Thorborg Rappe


Ragnhild Thorborg Rappe, was a Swedish pedagogue and Baroness. Alongside Emanuella Carlbeck, she is counted as a pioneer in the education of students with Intellectual disability in Sweden.

Life

Thorborg Rappe was born to the noble courtier Fredrik Rappe and Charlotta Danielsson, and related to Emmy Rappe, the pioneer of nursing education in Sweden. She was raised on the manor of her parents, and married her cousin baron Carl August Rappe in 1854. Until 1868, she lived on the manor of her spouse, but after the great famine of 1867-69, her spouse was ruined and had to sell his estate and work as a civil servant. After having been widowed in 1877, she moved to Stockholm.
From 1878 to 1891, she was the principal of the school for children with Intellectual disability in Stockholm, and from 1891 until her death manager of the home for females with Intellectual disability.
She was the author of the first Swedish book about the education of children with Intellectual disability, which became influential and was long used in Sweden.
In 1893, she was also the Swedish representative at the women's congress in Chicago.

Selected works