Catharina Ahlgren

Catharina Ahlgren
Born	1734 Sweden
Died	1800 unknown, likely Finland
Nationality	Sweden
Other names	Catharina Bark, Catharina Eckerman
Occupation	writer, poet, translator, managing editor, journalist.
Known for	feminist and writer

Catharina Ahlgren (1734 – c. 1800) was a Swedish feminist writer, poet, translator, managing editor, and one of the first identifiable female journalists in Sweden. She is also known for her correspondence with Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht. Ahlgren was a leading person in the "Female literary world of the 1750s and 1770s" in Sweden. She later emigrated to Finland, where she published the first Finnish paper in the country.

Catharina Ahlgren was the daughter of Anders Ahlgren, governor of Östergötland, and Laurentia Juliana Liungenfeldt. Through her sister, she was the sister-in-law of Johan Gustaf Halldin, chancellor of the Kungliga Biblioteket.

According to V. Örnberg, she was at one point a chamber lady in the court of the queen Louisa Ulrika, but lost her position because of some kind of intrigue: "Chamberlady at court but soon lost her position because of plotting, managed a book shop that failed. Made translations and wrote literary things."

Catharina Ahlgren married first to Bengt Edvard Eckerman, cavalry master of the royal Scanian Husars. During her first marriage, she had the daughters Charlotte Eckerman and Julie Eckerman and the sons Bengt Gustaf and Christopher. Her first marriage was reportedly troubled by economic difficulties and her youngest son were not acknowledged by her spouse as his. The marriage ended in a divorce in 1770. She married for the second time to the book printer journeyman Anders Bark or Barck.

She moved with her second spouse to Finland, possibly in 1775, and are listed as a resident in Åbo in 1782. Also her second marriage ended in a divorce. At the death of her eldest daughter Charlotte in 1790, she was one of the beneficiaries of the will. In 1796, she settled with her youngest daughter Julie in Linköping.

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