Letters and Diaries – Page 2 – Augusta's Journey

Tableau Vivant and Olof Södermark

Last week, Kerstin shared the travel diary of 10-year old Ernst Salomon. In the summer of 1841, Ernst and his family were visiting Särö, a fashionable spa on the Swedish west coast. In his diary, he describes the activities at the spa. Besides the bathing, they went for walks, picked seashells, and went horseback riding. In the evenings, the guests took turns hosting dinners and entertainment. There was usually a program of music and singing or dancing. They also played parlor games. One of those was Tableau Vivant. This was a common parlor game in the 1800s and is described in several diaries and letters from this time.

Tableau Vivant

Tableau Vivant was something like Charades. In Charades, a person will silently act out a word for the other persons to guess. In Tableau Vivant, the actor/actors will stage a scene from a play or a book or a poem or of a famous painting. The audience then has to figure out what the scene depicts.

Rosalie Roos, who was born in Sweden in 1823 and traveled to the USA in 1851 to become a governess, describes in her memoir how she introduced this game to the family she worked for and how much fun they had in searching for costumes and props to create the tableaux vivants.

The Tableau Vivant at Särö in 1841

Back to Ernst Salomon and his diary. On the 5^th of August, Ernst wrote:

“Beautiful weather. In the evening, Baroness Berzelius, Mrs. Edholm, and Countess Virsén hosted le goûter (the tasting; dinner). Between the dances, 6 tableaux vivants were performed that were pretty successful. They were:

A Scene from Lalla Rookh

Candlelight by Rembrandt

Pastoral Concert by Södermark

Fortuneteller scene by Teniers

A Scene from The Pirate by Walter Scott

Saint Cecilia by Carlo Dolci

The 6^th one featured spiritual singing behind the curtains.”

First, I was amazed at the choices for this quiz-type game. If you belonged to the class who visited this spa, these were the authors and painters you were supposed to be familiar with. And even 10-year-old Ernst thought the game was a success.

I decided to find the images that they were supposed to stage. Here it goes:

1. A Scene from Lalla Rookh

Lalla Rookh was a very long poem written by Thomas Moore in 1817. It was a romantic, orientalist tale about a Mughal princess. The poem was very popular in the early 1800s.

2. Candlelight by Rembrandt

I assume that this could have been Rembrandt’s painting of a student at a table by candlelight

Student at a Table by Candlelight. Rembrandt, 1642.

3. Pastoral Concert by Södermark

Let’s skip this one to the last.

4. Fortune-teller Scene by Teniers

David Teniers the Younger painted a lot of fortune-teller scenes, but they were all similar.

Mountain Landscape with a Gypsy Fortuneteller. David Teniers II. 1644-1690.

4. A Scene from The Pirate by Walter Scott

Walter Scott wrote The Pirate in 1822. It was translated to Swedish in 1827. I should probably add it to my reading list.

The Pirate. Illustration from the 1879 edition.

5. Saint Cecilia by Carlo Dolci

Saint Cecilia at the Organ. Carlo Dolci, 1671.

3. Pastoral Concert by Södermark

So let me return to Number 3, Pastoral Concert (Swedish: Landtlig Concert) av Olof Södermark.

Olof Södermark was a fantastic Swedish portrait painter. He had painted members of the royal family, and he was in high demand by the Swedish elite. He had also studied with the premier portraiture painter in Europe, Franz Xaver Winterhalter. In the fall of 1841, he would return to Sweden from Rome and settle down to do portraits. Within the next two years (1842-1843), he would actually paint the husbands of two of the women who had hosted the dinner and the tableau vivant. Baroness Berzelius’s husband was the famous chemist, Jöns Jacob Berzelius and Mrs. Edholm’s husband was Erik af Edholm, the king’s private doctor.

Jöns Jacob Berzelius painted by Olof Södermark 1843

Erik af Edholm painted by Södermark 1842

But did Södermark also paint landscapes and other genres? The problem with Södermark is that only a few of his paintings are in museums or other public places – portraits like those of the royal family or of famous people like Jenny Lind. To find his other works, one has to look for what has been sold at auctions.

The only “landscape” painting I have found is Fishing on the Pier (Swedish: Fiske på bryggan), painted in 1838. I would love to learn about the history of this painting. Who are the people in the painting?

Fishing on the Pier. Painting by Olof Södermark 1838

I am sure he also painted “A Pastoral Concert”, but how would I search for it? Google is of no help. I decide to search for Södermark in Swedish newspapers between 1832 and 1838. Maybe someone would have written about the painting?

Bingo! A journalist (Orvar Odd) at Aftonbladet wrote about the paintings exhibited at the Salon of The Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts in 1838. Södermark had 3 paintings accepted.

