1879.03.31 English

[1] (SA): Probably Ludvig Jacob Bruun (1811-1882). According to information from the Royal Library in Copenhagen he was a counselor and head of department at the municipal corporation (“Magistrat”) of Copenhagen, and – as such – he can probably be regarded as the representative of the “employer” in relation to the staff of the Royal Institute for the Deaf-Mute?

[2] (SA): This word is difficult to make out, but it is most probably “contorchef”: Head of Department

[3] (SA): The teacher celebrating his jubilee (50 years) as a teacher at the Royal Institute for the Deaf-Mute was Ulrik Frederik Gram (1810-1892). Han enrolled as a pupil at the institute under principal Castberg in 1821, and after his confirmation in 1827 he received teacher training at the institute and was employed as the very first mute Danish teacher in 1829. When he retired in 1886, he had been employed for 57 years.

[4] (CB): Trap – mentioned in several of RMH’s letters – was a high-ranking civil servant at the level of permanent secretary; among other things he was director of the Zoological Museum of Copenhagen and also the author of the giant publication “TRAP Denmark”, dealing with the geography of Denmark and Schleswig. He lived from 1810 to 1885.
(SA): J.P. Trap is mentioned frequently in the jubilee book for the Institute, published in 1907. RMH had an excellent relationship with him, principally on account of the fact that Trap delegated all managerial responsibility to RMH. By tacit agreement RMH opened all mail, including letters to the Director as well as to himself, forwarding only the correspondence that he considered strictly necessary and adding information about what kind of answer he recommended. RMH was very anxious concerning who would succeed Trap in 1885, fearing that it might be one of his “competitors”, principal Keller of the Keller Institutions. In the end, Keller was not appointed, but the position was taken over by Lord F. Wolfhagen, and immediately a violent conflict arose between RMH and the new director, who did not agree to continuing the well established arrangement and demanded full information and insight into all aspects of the management of the institute.