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EDITORIAL > THE RICHNESS OF THE TIMES
This week, we've been reminded again of the extraordinary richness of the time we live in and the wealth of resources and information available to us online. The letter this time around has everything from a timelapse video mapping Napoleon's conquest of Europe, to a series of textiles commemorating Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie, discovered in the Cooper Hewitt Museum's excellent online collections. Our own offerings on the fashions and materiality of the Second Empire are substantial (see our article of the month, our fashion pages, and a Napoleonica.La Revue article by Zoe Viney, below), but we've also highlighted in this letter some of the other websites and databases that let you discover the clothing of the Second Empire in all its glory from the comfort of your home.
Along with news of bicentenary commemorations, the anniversary of the “Retour des Cendres”, and our usual “200 years ago” and “150 years ago” features, we have the very real pleasure of sharing with you this week some photos from the 2014 Fondation Napoléon Grand Prix and Research Grant Awards Ceremony, which took place last Tuesday at the Hôtel de Charost, residence of the British Ambassador to France (formerly owned by Pauline Bonaparte).
We hope you enjoy these rich and varied offerings as much as we have!
Francesca Whitlum-Cooper
Web Editor
THE FONDATION NAPOLEON GRAND PRIX CEREMONY > AN EVENING AT THE HÔTEL DE CHAROST
On 9 December, the 2014 Grand Prix and Research Grant Awards ceremony took place in the presence of Her Imperial Highness the Princess Napoléon at the British Ambassador's Residence in Paris, the Hôtel de Charost. We have photos from the prize-giving, descriptions of the winning books, and the research grant projects up on our site. And we have also heard that a former research grant recipient, Romain Buclon, successfully defended his thesis on Napoléon and Milan at the Université de Grenoble. Congratulations to all!
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BICENTENARIES > NAPOLEON AT GOLFE JUAN AND “LA ROUTE NAPOLEON”
If our talk of bicentenary commemorations in last week's letter whetted your appetite, mark the weekend of 28 February–1 March, 2015 in your calendars now! The town of Vallauris Golfe Juan is organising a weekend of historical encounters to mark the 200th anniversary of Napoleon's landing at Golfe Juan, including cavalry spectacles, historical performances, re-enactments, and a “Village Napoléonien”. Find more information here about “La Route Napoléon” (in French). This is really the start of 2015's commemorations, so don't miss out.
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TIMELAPSE VIDEO > HOW NAPOLEON CONQUERED EUROPE
This amazing timelapse video (external link) presents the territories of Europe at two-week intervals for the 13 years between 1802 and 1815 in just three minutes! Watch as Napoleon conquers huge swathes of the continent - and then why not read about his major campaigns in details on our site?! We've got dossiers on the Prussian, Polish, and Russian campaigns to get your started, as well as information about all the most crucial battles...
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COMMEMORATED IN TEXTILES > NAPOLEON III AND EUGENIE
The Cooper-Hewitt Museum (external links) in New York (which reopens today after years of extensive renovations) has a fantastic art and design collection, almost all of which is digitized. Exploring their website, we found a host of nineteenth-century textiles celebrating Napoleon III and Empress Eugénie: their marriage, their reign, and a later design that includes the Prince Imperial. There's also this rather fantastic 1953 Napoleonic wallpaper. And for the true Second Empire enthusiast, check out the latest edition of the magazine, Napoléon III (in French).
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GOWNS, BUSTLES AND CRINOLINES > FASHION IN THE SECOND EMPIRE
The Fashion section of website has a host of entries about dress and style during the Second Empire. Why not use the drop-down menu to read about this elegant taffeta and silk dress from 1869, the advent of the bustle, this steel-framed crinoline, and hairstyles during the Second Empire?
NAPOLEONICA. LA REVUE > “THE EMPRESS EUGENIE AND THE IMPERIAL VESTMENTS AT ST MICHAEL'S ABBEY, FARNBOROUGH” BY ZOE VINEY
In keeping with this week's fashion-in-the-Second-Empire theme, we have this fantastic article about Empress Eugénie and the Imperial vestments at Farnborough. A fascinating and beautifully illustrated read!
15 DECEMBER, 1840 > THE “RETOUR DES CENDRES”
This week in 1840, Napoleon I's mortal remains were repatriated to France, and were subsequently interred at Invalides. You can read more about the "Retour des Cendres" in this article by Fiona Parr.