“Mr. Södermark is exhibiting 3 paintings; two portraits and a genre painting showing three children, the oldest being a girl playing the mandolin, the next one playing castanets, and the youngest, a boy with curly hair, using all his strength blowing into a bagpipe. It is a charming piece, this last one. The shapes and the colors are so southern European and opulent, full and glowing, it’s alive, it’s vibrant! Mr. S. undoubtedly possesses, to a greater degree than any of our other painters in his genre, the art of making his characters come alive.”

This has to be “A Pastoral Concert” and as he painted it in Rome, the scene is probably from Italy. I do wish I could still find an image of the painting. I did find another small painting he did in Rome – a sweet painting of two Italian girls.

Going back to the Tableaux Vivants, I wish someone could have described how they staged these six scenes. Maybe they were common scenes for this form of entertainment – pretty easy to stage: An exotic princess, a student with a candle, 3 children playing some instruments, a fortune-teller, a pirate, and a saint. I wonder what paintings or books or films we would pick today for this game?

Breakfast in Lübeck, 1847 and 2017

Kerstin at the breakfast buffet at Hotel Anno 1216.
(watercolor, Sara Azzam, 2020)

Lübeck, October 2017

Dressed in the fashion of 1847, Kerstin and I enter the breakfast parlor at Hotel Anno 1216. The early morning sun lights up the room. The décor of the room is exquisite. The table settings are elegant and on each table is a fresh cut tea rose.

We get a warm welcome from the staff who shows us to our table and asks for our preferences regarding coffee. Kerstin has ordered a continental breakfast. There are no vegan choices here, so I will just pick a few grapes and orange slices off her plate and pair it with my emergency protein bar.

Through the old, large windows we can see the sunlit brick wall of a building across the street. It was at this location that the wool merchant, AP Rehder, and his family lived in 1847. And it was the Rehder family who hosted Augusta and her mother on their first visit to Germany. Augusta might have been sitting in their breakfast room looking at the house where we are now sitting. And interestingly, a few years later, AP Rehder bought the house which is now or hotel, Hotel Anno 1216.

Kerstin helps herself to juice that is available on an antique buffé table. The scene looks like a painting. Kerstin, dressed in a dark blue dress adorned with a lace collar and with her hair tied in a bun, is poring sunlit orange juice from a crystal glass carafe. I make a mental note to paint the scene when we get home from our journey.

As Kerstin is enjoying her continental breakfast (and I am picking the garnish off her plate), we wonder what type of breakfast Augusta would have had in the Rehder’s breakfast room across the street. What did they eat for breakfast in Lübeck in 1847?

The Family of Mr. Westfal in the Conservatory. Painting by Eduard Gaertner, 1836. Breakfast in the conservatory owned by the prosperous Berlin wool merchant Christian Carl Westphal, who was also a passionate horticulturist. (The Met)

The Buddenbrook Breakfast

The Nobel Prize winner, Thomas Mann, described in his novel, Buddenbrooks – a novel about a wealthy merchant family in Lübeck – what Tony, the teenage daughter had for breakfast in 1846:

Tony came down at nine o’clock and found her father and mother still at the table. She let her forehead be kissed and sat down, fresh and hungry, her eyes still red with sleep, and helped herself to sugar, butter, and herb cheese.

“How nice to find you still here, for once, Papa,” she said as she held her egg in her napkin and opened it with her spoon.

…

Tony, her mouth full of bread and butter, looked first at her father and then her mother, with a mixture of fear and curiosity.

“Eat your breakfast, my child,” said the Frau Consul. But Tony laid down her knife and cried, “Out with it quickly, Papa – please.” Her father only answered: “Eat up your breakfast first.”

So Tony drank her coffee and ate her egg and bread and cheese silently, her appetite quite gone.

Breakfast seems hardly to have changed in the last 160 years – coffee, bread, butter, cheese, eggs…

But did they have grapes and orange slices for garnish? Probably not. Happy we got some.

The Silkworms at Bellevue

Bellevue in 1856. Oil painting by Erik Westerling (1819-1857).

May God Preserve our Silk Worms

Father told us last Monday when he was here, that the kind pastor, Mr. Lindström, who my sister and I have recently been acquainted with, had visited father at the palace that same day in order to ask if he could give us some silkworms that he couldn’t keep as he will spend the summer in Uppsala. Father had been kind to answer and thank him on our behalf, whereupon Mr. Lindstrom had promised to send them to us in a few days. Imagine our joy in owning these insects and being able to study their interesting transformations. May God preserve them for us because cultivating them requires special care of which none of us have any knowledge. (Lotten Ulrich’s diary, Stockholm, 31 May 1833, my translation)

Imagine my surprise when I approached the carton with the silkworms and only saw the two small, and instead of the two large worms, two cocoons of yellow silk. I immediately understood that they had started to spin. (Lotten Ulrich’s diary, Stockholm, 9 July 1833, my translation)

Lotten Ulrich (1806-1887) and her sister Edla Ulrich (1816-1897) lived at the Royal Palace in Stockholm where their father, Johan Christian Henrik Ulrich, was the secretary to King Carl XIV Johan. The family later moved to Norrköping. You can read more about them and their connection with Augusta in a previous blog entry.

