Mr N.C. Goodwin Jr. Professor Pygmalionwhiffles: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This colored print depicts people lined up to enter a theater whose side wall is lined with posters. The center poster shows Mr. N. C. Goodwin Jr. as Professor Pygmalionwhiffles, seated in a chair. Other posters advertise Goodwin's Froliques.

Nathaniel Carl Goodwin (1857-1919) was an American actor and vaudeville performer. He was born in Boston and worked as a shop clerk before making his first stage appearance as a newsboy in Law in New York in 1874. He spent several years working as a mimic and in musicals, including an appearance as the eccentric Professor Pygmalion Whiffles in an 1879 play called Hobbies. He also created his own farcical comedy show called Froliques with his wife Eliza Weathersby. His reputation as a comic performer was boosted by his role in the hit production A Gilded Fool in 1892, but the following year he proved he could take on serious roles as well, appearing as the sheriff Jim Rayburn in In Mizzoura. Although initially associated with a bawdy burlesque style, over the years Goodwin would win growing praise for more polished and restrained performances. His attempts at Shakespearean roles such as Bottom and Shylock were considered failures, but he won acclaim for his portrayal of the thieving Fagin in a 1912 adaptation of Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist. In 1878, he helped found the Boston Elks Lodge and went on to become one of America's first sports agents, representing a Boston baseball player named Mike "King" Kelly. He also served on the governing committee of the Actors Amateur Athletic Association of America. Later in life Goodwin owned a restaurant and cabaret called Cafe Nat Goodwin in Santa Monica, California.

There is no information available about the lithographer for this print.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date made: n.d.
• depicted: Goodwin, Jr., Nathaniel C.
• maker: unknown
• Object Name: chromolithograph
• Object Type: Chromolithograph
• Physical Description: paper (overall material)
• Physical Description: ink (overall material)
• Measurements: image: 21 in x 33 3/4 in; 53.34 cm x 85.725 cm
• place made: World
• depicted: Costume
• depicted: Land Transportation
• referenced: Comic prints
• depicted: Flowers
• depicted: Furnishings
• depicted: Architecture, Commercial Buildings
• depicted: Walking
• referenced: Theater
• ID Number: DL.60.3023
• catalog number: 60.3023
• accession number: 228146
• Credit Line: Harry T. Peters "America on Stone" Lithography Collection
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.