The archive collection comprises material concerning the life of the Swedish soprano Jenny Lind, collected with a biographical purpose by her husband Otto Goldschmidt (formerly Professor of Piano and Vice-Principal of the Royal Academy of Music).

Jenny Lind and Queen Victoria

Holland and Rockstro's biography was dedicated to Queen Victoria, who enjoyed many Lind performances, both private and public. In the following copy of a letter to Jenny Lind (29 June, 1847), Prince Albert's Secretary conveys Queen Victoria's wish to hear Donizetti or Bellini, rather than Meyerbeer:

Passages of praise from Queen Victoria's personal diary were included in the biography (in diplomatic paraphrase) following careful negotiations with Sir Theodore Martin, the Queen's Private Secretary. On 12 March, 1890, Martin wrote to William Rockstro, conveying permission to publish the Queen's comments:

Jenny Lind and Felix Mendelssohn

As a young man of sixteen, Goldschmidt attended a memorable performance by Jenny Lind, at the Leipzig Gewandhaus, on 4 December, 1845. Mendelssohn accompanied her on the piano.

Mendelssohn's death, in 1847, affected Lind deeply. The depth of her feelings for Mendelssohn – and Goldschmidt's sensitivity to the publication of her feelings in his wife's biography – is apparent from material in the archive. Some of Lind's remarks were judged by Goldschmidt to be inappropriate for publication. In the margin of a copy of a letter from Lind to her friend Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer, Goldschmidt has marked a particular passage, in which Lind expresses her grief, "Private and confidential". The passage was omitted from the letter when it was published in the biography: "Would I were on the only spot of the earth where I love to let my thoughts stray! But – the sea rolls between me and his grave! There lies my music – my poetry – my art – my purest joy, my lost joy":

On 11 July, 1849, Lind wrote, from Schlangenbad, to newly-widowed Cécile Mendelssohn. Again, we can see Goldschmidt's marginal annotations ("Private for editors" and "to be copied into book by myself / OG"):

Marriage

Following Lind's performance at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1845, Goldschmidt and Lind's professional paths were to cross again at a Benefit Concert for Brompton Hospital, in the Great Concert Room of Her Majesty's Theatre, London, 31 July, 1848. Goldschmidt played two pieces by Mendelssohn. "Mr Goldschmidt had been introduced to Mdlle Lind, and she very much wished to give him the opportunity of appearing at her concert. But, she had not heard him play; and did not think it wise to render herself responsible for the début of a young artist, until she had made herself acquainted with the style of his performance. She therefore invited him to play to her at Clairville; and it was after having heard him there, that she requested his assistance at the concert." (Holland and Rockstro, Vol II, 227)

Lind gave several concerts in Hamburg in the winter of 1849, "and one of these, with full orchestra, in the Grosse Tonhalle on November 22nd was given by Mr Otto Goldschmidt, of whom she saw a good deal at this time. They did much music together. He played and she sang; the memory of Mendelssohn was a common bond between them" (Holland and Rockstro, Vol II, 357).

On 17 January 1850, Goldschmidt travelled from Hamburg to Lübeck, where Lind sang at a seasonal Children's Ball. At the foot of a copy of a letter from Lind to Amalia Wichmann (12 January, 1850), Goldschmidt has added a personal annotation: "I was present at this ball & danced many a time with Jenny"

In May 1851, towards the end of her long and very successful American tour, Lind invited Goldschmidt to New York to replace her musical director and piano accompanist, who had returned to London. Within a year, Goldschmidt and Lind had married, in Boston, Massachusetts, on 5 February, 1852. The Boston Transcript (6 February) colourfully reported that "the nightingale is mated". The newspaper cutting conveys something of the American impact of her marriage. By the following day, "there was not a beau or a belle, within fifty miles of Boston, who did not know the news":