So, was the silkworm an upper-class, exotic pet in the 1830s? And were there any mulberry trees in Stockholm so Lotten and Edla had something to feed them?

The Swedish Association for Domestic Sericulture

The Swedish Association for Domestic Sericulture, that is, silk farming, was founded in 1830. The driving force behind the association was a young woman by the name of Charlotte Östberg. She had previously, and anonymously, published a book about silk farming and she also practiced it in Stockholm. The founding members of the association were the husband of Charlotte Östberg and among others, professors Jacob Berzelius and Nils Wilhelm Almroth (the father of Augusta’s friends Ebba and Emma Almroth). By 1841, Professor Carl Henrik Boheman, the father of Augusta’s best friends Hildur and Hildegard Boheman) had also joined the board.

The Silk production at Bellevue

The association was to encourage silk production in Sweden by the planting of mulberry trees, to publish information on silkworm care and, depending on its means, provided those interested in silk production with plants and/or mulberry seeds. By 1841, the association had distributed over 50,000 seedlings.

The patron of the association was the Swedish Crown Princess Josephine. She was very much interested in silk production and her husband, Crown Prince Oscar, provided the association with land for planting mulberry trees at Bellevue, a royal park outside Stockholm. Bellevue thus became the center for teaching and promoting silk production in Stockholm.

Crown Princess Josephine’s award medal for the cultivation of silk. 1833.

By 1841, the association realized that only the wealthy had taken up silk production and then, only as an interesting hobby. Still, they concluded, that for the working class to take up silk production, the gentlemen must first cultivate mulberry trees and produce silk before the working class could profit from this new industry.

A thesis on the Swedish sericulture makes for very interesting reading. In summary, Sweden gave up on producing its own silk.

If it hadn’t been for a 190-year-old diary by a girl who described the delight in getting some silkworms, I would never have known about the forest of white mulberry trees at Bellevue in Stockholm. And if I was in Stockholm, I would make an outing to the park and look for any little mulberry tree. Maybe some stump or roots survived and sprouted new trees. From my experience, mulberry trees are almost impossible to get rid of – they really grow like weeds.

Sources:

Drömmen om svenskt silke. Anders Johansson Åbonde.

Systrarna Ulrichs dagböcker. Margareta Östman.

The Moving Panoramas

Henry Lewis’ painting of the Mississippi from Pikes Peak, Iowa (illustration from book)

Imagine a canvas that is over 4 miles (or 6.4 km) long!

In the mid-1800s, a few artists painted landscapes on such long canvases. Of course, if you wanted to do an accurate painting of the Mississippi River for example – or at least 1,000 miles of it – you probably needed a few miles of canvas.

Panoramas depicting landscapes and famous battles were already popular in the 1800s. They were displayed in theaters and assembly halls. But what if you wanted to make the viewer actually experience a river cruise? Seeing the changing scenery from the railing of a steamboat on the Mississippi?

The moving panorama – the virtual reality shows of the 1800s

A couple of months ago, my two daughters and I tried virtual reality provided by Dreamscape. We donned goggles and computer backpacks and attached sensors to our hands and feet and then entered a 3D world that was stunningly beautiful. Not only were we immersed in this 3D world, but we could also interact with it.

Advertisement for Dreamscapes Virtual Reality experiences

The moving panoramas were the virtual reality shows of the 1800s. The ads for Dreamscape, “Experience things you thought were fantasy. Be transported to places you couldn’t have imagined existed,” sound similar to the ads for the moving panorama shows. Europeans could now experience the Mississippi River or the Niagara Falls or New York.

So what were moving panoramas? Like a scroll, the panorama was painted on a long canvas which was attached to two spools. The image was then advanced by cranks so that the scenes would pass behind a huge frame. Music was added by live performers and the show was narrated so that the viewers would get a full understanding of the changing scenes.

Queen Victoria and her family watching a moving panorama

Risley’s Mississippi shown at De la Croix’s large salon in Stockholm

How did I get interested in moving panoramas?

One day, I was searching Swedish newspapers for an obituary of one of Augusta’s friends. I assumed it would be in a newspaper in April 1852. I was correct; I found it. But next to the obituary was an advertisement for Risley’s Mississippi. The ad stated that for 3 more days, Mr. Risley would show a moving panorama, the size of 60,000 square feet depicting 4000 miles of America. The show would take 2 hours.

