Current Research Projects

‘“I Don’t Think Diamonds Suit Me”
The Representation of Owner Families in Danish Manor House Milieus, 1830-1885

The research project, “I don’t think diamonds suit me. The representation of the roles of ladies and gentlemen of the nobility in a Danish manor house environment, 1830-1885”, conducted by the Director of the Centre, Signe Boeskov, PhD at the Danish Research Centre for Manorial Studies, was launched in 2016 with support from the Research Committee of the Ministry of Culture Denmark.

The project takes as its point of departure the lady of the manor, Marie Elisa Tang of the Nørre Vosborg manor house in West Jutland in the mid-19th century. The objective is to use her to expand our understanding of what it meant to fulfil that role at the time. For more than 50 years, Mrs  Tang kept a diary with detailed descriptions of her everyday life. This unique material follows her progress, from when she was a young lady with her finger on the pulse in an upper middle class milieu in the heart of Copenhagen, to when she married her cousin, the estate owner A.E.M. Tang, becoming an estate owner’s wife in distant West Jutland. By the time of her death in that self-same place she was a fully-fledged lady of the manor and a prominent lady in the region.