Two Dresses in Parramatta and a Book about Domestic Life

Two Dresses in Parramatta and a Book about Domestic Life

Stockholm, 22 January 1846. My own beloved Augusta! Thank you, thank you, my good friend for your last letter, even though I had to wait quite some time to get it. But I will not scold you, only thank you so much for your last letter. I should probably start by thanking you for your good wishes for the new year. I thank you for […]

Read Me 1 Comment

Augusta’s friend Lotten and her little cousin Minna in St. Barths

Augusta’s friend Lotten and her little cousin Minna in St. Barths

Did Augusta know anything about the Caribbean island, St. Barths? Saint Barthélemy, or St. Barths, was a Swedish colony between 1784 and 1878. Augusta’s friend Lotten would have had good reasons to know about the island… I am still reading the letters from Charlotte “Lottten” Westman to Augusta. Augusta and Lotten had been friends in Stockholm while attending private girl’s schools in 1842-1845. When Augusta moved […]

Read Me 3 Comments

A Winter Funeral in Umeå

A Winter Funeral in Umeå

In my last blog, I wrote about Augusta’s friend Lotten and her family. I mentioned that her grandfather, the famous pharmacist, Carl Johan Fredrik (CJF) Plageman, had moved to northern Sweden with his second wife, Eva Sofia. On a wintry day in 1853, she died. Letters from CJF Plagemann to his daughter, Dorothea, who lived in Stockholm, describe all the details of the funeral and […]

Read Me Leave comment

Mrs Edgren and her School for Girls

Mrs Edgren and her School for Girls

Lotten Westman’s Letter to Augusta, Stockholm, 18 December 1845. “Lucky Augusta who gets letters from Mrs. Edgren! Greet her a thousand times from me. Tell her that I still worship her as warmly as when I said goodbye to her for the last time, and when I start talking about them, it is always an inexhaustible topic and at those times, I forget both time […]

Read Me 5 Comments
Translate »