Risley’s advertisement in Aftonbladet 8 Oct 1852

Who was Mr. Risley?

I searched for Mr. Risley in newspapers and books and found a similar ad in a London newspaper in 1848:

Richard Risley Carlisle (1814-1874) was first and foremost an American circus acrobat and juggler. He traveled all over the world and performed under the name of Professor Risley.

Professor Risley performing with his two sons

In 1848, Risley partnered with a panorama painter, John Rowson Smith, and traveled to Europe with Smith’s panorama, The Mississippi.

The painter of the panorama, John Rowson Smith (1810-1864), grew up in Brooklyn. His father, John Rubens Smith was a British painter and printmaker. It is unclear how John Rowson decided to paint the Mississippi river but it was around the same time that another landscape painter, John Banvard, was also painting a moving panorama of the Mississipi. The two were rivals as were others who realized that this new form of entertainment was lucrative. John Banvard was extremely successful showing his panorama in London. While John Banvard was both a painter and a showman, Risley was the entertainer who brought John Smith’s panorama to theatres and social halls around Europe. And the panorama got stellar reviews by the London press:

The only surviving moving panorama of the Mississippi

In all, 7 different moving panoramas of the Mississippi were produced by various artists. Nothing is documented about the destiny of John Rowson Smith & Risley’s panorama. John Banvard’s panorama was most likely cut up and used as theatre backdrops.

Only one moving panorama of the Mississippi still exists. It was painted by John J Egan and commissioned by Wilson Dickeson. It is presently housed at St. Louis Art Museum. A portion of it was filmed in 2015 and can be viewed here.

Making your own moving panorama

While searching for Risley’s Mississippi, I landed on a fantastic website: The Crankie Factory. Besides finding information about the moving panoramas of the Mississippi, I also got inspired by the idea of making simple moving-picture machines for small moving panoramas – “crankies”. If you are home with young kids, there are instructions on how to build simple crankies and there are links to watching crankies. Here is a beautiful and pretty elaborate one made by Meg and Ian Chittenden and the 8th grade class of the Bay School, a Waldorf school on the coast of Maine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99wznzKuYd4.

And so much more…

Here are some additional reading

…about Professor Risley:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Risley_Carlisle

http://www.jai2.com/risley-imps.html

http://friendsofmountmoriahcemetery.org/richard-risley-carlisle-1814-1874-circus-performer/

…about John Banvard

https://www.amazon.com/Banvards-Folly-Renowned-Obscurity-Anonymity/dp/0312268866

…about another panorama painter, Henry Lewis, and his paintings of the Mississippi

https://archive.org/stream/dasillustrirtemi00lewi#page/204/mode/2up

Will the real, extremely beautiful Baron Rehbinder please stand up!

Augusta’s Diary, August 1851

I thought about asking for the beautiful Rehbinder, but something, I don’t know what, stopped me. In the meantime, he is constantly before my eyes whether I am awake or asleep. What then does it really mean that, after three weeks, I still cannot erase the persistent memory of him?

Should I, who is so wise, so cold, so impregnable, possibly have fallen in love? Oh, no, no! I am not capable of having these true and real feelings; my inner self is too poorly equipped.

And have I not previously experienced the same thing as I now feel? A reminiscent feeling of love that I could not, even if I wanted to, hold on to for more than a few seconds. Thus, I am not in love and cannot be but I assume that I am very interested in Baron Rehbinder as I am still preoccupied with him.

But what is it then about him that occupies my thoughts?

Do I know if he possesses any qualities that deserve to be appreciated; have I heard anything good about what he has done in life; do I know his character; do I know if he deserves my esteem???

No, I know nothing about any of this and what so intrigues me must be his beautiful eyes, his beautiful mustaches, and his beautiful figure. Surely, I must deride and even despise myself a bit for only paying attention to his physiognomy without even thinking about his character, and the truth – that for three weeks I have been in love with a couple of beautiful mustaches – should really be quite disconcerting!

Who was the extremely beautiful Baron Rehbinder?

Augusta wrote this in her diary after she had met Baron Rehbinder at her close friend and relative, Hanna Schubert’s wedding to Count Erik Sparre af Rossvik. The baron was one of the best men at the wedding which took place at Fullerstad mansion, close to Söderköping.

So who was Baron Rehbinder, who Augusta though was extremely beautiful? She even wrote that he was “more than permissibly” beautiful. After searching for age-appropriate barons within the Rehbinder family, I narrowed it down to 3 candidates.

To Tell the Truth

In the long-running TV game show To Tell the Truth, a panel will try to figure out which of three contestants, all claiming to be the “real” person of interest is, in fact, the real person and which ones are imposters. After the panel votes, the real person of interest is asked to stand up.

