Category Archives: Collections

Maulny y Le Mans: una entre mil formas de pasar del gabinete de curiosidades al museo de historia natural

Por José Pardo-Tomás, Institución Milá y Fontanals-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas

Louis-Jean-Charles Maulny (1758-1815) fue un abogado, naturalista y coleccionista de Le Mans, propietario de un gabinete de curiosidades, cuyas colecciones, a su muerte, fueron adquiridas (1816) por el museo de la ciudad, creado en 1799. Una parte sustancial de las piezas y objetos de historia natural del gabinete de Maulny se conservan actualmente en el Musée Vert (Muséum d’histoire naturelle du Mans), mientras que algunas piezas arqueológicas y de antigüedades, en cambio, se encuentran en el Musée Jean Claude Boulard-Carré Plantagenêt, de arqueología e historia.

Sin embargo, el proyecto de futuro para los museos municipales de Le Mans contempla la reunificación de las colecciones arqueológica-histórica y naturalística de la ciudad, por lo que –de alguna manera– Maulny verá reintegradas en un solo depósito lo que queda de las colecciones de lo que fue su gabinete de curiosidades. A lo largo de mi estancia en el Musée Vert –gracias a la labor de excelente anfitrión de Nicolas Morel, siempre dispuesto a ejercer de atento mediador– tuve la oportunidad de conversar con algunas de las personas implicadas en ese nuevo proyecto museográfico, entre ellas el mismo Morel. Todo parece indicar que el reto que supone la reunificación de esos museos municipales dará interesantes resultados, tanto en el plano museológico, como en el de la investigación histórica acerca del patrimonio cultural y el coleccionismo científico.

Fig. 1 Louis Maulny. Una alegoría de su condición de naturalista, fabricada en 1832, pero que resulta esclarecedora de la peculiar lectura que se hizo de su figura para la posteridad. [Le Mans, Mediathèque Aragon, Fonds Sciences et Arts, 32-B-2 nº X]

Bisnieto de un maestro boticario, François Maulny, activo en la segunda mitad del siglo XVII, su abuelo y su padre salieron de ese estamento gremial y artesano, aunque rico, para estudiar derecho y ascender a la llamada noblesse de robe provincial que les abrió las puertas de las instituciones de gobierno local como “conseillers du roi au siège présidial du Mans”. Louis partió de este círculo familiar; tras recibir una primera educación con los oratorianos de su ciudad natal (cuando, de manera informal, fue iniciado en la botánica y en la mineralogía) fue enviado a estudiar derecho a Toulouse; aunque allí se dedicó con más ganas a la recolección de minerales y al estudio de la historia natural que al de las leyes de un Antiguo Régimen a las que les quedaba bien poco de vigencia. La más que acomodada posición familiar le permitió desarrollar su afán de coleccionista. Pero, a partir de sus treinta años y durante los veintiséis que le quedaban de vida, Maulny tuvo que vivir los agitados años que mediaron entre la Revolución francesa y la restauración borbónica. En medio de los cambios políticos, de los enfrentamientos violentos entre realistas y revolucionarios, entre los propios republicanos, entre los oponentes y los convencidos (o resignados) del ascenso bonapartista y, finalmente, los conspiradores proborbónicos apoyados por todas las potencias europeas, Maulny supo navegar con enorme habilidad. Si nos atenemos a su presencia continua entre los consejeros y expertos nombrados desde el cambiante poder central parisino para participar en el rescate de bienes artísticos y culturales expropiados a aristócratas y eclesiásticos o salvados de la destrucción y el pillaje de los motines y levantamientos gracias a la nacionalización decretada por las autoridades republicanas, no resulta difícil entender que aprovechara la situación para engrandecer sus propias colecciones. Como Marianne Thauré escribió, en 1999, refiriéndose a Maulny: “Il est donc très délicat de faire la part entre la bonne foi du naturaliste, la passion du collectionneur et l’exaltation du citoyen érudit imbu de sa mission.”

Entre los numerosos objetos de todo tipo que Maulny había recogido a lo largo de su vida y que a su muerte pasaron –mediante la compra– a engrosar el patrimonio público de su ciudad, había cuadros, esculturas, monedas, medallas, minerales, fósiles, animales disecados y “curiosidades”, especímenes de los tres reinos de la naturaleza que, por su procedencia, su apariencia o su esencia, había considerado dignos de ser conservados entre sus tesoros.

