The Kingdom of Denslow Island (Bermuda): W.W. Denslow’s early 20th century fantasy of a mid-north-west Atlantic micronation
William Wallace Denslow (1856–1915) was an American illustrator best known for his collaborations with the author L. Frank Baum, especially on the latter’s most famous creation, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), which was adapted for the stage in 1902 (and later made famous through MGM’s 1939 film adaptation). While Denslow created a number of subsequent comic strip stories and illustrated books, his primary income was from royalties from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. In 1903 he published a lavishly illustrated, full-page text (reproduced below as Figure 1) giving context to the following proclamation:
By order of King Denslow I,
Monarch of Denslow Island and Protector of the Coral ReefsOn Friday, January 15th, in the year of Our Lord 1904 and of the reign of our Glorious Majesty the First, the faithful subjects of the King will assemble at the foot of Christopher Street [in Manhattan] to send their monarch on his way, whence he will take his triumphant march to his newly-acquired lands in the country of perpetual summer, the same being Denslow Island among the Bermudas.
There he will open the palace of the King with due ceremony, christening its portals with a whole bottle of drawing ink and inscribing on the sill the magic emblem of his dynasty, the sea horse.
Given the 17th December 1903 in New York. DENSLOW I, King, Captain, Admiral of His Majesty’s Navy, Chief Steward and Keeper of Accounts.
Whether an any such assembly occurred or not, Denslow travelled to Bermuda in early 1904, settled on what was then called Dyer’s Island, in the sheltered Grand Sound (Figure 2), renamed it Denslow Island and built a turreted house as his “palace” (Figure 3). While he eventually purchased the island in 1910, his stay there was short-lived as he lost money on a Broadway musical inspired by his Bermudan sojourn in 1910 and had to sell the property shortly after. There is no evidence that Denslow attempted to assert or exercise any micronational powers during his ownership of the island and, similarly, no evidence of any reaction from British colonial authorities over having a putative micronation established within the colony. As such, the enterprise was principally an imaginary one but, nevertheless, merits a footnote in the histories of island micronationalities.
A detailed account of Denslow’s involvement with Bermuda (including his micronational ambitions), written by Michelle Farrell in 2020, is online at: https://michelle-farrell.com/w-w-denslow/
(Philip Hayward, Editor — Shima)
References:
- Baum, L.F. & Denslow, W.W. (1900) The wonderful wizard of Oz. George M. Hill
- Bernews (2013, March 9) “Oz” artist Denslow: The who would be king [sic]. https://bernews.com/2013/03/the-oz-artist-who-would-be-king-in-bermuda/
- Denslow, W.W. (1904, February 18). An American king on a Bermuda Island. The North American (Philadelphia): n.p.
- Farrell, M. (2020, February 28). The Oz artist as king: W.W. Denslow’s Bermuda fairy tale. https://michelle-farrell.com/w-w-denslow/
Figures:
Figure 1 — Reproduction of Denslow’s announcement in The North American, February 18, 1904.
Figure 2 — Bluck’s Island (formerly Dyer’s Island) in Bermuda’s Great Sound (indicated by pin) (Google Maps, 2023).
Figure 3 — Early 20th Century postcard of Denslow’s Island and his yacht ‘The Wizard’ (Bermnews, 2013).