FELICITY-BODENSTEIN_The Emotional Museum

4/14/2014 The Emotional Museum. Thoughts on the Secular Relics of Nineteenth-Century History Museums in Paris and their Posterity

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The Emotional Museum.Thoughts on the SecularRelics of Nineteenth-CenturyHistory Museums in Paris andtheir PosterityFELICITY BODENSTEIN

Rsums

Franais EnglishCet article examine le discours labor dans les muses dhistoire Paris au cours duXIXe sicle trav ers la prsentation deffets personnels et priv s ay ant appartenu des personnages historiques clbres, des artistes ou criv ains. Comment etpourquoi a-t-on choisi de prsenter des objets en soi aussi banals et profanes que lemouchoir de Napolon ou une boucle des chev eux de Marie-Antoinette ? Dans le cadrerationnel du muse public, quel sens peut-on encore donner ces objets qui nefournissent pas dinformation documentaire et qui nont pour ainsi dire pas de v aleuresthtique ?

De fait, cette tradition musographique a encore toute sa place dans les musesdaujourdhui, surtout dans les muses maisons et les muses biographiques. Nousallons considrer son apparition depuis la Rv olution comme la transposition depratiques commmorativ es chrtiennes dans le monde lac de ltat rpublicain, maisaussi comme le transfert dun culte priv dans le domaine public. Cela nous permetdexaminer le caractre affectif des rapports que ces objets tablissent av ec lhistoire.

This article examines the discourse elaborated in Paris historical museums during thenineteenth century through the display of personal, priv ate objects hav ing belongedto famous historical figures, artistes and writers. How and why do we exhibit objectsin and of themselv es as banal as the handkerchief of Napoleon or locks of Marie-Antoinettes hair? In the scheme of the rational public museum, what meaning wasand is still giv en to these objects of little documentary or artistic importance?



Indeed this museographical tradition still holds an important place in museumstoday , especially in biographical or personal museums, its appearance during theRev olution and its subsequent dev elopment will be considered as the transposition of acommemorativ e practice taken from Catholicism and introduced into the secularworld of French Republican museum but also as a transfer from the priv ate to thepublic sphere. This allow us to examine the agency of such objects as triggers thatallow history to be experienced as an emotion.

Texte intgral

Inspired by the possibilities of new interactive media, the twenty -first century

museum often maintains its v isitors attention by stimulating his senses: sound,

smell and touch, as a response to our y earning for affect. In some cases this has

lead curators to consciously develop an emotional dimension that the rational

museum for a long time had officially sought to banish. Our particular concern

here will be to examine how history museums offer their v isitors the experience

of an emotionally colored past, rather than a purely intellectual reconstruction

that can remain fragmentary without the binding power of sentiment. Though

our demonstration will mainly rely on examples of Parisian museums in the

Nineteenth-century , we would like to state that the museological strategies that

they will serve to illustrate have been recently adopted by the organizers of the

Cit de limmigration in Paris and by the Muse de lEurope in Brussels,

museums which both opened their doors in October of 2007 . In the press

release which accompanied the opening of the Cit de limmigration, in the

Palais de la Porte Dore,1 the v isitors circuit is described as open, interactive,

based on a series of immersive, emotional and pedagogical experiences;

trajectories, movements, biographical fragments are brought to life thanks to

indiv idual tales and testimonies, v isual installations and projections, games and

objects.2 The Muse de lEurope, which has not y et found a definite home,

inaugurated its existence with an exhibition entitled: This is our History : a

moving expo on Europe. Here again scenographical intentions are

unambiguously expressed: We want to awaken public interest in Europes

History , especially in y oung people, by appealing to their emotions, by making

them feel that this history concerns them too as their past and their future.3 In a

bid to contribute to the construction of European identity , or to change our

attitudes towards immigration these exhibitions rely on some of today s latest

media technology . Museum discourses generally refer to their implementation

as a means to make the v isitor feel like an actor rather than a passive spectator of

his own history . Both of these exhibits have however also chosen to integrate

classical object-orientated approaches which have been totally abandoned in

other new history museums, such as the Historial Charles de Gaulle, monument

audiovisuel, inaugurated in February 2008 in the Invalides in Paris and which

as the title suggests is based exclusively on audio-v isual footage. So our prev ious

examples may be seen as an attempt to overcome a gulf [that] has opened

between those museums which value these new approaches [interactive,

dramatic] and those that want to maintain the primacy of their collections

(Spalding, 2002: 51).

1

Y et what do these display s stand to gain from the presence of what are

sometimes rather banal every day objects? It would appear that in the examples

cited above, objects have been used for their capacity to materialize an

otherwise abstract past, as the means to overcome absence through the

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intriguing power of presence (Maniura, Shepard, 2007 ). In the Muse de

lEuropes first exhibit, the artist Dominique Blain prov ided a highly aesthetic

v ision of Europe born out of the Second World War, embodied through posters,

chewing gum wrappers and ny lon stockings that are supposed to incarnate a

common experience of hope. The Cit de limmigration has included a Galerie

des dons in its circuit, inv iting v isitors to deposit objects for display that were

meaningful to their personal experience of immigration with an explicative text

that according to the press release will allow singular traces, every day objects to

become souvenirs, or rather more, sy mbols. Like Proust lending us his

madeleine, the memories of history s actors are lent to the spectator and the

private experience of recollection through a personal object is made public and

collective.4

Let us now reconsider this general trend to capture public imagination

through memorial and emotional strategies related to objects, by looking at the

origins of this kind of display in the modern museum from the French Revolution

onwards. Our analy sis will essentially be based on one particular category of

display in museums related to French national history : objects labelled as

having belonged to either famous historical, artistic or literary personalities,

or, as we have called them, secular relics. Our aim is to show how such objects

contributed to the specificity of historical narrative in the museum, a question

that has been addressed in recent y ears by such authors as Laurent Gervereau in

France or Jrn Rsen in Germany . In attempting to define the nature of this

specificity , Jrn Rsen underlined the importance of taking into account often

overlooked or underestimated aesthetic factors that contribute to giv ing

historical documents meaning and to establishing narratives in the museum. He

argues that they characterize one of three forces at work in the construction of

historical discourse: the political, scientific and artistic (Rsen, 1988: 11). As we