Fig. 2 Portada del “catálogo razonado de curiosidades de la naturaleza que componen el gabinete del señor Maulny” elaborado por él mismo en 1806. [Le Mans, Mediathèque Aragon, Fonds Sciences et Arts, XVIII-B-7bis]

Con posterioridad, las autoridades municipales y los que entonces eran sus expertos consultores decidieron escindir en secciones diversas las colecciones públicas de la ciudad, creando una dedicada a las bellas artes, otra a la arqueología y una tercera dedicada a la historia natural que quedó bastante relegada al olvido durante una dilatada época de directores y conservadores “artistas”. Tal división, llevada a cabo en función de una economía de los saberes y unas taxonomías disciplinares no pertenecía ya al tiempo de Maulny, sino a los que vinieron después. Tiempos en los que triunfaba un régimen de exhibición típico de los museos decimonónicos, que –aunque con antecedentes que pueden rastrearse ya en los agitados años del final del Antiguo Régimen– fraguará en la segunda mitad de la centuria y se prolongará hasta, como mínimo, el período de Entreguerras. En fin, un régimen de exhibición que –como todos– estaba marcado por una determinada normatividad en su relación con los públicos, una escala de prestigio de las diferentes disciplinas y unas condiciones de producción del conocimiento que poco tenían que ver con las que Maulny conoció en vida.

Los avatares del gabinete de Maulny, por lo que respecta a la historia natural, nos muestran –una vez más– que no hubo una transición lineal y unívoca de los gabinetes de curiosidades a los museos de historia natural, como se empeña en seguir afirmando la historiografía oficial de muchos museos europeos y americanos, especialmente. La historia –como siempre–más compleja y, por lo tanto, mucho más interesante. Hubo mil y una maneras de formar un museo y otras tantas de acabar con un gabinete de curiosidades. Y casi ninguna va de uno a otro de forma sencilla y mucho menos necesaria.

Las colecciones que hoy integran el Musée Vert de Le Mans son un ejemplo elocuente de esto. Y las piezas que proceden del antiguo gabinete de curiosidades de Louis Maulny un caso no menos elocuente de cómo hay muchas maneras de llegar a un museo de historia natural desde un gabinete de curiosidades.

Referencias bibliográficas

Paul Delaunay, Louis Maulny, naturaliste et collectionneur (1758-1815). Ses amis, son temps, ses successeurs, Bulletin de la Société d’agriculture, sciences et arts de la Sarthe, 60, 1945: 1-132.

Déborah Dubald, Capital nature: a history of French municipal museums of natural history, 1795-1870, Florence: European University Institute PhD theses, 2019.

Ambroise Gentil, Louis Maulny, naturaliste manceau, Bulletin de la Société d’agriculture, sciences et arts de la Sarthe, 35, 1912: 293-308.

Pierre‐Yves Lacour, La République naturaliste. Collections d’histoire naturelle et Révolution française (1789‐1804), Paris, Publications scientifiques du Muséum d’Histoire naturelle, 2014.

The pursuit of interesting specimens in the LMS herbarium

By Neus Nualart, Museu Ciencies Naturals Barcelona (Institut Botànic de Barcelona)

LMS is the acronym of a large collection of 100,000 plant specimens preserved in the reserves of Le Musée Vert of Le Mans (Fig. 1). As its curator, Nicolas Morel, explains to me, the main part of the herbarium contains plants collected in the Sarthe region by local botanists. In 2017 the catalogue of all the collections from the Sarthe region was published with a description of each collection (more information of this project is available online, HerbEnLoire). According to this catalogue there are 65 herbarium collections preserved in Le Musée Vert with plants collected between the 18th and 20th centuries. The largest collection is the one of Monguillon with 17,150 specimens of cryptogam plants which was, in part, studied by my colleague Neus Ibáñez during her stay in Le Mans (a report is available in the SciCoMove blog).

Figure 1. Reserves of Le Musée Vert where the herbarium collections are conserved. © Le Musée Vert

Since one of my research fields is the nomenclature of plants and the typification of new names (to stabilize their interpretation), I was interested in finding some original material in LMS herbarium. In one of my visits to the reserves, two post-it notes included in the Chevallier collection with the indication of type material caught my attention (Fig. 2). Nicolas Morel told me that they were duplicates of specimens of the National Museum of Paris where the holotypes (original material used by an author to describe a new taxon) were preserved. This collection was formed by a bundle of 107 specimens collected between 1898 and 1904 in Algeria. My interest of North African plants encouraged me to learn more about this author and the taxa he published.

