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Book/Printed Material Letter from Alfred Nobel to Bertha von Suttner, Creating the Nobel Peace Prize.

About this Item

Title

  • Letter from Alfred Nobel to Bertha von Suttner, Creating the Nobel Peace Prize.

Summary

  • Alfred Nobel (1833--96) was a Swedish-born engineer and entrepreneur best known for inventing dynamite. At age 43, Nobel placed an advertisement in a newspaper stating: "Wealthy, highly-educated elderly gentleman seeks lady of mature age, versed in languages, as secretary and supervisor of household." An Austrian woman, Countess Bertha Kinsky, applied for and won the position. The countess worked for Nobel only briefly before returning to Austria to marry Count Arthur von Suttner. Bertha von Suttner became one of the most prominent international peace activists of the late 19th--early 20th centuries, the author of a famous book Die Waffen nieder (Lay down your arms), published in 1889, and vice president of the International Peace Bureau. Nobel and von Suttner remained close friends and corresponded with each other for decades. In this letter, written in French and dated January 7, 1893, Nobel outlined to her his idea of establishing a prize for those who made important contributions to the cause of peace in Europe. Bertha von Suttner herself was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905, nine years after her friend's death. The letter is preserved in the archives of the League of Nations in Geneva. The archives were inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World register in 2010.

Names

  • Nobel, Alfred Bernhard, 1833-1896 Author.

Created / Published

  • [place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], 1893-01-07.

Headings

  • -  1893-01-07
  • -  Awards
  • -  Correspondence
  • -  Letters
  • -  Memory of the World
  • -  Nobel Prizes
  • -  Peace

Notes

  • -  Title devised, in English, by Library staff.
  • -  Original resource extent: 1 page, folded : handwritten in ink.
  • -  Reference extracted from World Digital Library: "Bertha von Suttner -- Biographical," http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1905/suttner-bio.html, External from Frederick W. Haberman, editor, Nobel Lectures, Peace 1901-1925 (Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing Company, 1972).
  • -  Original resource at: United Nations Office at Geneva Library.
  • -  Content in French.
  • -  Description based on data extracted from World Digital Library, which may be extracted from partner institutions.

Medium

  • 1 online resource.

Source Collection

  • League of Nations Archives

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2021667884

Online Format

  • compressed data
  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

IIIF Presentation Manifest

Rights & Access

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Credit Line: [Original Source citation], World Digital Library

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Nobel, Alfred Bernhard, Author. Letter from Alfred Nobel to Bertha von Suttner, Creating the Nobel Peace Prize. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, -01-07, 1893] Image. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667884/.

APA citation style:

Nobel, A. B. (1893) Letter from Alfred Nobel to Bertha von Suttner, Creating the Nobel Peace Prize. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, -01-07] [Image] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667884/.

MLA citation style:

Nobel, Alfred Bernhard, Author. Letter from Alfred Nobel to Bertha von Suttner, Creating the Nobel Peace Prize. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, -01-07, 1893] Image. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2021667884/>.