As I couldn’t find any more clues to point to the exact Extremely Beautiful Baron Rehbinder, I thought I would just ask for help here. I have a line-up of the 3 contestants for the real Baron who, by the way, all have impressive mustaches which must have been the fashion of the time. Who do you think it is?

Helge Edvard Reinhold Rehbinder (1824-1883).
1. 3 years older than Augusta
2. A lieutenant
3. From the same province (Östergötland) and had in 1842 studied in Uppsala together with some other of Augusta’s acquaintances from Norrköping (Per Svartling, Frans Gustaf von Aken, and Johan Arosenius).
4. His father was from Söderköping where the wedding took place.
5. Brother to #2.
Folke Fromhold Rehbinder (1826-1887)
1. Brother to #1.
2. 1 year older than Augusta
3. A lieutenant
Arvid Hjalmar Rehbinder (1832-1905)
1. 5 years younger than Augusta
2. An army squad leader (furir)
3. From the same province (Östergötland) and had in 1850 studied in Uppsala

Who do you think has the best mustaches? The most beautiful eyes?

August Blanche and Johan Jolin

Fritz von Dardel’s painting of a reception in 1848.

Augusta’s friend Lotten didn’t cry over spilled milk. She just laughed as she spilled milk over her white dress. It turned out to be the most enjoyable evening.

“My dear Augusta!

Thank you, my dear friend, for your long-awaited letter…

…

Do you know the most enjoyable day I have had this winter? It was last Monday at my aunt’s. She had a reception and August Blanche and Jolin were invited. Do you know, Jolin is the funniest person you can imagine. He performed several scenes for us and we all laughed from the bottom of our hearts.

Blanche is also the nicest person imaginable. He stood by the buffet table and talked to me so beautifully about youth and the joy in life that I didn’t realize that I was turning my glass with milk upside down and that the milk was running down my white dress!

Soon my other aunt will also have a reception and she will invite them as well. So I will have another fun day.” (Lotten’s letter to Augusta, Stockholm, 9 February 1847)

August Blanche and Johan Jolin

August Blanche and Johan Jolin were popular guests at literary salons and receptions like the ones Lotten’s aunts were having. Both were affiliated with the theatre.

Johan Christoffer Jolin was 9 years older than Lotten. He had studied in Uppsala and was a poet. In 1846 he joined the Royal Theatre in Stockholm and became a very popular actor. He also wrote many of the plays he acted in.

August Blanche was a little older, born in 1811. In 1847, when Lotten met him, he was a prolific play writer, journalist, and editor.

A duel that didn’t happen

I was so surprised that Lotten thought that August Blanche was the “nicest person imaginable”. That was not the impression I had of him.

August Blanche was very critical of another contemporary writer, Carl Jonas Love Almqvist. Almqvist had written a novel, Det går an (It is Acceptable), a book that was ahead of its time as it highlighted the injustice to women regarding marriage, financial opportunities, and independence. The conclusion was that it should be acceptable for a man and a woman to live together without being married and for a woman to run her own business enterprise.

Shocking! At least that was the view of August Blanche who wrote a follow-up story based on Almquist’s book. Almqvist then retaliated by highlighting the fact that August Blanche’s parents were not married. Indeed, August Blance’s father was a famous pastor who had made his maid pregnant.

August Blanche was furious and challenged Almqvist to a duel which Almqvist nonchalantly ignored. But of course, August Blanche couldn’t just take this insult. The story, as reported, was that August Blanche told his friends that he would spit Almqvist in the face – something he actually carried out (or at least told his friends that he had carried out).

All this happened years before Lotten met August Blanche, but I assume Lotten had heard these stories as well. Maybe that is why she wanted to paint him in a positive light in her letter to Augusta. And very likely, Lotten might have sided with August Blanche as Almqvist’s views were very controversial.

I don’t know if Lotten met Blanche and Julin again. And I don’t know exactly which aunts she was describing. Most likely, it was her father’s sisters, Anna Carolina Örbom, born Westman (1801-1865) and Emelie Aurora Westman (1812-1863).

The First Real Flying Reindeer!

The first real flying reindeer?

A reindeer flying over Stockholm in 1851? Seriously?

Yes, it happened.

I was rereading Augusta’s diary entry about her outing on 18 June 1851 to watch the first balloon ride in Stockholm.

On Wednesday we walked to Skeppsbron to, if possible, take a boat over to Djurgården, where an Italian intended to ascend by an air balloon, but seeing the dense crowd along the pier, we realized that it would be impossible to get to our destination that way. Erik, therefore, borrowed a boat from a captain, but it was so full of water that Nanna and I had to stand on a board with the danger of at any moment losing our balance and falling overboard.

Arriving at our destination, we chose a hill from where we could best see the balloon and happened upon the company of the Crown Princess, Princess Eugenie, and Prince August, who had come on foot from Rosendahl, and the Crown Prince on horseback and a whole host of court ladies and cavaliers, all packed with the rest of the crowd and with their eyes following the ever-rising balloon.