Figure 2. Chevallier collection with post-it notes indicating the existence of type material. © Le Musée Vert

Louis Pierre Désiré Chevallier (Melicorne, Sarthe, 1852–Précigné, Sarthe, 1938) was a French clergyman and botanist who worked as a professor. Although his main herbarium was from plants collected in Sarthe, his naturalist interests and his curiosity for the exploration brought him to study the flora of Algeria, a French colony in that time, where he carried out different trips between 1879 and 1904 (Fig. 3). During all his life he collected 50,000 specimens in a herbarium organized in more than 600 volumes. According to the African Plant Database (https://africanplantdatabase.ch/) he proposed ca. 30 new taxa including species, subspecies and varieties. He published three notes about Saharan Flora in 1900, 1903 and 1905 explaining the trips and describing the new taxa he found. He also created an exsiccata to distribute 650 plants in different herbaria and botanists from the entire world, the “Plantae Saharae-algeriensis”.

Figure 3. Chevallier in Ouargla (Algeria) preparing plants for his herbarium collection. Extracted from a La province du Maine 19 (1939) p. 61. © Archives départementales de la Sarthe

Two specimens labeled as types corresponds to Helianthemum brachypodum that was described by Chevallier in page 767 of his “Deuxième note sur la Flore du Sahara” (Chevallier, 1903) but without mentioning any locality or date. In page 678 he explained that he found this new species in Oum-el-Klab on 19th March 1902. In JSTOR portal web (https://plants.jstor.org/) there are many specimens indicated as type or original material tough collected in 1904; they were distributed by Chevallier in the exsiccate “Plantae Saharae-algeriensis” with the number 543. Only two specimens in JSTOR are actually the original material collected in 1902 (P00086041, P00086042) and preserved in the National Museum of Paris. Both are part of a single collection, one bearing the original label handwritten by Chevallier (Fig. 4) and the other with a transcription of this original one.

Figure 4. Label handwritten by Chevallier of the specimen preserved in P herbarium of Helianthemum brachypodum. @ MNHN Paris

The two specimens conserved in Le Musée Vert were also handwritten by Chevallier and were collected in Oum-el-Klab on 19th March 1902 (Fig. 5). It is surprising to me that these specimens have less information than the ones preserved in P herbarium, maybe because the former remained in Chevalier’s personal collection for a long time.

Figure 5. Label of the specimen preserved in Le Musée Vert that can be considered original material of Helianthemum brachypodium. © Le Musée Vert

The other specimen labeled as type corresponds to Salvia pseudojaminiana, which was described by Chevallier from Hadadra and collected on 10th April 1904 (Chevallier, 1905). This specimen was distributed in the exsiccate “Plantae Saharae-algeriensis” with the number 602 as it is indicated in the original publication (Fig. 6).

Figure 6. Original description of Salvia pseudojaminiana with the locality, date and exsiccate number of the original material used to describe this new species. Extracted from Chevallier (1905) p. 442. © Biodiversity Heritage Library

In JSTOR portal web (https://plants.jstor.org/) there are different specimens indicated as original material and preserved in Jena (Germany), Leiden (the Netherlands), Madrid (Spain), Montpellier (France), Washington (USA) and Melbourne (Australia); all of them bear the label of the exsiccate, either handwritten or typewritten (Fig. 7).

Figure 7. Typewritten label of the specimen distributed by Chevallier in the exsiccate “Plantae Saharae algeriensis” with number 602. © MPU herbarium (Montpellier)

In contrast, the specimen preserved in Le Musée Vert of Salvia pseudojaminiana has a handwritten label with only some information about the locality and the date of collection (Fig. 8). As in the case of the original specimen of Helianthemum brachypodum it seems that this specimen was included in his personal collection.

Figure 8. Label of the specimen preserved in Le Musée Vert that can be considered original material of Salvia pseudojaminiana. © Le Musée Vert

A review of all 107 specimens that compose the Chevallier collection of Le Musée Vert has allowed me to find some original material of some varieties described by this author in Algeria. Six specimens are type material of the following names: Artemisia judaica var. sahariensis, Chrysanthemum macrocarpum var. aureum, Fagonia latifolia var. pinguis, Lippia nodiflora var. suborbicularis, Mentha rotundifolia var. longispicata, and Retama raetam var. pallens.

