Fredrika Limnell

Fredrika Limnell née Forssberg (14 July 1816) in Härnösand- 12 September 1897) in Stockholm, was a Swedish philantrophist, mecenate, feminist and salonist.

Biography

First (1842) married to her cousin, Per Erik Svedbom (1811-1857), headmaster at Nya Elementar in Stockholm and editor of Aftonbladet, and second (1858) to the director Carl Abraham Limnell (1823-1882).

Fredrika Limnell was a central figure in the Stockholm high society and involved in various organisations within charity, feminism and social issues. With her good connections, she was a good help to many activists within these fields. She participated in the social projects of Fredrika Bremer and Princess Eugenie of Sweden, in the ladies comitté in the foundation of the Swedish Red Cross (1864-65) and in the foundation in the pioneer Swedish feminist organisation Fredrika-Bremer-förbundet (1884) with Sophie Adlersparre, Ellen Ankarsvärd, Ellen Fries, Hans Hildebrand and Gustaf Sjöberg. She financed the pioneer feminist publication Tidskrift för Hemmet (1859) by Rosalie Roos and Sophie Adlersparre. She was the vice chairman of the hospital Eugeniahemmet (1874-92).

She was a large benefactor and financier. She was a benefactor of female artists; she partially financed Fredrika Bremer's trip to Palestine, and supported Selma Lagerlöf economically so she could concetrate on her writing. She held a salon for the artist elite, and gathered artists as guests on her country villa in May-September, were Jenny Lind, Gunnar Wennerberg, Victoria Benedictsson, Carl Snoilsky, Carl David af Wirsén, Emil Sjögren, Christina Nilsson and Henrik Ibsen were among the guests. King Oscar II of Sweden also visited it.

References

• Österberg, Carin et al., Svenska kvinnor: föregångare, nyskapare (Swedish women: Predecessors, pioneers) Lund: Signum 1990. (ISBN 91-87896-03-6)