After we had had a cup of tea at Davidsons and avoided a shower, we went home in an omnibus. (Augusta’s Diary, Stockholm, June 1851)

So here was Augusta, seeing for the first time an air balloon. But all she wrote about were the crowds, the uncomfortable boat ride, and the royal family. And that it rained. Nothing about the balloon or how it would be to fly over Stockholm.

I decided to find out a little more about the event.

The Italian aeronaut: Guiseppe (Joseph) Tardini

Tardini came to Stockholm in the summer of 1851. On 18 June, he was to give a performance that no citizen of Stockholm had ever seen. He would fill his 12.5-meter wide balloon, named Samson, with hydrogen gas and soar into the sky. Cannons would be fired and a military band would give a concert.

The flight was a success according to the next day’s papers. It had been a magnificent show. The stately balloon had quickly soared and the sailor, dressed in a picturesque sailors outfit, had climbed up from the gondola, waving a red and white flag to the crowd below. The balloon had sailed high over the waters and then disappeared into a rain cloud. The balloon had then successfully touched down at Hornstull.

Tardini made 4 more flights in Stockholm and asked for volunteers to accompany him. During two of those, Per Ambjörn Sparre volunteered. He was an adventurer and an inventor, having given up on his medical studies. His brother, Count Erik Sparre, would marry Augusta’s best friend and relative, Hanna Schubert later that summer. Augusta mentioned in her diary that Per Ambjörn was at the wedding – I wonder if she asked him about his balloon ride?

Someone must have had a crazy idea!

On the 27 July 1851, Tardini was going to make his last flight in Stockholm. But why ride in a gondola under the balloon if you could do something more spectacular? Someone must have had a crazy idea because Tardini announced that he would be standing on a live reindeer which would be tied to the balloon!

How would a reindeer react if it was tied to a huge balloon being filled up with gas! And with a military brass band playing a march specifically composed for the occasion! I assume any animal would freak out!

And why a reindeer? I had to look up the history of flying reindeers to see if I had missed something. The first reference to a flying reindeer was an illustrated Christmas poem in 1821. But was that what Tardini had in mind? And who provided the reindeer?

Nevertheless, the flight actually took place and was described in the papers the following day.

Everything went as planned with Tardini standing on the reindeer and taking off from Humlegården. There was only a slight breeze and the balloon sailed away towards Lidingö. Then the wind changed direction and the balloon changed its course towards Värmdö where it finally landed. The captain on a passing steamboat volunteered to take them back to Stockholm but Tardini, who had to take care of the balloon, asked if the captain could just take the reindeer. The reindeer, which was unharmed, was led onboard. The day ended with a huge display of fireworks in Humlegården (hopefully, the reindeer didn’t have to witness that as well).

So there it is; the first real flying reindeer.

Dashing through the snow…

You can get to Stockholm’s international airport either by train or by car. Either way, you will pass Rosersberg, a small community northwest of Stockholm. If you are having a rental car, this is where you start looking for a gas station to fill up the car. If you are going by train, you just enjoy the beauty of the landscape. In the winter, there will be stretches of snowy fields, small farms in the distance, and dense evergreen forests. You could paint it for next year’s Christmas card.

When the train stops at Rosersberg, some people will get off and maybe some will take the connecting bus 577. That is how you get to Skånela Church and Skånelaholm Castle. I have never taken the bus and never visited the places. But now it is on my list for next summer’s excursions!

The reason?

I just can’t let go of an image of a teenage girl learning to shoot a pistol there and learning to drive a sleigh from Skånela Church to her home in central Stockholm. I can imagine her proudly driving the whole length of Drottninggatan, or Queen Street, in Stockholm. It must have been like a rite of passage – like getting your driver’s license and showing off by driving all the way up to your front door – and hoping your neighbors and friends are watching!

“My dear Augusta!

Thank you, my dear friend, for your long-awaited letter; you will not be angry with me for letting you wait a few mail days for an answer. I have been thinking of writing to you each mail day, but as you see, this has not happened. This Christmas has been the nicest one I can remember. First, we spent the Christmas holiday, or rather, the Christmas days as usual with our family. Then we traveled out to the countryside, to Pastor Schröderheim, where we spent 14 days – the most pleasant days you could ever imagine. We went to several balls at the neighbors, we went sledding, and in the evening, when we were at home, we sat in Uncle’s room and read aloud. I learned to shoot with a pistol and to drive a horse. On the way home I drove 10 miles* and then the whole length of Drottninggatan [Queen Street] all the way to our door. (Lotten’s letter to Augusta, Stockholm, February 9, 1847).”