Although none of these names are accepted today (except Salvia pseudojaminiana), their study is necessary to improve the knowledge about the taxonomy of Algerian plants. Moreover, none of the names proposed by Chevallier for Algerian plants have been studied yet from a typification point of view. Therefore, all original material of this author is important to understand his interpretation for the new taxa he described. In short, the material found in Le Musée Vert can be of great interest of taxonomists interested in North African flora.

References

Chevallier, L. 1903. Deuxième note sur la flora du Sahara. Bull. Herb. Boiss., sér. 2, 3: 669–684. 

Chevallier, L. 1905. Troisième note sur la flora du Sahara. Bull. Herb. Boiss., sér. 2, 5: 440–444. 

Susana Garcia présente ses recherches à Lorient le 5 octobre 2022

Susana Garcia a présenté ses recherches dans le cadre d’une journée d’étude organisée par Dominique Frère (laboratoire TEMOS, UBS Lorient) et Nathalie Richard. Intitulée « Histoire et usage des collections », cette journée, qui s’est déroulée à Lorient le 5 octobre 2022 a réuni plusieurs chercheurs et responsables de musées bretons. Les étudiants de master de Lorient et du Mans y ont assisté.

Susana Garcia a présenté les résultats des recherches qu’elle mène dans les archives françaises, notamment au Havre et à Nantes, sur la circulation des informations, des spécimens et des objets par l’intermédiaire des baleiniers. Les marins et armateurs qui pêchent la baleine et le phoque dans les mers du sud de l’Atlantique et du Pacifique au 19e siècle, sont des sources essentielles de savoirs sur les mammifères marins et les faunes terrestres des zones qui peuplent les régions proches de l’Antarctique. Ils collectent des données, mais aussi des spécimens qui arrivent dans les ports européens et aboutissent dans des collections locales ou nationales.

Participait également à la journée d’étude, Brigitte Nicolas, conservatrice du Musée de la Compagnie des Indes Orientales situé à Port-Louis, près de Lorient, qui a évoqué l’histoire de ce musée et la constitution de ses collections. La collection du musée aspire à être représentative de tous les objets que les navires de la compagnie apportaient en France. Outre les célèbres porcelaines, ces navires transportaient aussi des spécimens naturalistes, même si le musée de Port-Louis n’a pas vocation à les exposer.

Frédéric Bonnor, conservateur du musée de Dinan, au nord de la Bretagne, a présenté l’histoire de la collection de ce musée municipal qui existe depuis les années 1840. Les collections sont actuellement en caisse, dans l’attente d’une nouvelle ouverture au public. Constituées par strates successives, elles sont hétéroclites et contiennent des œuvres d’art et des objets archéologiques, d’ethnographie bretonne et exotiques. Elles intégraient à l’origine des animaux naturalisés qui ont disparus. Certains de ces spécimens viennent d’Amérique latine. Le premier catalogue, publié en 1850, mentionne ainsi un jaguar tué le 9 septembre 1837 à vingt lieues à l’est de Montevideo.

Soazig Le Henanff a présenté la collection Anita Conti, une aventurière, maintenant considérée comme une pionnière de l’océanographie et qui a collecté de multiples objets, réalisé des photos et des films, ainsi que des dessins qui rendent compte de ses observations et de ses voyages. Fruit de toute une vie, cette collection éclectique a été réorganisée par la collectrice à la fin de sa vie. Elle est un témoignage biographique plus qu’une collection savante et témoigne du parcours exceptionnel d’une femme au 20e siècle. Collection et fonds documentaire ne sont pas exposés et sont conservés aux archives de Lorient.

Taburete de elefante se decomisa

Por Irina Podgorny y Susana V. García, Archivo Histórico del Museo de La Plata, Argentina

Visita a las colecciones Zoológicas de la Universidad de las Islas Baleares en Mallorca, donde se destacan los objetos decomisados por la Guardia Civil y allí depositados en guarda provisoria hasta la finalización del juicio por la tenencia de partes de animales protegidos por las leyes europeas.

Museo Nacional de la Cerámica de Sèvres, primer piso, obras de artistas contemporáneos.

