Among the professional and personal papers of Sir George Dancer Thane (1850-1930), who was Professor of Anatomy at UCL between 1877 and 1919, we find a set of papers and documents relating to the life of his daughter Vendla Harriett Matilda Thane (1885-1976). These boxes unveil a number of items on the Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind (1820-1887) who, following a successful international career in the first half of the nineteenth century, settled in London in 1855. The link between Professor Thane and Jenny Lind, also known as the ‘Swedish nightingale’, is Thane’s wife, Jenny Klingberg or Lady Thane (1856-1944), daughter of August Klingberg of Stockholm and goddaughter of the famous singer herself. Lady Thane’s memories of Jenny Lind – featured here alongside some of the newspaper cuttings she collected on the singer – were published in the Harrow Observer and Gazette on 6 August 1926.

Location: UCL Special Collections, MS ADD 298/2/14