Augusta’s friend, Lotten Westman, was a wealthy city-girl. She was born and raised in Stockholm. Lotten and her sister Clara lived with a foster mother after becoming orphans. But the sisters had many aunts and uncles in Stockholm and distant relatives in the countryside. Those were the families they visited during the holidays.

Pastor Göran Ulric Schröderheim was one of them. He had married his cousin, Anna Charlotta Westman, and both of them were also Lotten’s father’s cousins. Schröderheim had been a pastor at the Royal Court but was at this time pastor at Skånela Church north of Stockholm. He and his wife had two sons, Göran and Johan.

“The pastor’s wife is a very decent, but ordinary woman. The sons, the lieutenant and the student, are also decent, especially the latter who was my real favorite. He is the most cheerful and kindest man you can imagine. Because we had had such a happy and fun time there, the first days after my return were so quiet, and I especially missed my favorite.”

Lotten liked Johan who was a student in Uppsala. He would later marry his neighbor at Skånelaholm Castle, Hedvig Lovisa Juliana Jennings. The same neighbors whose balls Lotten had attended.

Today, Skånela parsonage is listed as a B&B for conferences and Skånelaholm Castle is open to the public.

Let’s plan on an Augusta excursion to Skånela; imagining Lotten in a silk ballgown dancing in one of the castle’s halls, or dressed in a warm wool dress with layers of petticoats and shawls, practicing target shooting in the castle garden, or sledding down some slope – shawls flying!

*10 English miles = 6 fjärdings väg

On her birthday: Cecilia Ekenstam

Under the moss on the gravestone, you can discern the words chiseled in the polished marble: NEVER FORGOTTEN.

“Sterne’s Maria”. Painting by Charles Landseer (1799-1879)

We have reached the final destination of our trip to the west coast of Sweden – Varberg. This is where Augusta, at the age of 28, spent a short time to treat her tuberculosis with sea air and spa water – the only prescribed treatments available before the discovery of the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. And this is where she died on 28 July 1855.

We stand before the grave in the shaded old cemetery in the center of old Varberg where we have just planted small roses. Next to hers is a grave with an iron cross, partially buried by thick bushes. Whose grave is this? Another life cut short? I decide to find out, and what I find is another girl who should never be forgotten.

Cecilia Ekenstam

By sheer coincidence, her birthday is today! She was born 187 years ago today. Unfortunately, she died at age 20.

Helena Cecilia Sofia Ekenstam was born on 19 October 1832 at Sålla, Sjögestad, not far from the parish where Augusta was born (Slaka). She was the 8^th child of the 14 children born to her parents, Fabian Vilhelm af Ekenstam and Sofia Charlotta Zachrisson. She grew up in Stora Tuna parish outside Borlänge, in Dalarna. Like Augusta, she contracted tuberculosis at a young age and was sent to Varberg in the hope of curing her lung disease. When she died on 16 August 1853, she was buried in Varberg, far from her family. Two years later, Augusta would be buried next to her.

Cecilia’s father: ThD, professor, vicar, and alchemist.

Cecilia came from an interesting noble family. Her father, “The last Swedish Alchemist”, was deeply religious and studied theology, mathematics, and Sanskrit at Lund University. In 1813, he moved to London where he became interested in alchemy. Having no success in alchemy, he returned to Lund in 1818 where he became a professor. In 1822, he moved to Linköping and in 1836, he became the vicar in Stora Tuna parish in Dalarna, a position he held until his death in 1868 at the age of 82.

Stora Tuna church where Cecilia’s father was the vicar

If you visit Varberg,

put flowers on both Augusta’s and Cecilia’s graves. Two young girls who died far from home and should never be forgotten.

Sources:

https://www.adelsvapen.com/genealogi/Af_Ekenstam_nr_2220#TAB_3

https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96stra_kyrkog%C3%A5rden,_Varberg

http://www.augustasresa.se/familj/aldrig-forgaten/

Inte Bara Gravar: Bakom varje sten finns en levande historia. Gert Nelje, Alva Peterson, Jåkan Norling. Hembygdsföreningen Gamla Varberg.

Augusta’s First Love

Spring, the Fence by Václav Brožík — Spring, the Fence by
Václav Brožík

“They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream.”

(Ernest Dowson, Vitae Summa Brevis)

The Summer Sejour to Gustafsberg, 1845

In the summer of 1845, Augusta turned 18. She had just finished her schooling in Stockholm and maybe her mother Anna thought it was time for her to meet a suitable young man. Why not at a seaside resort on the Swedish west coast?

During the spring, the resorts and spas advertised their facilities, the healing benefits of their mineral waters, and what the guests could expect with regards to entertainment and food. There were several resorts on the west coast. Mother Anna decided on Gustafsberg, a fashionable spa close to the town of Uddevalla.