Museo de la caza y la naturaleza, París.

Una vitrina en el Aeropuerto internacional de Turín conteniendo una serie de objetos de origen natural cuya importación y transporte se hallan prohibidos por las leyes italianas están sujetos al decomiso e incautación por parte de los carabinieri. Entre ellos, los huevos de tortuga, las caparazones de especies en peligro y el marfil, tallado o en estado “natural”.

Cuatro lugares diferentes, desconectados entre sí por la geografía, la función y la lengua.

El primero, visitado en el transcurso de la misión de Susana García en Barcelona, febrero y marzo de 2022. Los últimos, por Irina Podgorny en el marco de su estadía en el Museo Nacional de Historia Natural de París y su participación enTaller sobre la colección de cráneos en el Museo Lombroso de la Universidad de Turín.

Diferentes pero unidos por la presencia de un objeto más que particular: los taburetes o paragüeros hechos con patas de elefante, una tipología que habla de épocas no muy lejanas y de un comercio subsidiario a la explotación del marfil y la caza mayor en África.

Un objeto surgido en el siglo XIX pero que, a pesar de todas las prohibiciones, se sigue comercializando y produciendo y se ofrece a la venta como pie de una mesa ratona de vidrio, de unos 40 cm de altura, provista de  un sistema  de iluminación eléctrica.

O  transformados en puf, con un almohadón rebatible. O solos, con fecha de manufactura que data de hace 100 años de manera de cumplir con las condiciones del Reglamento CE 338-97 de 9 de diciembre de 1996 art. 2 sobre la venta y circulación de animales vivos o muertos que integraran la lista de especies en peligro. Se trata de un caso que entra en la categoría  de

            « spécimens travaillés acquis plus de cinquante ans auparavant » : les spécimens dont l’état brut naturel a été largement modifié pour en faire des bijoux, des objets décoratifs, artistiques ou utilitaires, ou des instruments de musique, plus de cinquante ans avant l’entrée en vigueur du présent règlement et dont l’organe de gestion de l’État membre concerné a pu s’assurer qu’ils ont été acquis dans de telles conditions. De tels spécimens ne sont considérés comme spécimens travaillés que s’ils appartiennent clairement à l’une des catégories susmentionnées et peuvent être utilisés sans être sculptés, ouvragés ou transformés davantage ».

En este caso, una base para un mueble o un adorno dude unos 40 cm hecho con la pata de Loxodonta africana, el elefante de ese continente.

Los paragüeros, por su parte, rondan los 49 cm, poseen un círculo en metal (cobre, la mayoría de las veces) que rodea la abertura y su interior se encuentra forrado en latón para que no se arruine con el agua de lluvia. La pata del elefante asiático  (Elephas maximus) no está ausente de los catálogos y se ofrece, como los otros, a un precio relativamente bajo: alrededor de 200 euros. Las casas de remate los fechan en el siglo XIX y en los inicios del siglo XX: su historia, sin embargo, resta por hacerse a sabiendas que forma parte de esa industria ornamental que apelaba a las partes de animales como elemento decorativo o estructural.

Entre otras, eran producidos por la empresa del taxidermista británico Rowland Ward (1848–1912), dedicada también a las guías y trofeos de caza deportiva. Miembro de una familia de taxidermista y comerciantes de historia natural, su negocio estaba situado en el centro de Londres y alimentó la moda de los tinteros de pezuña de cebra, los ceniceros de tortugas, los muebles de asta y los paragüeros, apoya pies y tabaqueras de pie de elefante. En 1883 patentó una serie de diseños de lámparas, porta velas, tabaqueras y taburetes hechos con las pezuñas de los animales trofeo de la caza deportiva, advirtiendo sobre la mala calidad y el mal gusto de las imitaciones baratas de los competidores. 

Las patas de elefante hoy han pasado también al arte contemporáneo, una obra humana, tanto como las otras, pero que, en este caso, recurre al barro, a los pies y a las manos de Hervé Rousseau (1955-), un ceramista y escultor francés que desde 1981 trabaja en su taller en Boisbelle, commune d’Henrichemont (Cher), cerca del centro ceramista de La Borne. A partir de 1997, Rousseau comenzó a esculpir sus primeros “bloques” utilizando el torno y escarificados con las huellas del pulgar, la palma y el pie sobre la tierra “salvaje”, es decir ni lavada ni filtrada donde hunde su puño, su brazo y sus pies. En Sèvres, el museo ha adquirido dos patas de elefante realizadas en 2003. Se trata de dos jarrones de gres con restos de fuego y ceniza, dos formas troncocónicas estrechadas en la parte superior, fondo redondo y plano, tres bandas horizontales en la parte inferior, otra en la superior, dentada; en medio, barras inclinadas y verticales que, como las disecadas, tienen alrededor de 40 cm de altura.

