page_title: Frederick Coombs
section_title: Early life and career
hierarchical_section_title: Frederick Coombs / Early life and career
caption_attribution_description: English: Ambling along Montgomery Street showing Bummer &amp; Lazarus, Emperor Norton I. and Frederick Coombs aka George Washington II.
context_page_description: Frederick Coombs was an eccentric who lived in San Francisco in the 19th century and believed himself to be George Washington. For a time he was as popular a figure as Joshua A. Norton, the "Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico", and his deeds were reported in the local newspapers. He left the city after a feud with Norton, who he thought was jealous of his "reputation with the fairer sex" and moved to New York City.
context_section_description: Little is known of his early life. According to his own account, he was born in England in 1803. Coombs was apparently a phrenologist by trade, though he was also an accomplished photographer, daguerreotypist, inventor, and possibly a marriage broker. He had travelled throughout the west during the 1830s giving demonstrations of phrenology, apparently accompanied by a giant and a dwarf, and published at least one book on the subject, Popular Phrenology in 1841. in which the features of George Washington's skull are praised on the introductory page. He was interested in railways and designed a type of electric locomotive that enjoyed some minor success as a curiosity but was never put into large scale production. In 1848 he visited England where he obtained some commissions for the use of his engine, and claimed to have received a proposition to supply his engine to the Russians. He spent five years in England before returning to the United States.
caption: Ambling along Montgomery Street. Coombs is the portly figure in the center of the picture.
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