Advertisement for Gustafsberg's Spa in Aftonbladet, 8 May 1845 — Advertisement for Gustafsberg’s Spa in Aftonbladet, 8 May 1845

Mother Anna’s letter to Augusta, April 1845

“Your brother today gives you a present of 10 Rdr Bco that he wants you to use for making a dress of the silk fabric he gave you for Christmas as he heard that I have no money for that.”

Anna then gives Augusta advice about an alternative use for the money, such as making a small coat or collar to go with her black dress, and the importance of black lace on such an item because at the spa, “you can’t just run around in your little blue [dress]”. Final fashion decisions can wait until after the 1^st of May.

“I am currently having your straw hat refurbished for everyday wear. I will send it to you when it is ready. I can’t afford to buy more than one so it has to be fairly beautiful. You asked me to sell the jewels. First of all, it wouldn’t be enough and secondly, you would not get paid enough. But on the other hand, it would be to your advantage if you used them yourself.”

I always have so much to do and a thousand expenses for this costly journey. We have to be there just before Midsummer and must necessarily be back here again 8 days before Lejdenfrost’s return, so we will spend 8 days there during the 2^nd term. Many rooms have already been taken for the 1^st term so I don’t think that will be a problem.”

Emilia Breitholtz' letter to Augusta - postmarked in Stockholm, 30 June 1845 — Emilia Breitholtz’ letter to Augusta – postmarked in Stockholm, 30 June 1845

That is all we know about Augusta’s and her mother’s visit to Gustafsberg. Augusta didn’t start keeping a diary until 1847 and there are no letters from her during this time. But she did save an envelope of a letter that was addressed to her at Gustafsberg. From the coat-of-arms on the seal, we could discern that it was from the family Breitholz, so most likely from her friend Emilia Breitholtz.

Augusta’s First Love

Did Augusta meet a suitable young man at Gustafsberg? The clue is a letter from her friend Lotten in the fall of 1845. Augusta must have written to Lotten about her summer sejour and about a young man who she realized she could not marry.

Lotten’s letter to Augusta, October 1845

“My own beloved girl!

You can’t believe how happy I got when I received your dear, loving letter. You really made your poor friend wait for it; but I will not scold you, only thank you from my heart that you remembered your Lotten and, even more so, because you want to write to me in full confidence. You can’t believe how happy it made me. Thank you so much my little Gusta.

Believe me, I will not betray your trust. In my heart, you can lay down both your joy and your sorrow.

I am very sorry my good Augusta that you cannot get your relatives’ permission to a choice that your heart has made. Augusta! I am totally inexperienced in these things, but I love you so much because you listened to your senses instead of your heart which, sadly, many do not. But what would the result be? Indeed, poverty and misery. And I truly believe that “when Poverty enters through the door, Love flies out of the window.” Perhaps I would not believe that if I had been in love myself, but there are too many stories confirming that the proverb is true. But Augusta, it is difficult for a young heart to accept that matters of money could separate two people who love each other. It’s really strange.

I want you to promise me something, my good Augusta. Don’t get married so soon, before you have had a chance to choose. Do not believe, because your first love could not be fulfilled, that you cannot be happy with someone else. You could find a man for whom you have deep respect and who would also be a good friend. But dear Augusta, be careful. I really shudder when I hear about these engagements settled during a ball. Imagine, frivolously entering into a bond for life! Your whole life! When you think about it, it’s horrible.

So you should be careful in making the right choice. Sweet Gusta, promise me that, do you hear me! You’re still so young. You know how deeply your Lotten cares for you and how happy I want you to be. Maybe you think I have given a long sermon, but I may be excused by my friendship for you. One thing, when you really want to pour out your heart, write to me.”

Lotten’s letter to Augusta, November 1845

“You can’t believe how I both laughed and was ready to weep over your love, as you and I call this infatuation. I was glad because you would never have been able to get the one you loved anyway. But I was sad, as you weren’t able to distinguish between a fleeting infatuation and true love. You would never have mistaken it if you had thought it over and tested yourself. What was it that you actually loved about him – his looks and some chivalrous traits? That is obvious because certainly, you couldn’t judge his character during a bathing-sejour when he perhaps always made you his [?]. And thus, he only showed his beautiful side. I only wish (and excuse me for this wish) that he will also just as easily bear the loss of you.”

Our Upcoming Summer Sejour to Gustafsberg

This summer, Kerstin and I are making our own summer sejour to Gustafsberg. We are going to stay in the bathhouse from Augusta’s time – now a hostel. And we are going to swim in our authentic bathing dresses that we are making. Let’s see how that goes! And we are going to visit the archives and see what entertainment they offered during the summer of 1845.

And maybe, just maybe, we can find a log of guests in 1845 and possibly find some candidates for Augusta’s first love?

I can only hope.