El futuro de las patas de elefante disecadas parece dudoso, no solo por la ley sino porque la sensibilidad contemporánea los rechaza con disgusto y culpa. En África, un continente donde reina la controversia entre la prohibición y la matanza regulada de las poblaciones de elefantes, las cosas no están tan claras: en mayo de 2019,  los mandatarios de Namibia, Zambia y Zimbabue se reunieron en Botsuana y allí, su anfitrión, el presidente Mokgweetsi Masisi, les obsequió con un taburete a cada uno, una provocación a sus pares europeos y una celebración de cómo, un objeto creado por el comercio colonial, puede transformarse en el símbolo de la resistencia a adoptar los criterios elaborados en otras geografías.

How two amateur botanists from peripheries assembled important herbaria from different parts of Europe

By Neus Ibáñez, Museu Ciencies Naturals Barcelona (Institut Botanic de Barcelona)

Eugene Louis Honoré Monguillon (1865-1940) (Figure 1) was a French teacher and botanist who worked at various public schools in the department of Sarthe. After 1923, he retired at Le Mans (France). He published the “Catalogue descriptive des lichens du department de la Sarthe” (Le Mans, 1901), among other important publications. He described new species and varieties of mosses and lichens (i.e. Sticta plumbea Mong. and Bacidia arceutina var. punctiformis Mong.) (Figure 2) as a part of making 14 recombination of the names of lichens.

Figure 1. Portrait extracted from the article “Galerie des Naturalistes Sarthois” Bulletin de la Société d’agriculture, sciencies et arts de la Sarthe, LVII, 1939-1940. p. 222. © Archives of department de la Sarthe.
Figure 2. Type specimen of Bacidia arceutina var. punctiformis Mong. LMS-2015.0.1.758 © Le musée Vert

His herbarium (Figure 3) is conserved in Le musée Vert in Le Mans. It includes 17,150 specimens of mosses and lichens with several dozens of types with all data computerized. The collection conserved specimens dated from 1811 to 1939 and collected from France, Europe and the rest of the world.  This collection has been formed by exchanges with more than hundred French and European botanists, and it represents an interesting network of circulations in the “provinces”. E. Monguillon made the donation of his herbarium to the Société d’Agriculture, Sciences et Arts de la Sarthe in 1928 and 1929, according to the catalogue conserved in Le musée Vert (Figure 4). The main collection is conserved in this museum, but there are other specimens of E. Monguillon conserved in P (Paris herbarium), COLO (Colorado University of Colorado Museum of Natural History), BR (Meise Botanic Garden), BC (Botanic Institute of Barcelona) and DBN (National Botanic Garden Irland), among others.

Figure 3. E. Monguillon herbarium. © Le musée Vert
Figure 4. Catalogue of E. Monguillon herbarium conserved in Le musée Vert © Le musée Vert

The other botanist studied in our research is Longí Navàs i Ferré (1858-1938) (figure 5). He was one of the most prominent entomologists of the first third of the twentieth century: a naturalist, botanist, priest and Jesuit teacher. He was a very active scientist and disseminator; he described more than 3,300 new taxa, between genera, species and varieties, almost 2,200 correspond to the order of neuropterans. He was professor at Colegio del Salvador in Zaragoza (Spain), where he was in charge of the museum of natural history of this school. He made different herbaria of lichens and in 1902 founded the Sociedad Aragonesa de Ciencias Naturales and organized the first congress of naturalists in Zaragoza (1908). The most of the specimens can be found in Colegio del Salvador in Zaragoza, and also in the Museum of Natural Sciences of Barcelona, British Museum in London, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, museums in Brussels, Tervuren (Belgium), Turin (Italy) and Tucumán (Argentina). He donated his herbarium, the same as E. Monguillon, to an academy of sciences, in this case, la Real Academia de Ciencias y Artes de Barcelona in 1896 (figure 6). Nowadays, these 135 specimens are conserved in Botanic Institute of Barcelona.

