Jenny Lind, dubbed "The Swedish Nightingale" by P. T. Barnum, was born in 1820 in Stockholm, played piano at four, starred in her first important opera at 17 and was enticed by Barnum to perform in the United States on a nationwide tour in 1850.

With a keen aptitude for music, she attended the Royal Theater School to study piano, voice, acting, languages and dance. Her melodious soprano voice was unique and she soon became the most prominent and popular singer throughout Europe, later gaining the reputation as the greatest artistic performer in the world .

When Jenny Lind arrived in New York Harbor Sept. 1, 1850, aboard the steamship Atlantic, she was greeted by nearly 40,000 people who had been lured to the docks by Barnum's renown skills of press manipulation.

The singer's opening concert was to take place in New York City's Castle Garden and Barnum continued his promotion by auctioning off the first ticket, which was purchased for $225 by a local hatter, John Genin. Others subsequently were sold for more than $650 apiece.

Audiences in Jenny Lind's year-long concert tour included the rich and famous, including President Millard Fillmore, General Winfield Scott, politician Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Washington Irving and other notables. Throughout the tour to cities, towns and hamlets, near-riots broke out as fans crowded music halls, theaters and other performance sites, pushing to purchase tickets and protesting the high cost.

After considerable differences over tour management and arrangements, Barnum and Jenny Lind parted company following a concert May 24, 1852. He had grossed $712,000 and she had received more than $175,000 in less than a year.

In 1852, Jenny Lind married Otto Goldschmidt, her German accompanist and they settled in England. She last sang in public in 1883 and died Nov. 2, 1887.