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DIGITAL HISTORY...
... dominates the letter this week. The advent of high-speed internet and mobile technology has made our time the era of digital archives, accessible by anyone from anywhere in the world via an internet connection. Napoleon.org has been online since 1996, and over the last fifteen years the Fondation Napoléon has kept a close eye on developments as the field of digital history progresses. Our new article of the month, by Hamish Davey Wright, places the Fondation Napoléon online services into the developing context of digital history, whilst further down you will find supplementary reading on the subject - a paper from the Times Higher Education website which serves as a springboard for our article, and Jim Mussell's review of the British Newspaper Archive. Moving on from archives, but still in the same digital postcode, we have a link to the website ParisAvant, which offers users early photographs of the city of Paris, plus details of an iPad/iPhone application which curious visitors to the city can use to explore its history. 200 and 150 years ago this week both make ample use of digital history, as we explore the National Guard sénatus-consulte of March 1812 and the Juárez decree, which would have unforeseen consequences for an American citizen over sixty years later. We have also added a new Napo Doc to your Kids' Corner, which explores the scientific expedition which accompanied Bonaparte's military campaign to Egypt. Finally, the fourth Atelier de la Fondation Napoléon is set to take place next Thursday in Créteil: all are welcome for what promises to be a fascinating and enlightening discussion on the great jurists of the Consulate and First Empire.
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ARTICLE OF THE MONTH
"Digital History and the Fondation Napoléon: an overview", by Hamish Davey Wright
The branch of humanities that is digital history - the fusion of the past, the present and the future - continues to incite discussion and analysis in the press. This is both unsurprising, given the speed at which technology is advancing, and extremely welcome, for it is only through discussion that the latest technological developments can be better turned towards achieving what is required in the domain. High speed internet and increasingly powerful mobile devices have become the motors behind an increasingly dominant theme: the creation of ever larger and more elaborate document repositories. This article considers some of the challenges surrounding the digitisation process that is taking place and puts into this context three of the Fondation Napoléon's digital services.
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PRESS REVIEW
Digital History in the press
A great deal continues to be written about the development of digital history. The subject is vast, covers many components and subfields, and changes almost every day as new technology becomes available and our understanding of its possibilities in relation to history improves. This rapid development necessitates careful reflection on the challenges of digital history and the issues that need to be considered when offering a digital service, something that Matthew Reisz addresses in his recent article on the internet and digital history, published on the Times Higher Education website. Elsewhere, Jim Mussell takes a look at the British Newspaper Archive and questions its goals and intended target audience.
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KIDS' CORNER
Bonaparte's Egyptian campaign, part two: the scientific expedition
Part two of our look back on the French expedition to Egypt focuses on the scientists, botanists, artists and engineers who accompanied the French general and his army. Characters such as Henri-Joseph Redouté, Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, and Gaspard Monge helped shape our understanding of Egypt, its country, its culture and its society. The discoveries and findings made whilst on the expedition would go on to form the basis for the monumental reference work, the Description de l'Egypte, the publication of which was overseen by Vivant Denon. The Institute of Egypt, which was founded during this period, was recently destroyed by fire during the December unrest in Cairo last year.
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SEEN ON THE WEB
ParisAvant's old photos of Paris
Early photography lovers will find much to enjoy on the French website, ParisAvant, which features photographs primarily from the nineteenth century, charting the development of Paris. ParisAvant has also released an app for the iPhone, iPod Touch and the iPad which allows users to visualise old photos of Paris according to the area which they are visiting. The app also includes an historical commentary that accompanies the photos, introducing users to the evolution of Paris streets and sites of interest. Users can even use augmented reality to superimpose a vintage photo of the view onto the modern-day incarnation as visualised through the device. Similar applications exist for the cities of Metz and Nantes. The French website Le Point.fr has posted a feature on the website, which includes a selection of annotated photos from the website's creator, Frédéric Botton (external link in French).
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WHAT'S ON
"Les Ateliers de la Fondation Napoléon: the great jurists of the Consulate and Empire": final reminder
Next Thursday, 26 January, is the date for the fourth Atelier de la Fondation Napoléon study day, which will be taking place in Créteil, France, at the Université de Paris-Est Créteil.
200 YEARS AGO
The National Guard
On 24 January 1812, Napoleon, always careful to plan for every eventuality, wrote to General Lacuée, his minister for war administration, describing his plan to conscript an additional 120,000 men for National Guard service. This letter was a practical development of his earlier correspondence to Berthier, the Prince de Neuchâtel (20 January 1812), in which he outlined his philosophy for the Garde Nationale.
