Margaretha Charlotta Heijkensköld (19 August 1781 – 29 July 1834,

Remla Remla ( ar, رملة) is the main town of the Kerkennah Islands, Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

), was a Swedish traveler and a dress reformer. She attracted a lot of attention from her contemporaries by her journeys. Margaretha Heijkensköld was the daughter of the noble Councillor Detlof Heijkensköld the Younger (1751–1824) and Lovisa Ulrica Victorin (1756-1825). Late in life, she inherited a fortune, which she used to finance her interest in foreign travel and the study of foreign culture. She was described as an independent person with a great ability to adapt. She never married, and the fact that she traveled, and traveled alone, in a period when women seldom did the first and never the second, drew a lot of attention. She visited Paris, Vienna and Italy before she traveled in the Middle East. She died in Romla in

after a visit in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. Notes and drawings from her travels are preserved. In 1816 Margaretha Heijkenskjöld introduced a new

Folk costume A folk costume (also regional costume, national costume, traditional garment, or traditional regalia) expresses an identity through costume, which is usually associated with a geographic area or a period of time in history. It can also indicat ...

, the so-called '' Hälleforsdräkten'' on her father's initiative, to "curb the luxury and benefit social equality".Heijkenskjöld, släkt, urn:sbl:12780, Svenskt biografiskt lexikon, hämtad 2014-08-11.

References

* Wilhelmina Stålberg & P. G. Berg
Anteckningar om svenska qvinnor

Heijkenskjöld, släkt, urn:sbl:12780, Svenskt biografiskt lexikon, hämtad 2014-08-11.
* http://www.adelsvapen.com/genealogi/Heijkenskj%C3%B6ld_nr_1983 1781 births 1834 deaths 18th-century Swedish people 19th-century Swedish people 18th-century Swedish women 19th-century Swedish women 19th-century explorers Female explorers Swedish nobility Swedish explorers {{sweden-bio-stub