On September 15, 2012, Smolenskoe Lutheran Cemetery in St.Petersburg hosted the opening ceremony of the memorial tombstone for Louisa Catherine Adams, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of her death. Louisa Catherine Adams was the first U.S. citizen who was born and lived her short life in St.Petersburg from August 12, 1811 to September 15, 1812. She was a daughter to John Quincy Adams, the first U.S. ambassador to the Russian Empire, who later became the sixth U.S. President. He lived and worked in the capital of the Russian Empire from 1809 to 1814.
On September 15, 2012, Smolenskoe Lutheran Cemetery in St.Petersburg hosted the opening ceremony of the memorial tombstone for Louisa Catherine Adams, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of her death. Louisa Catherine Adams was the first U.S. citizen who was born and lived her short life in St.Petersburg from August 12, 1811 to September 15, 1812. She was a daughter to John Quincy Adams, the first U.S. ambassador to the Russian Empire, who later became the sixth U.S. President. He lived and worked in the capital of the Russian Empire from 1809 to 1814.
The ceremony was organized by the initiative of the U.S. Consulate General in St.Petersburg, and resulted from many-years-long joing efforts of Russian and American historians and Petersburg local lore experts to find the grave of Louise Adams. Searchings for documents and various materials were carried out in Russian and foreign archives, while the study of little-known and neglected corners of the vast area of the Smolenskoe Lutheran Cemetery lasted for decades. In 2009, a St.Petersburg researcher and historian Gennadiy Pirozhkov managed to determine the most likely burial place of the girl. This place was chosen for the memorial tombstone of Louisa Catherine Adams.
The ceremony was attended by officials from the U.S. Embassy in Russia, the U.S. Consulate General in St.Petersburg, St.Petersburg Administration, representatives of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the American non-governmental organization that raised the funds for producing and installing the tombstone.