"A sénatus-consulte would ensure that [these 120,000] remain within the borders of France, but they would have to serve for the entirety of the war's duration. This levée will be executed quickly, as the men will remain in the localities, the Dutch in Holland, the Flemish in Flanders, the Bretons in Brittany." [Letter from Napoleon to General Lacuée dated 24 January 1812, n° 18,451, Second Empire edition]
With such an extensive campaign planned and a huge army assembled to invade Russia, Napoleon was clearly concerned to secure his borders whilst he was away. Britain's albeit unsuccessful raid on Walcheren demonstrated the danger posed to the French Empire's borders, particularly along the western coastline, a danger that could not be averted by relying on the occasional or spontaneous levee of National Guard troops. The two letters would go on to form the basis for the sénatus-consulte of 13 March 1812, which announced the call-up of about 80,000 men to form eighty-eight National Guard cohorts, with the express mission of "protecting the borders, policing the interior, and protecting naval depots, arsenals, and fortified sites". Despite the military-like structure applied to the National Guard's organisation and superior command positions exercised by professional army officers, the conscripted troops proved mediocre at best, lacking both in training and ability. Indeed, it was a National Guard battalion stationed in Paris that - tricked by General Malet's false papers announcing Napoleon's death - proceeded to arrest the police chiefs and occupy the Hôtel de Ville in October 1812. For the battalion commander, a certain Soulier, and eight of his subordinate officers, this incompetence was to prove fatal, and they were executed following the plot's failure. The guard was to prove its utility once more however: as the remnants of the Grande Armée staggered back to France in 1813, the National Guard would form the backbone of a new army, with Napoleon able to raise twenty new regiments in just two weeks off the back of a new sénatus-consulte dated 11 January 1813. Troops that had previously served on the coast guarding ammunition depots were simply converted into frontline army soldiers and dispatched to Italy and Germany.
150 YEARS AGO
President Juárez decrees all those aiding or collaborating with the European intervention "traitors"
On 25 January 1862, Mexican president Benito Juárez announced that any individual found by extraordinary court-martial to be collaborating or assisting the European intervention (for it was still indeed a European operation, with the three powers on paper still acting in concert) in Mexico would be executed. This measure was to have far-reaching consequences: Maximilian, along with two Mexican imperial generals, Miguel Miramón and Tomás Méjia, were found guilty of treason and executed in June 1867 based on Juárez's law, whilst there is also record of an American citizen, a certain Howard Lincoln Elton, who was executed in 1916 following his conviction for "aiding and abetting a rebellion" against General Carranza during the Mexican Revolution of the early twentieth century. The basis for his extraordinary court-martial and execution was Juárez's decree of 1862, despite the United States arguing that the decree applied only to the European intervention. Click here for the USA's arguments against Elton's extraordinary court-martial (external PDF link).
Wishing you an excellent "Napoleonic" week,
Peter Hicks & Hamish Davey Wright
Historians and web-editors
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, N° 611, 20 - 26 JANUARY 2012
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© This Napoleon.org weekly bulletin is published by the Fondation Napoléon. Reproduction or all or part of this bulletin is forbidden, without prior agreement of the Fondation Napoléon.
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OPERATION ST HELENA
The Fondation Napoléon and the Souvenir Napoléonien, in association with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have announced an international fund-raising campaign to restore and save Napoleon I's residence on the island of St Helena. All the details regarding the campaign as well as donation forms and advice for donating from outside France, can be found on napoleon.org.
FONDATION NAPOLEON ON THE WEB
Each week we offer you a "mystery link" to somewhere on napoleon.org. Click on the link to discover a part of the website you might not have visited before...
MAGAZINE
Press review
- BBC: "Saving Egypt's precious fire-bombed books"
- Elmundo.es: photos of the exhibition "El viaje andaluz del Rey José I: Paz en la guerra"
- Jim Mussell on the British Newspaper Archive: a review
- Times Higher Education: the internet and digital humanities
- "Lettre de Malmaison": digital project developments
Seen on the web
- National Archives podcast: "Anxiety, dread and disease: British ports 1834-1870"
- Library of Congress webcast: "Genius & Death in a City of Dreams"
- History Spot: "Does the Digital change anything?" videocast
EVENTS
On now and coming up
A selection of events taking place now or in the coming weeks, taken from our What's on listings.
Study days
- Ateliers de la Fondation Napoléon: the great jurists of the Consulate and Empire, Créteil, France [26/01/2012]
Full details
Talks
- Prison hulks: talk at The National Archives, Kew, UK [26/01/2012]
Full details
Exhibitions finishing soon...
- "El viaje andaluz del Rey José I: Paz en la Guerra", Cadiz, Spain [23/11/2011 - 29/01/2012]
Full details
NAPOLEON.ORG
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