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.
- 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 -
The Pillow Cover
The Sohlberg Seamstresses and Embroiderers
Alma Nina Emma
Alma Nina Emma
With the last death of Ulric's and Antoinette's daughters in 1955, their youngest Emma who had been living in Stockholm, the family lawyer mailed to their granddaughter, Nina Sohlberg Fry, in Lindsborg, Kansas, the family heirlooms which included these two (2) pieces of gold thread embroidery and the three (3) 1867 Sohlberg Kosta Glasbruk Family Portraits of Ulric; Antoinette; and Alma and Ernest.
Note: The above two embroidery pieces and the small portrait photographs were from the Smoky Valley Lindsborg, Kansas, Swedish American estate and were gifted to the San Francisco School of Needlework and Design (SFSND) in 2019, only after laboriously contacting Swedish and Swedish American institutions to gift these to them.
Note: The above two embroidery pieces and the small portrait photographs were from the Smoky Valley Lindsborg, Kansas, Swedish American estate and were gifted to the San Francisco School of Needlework and Design (SFSND) in 2019, only after laboriously contacting Swedish and Swedish American institutions to gift these to them.
The 1955 Swedish Custom Document for the "three portraits" & the "two gold thread embroidery pieces"
- RESEARCH ONGOING -
There has been considerable research concerning this type of needlework from the palaces of Sweden to the Royal School of Needlework (RSN) at Hampton Court in England. In 2014, Dr. Susan Kay-Williams, Chief Executive of the RSN, graciously made time to met 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' detailed exquisite workmanship of Nina Sohlberg, Dr. Kay-Williams could offer no new information on the "Sampler," as to where Nina was trained or knowing about any other samplers like it.
The 2007 Emails
The emails from 2007 regarding my research are below. One email suggested that Swedish women traveled to the Royal School to learn this type of needlework as there was no school in Sweden. Another email suggested that there was a school in Vienna, Austria, during that period (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. Yet that school was dissolved some time ago.
Thus, more research should be done on this!
The emails from 2007 regarding my research are below. One email suggested that Swedish women traveled to the Royal School to learn this type of needlework as there was no school in Sweden. Another email suggested that there was a school in Vienna, Austria, during that period (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. Yet that school was dissolved some time ago.
Thus, more research should be done on this!
| 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 |
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Ulric Ernest & Alma Antoinette
* * *
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, or obviously concluded it is not.
Copyright © 2019 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, or obviously concluded it is not.
Copyright © 2019 www.swedesthewaytheywere.org. All rights reserved.