recognize these forces, we may y et ask how historical museums deal with the

evocation of mans personal experience of the past, where can it find a place in

this trilogy and how should museum curators deal with emotional factors? We

will try and show that the emotional museum can provoke, promote or

accompany any or all three of these forces. By examining how the memorial

value of personal objects was used and sanctified in the museum our objective is

to prov ide an historical basis for a better understanding of how museums use

objects to bear witness to history . For by adopting display s like the ones

described above by placing ny lon stockings in a glass case related to the after-

war y ears the museum uses an apparently direct means of v isualizing historical

narrative. Y et, such items are more than just simple illustrations of an event or

an epoch. As distinct from texts or two-dimensional images which represent the

past in an already abstracted form, objects that were once used, held, caressed,

contemplated, smelt or even eaten are immediate, concrete and moreover of a

fundamentally sensual nature. They are not only sy necdochical figures of an

historical event; they are sy necdochical figures of the human experience of

history . It is the direct and v iv id experience of history in the museum which will

interest us here as a ritual form of dealing with memory (Duncan, 1995). After a

brief presentation of the museums that we have chosen to look at, we will use

them to consider the reliquary -ty pe display and what forms it took in history

museums from the French Revolution onwards. We will then try and examine

how and why such objects were acquired by museums by considering the

attitudes expressed by donors and curators, which will lead us to discuss their

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From the Birth of the Museum

agency and the v isiting public.

The object hav ing belonged to and what might be considered its most

extreme form, bodily remains such as hair or even ashes, appears in Paris first

public museums during the Revolution. A direct result of the eighteenth century

culte des grands hommes (Glover, 2000: 47 6), the display of personal effects or

contact-relics, remained a recurrent representational strategy in historical

museums, promoting an intimate, communal evocation of the past. We will

consider this museographical tradition as the result of both material and

semantic transfers that may be schematized as passages from religious to secular

and from private to public realms. Predictably , in museums founded during the

first half of the nineteenth century exceptionally unclear frontiers operate

between these spaces. This is not to suggest that personal relics had not been

cherished before or that saintly relics were to disappear, we simply intend to

discuss their appearance in the new public, secular institution of the museum.5

4

The transfer of practices between secular and religious spaces may of course

be explained by the brutal rupture with traditional religious practice caused by

the Revolution, which suddenly transplanted the near entire range of material

culture related to the Church into the hands of a newly born republican state. As

churches were transformed into museums, many true religious relics entered

the newly created national museums, such as the Cabinet des mdailles at the

Bibliothque nationale, which received parts of the treasure of Saint-Denis et the

Sainte-Chapelle. As to transfers from private to public spaces, the creation of

our new relics, most of which were former private possessions, was above all the

work of indiv iduals: curators and donors. Each of the museums that we will look

at was born of one indiv iduals personal initiative meaning that private and

public spheres were in constant interference: Alexandre Lenoirs Muse des

Monuments Franais, first opened in 17 95; Alexandre du Sommerards Muse

de lhtel Cluny, became fully public in 1844 and Louis-Napoleon inaugurated

his Muse des Souverains in 1853 (although in this last case of a sovereign ruler

there can be no clear separation between the private indiv idual and his national

agenda). Our first two examples have been rigorously and eloquently described

and analy zed by authors such as Stephen Bann, Francis Haskell, Andrew

MacClellan, Dominique Poulot and as such are well know paradigms of early

French history museums. The Muse des Souverains has received somewhat less

attention; a recent publication analy zing Napoleon IIIs liste civile does however

prov ide some essential insights into its conception (Granger, 2005). Created in

the galleries of the Louvre, it was a direct expression of the new leaders desire to

legitimate his reign by underlining his direct affiliation with Napoleon, and by

presenting himself as a central figure in Frances genealogy of power. It was the

first time that historical memorabilia became the principal concern of any

museums official acquisition policy . Other museums, created in the second half

of the century , will also be drawn upon for examples. The Muse des Archives de

lEmpire opened in 1867 . Its creators described it as a kind of public portal-like

space to be placed before the closed corridors of the national archives, the

sanctuary of French History , to use the very terms employ ed by its first

curator.6 The Muse Carnavalet which was instigated by Haussmann in 1867 to

5



Reliquary forms in earlymanifestations of secular veneration

preserve some of the rapidly disappearing traces of the vieuxParis, and finally

Victor Hugos house museum, place des Vosges. Strictly speaking this last

example falls into the category of personal museums, but the strong national

impact of Hugos life and personality , his immediate inhumation in Frances

Pantheon of Great Men in 1885 allows it to be considered amongst the capitals

nationally orientated history museums.

Let us begin by first examining some presentations of personal objects or

bodily remains that borrow the formal aspect of their display from the catholic

tradition of the reliquary . The persistence of such a formal kinship may either be

considered as exemplary of the desire to preserve the material remains of the

past by giv ing them new meaning in post-revolutionary society or as the

nostalgic desire to recall lost forms of veneration. In the complex ty pology of

reliquaries, one of the most common forms is that of a sarcophagus or a

miniature church, it is the one that we recognize most often in the nineteenth-

century museum.

6

A famous and literal quotation of a catholic reliquary -ty pe presentation can be

attributed to Dominique-Vivant Denon, who directed the Louvre from 1802 to

1815, and in which he used an actual fifteenth-century reliquary to exhibit

sy mbolic remains related to medieval history or to the Empire. It included such

relics as a lock of Agnes Sorels hair, a bloody piece of the shirt that Napoleon

had worn on his deathbed and a leaf from the tree that grew over his grave

(Bresc-Bautier, 2001). However, it was not as director of the Louvre, but as a

private collector that Denon indulged in such historical fetishism. This may not

be said for Alexandre Lenoir, who probably prov ided Denon with some of the

remains present in his reliquary and who established a collection of corps

historiques that was clearly destined to be public (Poulot, 2007 : 17 1). His first

biographer, M. Allou, described Lenoirs museographical talent as that of a

clever sorcerer (Poulot, 1986: 499). His efforts to seduce the v isitors of his

Muse des monuments franais were most obv iously expressed in the Jardin

lyse, perhaps the most personal part of Lenoirs famous undertaking. The

former gardens of the convent des Petits-Augustins that he transformed in 17 99

into a strange, Pantheon-like park, were the heart of Lenoirs museum and as

such had been specifically designed for the sensitive soul (Greene, 1981: 214).

