Swedish Immigration Story, 1854
- The Swedish Sohlberg Royal Gold Thread Embroidery Sampler -
(c1890s)
(c1890s)
My great great grandparents Ulric and Antoinette Sohlberg's three daughters, Alma, Nina and Emma, made their livings as seamstresses and embroiderers. For part of their lives as embroiderers (so the family story is told), they would take their "samplers" of gold thread embroidery to the Royal Palace in Stockholm and elsewhere for commission work with the Swedish government. These three sisters did not marry.
- Nina Ulrika Sohlberg's Swedish Sampler -
This particular sampler belonged to Nina Sohlberg and she initialed it with an embroidered S overlaying and intwined with an N found in the lower right hand corner of this piece.
- The Initials of Nina Sohlberg -
- N I N A S O H L B E R G -
Nina Sohlberg's niece, my grandmother, when she was born in 1894, was given her name.
And my grandmother, Nina Sohlberg Fry, would eventually be the recipient of Nina Sohlberg's pieces of embroidery in 1955.
Nina Sohlberg to-be Nina Sohlberg Fry of Lindsborg, Kansas
Family correspondence and latest photographs exchanged often between the families in Sweden and Kansas.
Family correspondence and latest photographs exchanged often between the families in Sweden and Kansas.
The Pillow Cover
The Sohlberg Seamstresses and Embroiderers
Alma Nina Emma
Alma Nina Emma
With the death of Ulric and Antoinette's youngest and last daughter Emma, who had been living in Stockholm in 1955, their family lawyer mailed Nina Sohlberg's pieces of gold thread embroidery and the three 1867 Sohlberg Kosta Glasbruk Family Portraits of Ulric, Antoinette, and Alma and Ernest to Ulric and Antoinette's granddaughter, Nina Sohlberg Fry of Lindsborg, Kansas.
- The Sohlberg Portraits -
Ulric Ernest & Alma Antoinette
The 1955 Swedish Custom Document for the "three portraits" & the "two gold thread embroidery pieces"
- click on these -
- click on these -
- Research on the Sampler -
There has been considerable research concerning this type of needlework from the palaces of Sweden to the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm and to the Royal School of Needlework (RSN) at Hampton Court in England.
The 2007 Emails
One email from the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm suggested that Swedish women traveled to the Royal School of Needlework in London to learn this type of needlework because there was no school in Sweden.
The other emails from the Royal School of Needlework from Hampton Court Palace, Surrey, England, suggested that the Sampler could have been created from the Vienna School of Art Needlework at the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century when it was not at all unusual for Swedes to travel by train to go there to study. One email further stated that the Vienna School dissolved some time ago. It was formed in 1878, six years after the Royal School of Needlework began, and it was structured somewhat similarly with a high standard of work produced by the students.
Here are the emails to read:
The 2007 Emails
One email from the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm suggested that Swedish women traveled to the Royal School of Needlework in London to learn this type of needlework because there was no school in Sweden.
The other emails from the Royal School of Needlework from Hampton Court Palace, Surrey, England, suggested that the Sampler could have been created from the Vienna School of Art Needlework at the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century when it was not at all unusual for Swedes to travel by train to go there to study. One email further stated that the Vienna School dissolved some time ago. It was formed in 1878, six years after the Royal School of Needlework began, and it was structured somewhat similarly with a high standard of work produced by the students.
Here are the emails to read:
| email_pg_1______ms_franzen___7_30_07.pdf |
| email_pg_2______ms_hansson_8_30_07.pdf |
| email_pg_3______ms_hansson_8_30_07.pdf |
| email_pg_4______ms_hansson_9_5_07.pdf |
The 2014 meeting with Dr. Susan Kay-Williams, Chief Executive of the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court
In 2014, Dr. Susan Kay-Williams, Chief Executive of the Royal School of Needlework, graciously made time to meet with me, at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport to study these pieces during her summer annual "seminar" trip to the States. Other than discussing the pieces exquisite workmanship of Nina Sohlberg, Dr. Susan Kay-Williams could offer no new information on the "Sampler," as to where Nina was trained or knowing about any other samplers like it.
Thus, researching the Vienna School of Art Needlework should be the next step.
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Their New Home
- The San Francisco School of Needlework and Design -
-- presenting classes on one of the world’s most ancient crafts --
Their New Home
- The San Francisco School of Needlework and Design -
-- presenting classes on one of the world’s most ancient crafts --
In 2019, Nina Sohlberg's two embroidery pieces from our family's Smoky Valley Lindsborg, Kansas, Swedish American estate, were donated to the San Francisco School of Needlework and Design. All Swedish and Swedish American institutions were first contacted and for various reasons all but one could not accept these as a donation. Also, interestingly, they did not have any additional information about this type of needlework.
Through this laborious and time consuming effort of trying to find a home for these pieces through out the United States and in Sweden, destiny would have it that I learned about an embroidery class being taught by the San Francisco School of Needlework and Design by Ms. Lucy Barter through the Atherton Arts Foundation in Atherton, California, just a few minutes from my home. When I brought Nina Sohlberg's pieces to the Atherton Arts Foundation that day to be part of Ms. Barter's class, the search for their new home, unknowingly to me at the time, had come to an end, for their home had been found in the loving hands of Ms. Barter who, for sure, would treasure them and treat them with the care they so deserved and who would use them with her classes at the San Francisco School of Needlework and Design.
Ms. Barter co-founded the San Francisco School of Needlework and Design in 2016. In 2006, she graduated from the Royal School of Needlework Apprenticeship Programme at Hampton Court and also had served as the U.S. Course Coordinator and instructor for the Royal School of Needlework while working closely with Dr. Susan Kay-Williams for her summer seminar trips here.
For more information about the San Francisco School of Needlework and Design, go HERE.
Through this laborious and time consuming effort of trying to find a home for these pieces through out the United States and in Sweden, destiny would have it that I learned about an embroidery class being taught by the San Francisco School of Needlework and Design by Ms. Lucy Barter through the Atherton Arts Foundation in Atherton, California, just a few minutes from my home. When I brought Nina Sohlberg's pieces to the Atherton Arts Foundation that day to be part of Ms. Barter's class, the search for their new home, unknowingly to me at the time, had come to an end, for their home had been found in the loving hands of Ms. Barter who, for sure, would treasure them and treat them with the care they so deserved and who would use them with her classes at the San Francisco School of Needlework and Design.
Ms. Barter co-founded the San Francisco School of Needlework and Design in 2016. In 2006, she graduated from the Royal School of Needlework Apprenticeship Programme at Hampton Court and also had served as the U.S. Course Coordinator and instructor for the Royal School of Needlework while working closely with Dr. Susan Kay-Williams for her summer seminar trips here.
For more information about the San Francisco School of Needlework and Design, go HERE.
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Ms. Lucy Barter
at the Atherton Arts Foundation class with two students and Nina Sohlberg's gold thread embroidery pieces.
2019
at the Atherton Arts Foundation class with two students and Nina Sohlberg's gold thread embroidery pieces.
2019
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* * *
Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
~ restoring lost local histories ~
reconnecting past to present
* * *
All color photography throughout Swedes: The Way They Were is by Fran Cochran unless otherwise indicated.
Copyright © since October 8, 2015 to Current Year
as indicated on main menu sections of
www.swedesthewaytheywere.org. All rights reserved.
Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
~ restoring lost local histories ~
reconnecting past to present
* * *
All color photography throughout Swedes: The Way They Were is by Fran Cochran unless otherwise indicated.
Copyright © since October 8, 2015 to Current Year
as indicated on main menu sections of
www.swedesthewaytheywere.org. All rights reserved.