Figure 5. Portrait of Longí Navas. From © Academicos. Real Academia de Ciencias de Zaragoza
Figure 6. Catalogue of Longi Navas herbarium conserved in the archives of Botanic Institute of Barcelona. © Botanic Institute of Barcelona

About the specimens exchanged between these two botanists, we have studied 22 specimens collected by Longi Navas conserved in herbarium E. Monguillon from Saragossa, Madrid, Olot, Gipuzkoa, Castellon, La Rioja, Tenerife, La Palma and El Hierro (figure 7) and 4 specimens conserved in Botanic Institute of Barcelona (BC herbarium), all belonging to the exsiccata Colegio del Salvador-Zaragoza with exactly the same label that those conserved in Monguillon herbarium (figure 8).

Figure 7. Specimen of Cetraria islandica L. var. vulgaris Schaer. collected by Longi Navs and conserved in E. Monguillon herbarium. LMS_2015.0.1.2357. © Le musée Vert
Figure 8. LMS-2015.0.1.2390 specimen on the left  (© Le musée Vert) and BC-983792 specimen on the right (© Botanic Institue of Barcelona) with the same label. These specimens are Alectoria crinalis Ach collected in november of 1898 in Ortogisa (Logroño, Spain) by M. Vicente. Exsiccata of COLEGIO DEL SALVADOR – ZARAGOZA

We also have studied the specimens from Spain and/or collected by Spanish botanist conserved in E. Monguillon herbarium (100 specimens). Among these specimens we have found three types (a type sheet means that a new species was described on base of this specimen), that are currently being studied by our team for typification and publication in a scientific journal. The most interesting thing about these specimens are that from Olot (Catalonia) from volcanic zone, where new species were described in that time, and where the knowledge for volcanoes and by such phenomena increase in that century.

A part of these, E. Monguillon exchanged specimens with Ramon Bolos i Saderra (1852-1914), grandchild of Francesc Xavier Bolos i Germà (1773-1844), a naturalist who took an important part in the discovery of the Garrotxa volcanoes (an isolated region in Catalonia at that time), who published a description in Noticia de los extinguidos volcanes de la villa de Olot (first edition, 1820; second edition, enlarged, 1841). (Figure 9). After the study of this specimen, we have recognized the authorship thanks to the handwriting of the label.

Figure 9. The specimen collected by Ramon Bolos in Olot (Catalonia) and conserved in E. Monguillon herbarium (© Le musée Vert)

All these results show us that local herbaria made in provinces, by such amateur botanists like E. Monguillon or Longí Navas, two regional teachers, can become of great interest to the scientific community and to the history of science at the European level and explain how the exchanges took place at that time.

Recovery of Fragments in the Salvador Cabinet

By Neus Ibáñez, Museu Ciencies Naturals Barcelona (Institut Botanic de Barcelona)

Illustration from the Scientific Miscellany of Josep Bolló (1717) showing the meteorite fall seen from Barcelona (Biblioteca de la Universitat de Barcelona, Ms 95).

On Christmas Day 1704, at 17 h (UT), a meteorite fell in Terrassa (about 25 km NW of Barcelona). The meteorite fall was seen and heard by many people over an area of several hundred kilometres and it was recorded in numerous historical archives. Although it was believed that meteorite fragments were never preserved, a manuscript published recently (Llorca et al., 2020) discusses the recent discovery of two fragments (49.8 and 33.7 g) of the Barcelona meteorite in the Salvador Cabinet collection (Botanic Institute of Barcelona). These fragments are among the oldest historical meteorites preserved in the world.

Engraving that illustrated the writing of Joan Solar about the Barcelona meteorite fall. A set of stones fall under a burning sky (Solar 1705).

The team of Botanic Institute of Barcelona and the Natural Science Museum of Barcelona found the meteorite fragments of the Salvador collection in a glass jar referenced as number 205 along with a small envelope with the annotation written in Catalan “n°205 Meteorite?” (n°205 Meteorit?). Inside the envelope, we discovered an old label glued to a piece of paper. The label, written in Catalan, is incomplete and the ink has lost density, but it is still possible to read:

“Stone that fell from […]in[…]1704” (Pe[d]ra [que ca]ygué d’un […]u es[…] en[…]y 1704).” The whole set is currently catalogued in the Salvador collection: reference Salv-8355.

