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Woman who established an American Colony
Anna Spafford
Anna Spafford (March 16, 1842 – April 17, 1923), born Anne Tobine Larsen Øglende in Stavanger, Norway, was a Norwegian-American woman who settled in Jerusalem, where she and her husband Horatio Spafford were central in establishing the American Colony there in 1881.
She was a survivor of the sinking of the French passenger steamer Ville du Havre in 1873. Her daughters Anna “Annie” (born June 11, 1862), Margaret Lee “Maggie” (born May 31, 1864), Elizabeth “Bessie” (born June 19, 1868), and Tanetta (born July 24, 1871) were lost in the wreck. Afterwards Anna gave birth to three more children. Her husband, Horatio Spafford wrote the song It Is Well with My Soul after the various tragedies that struck them, which includes the Chicago fire and the loss of their daughters in the sinking of Ville du Havre.
Literature
Geniesse, Jane Fletcher, American Priestess: The Extraordinary Story of Anna Spafford and the American Colony in Jerusalem, Nan A. Talese (2008) ISBN0-385-51926-5
Astrid of Sweden was a member of the Swedish House of Bernadotte and later became Queen of the Belgians as the first wife of King Leopold III. Following her marriage to Leopold in November 1926, she assumed the title of Duchess of Brabant. Astrid held the position of Queen of the Belgians from 23 February 1934 until her death in 1935. Known for her charitable efforts, she focused particularly on causes related to women and children.
The King's Daughters were the approximately 800 young French women who immigrated to New France between 1663 and 1673 as part of a program sponsored by King Louis XIV. The program was designed to boost New France's population both by encouraging Frenchmen to move to the New World, and by promoting marriage, family formation, and the birth of French children in the colony. The term refers to those women and girls who were recruited by the government and whose travel to the colony was paid for by the king. They were also occasionally known as the King's Wards.
Mount Scopus is a mountain in northeast Jerusalem.
The American religious foundation and philanthropy that informally became known as the American Colony of Jerusalem, was established in the Ottoman Empire in 1881 as a "Christian utopian society" led by American religious leader Horatio Gates Spafford and his Norwegian wife Anne Tobine Larsen Øglende. Largely concerned with providing social services, education, meeting spaces, and medical care, it became known for producing and publishing an important documentation, photographic series of the area of Jerusalem starting in the early 1900s. The community lasted until the 1950s.
Philip Paul Bliss was an American composer, conductor, writer of hymns and a bass-baritone Gospel singer. He wrote many well-known hymns, including "Hold the Fort" (1870), "Almost Persuaded" (1871); "Hallelujah, What a Saviour!" (1875); "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning"; "Wonderful Words of Life" (1875); and the tune for Horatio Spafford's "It Is Well with My Soul" (1876). Bliss was a recognized friend of D. L. Moody, the famous Chicago preacher. Bliss died in the Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster on his way to one of Moody's meetings. An outspoken Abolitionist, he served as a Lieutenant during the American Civil War.
"It Is Well With My Soul", also known as "When Peace, Like A River", is a hymn penned by hymnist Horatio Spafford and composed by Philip Bliss. First published in Gospel Hymns No. 2 by Ira Sankey and Bliss (1876), it is possibly the most influential and enduring in the Bliss repertoire and is often taken as a choral model, appearing in hymnals of a wide variety of Christian fellowships.
Horatio Gates Spafford was an American lawyer and Presbyterian church elder. He is best known for penning the Christian hymn "It Is Well With My Soul" following the Great Chicago Fire and the deaths of his four daughters on a transatlantic voyage aboard the S.S. Ville du Havre.
Sophia Frederica of Mecklenburg-Schwerin was born a Princess and Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and by marriage Hereditary Princess of Denmark and Norway.
The American Colony Hotel is a luxury hotel located in a historic building in Jerusalem which previously housed the utopian American–Swedish community known as the American Colony.
Kitty Lange Kielland was a Norwegian landscape painter.
Ville du Havre was a French iron steamship that operated round trips between the northern coast of France and New York City. Launched in November 1865 under her original name of Napoléon III, she was converted from a paddle steamer to single propeller propulsion in 1871 and, in recognition of the recent defeat and removal from power of her imperial namesake, the Emperor Napoleon III, was renamed Ville du Havre. It was named after Le Havre, a major port city in the Normandy region of northern France.
SS Sanct Svithun was a 1,376 ton steel-hulled steamship built by the German shipyard Danziger Werft and delivered to the Norwegian Stavanger-based shipping company Det Stavangerske Dampskibsselskab on 1 July 1927. She sailed the Hurtigruten route along the coast of Norway until she was lost in an air attack on 30 September 1943 during the Second World War.
Österlandet (ISBN 978-0-9794059-0-7) is a photography book released in 2007. It chronicles 100 years of change in Egypt and Jerusalem by retracing the travels of Algot Sätterström, a Swedish inventor and painter.
Jerusalem is a novel by the Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf, published in two parts in 1901 and 1902. The narrative spans several generations in the 19th century and focuses on several families in Dalarna, Sweden, and a community of Swedish emigrants in Jerusalem. It is loosely based on a real emigration that took place from the parish of Nås in 1896.
Tina Bru is a Norwegian politician for the Conservative Party. From 2020 to 2021, she served as the Minister of Petroleum and Energy. She was elected to the Storting from Rogaland in 2013 and became a member of the Standing Committee on Energy and the Environment. She was reelected to the Storting for the period 2017–2021, and continued as a member of the Standing Committee on Energy and the Environment.
John Edward Dinsmore (1862-1951) was a botanist and educator, born in Maine, United States. He is best known for his role as the director of the herbarium of the American Colony, Jerusalem and as the honorary curator at the herbarium of George Edward Post in Beirut, Lebanon.
The Matson Photo Service, whose founders were G. Eric Matson and his wife Edith, evolved from the American Colony Photo Department that helped fund the philanthropic work of The American Colony in Jerusalem; a Christian utopian society, established in 1881 by Horatio Spafford and his Norwegian born wife Anna, whose members shared a belief in the Second Coming of Christ.
Anna Gjøstein was a Norwegian proponent for women's rights.
Loch Earn was a British three-masted full-rigged ship that was on a voyage from London, England to New York City, United States when she collided with SS Ville du Havre in the Atlantic Ocean on 22 November 1873. Ville du Havre sank with the loss of 226 of her 313 passengers and crew, while heavily damaged Loch Earn remained afloat before finally sinking after being abandoned by her crew on 28 November 1873 with no loss of life.
The sobriquet "Slooper" refers to the 52 Norwegians who traveled to the United States in 1825 aboard the sloop Restauration. Within the first 100 years, the Slooper community numbered at least 1,000 persons.
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