These gardens offer a very different context compared to the more rational

attempts at a chronological presentation of French sculptural arts that were

budding in the galleries of the convent. Lenoir decorated the lawns and groves of

his park with a remarkable series of displaced tombs that he had rebuilt in what

can be interpreted as a direct reaction to the destructions of the roy al

sepulchres in the Saint-Denis cathedral. Not content for them to remain simple

cenotaphs, he began to actively seek out bodily remains of celebrated French

men and women. His efforts proved fruitful and he soon had the bodily relics of

Molire, Descartes, La Fontaine, Turenne and others transferred to his museum.

A popular military hero of Louis XIII and Louis XIVs reign, Turenne fulfilled the

requirements of republican patriotism and so his body was spared destruction

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after being unearthed at Saint-Denis in 17 93. Miraculously well preserved, it was

kept for five y ears at the Musum dHistoire Naturelle. In a plea for its transfer to

the Muse des Monuments Franais, Beaumarchais called for its display there in

a glass frame that [would allow] us to see the heros body , [whose display ]

would command our respect (Glover-Lindsay , 2000: 485). However, Lenoir

preferred a more discreet method of presentation. The relics he collected were

not to be made directly v isible to the public. This did not mean however that

their presence was not considered to be an important element in heightening the

emotional experience of his v isitors. In some cases, such as for Hlose and

Ablard,7 the acquisition of bodily remains called for the creation of a new

monument : in 1800 Lenoir went himself to the abbaye du Paraclet to recover

Abelards bones. In order to unite the my thical couple, he constructed a

monumental reliquary from an assortment of medieval monuments and tombs,

still to be seen in the Pre-Lachaise cemetery today . In his 1801 guide to the

museum he writes : Buried in the tomb, they live on, these inseparable friends,

they call to each other forever, making the names of Hlose and Ablard heard

through the stone that covers them ; the air v ibrates with their soft tones and the

plaintive echo reverberates throughout : Hlose !, Ablard !, Hlose !,

Ablard ! (quoted by Glover-Lindsay , 2000 : 486). If he made touch and sight

impossible, the sensorial importance usually attached to relics, albeit inv isible,

remained all the stronger as the marble figures of the couple became references

to the bodies buried beneath.

It is characteristic of the revolutionary period, during which the heritage of

the Ancien Rgime was regenerated through strategies of remploi, that the

transfers from Christian tradition here described should be so literal in form.

After the Restoration in 1816 and despite Lenoirs offer to build a chapel and

have daily mass read to make up for the initial sacrilege, his relics were restored

to hallowed ground (Greene, 1981 : 217 ). Fifty y ears later in the Muse des

Archives de lEmpire the testament of Louis XVI and the last letter written by

Marie-Antoinette were shown to the public enshrined in a black, Boulle sty le

display cabinet decorated with reliquary -like pediments (James-Sarazin,

2004 : 227 ) ; unfortunately we have no v isual documentation of this display .

Most often the reliquary form of display remained related to a very personal

choice. This meant that generally the object found its way into the museum

already enshrined, as is the case of the famous Reliquary of Roy al Mementoes

created for the duchesse de Tourzel (Wrigley , 2002 : 25) an exceptional piece

that was given to the Carnavalet in 1994.

8



F. Bodenstein 2007.

Photo 1: Mme de Tourzels Reliquary of Royal Mementoes, at the Muse Carnavalet.

However we must add that in some cases the museum as a whole was designed

and interpreted as a reliquary -ty pe space, the Muse des Souverains prov ides us

with an excellent example. In 1853, Horace de Viel-Castel, the museums first

director, praised the striking overall effect that the room dedicated to the

souvenirs of Napoleon would have on its v isitors. He described how its lighting

and decoration had been designed to produce a contemplative atmosphere that

called for religious silence in this funerary monument dedicated to the memory

of Napoleon as the spiritual counterpart to his earthly body s resting place at the

Invalides8(Viel-Castel, 1853 : 189-190). A contemporary journalist clearly

described his v isit to the museum using a series of metaphors related to the idea

of pilgrimage.9 A less official, less political and more intimate example of a

memorial cult on an important spatial scale is the faithful reconstitution in

Victor Hugos house museum, place des Vosges, of the bedroom in which the

famous poet drew his last breath. Donated to the city by Paul Meurice, the

museum opened in 1903 in the house that the author had inhabited from 1832 to

1848. Its v isitors circuit ends with the bedroom including all of the furniture

and decorative items that were found in his room in the apartment avenue

dEy lau when he died, creating what Arsne Alexandre qualified in his terms as a

true sanctuary .1 0 Interestingly , if we compare the description of the room

given in a 1912 guidebook we can appreciate how little this installation has

changed over time and in a sense the funerary atmosphere has even been

reinforced thanks to the dim lighting prov ided by electric candles.1 1(Quentin-

Bauchart, 1912 : 132 ).

9



F. Bodenstein 2007.

Photo 2: Victor Hugos bedroom, Muse Victor Hugo, place des Vosges.

Objects of private devotion in publicspaces

Although such examples appear particularly striking, there were, relatively

speaking, few formal citations of the catholic reliquary or tomb principle in the

display of public collections. Such an explicit reference, directly connotating

conservative, roy alist values, had to be considered out of place in the republican

museum. As was to be expected any such reference gave way to a set of formal

codes specific to secular museum culture.

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Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the

twentieth century private collectors and indeed family members chose public

collections, that guaranteed the inalienability of their holdings, as the most

suitable last resting place for personal treasures either related to the lives of

some celebrated figure or linked to some important historical event. An

examination of the catalogues of the Muse Carnavalet show a sharp decline in

this ty pe of donation from the 1930s onwards. Taken as an historical

phenomenon, the number of donations concerning such items follows the same

evolution as that of other collectables like national antiquities particularly in

vogue in the nineteenth century . However, it would appear that more so than

other museums, the Muse des Souverain and later the Muse Carnavalet both

relied heav ily on the generosity of private donators for the expansion of their

collections. In the case of Carnavalet it may be said that the museum made little

or no paid acquisitions of personal objects, although Parisian sale catalogues

show that there was a very developed market. Richard Wrigley , who has studied

the Revolutionary relic, quite rightly remarked on the relevance of the

assumption made by the organizers of the Muse des Souverains that sufficient

quantities of new material would certainly come into the museum through

private sources, indicating that there was a reservoir of personal souvenirs,

which could be drawn upon (Wrigley , 2002 : 35).

