example of this is my post about Building 7.

Another such, vastly underappreciated, story - is that of the Swedish Nightingale - Jenny Lind.

Europe

Lind, a prolific opera singer, was born in Sweden in 1820 and started singing at the age of 10. After spending time singing and touring in Sweden and Denmark; during the 1840’s she traveled to Germany and Britain, gaining large popularity throughout Europe for her amazing performances and stunning voice.

America

In 1849, P.T. Barnum approached Lind and proposed a large American tour. The tour would be 150 concerts over 18 months throughout the United States. While she did not finish the tour under Barnum’s management, we know that she made at least $350,000 (approx. $11 million in 2024 dollars) for the 93 concerts she did with Barnum and likely a similar rate for the remaining events.

Cash

Considering the above figure for just 93 of the concerts - and assuming she netted about the same from the rest (although it’s likely to be more since it was under her management) - it would have been about $564,000 (about $18.5 million in 2024 dollars).

Considering this amount from just the American tour - it’s likely that she made at the very least 1.5 million (about $50 million in 2024 dollars) in all. This made her, solidly, a multi-millionaire - exceptionally rich, especially for the time.

Unique

One of the unique characteristics of Lind was her incredible donations to charity throughout her life. While always donating heavily to charity, she donated all of the proceeds from her large American tour. Of her contributions to charity - her largest was funding free schooling in Sweden - many schools being established with the funds from this tour. It’s important to remember that free schooling was exceptionally rare in this time.

In addition, she donated across Europe and America to help people with less means get access to music, healthcare, schooling; and to various religious institutions.

Extinct

These contributions put Lind on a list of ~9 or so exceedingly wealthy individuals that actually donated at least 50% of their wealth during their time alive, in history — extremely unselfish versus the rest of the elites. By the way, she was also the first person to do so - from what I can find after searching.

The last person who has donated 50%+ of their wealth and has been worth at least as much as Lind - was born in 1945. The amount of people worth that much since 1945 has grown and the rate of growth is increasing.

Are these great works - for others and forgoing self, in which Jenny Lind demonstrated, something of the past — extinct?