Stage jewelry worn by Lillian Nordica is displayed Aug. 24 at the Nordica Homestead Museum in Farmington. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser
FARMINGTON — The Nordica Homestead Museum is expecting gifts presented to world-renowned opera singer Lillian Nordica from a Russian czar, adding to its impressive collection of jewelry, gowns and other memorabilia owned by “the world’s first superstar.”
It’s one of two recent developments at the museum off Holly Road where the famed singer and entrepreneur Lillian Norton was born in 1857.
“We are anticipating an acquisition of artifacts from the czar of Russia gifted to Nordica, which are scheduled to arrive in late August or early September,” Curator Crystal Williams said.
“Several very exciting things have happened, including recent publication in Chrysler Magazine regarding Lillian Nordica: Identifying for the first time the woman in Tiffany’s window at the Chrysler Museum of Art, ‘Woman In Pergola with Wisteria’ as Lillian Nordica!” Williams wrote in an email. The curator of glass from the museum visited the homestead last summer and began building her case to prove it, she wrote.
“Trip Advisor refers to us as one of the best small museums, (but) people in Farmington don’t really know who we are,” Williams said during an interview Aug. 24. “That’s really sad.”
Open since 1928, the museum sits on 114 acres with walking trails and picnic tables. Inside is a collection of her stage jewelry, gowns, a replica of an opera house and a library with 300 books, among other artifacts.
A replica of an opera house with curtains that open and close is displayed at Nordica Homestead Museum off the Holley Road in Farmington. A tour of the museum Aug. 24 provided a glimmer of what life was like for Lillian Nordica, the “world’s first true superstar” according to museum Curator Crystal Williams. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser
Williams has been curator for eight years and it has taken her three years to do an inventory and still has about 14 boxes of documents and photos to get to.
The homestead was built in 1840.
“When Lillian was 4 years old, she was living here, they were very poor,” Williams said. “There was a woman living across the way and she reads little Lillian’s palm and tells her, ‘You will sail the seven seas and kings and queens shall bow before you.’ That is exactly what happened.”
Lillian was sometimes referred to as ‘repeat’ after she was named for an older sister who died before turning 3, Williams said. Her sister Wilhemina was supposed to be the singer in the family, but she also died.
Nordica graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music and during her career traveled with 47 trunks, one for each of her gowns, and an entourage of 10, including three Pinkerton bodyguards, Williams said. Her gowns and jewelry would be valued at $28 million in today’s market, she noted.
Nordica weighed 50 pounds more because of the weight of her costumes, wigs and jewelry. Her first stage and personal gowns were designed by Fredrick Worth of Paris, France, later ones were made in America.
In 1878, Patrick Gilmore paid $100 per week for Nordica and her mother to tour, an astronomical amount in those days, Williams said. Nordica, who could sing in Italian, French, German and Russian, did so much more than opera, she noted.
“Lillian performed 47 roles at the Metropolitan Opera, did it all and did it well,” Williams said.
Nordica was crowned “America’s Songbird” or “Queen of Song,” she said. “She was truly the first superstar in the world at a time when there were no radios. She was a pretty remarkable gal.”
And she was well-dressed. The Czar of Russia gave her a gown with diamonds in it, and she had numerous furs and permission from royalty to copy their jewelry.
At one point she lost all her money and struggled for years. She had jewelry but didn’t know where she would get potatoes to eat the next day, Williams said.
Two gowns worn by singer Lillian Nordica are among the items displayed Aug. 24 at the Nordica Homestead Museum off the Holley Road in Farmington. The world-famous opera singer traveled with 47 trunks, one for each gown. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser
Nordica had no children, loved animals and traveled with them, Williams said. “She had her own railway car named The Brunhilde, which was her famous role. She put 10,000 miles on that thing.”
Coca-Cola used Nordica in its first big advertising campaign because “the entire world knew who she was,” Williams said. “There is a very interesting online article on how Coke is now using Taylor Swift but 100 years prior, they used our Lillian in spite of the fact she had been married three times.”
Nordica was quite the entrepreneur, too, Williams said. “She developed a weight-loss powder. Lillian diets off 20 pounds, appears at the Met, has this beautiful black velvet gown and her product flies off the shelf,” she said.
“It would sell for $215 in today’s market,” she said. “The copy for it was hilarious: ‘No vulgar exercise or diet, just put it in your tub!'”
Crystal Williams, curator of the Nordica Homestead Museum in Farmington, holds a Coca-Cola ad from more than a century ago on Aug. 24. It features opera singer Lillian Nordica of Farmington, who the company chose as its spokesperson because she was so well known. Pam Harnden/Livermore Falls Advertiser
Nordica also did a lot for women’s rights, particularly child labor laws, Williams noted. In 1905 an article in the New York Times shared how unfeminine it would be if women had rights and Nordica defended it beautifully, she said.
“It was quite controversial,” Williams said. “I didn’t realize how many women were against that and how much child labor was involved in that. It was terrible.”
Nordica gave her last performance in what is now Nordica Auditorium at the University of Maine Farmington, Williams said.
After being shipwrecked off Australia for three days in 1914, Nordica became terribly ill and died due to the primitive conditions, Williams said. She had 10 homes at the time of her death, by all accounts remained generous and kind, and never became a diva.
“It’s very telling,” she noted.
Her sisters bought the homestead and gave it to her as a present in 1905, but it left the family following her death in 1914 and 14 years of fighting with her third husband, Williams said. “During the Great Depression, 10 of the good people of Farmington got together and purchased this homestead and it’s been open since 1928. That just amazes me.”
When World War II started, Ben Stinchfield of New York City championed the Nordica Homestead Museum, rallied still-living opera singers and petitioned the U.S. Navy to name a ship after Nordica, Williams said. “She was a woman but it happened and they built the SS Lillian Nordica in South Portland. A liberty ship, it survived all skirmishes and every sailor came home safely,” she said.
“Her life reads like an opera,” Williams noted. “Lillian was so much more than opera.”
The museum is open by appointment through December and charges $5 per person. Books about Nordica, T-shirts and other memorabilia are offered for sale. Home-school groups may arrange tours throughout the year. At Christmastime, pictures with Santa Claus may be taken for a donation.
For more information or to schedule a tour, email lilliannordica@gmail.com.
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