11

Archives concerning donations, such as testaments, show the high esteem in

which their owners held such objects. Many of them had been kept in families for

generations. Such was the case of a slipper donated to the Muse des Souverains

in 1853 supposedly hav ing belonged to Marie-Antoinette. To the owners mind,

its story was well documented, and its authenticity unquestionable : shortly

after the queens execution it had been taken from her chambers by a certain

captain Dorv ille, who immediately gave it to the donors mother. In his own

words it had been religiously conserved in the family ever since (Barbet de

Jouy , 1868 : 186). Later, towards the end of the nineteenth century , donations

came directly from the family members of famous artists or writers, like a

collection of items which had belonged to Jules Michelet and given to the Muse

Carnavalet by his wife in 1893 (Dubois, 1947 : 446) orthe 17 0 personal

belongings donated in 1923 by Georges Sands granddaughter. However, not all

offerings were eagerly accepted, and as might be expected, their authenticity

became a question of ever-greater importance. The increasingly severe

conditions applied in the process of admission, illustrated the curators desire to

justify and to rationalize the presence of these objects.

12

In regard to personal objects, questions of authenticity were not really raised

before the middle of the nineteenth century . When the famous collection of the

former Alexandre de Sommerards Muse de Cluny opened to the public in 1844,

no one expected any explications concerning the provenance of Saint Louis

chess set, Franois Is bed or the knife that had been used to cut the stag at the

gala banquet celebrating Charles VIs coronation. Moreover, the descriptions of

objects on display show no understanding of frontiers between history and

my th ; the chalice that was used at the dinners of Charles V was quite naturally

described as being able to quench the thirst of thirty men.1 2 The objects in his

collection, although chosen for their artistic qualities were not so much

described in aesthetic terms but rather as silent witnesses to important

historical events and sometimes to very intimate scenes. The door to the room

named after Franois I came from the chateau dAnet ; in Sommerards words it

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had often given way to Henri IIs impulses, as he came to forget his troubles

beside Diane,1 3 his famous mistress. As to the authenticity of the claimed

provenances and despite their sometimes outrageous improbability , the

venerable nature of the Muse de Cluny and the reputation of its founder seem to

have been proof enough (Marot, 1969 : 291).

Under the reign of Napolon III, the museum was asked to satisfy more

rigorous criteria concerning the authenticity of the artifacts it display ed. In the

field of historical research, emphasis was being put more and more on the

essential importance of primary sources (Poulot, 2004 : 199) ; in this changing

disciplinary context there could be no idea of creating a new history museum

following the artistic principle which had been adopted in Louis Philippes

museum dedicated to All the glories of France at Versailles. In these galleries,

French history , battles and coronations were mainly illustrated through a

selection of artworks, a huge state commission had ordered a vast series of

paintings by contemporary artistes such as Vernet or Delacroix to complete the

museums program. What was required now was proof ; a prerequisite that

fuelled the creation of the Muse des Archives de lEmpire, entirely based on the

principle of display ing authentic documents, for the most part dated and

manuscript. This change in attitude concerning authenticity is also illustrated by

the efforts of the curators of the Muse des Souverains, a museum entirely

conceived around the principle of objects hav ing belonged to. In the decree

announcing the creation of the museum, published and signed by Louis-

Napolon in 1852, authenticity was declared the essential condition and

principle of its collections.1 4 milien de Nieuwerkerke, Directeur gnral des

Muses nationaux, was very active in the creation of the museum and with his

colleagues in the Louvre, did not hesitate to refuse large quantities of objects.

The museums archives show that a good deal of the propositions submitted for

consideration by the museums curators corresponded to a very loose

conception of authenticity , especially in the case of the impressive series of

objects pertaining to Napoleon I, in most cases common bibelots simply marked

with his name. Nieuwerkerke knew that if he wanted to be taken seriously he had

to have the means of convincing v isitors of the authenticity of the relics on

display . As Catherine Granger has remarked, the museums catalogue included

extracts of archives to support claims of authenticity , sometimes printing letters

received by donors relating how they came into possession of the objects. One

such letter is from an Austrian officer, Rudolf Fuchs, who explained that his

father had been doctor to the Austrian roy al family and had thus come into

contact with the roi de Rome, giv ing him the opportunity to cut a lock of his hair

after his death. He could thus guarantee the authenticity of the relic in

question(Granger, 2005 : 324). It would appear that curators in general became

increasingly wary . Jules Cousin, the director of the Carnavalet Library and

Museum from 187 0 to 1898, seems to have had little time to spare for what a

colleague of his called la dfroque. In spite of the presence at Carnavalet of a

great deal of such personal possessions, and the importance of certain

donations, he showed his lack of enthusiasm on more than one occasion. When a

member of the Duplessis family offered the relics of Lucile Desmoulins, wife of

the revolutionary hero Camille Desmoulins, including an embroidered corsage,

that had been worn over the beating heart of the faithful lover, he distrustfully

demanded, who can prove it, her breast is no longer.1 5 Of course doubt was

difficult to admit in a space that increasingly defined and legitimized its

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Experiencing the object, the emotionof history

existence with positiv ist concepts of progress and knowledge. Moreover

authenticity was a value that allowed curators to outweigh the importance, at

least in appearance, of the essentially animist ideas and fetishist reactions that

such objects provoke.

In 1989, an exhibition was dedicated to a Soulier de Marie-Antoinette in

Caens municipal museum.1 6 The catalogue included a remarkable analy sis of the

role of museography in conditioning how we behold such personal objects. The

introductory essay voluntarily opens with a painstaking effort to establish the

authenticity of the slipper, only to conclude that proof is perhaps not so very

important but that it is rather the state of uncertainty that most excites our

imagination and our curiosity , allowing us to invent from what we see (Tapi,

1989). The object, in this case a slipper, is presented with a label stuck to the

inner sole indicating the extreme importance of identification by means of a

written seal. It was most probably affixed when the object was first exhibited in

Caen in 1883. By examining the question of authenticity we can see that the

representational value of these souvenirs rarely resides in the phy sical aspect of

the object itself ; its value is inv isible, only the supplementary information

provided in the most simple case, the mention of its provenance on a label

can bestow any real meaning. This strange situation was most clearly described

by a journalist of the Magasin pittoresque in 1869 : Take away the certificate of

provenance from the handkerchief that Napoleon touched before dy ing, or from

Marie-Antoinettes slipper and we cannot say how much they would be worth,

nor if one would still find a soul who would bend down to pick them up off the

ground.1 7 This implies that museographical strategies play an essential role in

fabricating the meaning of such objects. The Caen exhibition is an intriguing

reflection on how these objects and their display provoke a sense of intellectual

discomfort. The most obv ious explanation for this is that they are quite often

devoid or weak in the v isual, aesthetic, demonstrative or narrative qualities that

generally justify the presence of an artifact in a museum. The observational

paradigm which is still status quo in most museums considers that the object

contains a sum of clearly definable knowledge that can be directly transferred to

the spectator or observer, without there being any interpretative interaction

between them (Taborsky , 1990 : 60). It most obv iously flounders in the face of

such objects, for what are we supposed to learn, understand or appreciate when

we gaze upon Napoleons handkerchief or a slipper once worn by Marie-

Antoinette ?

