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4 unusual facts about Nancy Edberg


Louise of the Netherlands

Louise and her daughter was a student of Nancy Edberg, the pioneer of swimming for women: the art of swimming was initially not regarded as being entirely proper for females, but when the Queen and her daughter Princess Louise supported it by attending the lessons from 1862, swimming was quickly made fashionable and became accepted for women.

Nancy Edberg

In 1851, she was made swimming master at Åbomska simskolan, and from 1853, she held her own swimming lessons at Djurgården.

She was given the license to open her own bath house by King Oscar I of Sweden in 1856, and in 1856-1858, she held public swimming exhibitions at Gjörckes simskola with her students to finance the opening of her own bath house; likely the first public swimming exhibitions by women in Sweden and, possibly, also Europe.

Louise of the Netherlands, then Queen of Sweden, and her daughter Louise (later Queen of Denmark) were among Edberg's students between 1862 and 1864.



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