Nathalie Sophia Nielsine Caroline Rink née Møller (24 January 1836 – 19 April 1909) was a Danish writer and

ethnologist Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropolog ...

. Together with her husband Hinrich, she founded Greenland's first newspaper, '' Atuagagdliutit'', in 1861. She is credited as being the first woman to publish works on Greenland and its culture.

Biography

Born on 24 January 1836 in

Paamiut Paamiut, formerly Frederikshåb, is a town in southwestern Greenland in the Sermersooq municipality. Geography Paamiut is located on the coast of Labrador Sea in the southern end of a small estuary called Kuannersooq ("Inlet"). History Pe ...

, Nathalie Sophia Nielsine Caroline Møller was the daughter of the Danish colonial administrator Jørgen Nielsen Møller (1801–62) and his wife Antonette Ernestine Constance Tommerup (1813–91). She was brought up in Greenland until about 1850 when she was sent to school in Denmark. When she was just 17, she married the Danish geographer and Greenland researcher Hinrich Rink. The couple lived in Greenland where Hinrich became government inspector in

Nuuk Nuuk (; da, Nuuk, formerly ) is the capital and largest city of Greenland, a constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark. Nuuk is the seat of government and the country's largest cultural and economic centre. The major cities from other coun ...

. They associated with people such as the linguist

Samuel Kleinschmidt Samuel Petrus Kleinschmidt (27 February 1814–9 February 1886) was a German/Danish missionary linguist born in Greenland known for having written extensively about the Greenlandic language and having invented the orthography used for writing thi ...

and the educator Carl Janssen who were interested in the Greenlanders and their culture. In 1868, Rink left Greenland as her husband was suffering from poor health. They took with them a collection of illustrations of folk tales depicting the everyday lives of native Greenlanders created by

Aron of Kangeq Aron of Kangeq (born in Kangeq, South Greenland on April 9, 1822; died March 12, 1869) was a Greenlandic Inuit Greenlanders ( kl, Kalaallit / Tunumiit / Inughuit; da, Grønlændere) are people identified with Greenland or the indigenous peo ...

in which Signe Rink had taken a special interest. She later donated the collection to the

National Museum of Denmark The National Museum of Denmark (Nationalmuseet) in Copenhagen is Denmark's largest museum of cultural history, comprising the histories of Danish and foreign cultures, alike. The museum's main building is located a short distance from Strøget ...

. Aron's watercolours, which also formed an important part of the collection, were rediscovered in 1960 and transferred to the

National Museum of Greenland The Greenland National Museum ( kl, Nunatta Katersugaasivia Allagaateqarfialu) is located in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. It was one of the first museums established in Greenland, inaugurated in the mid-1960s. The museum has many artefacts rela ...

. After first settling in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...

, they moved to

Kristiania Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population o ...

in 1883. It was here that Signe Rink found time to write, publishing ''Grønlændere'' (1886), ''Grønlændere og Danske i Grønland'' (1887), ''Koloni-Idyller fra Grønland'' (1888) and ''Fra det Grønland der gik'' (1902). Signe Rink died in Oslo on 19 April 1909. She was survived by her only daughter.

Publications

Several of Rink's books and short stories are available in English. These include: * * - Translation of ''Koloni-Idyller fra Grønland'' (1888) * - Translation of ''Kayakmænd'' (1896)

References

External links

Signe Rink and the White Woman's Burden
sound clip from acast.com (in Danish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Rink, Signe 1836 births 1909 deaths Danish ethnologists Women ethnologists Greenlandic writers Greenlandic women writers 19th-century Danish translators People from Sermersooq 19th-century Danish women writers