15



F. Bodenstein 2007.

Photo 3: Napoleons handkerchief and hat. Detail from an engraving representingobjects in the Muse des Souverains. Wood graving by J. Choquet, published in theMuse des familles, August 1854: 345.

How can we define the quality that justifies their presentation to the public,

and how can we define their presence without simply resorting to admitting to

our own fetishist tendencies, for we feel their attraction without fully

understanding or accepting it ? The solution may be found in recent social

theories that place objects or globally material culture at the heart of social

relationships and try to describe the structures that they help to define, allowing

us to consider such objects not just as idiosy ncratic exceptions in a largely

rational and reasonable universe but as extensions of our social selves (Debary ,

Turgeon, 2007 : 2).

16

The object-souvenir is in fact the clearest expression of how the museum

preserves and fabricates memories through experience(s) of history as opposed

to the construction of historical knowledge. In a sense it is exemplary of a

paradox that lies at the heart of the history museum. Critically -minded curators

such as Laurent Gervereau and specialists of nineteenth-century museums like

Dominique Poulot agree that they often evolve far from the considerations of the

historiography of their time, siding with simple concepts of compilation and

conservation and indeed serv ing as witnesses of a relationship with the past,

with memory , with identity rather than as the expression of a relationship to

History as a scientific discipline (Gervereau, 1996 : 22, translated by the

author).1 8 The objects that we have questioned here are not historical

documents in a strict sense, as they prov ide little information in themselves.

They have value because of their past, their provenance, the hands that touched

17



them, the events that they witnessed ; things that they do not necessarily

translate directly are remembered or imagined indiv idually by those that

contemplate them. The emotional potential of these objects is heightened by the

fact that they prov ide little or no other information that might distract the

v isitor from a sentimental experience. They may even be defined by this

discursive void, particularly open to interpretation. The power of personal

objects was recognized by nineteenth-century curators and seems to have

served the secular cult des Grands Hommes, described by Louis Rau as a

replacement religion (Rau, 1959 : 37 2) vowing its cult not to a higher god but

to humanity itself as a transcendent value. The garden created by Lenoir can

thus be interpreted as the material expression of the secularisation of memory

provoked by the changing attitude to death, as analy zed by Jean-Claude Bonnet

in his study of eulogies in the eighteenth century . He puts forward the idea that

the secular orator (we might here use the word curator) adopts the point of

v iew of posterity . [] The former eschatological perspective gives way to an

exclusively commemorative v ision (Bonnet, 1998 : 53, translated by the

author).1 9 The cult of Great Men was also considered as an integral part of civ ic

and moral education. At the end of the nineteenth century , in a chapter of his

ducation des sentiments, entitled Du culte des grands hommes, the

philosopher Flix Thomas wrote our religion is to love and cherish our

patrons, provoking a new form of emulation, whose educational role is

destined to become more and more important[] because humanity progresses

in reality only thanks to men of genius (Thomas, 1899 : 216, 213, translated by

the author).20 Aside from obvious political intentions,21 the fundamental aim of

the Muse des Souverains was to prov ide moral examples and lessons. The

emotion produced at the sight of the objects display ed was a means to this end.

Viel-Castel declared that nothing written could compare to the quiet eloquence

of the relics there assembled, commenting on the strong emotional reaction

shown by v isitors of all generations ; in his account even the y oungest and most

frivolous spirits were touched and women and veterans were often moved to

tears. Towards the end of the century the Muse Carnavalet would also display

the Emperors possessions, promoting historical pathos by presenting

Napoleons ncessaire de campagne, as objects of grave curiosity .22 According

to Viel-Castel, the napoleonic souvenirs needed no introduction ; the history of

this hros populaire was in every ones minds and hearts. Not only did he claim

that they had the power to recall a whole period, he described how the presence

of the Emperors personal objects had incited v isitors to recall their own

forgotten family stories.23 Interestingly one journalist was shocked by the

presence of the handkerchief that had been used to wipe Napoleons brow on his

deathbed considering it to be an object too intimate and moving for display in a

public museum.24 In his inaugural speech of the Muse des Archives de lEmpire,

Lon Gautierannounced that one of the aims of the new museum would be to

help v isitors conceive a higher idea of the French nation, whilst underlining the

importance of the emotional effect produced by the objects on display . He

recalled the strong impact that the souvenirs from Sainte-Hlne had had on the

v isitors of the Muse des Souverains, which had opened fourteen y ears earlier

and imagined the impression that Louis XVIs tearstained testament would make

on the public of his museum.

We can observe how the display of personal objects became less political and

gave rise to more intimate v isions in other museums, especially those

18



Towards a Cultural History of RelicObjects and the Post-ModernMuseum

established from the end of the century onwards in the homes of famous men,

writers and artists such as Victor Hugo and Gustave Moreau although it is a

question of perspective as our more recent examples show that this tendency

seems to have been inversed. In such personal contexts they became objects of

devotion or veneration in a cult which was not so much focused on man as an

historical actor, or a personification of national glory but was in a sense

intensely concerned with Man himself ; great men, generally artists who came to

represent the div ine element in all men or a new conception of genius, which

Hugo himself contributed to developing in his writings (Pety , 2007 : 59).25 We

might conclude that the range of emotional possibilities prov ided by such

objects was and is still particularly large.

Today , artifacts hav ing belonged to still abound in the personal museums of

artistes, writers and famous historical figures, places whose idiosy ncratic

rejection of public museum conventions at once recalls earlier curiosity

cabinets and anticipates post-modern display strategies (MacClellan, 2006 :

xv i). Let us first consider two twentieth-century Parisian examples that

immediately come to mind as efforts to recapture a nineteenth-century

sentiment of objects : the Maison de Balzac and the Muse de la Vie Romantique

respectively opened to the public in 1960 and 1984. They both seek to convey a

sense of the souvenir specific to the romantic era y et they do not simply

provide a lesson in cultural history . A display of objects related to Balzacs

passion for Mme Hanska in the house in which Balzac spent the last y ears of his

life and which was donated to the town in 1949, inv ites us to relive Balzacs

emotion for his lover, letting us contemplate the same keepsakes that he had

himself lov ingly handled. We can discover the so called canne bullition

made from the turquoises of a necklace of Mme Hanska, a watch and a writing set

that he gave her. We can also see Balzacs hand moulded in bronze and the

medallion of Balzac by David dAngers.

