Signs of the Times: Nantucket Signs Exhibition of the Nantucket Historical Association

42 Centre Street
Jenny Lind Wiedman
1920s

Originally owned by Jenny Lind Wiedman, this Centre Street dress shop and variety store was later owned by Mrs. A. L. B. Fisher. The name of the store (and the given name of its first owner) derives from the famous Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind, who dazzled American audiences with her “warbling cadenzas” in an 1850s tour promoted by P. T. Barnum. Jenny Lind later became the popular subject of ships’ figurehead carvings and signs.