Married to the Empire Three Governors' Wives in Russian America 1829-1864 / Susanna Rabow-Edling.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rabow-Edling, Susanna, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Russians.

Governors' spouses.

Alaska--Sitka.

Alaska.

Rossiĭsko-amerikanskai︠a︡ kompanii︠a︡.

Wrangel, Elisabeth von, 1810-1854.

Furuhjelm, Anna, 1836-1894.

Etholon, Margaretha, 1814-1894.

Genre:

History

Biographies

Physical Description:

1 online resource (289 p.)

Place of Publication:

2015. University of Alaska Press, Fairbanks, Alaska :

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Russian Empire had a problem. While they had established successful colonies in their territory of Alaska, life in the settlements was anything but civilized. The settlers of the Russian-America Company were drunk, disorderly, and corrupt. Worst of all, they were terrible role models for the Natives, whom the empire saw as in desperate need of moral enlightenment. The empire’s solution? Send in women. In 1829, the Company decreed that any governor appointed after that date had to have a wife, in the hopes that these more pious women would serve as glowing examples of domesticity and bring charm to a brutish territory. Elisabeth von Wrangell, Margaretha Etholén, and Anna Furuhjelm were three of eight governors' wives who took up this domestic mantle. Married to the Empire tells their stories using their own words and though extraordinary research by Susanna Rabow-Edling. All three were young and newly wed when they left Russia for the furthest outpost of the empire, and all three went through personal and cultural struggles as they worked to adjust to life in the colony. Their trials offer a little-heard female history of Russian Alaska, while illuminating the issues that arose while trying to reconcile expectations of womanhood with the realities of frontier life.

Contents:

Maps; Acknowledgments; Introduction; Part I: Elisabeth von Wrangell; Chapter One

The Journey across Siberia to Russian America; Chapter Two

The Encounter With the New World; Part II: Margaretha Etholen; Chapter Three

From Helsinki to Sitka; Chapter Four

The Inner Life of a Governor's Wife; Part III: Anna Furuhjelm; Chapter Five

The Perfect Wife in the Wilderness; Chapter Six

A Woman's Mission and Sphere; Epilogue; Bibliography; Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781602232655

1602232652

OCLC:

925338412