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THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN n° 692, 29 NOVEMBER-5 DECEMBER, 2013
EDITORIAL > OPERATION ST HELENA TO CONTINUE INTO 2013-2014
Thanks to the contribution of more than 2,500 persons to “Operation St Helena” much has been achieved: the Emperor's apartments have been restored (of particular note is the drawing-room where Napoleon died on 5 May, 1821), as has the Generals' Wing (work to be completed in the summer of 2014); Longwood's precious furniture has been transported to Paris, where it is currently being given a new lease of life; a furniture restorer has been sent to St Helena (with the help of the British government and of the local authorities) for the restoration of the furniture left on the island; and the preparatory work has begun for an exhibition of the restored furniture and other historical memorabilia, to be held at the Musée de l'Armée in Paris (2016). Full details can be found on napoleon.org, as many of you know, since many readers of this letter have participated in this fantastic adventure.
We have decided to extend the fundraising campaign to 2013 and 2014: firstly, so as to consolidate the success of the operation (there will always be unforeseen turns of events, and the current high rate of inflation on St Helena is not helping), and secondly, if possible, to create a fund allocated to the future needs of the National Estates on the island. Our aim now is to provide for all the restoration work over a five year period, not only (and indeed naturally) at Longwood, but also at The Tomb, and, if need be, at The Briars. Public budgets in France are currently being drastically cut, and the National Estates will definitely end up being affected in the future, even if, so far, we have managed to obtain effective guarantees that these budget cuts would not affect our project until the restoration work is fully completed.
As before, donations made by you and by the friends you manage to convince to join us will benefit from the usual tax deductions for organizations of public utility (check our page to see how to get tax benefits in your country). This Napoleonic community project is good for Napoleonic history, it's good for the St Helena National Estates, and it's almost without any collecting fees and/or incidental costs. So why not make a donation, or indeed consider making a new one?
Wishing you an excellent Napoleonic week,
Thierry Lentz
Director of the Fondation Napoléon
The budget of the restoration work is available online.
Recent updates and photos of the restoration work (in French) on Michel DANCOISNE-MARTINEAU's blog, the Honorary Consul of St Helena and curator of the St Helena National Estate.
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BOOK OF THE MONTH > Roger KNIGHT, Britain Against Napoleon, The Organization of Victory 1793-1815
This is one those extraordinary books that changes the way you see something. With its concentration on the small picture and archival foundations, it gives an extremely accurate and balanced account of a subject we all thought we knew. You get the how and why behind the steam-powered dry docks; you get story of the industrialisation of navy supplies and the mass production of navy hardware. You get an accurate and comprehensible account of Britain's only modern administration, the Navy, and the clerks and administrators, previously little-known men, are shown in their true light and given their true importance. The politics, the economics, the social life of the British national struggle against imperial France is recounted here in fabulous new detail. A must read…
> Our French book of the month is: Juliette GLIKMAN, La monarchie impériale, l'imaginaire politique sous Napoléon III
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JOSEPH BONAPARTE MUSEUM IN PHILADELPHIA > SYMPOSIUM and EXHIBITIONS
Philadelphia is unique. It boasts the only museum in the world dedicated to Joseph Bonaparte. And on next week 7 and 8 December, the city will be home to a symposium, an archaeological tour and two exhibitions on "La France à Philadelphie - Joseph Bonaparte and the French Influence in 19th Century Philadelphia". it's a weekend Napoleon fans will not want to miss.
WHAT'S ON
> Some 40,000 people are expected on 30 November in Czech Republic to attend the re-enactment of the battle of Austerlitz for the 208th anniversary of the iconic battle.
> Mega auction in Paris: on 2 December, "L'Empire à Paris" auction will take place at the Bristol Hotel, presented by Marc-Arthur Kohn's study. 180 letters by Napoleon, including the manuscript of the Battle of Austerlitz, along with rare and beautiful First Empire objects and furniture will be shown for sale.
> The next talk organised by the Centre d'Etudes de la Fondation Napoléon will be by Tristan Florenne, on “Le régime politique napoléonien”, on 5 December at 5:30pm (in French).
> In Greenwich, London (UK), don't miss the new exhibition "Turner and the Sea" at the National Maritime Museum, from 22 November, 2013, to 21 April, 2014. The video trailer of the exhibition presents fantastic animated images of Turner's famous painting of the Battle of Trafalgar.
> And across the pond, "Flames across Niagara", a War of 1812 Commemorative event, will take place in Fort Erie, Buffalo and Niagara-on-the-Lake on 6 and 7 December 2013.
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ONCE UPON A 2nd OF DECEMBER...
> 209 YEARS AGO > 2 December, 1804 > Coronation at Notre-Dame in Paris
See our dossier on the Coronation of Napoleon I, and a four-minute animation of the coronation procession and ceremony which took place on a rather cold 2 December in 1804. With bilingual commentary (French and English) of each stage of the day and featuring maps of the route taken, some amazing digital models of Notre Dame Cathedral and the ceremony, and analysis of David's famous painting depicting the event, this really is a quite fabulous video of the coronation as you have never seen it before. This video is a Fondation Napoléon/Bath University production, made by Peter Hicks, Vaughan Hart, and Joe Robson.
> 208 YEARS AGO > 2 December, 1805 > Victory at Austerlitz
On 2 December, 1805, north of Vienna in the present-day Czech Republic, the Austro-Russian army was completely destroyed and the Russians were made to retreat to the East. This great victory closed the German campaign. See our dossier on The Epoch-Making Battle of Austerlitz, and check the re-enactment events taking place this year.