19



F. Bodenstein 2007.

Photo 4: Display of Balzac souvenirs of Mme Hanska at the Muse Balzac in Paris.

F. Bodenstein 2007.

Photo 5: A display dedicated to objects that once belonged to Georges Sand, they wereoffered to the Muse Carnavalet in 1923 by her granddaughter, today in the Muse de laVie Romantique, Paris.

The fetishist, emotional element that is necessarily attached to these objects is

one of the most efficient strategies that such museums rely on. At the Muse de

la Vie Romantique, a similar display of objects, formerly to be seen in the Muse

Carnavalet, is dedicated to Georges Sand who with Ary Scheffer has become a

resident me du lieu. Museum catalogues, articles and descriptions of such

objects reveal how the museum consistently uses them to evoke the inner,

sentimental life of historical figures.26

20



Little remains of the history museums considered in this article Lenoirs

gardens have of course disappeared, Sommerards Cluny is unrecognizable and

the Muse des Souverains was shut in 187 1 after the fall of the Second Empire.

Carnavalet has thrived however and continues to display objects that once

belonged to historical figures, from Robespierre to Marie-Antoinette, taking care

however to establish a critical distance by using them to illustrate the cult

phenomenon that once surrounded these personalities rather than actually

perpetuating one, and thus avoiding hagiographic discourses. No phy sical traces

of the Muse des Archives de lEmpire that became the Muse dhistoire de

France are v isible to today s public, however during a recent tour, I was lucky

enough to discover the reserves, usually inaccessible to the passer-by , and the

armoire de fer centrally situated in a room called the Trsor des Chartes.27

There one of the museums curator solemnly opened the spectacular onion-peel

series of iron doors that protect what is in fact the phy sical and sy mbolical heart

of the original museum, carefully extracting the most important elements of an

astonishing collection of historical artifacts and documents. When the museum

first opened in 1867 , they represented something like the founding stones of

Frances history and identity . Out of this veritable tabernacle emerged a pack of

play ing cards owned by Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinettes Gazette des Atours and a

set of rusty key s from the Bastille, but also Frances first Constitution of 17 91,

and Napoleons testament. Bemused by our awed reaction, the curator

immediately and somewhat disdainfully evacuated, what she herself designated

as the fetishist value of certain of these objects, by explaining to us the exact

historic circumstances surrounding each of them. Of course, this flow of precise,

historical information immediately took the my thical edge off our first

impressions, reminding us at the same time that this collection was in itself an

historical object and that today one would certainly select a very different group

of documents as representative of the nations past. The future however is

problematic for the Muse dhistoire de France as today it can hardly afford to

maintain a permanent exhibit and questions its role in relation to recent projects

proposed by the present government for the formation of a totally new Muse

national dhistoire de France. Although the program of this new museum

remains totally undefined rather unclear discussions have called for it to be

situated in the Invalides its aim is in a sense already quite intensely ideological

as the current president, Nicolas Sarkozy has expressed the idea that Frances

History requires stronger representation as it forms a coherent whole which

needs to be narrated as such in order to reinforce national identity .28

21

In looking at these nineteenth-century history museums, we have not so much

analy zed national discourse, as tried to delimit the particular agency and use of

the relic-ty pe objects under discussion. These considerations should help in

giv ing such collections as that of the Muse dhistoire de France the chance to

lead a second life : the greatest challenge is finding a strategy that lets such

objects retain their historical charm, or one may even say aura, whilst

developing the full complexity of their meaning, past and present. An effort

which would indeed contradict any attempt or principal of coherence that one

may be tempted to attain in a history museum.

22

The curator and controversial critique of contemporary museum culture,

Julian Spalding has called for a recognition of the museums poeticpower,

which could become a new element to be considered with Rsens

aforementioned trilogy (and which we qualified as the emotional dimension).

23



There can be no substitute for the experience of seeing with y our own ey es thepaintings of Leonardo da Vinci, the beaks of the finches that gav e Darwin his firstinkling of the theory of ev olution, or the shoes that v ictims of the Holocaust took offbefore they entered the gas chamber. Once seen and felt and, as far as one is able,comprehended, such sights can be unforgettable. Creating such flowers of feeling andunderstanding in the minds of each v isitor is the challenge facing museums in the21 st century (Spalding, 2002 : 9).

Bibliographie

Des DOI sont automatiquement ajouts aux rfrences par Bilbo, l'outil d'annotationbibliographique d'OpenEdition.Les utilisateurs des institutions qui sont abonnes un des programmes freemiumd'OpenEdition peuv ent tlcharger les rfrences bibliographiques pour lequelles Bilboa trouv un DOI.FormatAPAMLAChicago

For Spalding :

We have tried to show however that such an understanding of the museums

mission is not inherently new, and that if we intend to promote the emotional

powers of display , we need to understand the history of such strategies.

24

Personal and indeed national relics need to be understood and felt as such, but

at the same time the v isitor needs to be given new critical tools. If the aim of the

post-modern museum is to priv ilege a new plurality of meanings prov iding the

v isitor with more space as an actor, rather than a passive spectator, then one of

its aims should be to allow the v isitor to better appreciate the relationship

between the history (ies) and the memories that display s of relic ty pe objects

recreate and to reflect upon his own emotional reactions thanks to an

intellectual frame of discourse. Museums in the future will need to promote

doubt with delight. There are good scientific reasons why they should do so,

because there is still a surprising amount that we do not know about the past

(Spalding 2002 : 20).In order for this to take place however the nature of our

relationship with the documents that museums use to construct historical

narrative needs to be more clearly established. This means reconsidering the

power of such objects as the secular relics that we have tried to understand

here. Indeed throughout this article any opposition between religious and

profane has been deliberately avoided, and by using the term relic we have

also implied that the transfer from religious to secular did not necessarily mean

a loss of the sacred. If we consider the quality of the sacred to be that which

transcends daily life and fabricates a sense of social coherence (Tessier, 1994)

than of course the museum very much serves to sanctify the values of secular

society . It becomes clear that secular relics prov ide a material support for this

transcendental process, although it goes without say ing that they represent very

different values to those related to Christian relics. We need to recognize that

they do not prov ide objective, fixed points of reference but that they are

powerful emotional triggers that make the spectator more responsive to the

story being told. It follows that they need to be presented with this in mind as

they serve to construct new lieux de mmoires where the past reintegrates the

present to define such essential ideas as national or European identity .

