On 15 April, 2010, the Musée des Lettres et Manuscrits, based at 222 Boulevard Saint-Germain in Paris, opened its doors to the public.
This Haussmannian building, classed as an historical monument, has been entirely renovated in order to suitably house and present the works and writings of Proust, Hugo, Sand, Saint-Exupéry, Napoleon, Eisenhower, de Gaulle, Einstein, Edison, Delacroix, Van Gogh, Mozart, Beethoven and the hundreds of other great writers who have gone down in history.
Of the 70,000 letters, manuscripts, signatures, drawings and first editions that make up the museum's collection, a number of specially-selected examples, demonstrating the richness of the museum's acquisitions and outlining the museum's key themes, have been put on special display. This display will be constantly updated and rotated, and will also be joined from time to time by temporary exhibitions. Themes include history, science and discovery, literature, ats, and music.
Each document on display offers an historical perspective on events, bringing the visitor closer to the individuals that helped shape the history of humanity. But more than this, the museum also aims to elicit an emotional response from the visitor, as they consider not just the information that the document offers but also the document's human side, with its particular signature and handwriting.
The museum's collections are also available to researchers and other museums both domestic and foreign. This place, imbued with emotion and history, allows the visitor to embrace centuries of creation, exchange, discovery and passion, and delve into the events, both big and small, that have made our century what it is.