200 YEARS AGO > LE NAIN JAUNE IS LAUNCHED
Taking for its name a popular eighteenth-century card and strategy game and also that of the repulsive anti-hero of a seventeenth-century fable, Le Nain Jaune (a satirical gazette that can be cast as a nineteenth-century cross between The Onion and Private Eye) was launched on 15 December, 1814, thanks to the growing political and religious unpopularity of Louis XVIII and the Restoration. While the number of anti-Napoleon pamphlets was gradually decreasing as the fallen Emperor's exile on Elba seemed definitive, the founders of this clandestine gazette – the liberal Louis François Auguste Chauchois-Lemaire and the Bonapartist Charles-Guillaume Étienne (former director of the literary division of Napoleon's police force, who had therefore been in charge of censorship under the Empire) – intended to mock the recently installed powers. La Gazette de France, which was loyal to the King, took it upon itself to respond. Le Nain Jaune taunted those in government who turned their coats to follow Louis XVIII, creating the “Order of the Weathervane”, of which Talleyrand was made the grand master. La Gazette de France renamed their rival lampoonist Le Nain de l'île d'Elbe (The Elban Dwarf rather than The Yellow Dwarf). Louis XVIII was little troubled by these hostile scribblers during the first Restoration, but he would feel quite differently after the 100 Days adventure was over (even though Le Nain Jaune did not appear to have played a role in any Bonapartist plot to put Napoleon back on the throne…)
150 YEARS AGO > PUBLICATIONS FOR WOMEN DURING THE SECOND EMPIRE
On 29 October, 1864 Le Journal pour Toutes was launched in Paris – a weekly newspaper “specially dedicated to women's interests.” This women's publication was driven by fierce and serious motives: an essay in the first edition declared, “We must create women, not dolls.” Its cover image showed a diverse selection of modern women: at left, an old lady sits knitting and a girl in rural dress carries crops and a basket, while in the centre a mother teaches her two little girls to read and at right a group of cultivated young women read and play the piano (the implication being that women should be moving from the left-hand to the right-hand state). Its pages were filled with a mix of rigorous, often academic articles. The edition for the week of 10 December, 1864, for example, contained a piece arguing for the importance of mutual insurance systems as opposed to charitable hand-outs; a dialogue about French rights; and an account of education initiatives for women at the Sorbonne, praising Education Minister M. Duruy, “who has called on women to take their share of the fruits of science [and who], this year, has reserved them special places [in lectures].” Although the Journal pour Toutes heralded this move towards education as “a sign of the times”, its own lifespan was just three short years. For all its ambition, it was apparently difficult to make women's education and enfranchisement a financially successful venture during the Second Empire.
Wishing you an excellent Napoleonic week!
Peter Hicks and Francesca Whitlum-Cooper (with Emma Simmons)
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN No 739, 12-18 DECEMBER, 2014
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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 that the international fund-raising campaign to restore and save Napoleon I's residence on the island of St Helena will accept donations until 31 December, 2014. 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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napoleon.org - related content:
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WHAT'S ON
- Bicentenary of Napoleon's Presence on the Island of Elba [11/04/2014 - 26/02/2015]
- Treasures from the Royal Archives [17/05/2014 - 25/01/2015]
- "Coaching the Congress Along" - Exhibition at the Carriage Museum, Vienna [18/09/2014 - 09/06/2015]
- "Death Becomes Her: A Century of Mourning Attire" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art [21/10/2014 - 01/02/2015]
- "Les Adieux à l'Impératrice" at Malmaison [05/11/2014 - 02/02/2015]
- “Cairo to Constantinople: Early Photographs of the Middle East” [07/11/2014 - 22/02/2015]
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WAR OF 1812
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THE BIBLIOTHÈQUE MARTIAL-LAPEYRE FONDATION NAPOLEON LIBRARY
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Site of digitised Napoleonic archival material:
The working papers or 'imprimés' of the Napoleonic Conseil d'Etat, the correspondence of Vivant Denon, etc.
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NAPOLEONICA. LA REVUE
International peer-review interdisciplinary e-review on the history of the two Empires, bilingual French-English, 3 issues per year, free access.
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