25



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FormatAPAMLAChicagoLe serv ice d'export bibliographique est disponible aux institutions qui ont souscrit undes programmes freemium d'OpenEdition.Si v ous souhaitez que v otre institution souscriv e l'un des programmes freemiumd'OpenEdition et bnficie de ses serv ices, criv ez : [email protected]

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Notes

1 It is in fact the former Palais des Colonies built for the Colonial Fair of 1 935,Malraux transformed it into the Muse des Arts africains et ocaniens in 1 960. Itscollections were transferred to the Muse Quai Branly in 2003.

2 Dossier de presse ouverture de la Cit nationale de lhistoire de limmigration, p. 1 0: Leparcours scnographique se prsente comme un dispositif ouv ert, interactif, construitsur des successions dexpriences immersiv es, motionnelles et pdagogiques ;fragments de v ie, de trajectoires, de circulations rev iv ent trav ers des rcits ettmoignages dindiv idus, des installations dimages, de projections, de jeux etdobjets. (translated by the author).

3 Communiqu de Presse : Cest notre histoire : une expo touchante sur lEurope,Nous v oulons v eiller lhistoire de lEurope un public, souv ent jeune, qui, engnral, ne sy intresse gure, ou trs peu, et chez lequel il faut en appeler plus auxmotions, en lui faisant sentir que cette histoire le concerne, quil sagit de lui: de sonpass et de son av enir. (translated by the author).

4 The psy chological relationship between objects, memories and emotions is perhapsev en more directly and consistently explored in Orhan Pamuks The Museum ofInnocence. The nov el is entirely structured around the metaphor of display :throughout the narration, the main protagonist meticulously describes a series ofspecific objects to represent each important stage or ev ent of his own story and torestore some sense of the past.

5 Two definitions of the word relic need to be considered, as prov ided by the OxfordEnglish Dictionary , 2009: 1 . In the Christian Church, esp. the Roman Catholic andOrthodox churches: the phy sical remains (as the body or a part of it) of a saint,marty r, or other deceased holy person, or a thing believ ed to be sanctified by contactwith him or her (such as a personal possession or piece of clothing), preserv ed as anobject of v eneration and often enshrined in some ornate receptacle.; 2 . Somethingkept as a remembrance, souv enir, or memorial; a historical object relating to aparticular person, place, or thing; a memento.

6 Muse des archives nationales, documents originaux de lhistoire de France, 1 87 2,Paris, Plon, p. I:On en doit la cration M. le marquis de Laborde. () Ce muse metsous les y eux de tous un prcieux spcimen des richesses conserv es dans le sanctuaireauquel il sert en quelque sorte de portique.

TESSIER, Robert, 1 994, Dplacements du sacr dans la socit moderne, Qubec,Bellarmin.

THOMAS, P. Flix, 1 899, Lducation des sentiments, Paris, diteur Flix Alcan.DOI : 1 0.2307 /1 41 251 4

VIEL-CASTEL, Horace de, 1 853, Le Muse des souv erains franais , Le Moniteuruniversel, 1 6 fv rier, p. 1 89-1 90.

WRIGLEY, Richard, 2002, The Politics of Appearances, Oxford/New-York, Berg.DOI : 1 0.27 52/97 81 847 88891 4



7 Pierre Ablard (1 07 0-1 1 42) was one of the most famous theologians of his time butis better known for his lov e affair with his beautiful pupil Hlose (1 1 01 -1 1 62). Theirpassion was of short duration and ended tragically as Abelard was castrated by hislov ers uncle. After this both Ablard and Hloise joined holy orders. They spent therest of their liv es apart, but their story became famous through the correspondencethat they kept with each other.

8 Le pav illon du milieu, qui correspond au fameux pav illon de lHorloge, est occupdans toute sa hauteur par la dcoration de la salle Impriale. Ici, sur un fond pourprerouge, ressortent des abeilles sans nombre, et, dans les v oussures du plafond, les aiglesaccompagnent les insignes impriaux et les figures allgoriques quon y remarque.Leffet de cette salle est saisissant, comme celui produit par la v ue dun tombeaucontenant la dpouille dun hros consacr par lhistoire. Le jour, v oil et my strieux,qui lclaire, et les reliques du grand Empereur, qui y sont dposes, forcent unreligieux silence et de profondes mditations. On peut dire maintenant quelEmpereur a deux grands monuments funraires sur les bords de la Seine: lun auxInv alides, o repose son corps; lautre au Louv re, o plane son esprit.

9 Philippe Busoni, 1 853 LI llustration, 5 mars, p. 1 47 : Le plerinage la salle delEmpire comme un de ces reliquaires de la gloire humaine dont les enseignementsne sauraient tre trop mdits (quoted by Granger, 2005: 334).

1 0 Alexandre, 1 903: 1 2 : Puis v ient, reconstitue av ec un soin pieux autant quescrupuleusement exact, la chambre o il steignit, v ritable sanctuaire, o il estimpossible de ne pas ressentir une v iv e et profonde motion.

1 1 ce mme tage, lemplacement du cabinet de trav ail, a t reconstituefidlement la chambre mortuaire de lav enue dEy lau, av ec le lit colonnes de sty leRenaissance dans lequel mourut le pote, la haute table, galement en chne sculpt,sur laquelle il criv ait debout, enfin tout ce qui ornait la pice et qui av ait treligieusement conserv .

1 2 Cluny , Le Grand Larousse du XIXe sicle, quoted by Anne-Doris Mey er, 2000:230 (translated by the author).

1 3 Sommerard, Alexandre du, 1 834: 59: Elle cda souv ent limpulsion de Henri II,v enant oublier prs de Diane les soins de son empire ou plutt lui remettre lesrnes.(translated by the author).

1 4 Decree quoted by Catherine Granger, 2005: 307 . Considrant quil est dun grandintrt pour lart et pour lhistoire de runir dans une seule et mme collection tous lesobjets ay ant appartenu, daprs constatation authentique, aux diffrents souv erainsqui ont rgn sur la France; que ces objets, aujourdhui dissmins dans un grandnombre dtablissement publics, y sont pour la plupart peu dignement placs;considrant, en outre, que le nouv eau muse senrichira encore de dons particuliersque pourront lui faire les possesseurs de semblables objets.

