The start of summer vacation in 1844 was bittersweet for the girls in Edgren’s school. The school was closing, and decisions had to be made for the fall semester. The girls who had been boarding with the Edgren family, like our Augusta, had to look for new lodgings if they were to continue their schooling in Stockholm. Some girls would not come back in the […]
In 1840, at the age of 7, Josefine Stenbock was sent to Stockholm to live with Pastor Johan Fredrik Edgren and his wife Lovisa Dethmar and to attend their school. She lived with the Edgren family for four years (1840-1843). IMG-7937 Tack för hvar stund jag med dig delat, Tack för hvar dag jag haft med dig Om någon gång jag mot dig felat, Glöm […]
Augusta Rütterskjöld was 16 years old when she sat down to copy the following lines on a card for Cecilia Koch’s memory album. L’amitié vient du ciel habiter ici bas Elle embellit la vie et survit au trèpas (Friendship comes from the heavens and dwells below it embellishes life and survives death) The poem is actually the last stanza of a longer poem, “Même Sujet” […]
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There is a card in Cecilia’s album that is signed Adèle. On the card is a small watercolor painting of peaches, grapes, and a blue butterfly. IMG-7923 Adèle Rudenschöld Of course, I don’t know if the girl who signed the card was in fact Adèle Rudenschöld. All I know is that Adèle Rudenschöld (Louise Rudenschöld’s little sister) attended Edgren’s school and was a friend of […]
In Cecilia’s memory album, there is a beautiful drawing of a chapel by a lake. The drawing is signed, Louise Rudenschöld. I assume that Louise copied a print, maybe of a chapel in the Dolomites (based on the architecture of the chapel and the mountains in the background). IMG-7944 Louise Rudenschöld Eva Christina Lovisa (Louise) Rudenschöld was born on October 4, 1828, at Hinderstorp, a […]
Today’s card in Cecilia Koch’s memory album is from Adèlaide Peijron. I wrote about Adèlaide in 2018 when I was searching for the girls who, like Augusta, lived with the Edgren family in Stockholm. Soon after writing the blog post, I received an exciting email from Adèlaide’s great-great-granddaughter (and our new friend), Kathinka Lindhe. At that time, she was working on a book about Adèlaide’s […]
Axeline Fries was 14 years old in May of 1844. When she sat down to write a card for Cecilia Koch’s memory album, she had already decided on her favorite poem. She knew it by heart. Måtte nya blommor smycka, Hvarje dag du möter än. Intet saknas i din lycka, Helgad utaf vänskapen. (Literally translated as: May new flowers adorn, every day that greets you […]
One of Cecilia Koch’s friends gave her a card with a cryptic message. Charlotte Lindström had drawn a picture of a blue flower – a Forget-Me-Not – and included the text: pas une véritable amie (not a true friend). It doesn’t make sense to me. Or did she copy the phrase and mistook par for pas? The phrase, par une véritable amie (by a true […]
A couple of years ago, Kerstin and I made 1840s bathing costumes. At that time, I remembered a description of bathing costumes in an autobiography by a Swedish young woman. She had visited Charleston, South Carolina in 1854 and described them in a letter to her brother. The other day, I found the book again: Travels in America 1851-1855 by Rosalie Roos (translated and edited […]