Her parents moved to Norway in the early 1820s when her father became managing director and co-owner of Blaafarveværket, the country's largest mining company and industrial enterprise.

She was editor-in-chief of the journal Santalen and one of the key leaders of the Norwegian Santal Mission that ran schools, hospitals and social projects in India; she was the first woman to be a national board member of a major Christian organization in Norway.

She was a goddaughter of Countess Karen Wedel-Jarlsberg, Prime Minister Nicolai Johan Lohmann Krog, President of the Parliament Søren Anton Wilhelm Sørenssen, banker Johannes Thomassen Heftye, Prime Minister Frederik Stang, the King's aide-de-camp Hans Christian Rosen, Marie Schjøtt and Henriette Benedicte Løvenskiold.

[6][7] She was also one of the early leaders of the Norwegian Santal Mission, a humanitarian and missionary organisation that was active among the Santhal people of India.

In 1907, she succeeded her husband as editor of the organisation's journal Santalen ("The Santal") and also became a member of its executive board, as the first woman elected to the national leadership of a Norwegian missionary organization.

Together with e.g. Moltke Moe, Erik Werenskiold, Gina Krog, Axel Johannessen, Erika Nissen and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, she was among the co-authors of the book Forældre og Børn, edited by Aksel Arstal (1902).