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200 YEARS AGO > “Orange boven!” (‘Long Live the House of Orange'): William I of Orange, made Sovereign Prince of the Netherlands on 2 December, 1813
After nineteen years in exile, the Prince of Orange returned to the Netherlands on 30 November, 1813. He was received with a triumphant welcome in Scheveningen, a reception all the more cordial given the anti-French riots which had taken place in all of the main Dutch cities (see Bulletin n° 690), with support from the United Kingdom and Prussia. Upon the Prince of Orange's arrival in Harlem on 1 December, he declared: “I have come amongst you, determined to forgive and to forget the past.” In Amsterdam, on the following day, 2 December – quite ironically (see the beginning of this Bulletin), William I of Orange was proclaimed Sovereign Prince of the Netherlands by the interim Dutch government.
The French evacuated the Netherlands quickly, though some garrisons held out strongholds such as Breda or Berg-op-Zoom. In the meantime, the Grande Armée was preparing to leave for other fronts. Rapp had capitulated on 29 November in Danzig after an 11-month siege, and the allied armies were about to enter France, since Belgium was also slipping away from French control, following the Dutch example. On 4 December, the coalition signed the Declaration of Frankfort, in which the allies solemnly declared to be at war with Napoleon and not France.
150 YEARS AGO > 1863, creation of several newspapers in France
1863 was golden year for the French press: no less than four new papers were to appear over the course of the year. In addition to Le Petit Journal (see Bulletin n° 683 for the full story) and La Vie Parisienne (a sort of British-style snobbish gossip rag founded by Marcelin Planat and the inspiration for Meilhac and Halévy's libretto for Offenbach's famous frivolous operetta of the same name), two much more serious “revues” came into being: the Revue des cours scientifiques de la France et de l'étranger (better known as the “Revue Rose” or “Pink Review”, for the colour of its cover) and the Revue des cours littéraires (better known as the “Blue Revue”).
The “Revue Bleue” was founded on 1 December, 1863. Its purpose was to publish the main talks and lectures given at the Collège de France, the Sorbonne and so forth. It gave the general public access to high French literary teaching. Indeed, even Napoleonic matter would find room within its pages – Russian commissioner (and Hudson Lowe's son-in-law) Balmain's memoirs of his period on St Helena would be published in it. Not surprisingly, it was a huge success. In 1871, its directors Eugène Yung and Emile Alglave changed the name to Revue politique et littéraire, in order to broaden their range of subjects. On top of the lessons from the Collège de France and the Sorbonne, each week then had a political section, a bulletin presenting the scholarly societies and the main questions discussed at the Institut de France, together with the bulletins from the geographical or linguistical societies, and a literary review of the recently published books. Many writers had their texts in the Revue Bleue before being first published. Famous writers include Littré and Coquerel.
The “Revue Rose” (also edited by Eugène Yung and Emile Alglave) was the Revue Bleue's scientific sister; and indeed Yung and Alglave soon underlined the relationship when they also changed its name to Revue scientifique. It published the main scientific talks and lectures from the Collège de France and the Sorbonne, from the Muséum, from the provincial universities and from foreign universities. It introduced new subjects and scientific discoveries, together with new theories and philosophical ideas. It also followed the new developments in the industrial, economical, political and military fields. Famous writers appearing in the Revue scientifique include ground-breaking French man of medicine, Claude Bernard, and Darwin.
For more information on La Vie Parisienne, and especially on its links with London, see Clara Edouard's article “La Vie Parisienne à Londres, 1863-1903” (in French).
Wishing you an excellent "Napoleonic" week,
Peter Hicks and Lucie Louvrier
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, N° 692, 29 NOVEMBER-5 DECEMBER, 2013
Interested in the work of the Fondation Napoléon? Why not participate, either generally or in a specific project, by making a donation?
© 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 the prolongation of its 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.
You can still donate online to the project via the Friends of the Fondation de France in the US here.
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MAGAZINE
JUST PUBLISHED
- DWYER Philip G., Citizen Emperor - Napoleon in Power, 1799 - 1815
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- The War of 1812: A Three-volume Regional Commemoration of the Bicentennial, 2012-14, Volume 1 - The Conflict Ignites
- The War of 1812: A Three-volume Regional Commemoration of the Bicentennial, 2012-14, Volume 2, 1813: The Border in Flames
EVENTS
On now and coming up:
See our selection of events taking place now or in the coming weeks, taken from our What's on listings.
PRESS REVIEW
- Major New Turner Exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London (UK)
- 19th Century Fashion! “Advice to the teens”, by Nicola Phillips in History Today, vol.63, Issue 12
SEEN ON THE WEB
- "HBO Eyeing Spielberg's Napoleon Mini Based on Kubrick Script"
- War of 1812 (USA) – Video giving more details on Credit Island battle
- Winchester Museum awarded fund for Battle of Waterloo exhibition
- A small silver vinaigrette, made in 1805 to commemorate the Battle of Trafalgar, sold for a massive £1,720 in the Charterhouse November auction
- War of 1812 featured Richland Co. battle
- French Embassy marks 201st anniversary of Napoleon's crossing of the Berezina
- 1812 Commemorative Fundraiser for the American Legion in Put-in-Bay
- US ship in War of 1812 battle getting a Va. Marker
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