Alongside Emanuella Carlbeck, she is counted as a pioneer in the education of students with intellectual disability in Sweden, and she represented her country at the 1893 Congress of Women in Chicago.

Rappe was born at her maternal grandfather's Marielund estate in Nättraby parish near Karlskrona.

[2] In 1878, with the help of women's rights activist Sophie Adlersparre, Rappe was appointed director of a new school in Norrtullsgatan for mentally disadvantaged children (then widely known as idiots) in Stockholm organized by several prominent individuals.

[2] Rappe was the author of the first Swedish book about the education of children born with intellectual disabilities, which became influential and was long used in Sweden.

[2] In 1893, she was also the Swedish representative at the Congress of Women held at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.