was she who made the public appeals and
announcements through the press when the question of a National Soldiers' Home was agitated.
In the history of Milwaukee, published in 1881,
AMADA L. AIKENS.
there is a long account of her various labors for suffering humanity in that time of strife and bloodshed, the War for the Union. She has traveled extensively in Europe, and her newspaper letters were really art criticisms of a high order. She was one of the most enthusiastic and successful of those who raised money in Wisconsin for the Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, for the purpose of admitting women on equal terms with men. She helped largely in organizing the first Woman's Republican Club of Wisconsin, and was a State delegate to the National Conference of Charities when it met in Baltimore. In 1891 she read a paper before the State Conference of Charities in Madison, Wis. Mrs. Aikens had much to do with the introduction of cooking into the public schools of Milwaukee. She has been identified for fifteen years as an officer or director with the Art Science Class, a literary organization for the purpose of developing a taste in architecture, painting, sculpture, and science. One-hundred-fifty ladies belong to this class, and it has done more for the direct education of women in the arts
and sciences than any other society in the State. There are few, if any, interests of importance in the matter of advancement for women in her city or her State with which Mrs Aikens has not been more or less identified. She is known to be a talented woman in the literary sense of the word, a loyal wife, a devoted mother, and a philanthropist of the truest and tenderest type.
ALBANI, Mme. Emma, operatic singer, born in Chambly, near Montreal, Province of Quebec, Canada, in 1851. Her maiden name was Marie Emma La Jeunesse. Her parents were French-Canadians, descendants of Frenchmen that settled in Canada long before the conquest. Her father was a musician, a professor of the harp, and he conducted her early musical studies. In 1856 the family removed to Montreal, where Emma entered the convent school of Notre Dame de Sacré Cœur. There she studied singing. In 1863, when she was twelve years old, she went on a starring tour with her sister. She made her first appearance in Albany, N. Y., and displayed the vocal and dramatic endowments that have since made her famous. In 1864 her family removed to Albany, where she was engaged to sing in the Roman Catholic cathedral. The bishop was so impressed by her talent that he urged her father to send her abroad for training. A public concert was given in Albany to raise money to enable her to go to Europe. Accompanied by her father, she went to Paris, remaining two years with the Baroness Lafitte, to study under Duprez, and next went to Milan, Italy, where she was trained by Lamperti. In 1870 she sang in Messina with success, and was at once engaged for Malta. She adopted the stage-name "Albani," in remembrance of Albany, whose citizens had been her generous friends and patrons. In 1871 she sang at the theater La Pergola, in Florence. Italy, where she created successfully the rôle of Mignon in Ambroise Thomas's opera, which had been condemned in four Italian theaters. In 1872 she made her first appearance in England, at the Royal Italian Opera in London, where she made an extraordinary success as Amina in "La Sonnambula." She strengthened her reputation by her presentation of Lucia, Marta, Gilda, and Linda. In November, 1872, she sang as Amina in Paris
with marked success. She returned to London and was enthusiastically received. There she
EMMA ALBANI.
added Ophelia to her list of triumphs. In 1874 she revived Mignon. In the winter of 1874-5, she made a successful tour of the United States. In May, 1875, she was again in London,