1 5 Georges Montorgueil, Le Temps, 1 925, quoted by Dubois, 1 947 : 434: uncharmant corsage, en toffe brode, o le cur de la tendre et fidle amoureuse av aitbattu; Qui me lassure, la gorge ny est plus! (translated by the author).

1 6 See online v ideo : http://www.ina.fr/art-et-culture/musees-et-expositions/v ideo/CAB89032288/caen-exposition-autour-du-soulier-de-marie-antoinette.fr.html

1 7 Quoted by Granger, 2005: 325 : tez le certificat de prov enance au mouchoir queNapolon Ier a touch au dernier moment de sa v ie, ainsi quau soulier de la reineMarie-Antoinette, nous ne dirons pas quelle sera la v aleur de chacun deux; mais setrouv era-t-il quelquun qui se baissera mme pour les ramasser.

1 8 Gerv ereau, 1 996: 22:En rgle gnrale, malgr leur nom, les muses dhistoiretmoignent dune relation au pass, la mmoire, lidentit, mais pas dune relation lHistoire.

1 9 Bonnet, 1 998: 53: Lorateur lac, qui adopte le point de v ue de la postrit,sav ance ds lors dev ant les tombes comme un juge av erti et scrupuleux de larenomme. Lancienne perspectiv e eschatologique cde alors dev ant une v isionexclusiv ement commmorativ e.

20 Thomas, 1 899: 21 6: Notre religion est daimer et chrir ces patrons.; 21 3: de lune nouv elle forme de lmulation galement fconde, et dont le rle dans lducationdoit dev enir de plus en plus grand. [] cest que lhumanit ne v it en ralit et ne



progresse que par les hommes de gnie.

21 Horace de Viel-Castel, Le Moniteur universel, 1 853, 1 6 fv rier: 1 89-1 90, quoted byGranger, 2005: 1 90: Il est bon de faire rev iv re, pour les hommes daujourdhui, lesnoms de tous les chefs qui ont prsid aux destines de leurs anctres, de les entourerdu prestige clatant des souv enirs, et, pour restaurer le pouv oir quil a t troplongtemps de mode de dnigrer, il faut le relev er, non seulement dans le prsent, maisaussi dans le pass.

22 Lillustration, 21 mai 1 898, Le nouv eau Carnav alet: 37 1 :Plus loin, cest unesalle empire remplie de rares portraits de Napolon Ier, remplie surtout par lessomptueuses pices de son ncessaire de campagne, lgu jadis par le gnralBertrand, et quon a eu pour la premire fois lide de mettre sous les y eux du public.Quelle grav e curiosit v oquent ces menus objets si intimes ! Cette brosse dents demi use qui garde encore la teinte de la poudre; ce flacon av ec ltiquettemanuscrite eau de rose, et cet autre rempli encore au quart deau de Cologne.

23 Horace de Viel-Castel, Le Moniteur universel, 1 853, 1 6 fv rier: 1 89-1 90: Aucuncicerone nav ait besoin de lui raconter lhistoire du hros populaire; elle sortait detoutes les bouches ; elle impressionnait tout ce peuple, dont les pres ont t les soldatsdu grand capitaine. En quelques heures et dev ant ces monuments contemporains deNapolon on aurait pu recueillir des milliers danecdotes indites, traditionshrditaires, que les compagnons du v ainqueur dAusterlitz ont lgues leursenfants, et qui, passant de gnrations en gnrations, prendront place un jour parmiles lgendes merv eilleuses.

24 C. de Chatouv ille, Chronique du mois, Le muse des Souv erains, Muse desfamilles, octobre 1 853, quoted by Granger, 2005: 331 .

25 Pety , 2007 : 59 in reference to Victor Hugos La Lgende des sicles: En dpit dutitre qui fait rsonner la div ersit des sicles prise en charge par la parole potique, leprojet, dans la prface de 1 859, semble moins centr sur lhistoire, principedv olution, que sur lHomme, principe de permanence, grande figure une etmultiple, lugubre et ray onnante, fatale et sacre.

26 Delpierre, 1 954: 30: De ce dplorable mnage qui troubla douloureusement la v iede Nohant, errent quelques souv enirs dans une v itrine de Carnav alet, comme pourremmorer les preuv es familiales de Sand et nous dire que le cur de la terribleSolange av ait aussi souffert.

27 For photos see: http://www.culture.gouv .fr/mcc/Actualites/Actualite-en-images/Les-Archiv es-nationales/%28offset%29/0/%28selected_image%29/3#3

28 Sarkozy , 2009, Discours de M. le Prsident de la Rpublique : Vux aux acteursde la Culture, Nmes Mardi 1 3 janv ier 2009.

Table des illustrations

Crdits F. Bodenstein 2007.

URL http://cm.revues.org/docannexe/image/834/img-1.jpg

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Rfrence lectronique

Felicity Bodenstein, The Emotional Museum. Thoughts on the Secular Relics ofNineteenth-Century History Museums in Paris and their Posterity , Conserveriesmmorielles [En ligne], #9 | 2011, mis en ligne le 15 avril 2011, consult le 14 avril 2014.URL : http://cm.revues.org/834

Auteur

Felicity Bodensteinest doctorante en histoire de lart lUniversit Paris IV-Sorbonne (France) et travaille sur leCabinet des mdailles de la Bib liothque nationale de 1830 1930 sous direction duprofesseur Barthlmy Jobert. Elle a t chercheure associe la Bibliothque nationalede France de 2005 2008, puis fellow au Getty Research Institute Los Angeles en 2009-2010 et est maintenant assistante de recherche sur le projet European National Museums :Identity Politics, the Uses of the Past and the European Citizen lUniversit Paris IPanthon-Sorbonne.

Felicity Bodenstein is a PhD candidate in Art History at the Universit Paris IV-Sorbonne(France). Shes working on the Cabinet des mdailles de la Bib liothque nationale de1830 1930 under the supervison of Professor Barthlmy Jobert. She was researchassociate at the Bibliothque nationale de France between 2005 and 2008, fellow at theGetty Research Institute in Los Angeles in 2009-2010 and is now research assistant on theproject European National Museums : Identity Politics, the Uses of the Past and theEuropean Citizen at the Universit Paris I Panthon-Sorbonne.

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FELICITY-BODENSTEIN_The Emotional Museum