Fragments of the Barcelona meteorite with their corresponding associated label, in the original glass jar in which they were found in the Salvador Cabinet collection (Salv-8355).

Nothing is known about how the meteorite fragments reached the Salvador’s family collection. In 1710, Joan Salvador i Riera (1683–1726) (the most important member in the family) accompanied the protophysician of Catalonia on a visit to apothecaries from different cities in Catalonia. One of them being Terrassa (Jordi, 1982) where they visited at least three apothecaries. Therefore, we can hypothesize that someone from the Terrassa apothecaries could have been in possession of some fragments of the Barcelona meteorite and gave them to Joan Salvador. The small envelope and its annotation could be dated near 1938, when the Salvador Cabinet was acquired by the Botanic Institute of Barcelona. Pius Font i Quer (1888–1964), the founder of this institution, rescued this collection abandoned for more than a century in a farmhouse thanks to a decree of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Ibáñez, 2006). Probably, the glue used to fix the piece of paper also dated from this time. The label, which could date from the 18th century, is originally from the Salvador family, but it does not seem to have been handwritten by Joan Salvador; perhaps an amanuensis transcribed the original data. The jar is made of mouth-blown glass, the traditional method used in the 18th century.

Analysis of the label found in the glass jar where the meteorite fragments were preserved for more than three centuries. The green line delimits the border of the old label and the red type corresponds to the digital reconstruction of the text.

This is a good example of how the archives can help us to interpret a label and give information about the specimen to catalogue.

References

Bolló J. 1717. Miscelánea científica ilustrada. Barcelona. p. 122

Camarasa J. M. 2018. Descripcions i noticies del gabinet Salvador en llibres de viatges, guies i altres documents impresos (1713–1895). Collectanea Botanica 37: e001.

Ibáñez N. 2006. Estudis sobre cinc herbaris històrics de l’Institut Botànic de Barcelona. Ph.D. thesis, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.

Jordi R. 1982. Visita de boticas en Cataluña a principios del siglo XVIII (16-3-1710/10-4-1710). Circular Farmaceutica 274:111–139.

Llorca, J., Campeny, M., Ibáñez, N., Allepuz, D., Camarasa, J.M. and Aurell-Garrido, J. (2020), The meteorite of Barcelona (1704): History, discovery, and classification. Meteorit Planet Sci, 55: 705-725. https://doi.org/10.1111/maps.13455

Solar J. 1705. Juizio sobre el celeste señal que sucedió en el día 23. del mes de Noviembre deste presente Año 1705. que es la confirmación de aquel prodigioso Señal, que se vió en 25. de Deziembre de 1704. dia de la Natividad de Jesu-Christo Nuestro Señor, que tanto ha dado que discurrir á los curiosos. Barcelona: Impr. B. Giralt. p. 4

An iridescent pendant made with beetle’s elytra

By Adriana E. MarvaldiCONICET/División Entomología del Museo de La Plata, Argentina

The beetles, insects of the Order Coleoptera, are distinguished by the presence of elytra. This is the fundamental feature that defines the largest and most diverse group of animals on Earth (Lawrence and Newton 1982). The elytra (singular, elytron) are the hardened, sclerotized fore wings, evolutionarily modified as a protective case that covers the hind wings (those used to fly) and dorsum of the abdomen when at rest. The beetles and their elytra come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, textures, and colors. Many species of beetles, from several different families, look like jewels because of their iridescent structural colors, a visual phenomenon resulting from the interaction of light with the nanostructures of the integument that changes color according to the viewing angle (Seago et al. 2009; Saranathan et al. 2015). No wonder that in so many cultures, of all times and all around the world, iridescent beetles and their parts are integrated into ornaments full of beauty and symbolism.

For an entomologist, with a special interest in beetles, a set of dozens of sparkling, green elytra assembled into a strip immediately catches the eye. An object like this was noticed, rather unexpectedly, leaning on a shelf of the archaeological-ethnographic collection of the Americas at BASA-Museum of Bonn. The cultural and natural environments from which it comes were intriguing and to figure them out would require some research. At first sight, it had no tag attached, but a closer look revealed the inventory information written in the underside of one elytron (BASA Inv.-No. 5724). In the Museum´s inventory Book the number led to a succinct description of the object: “Ketteanhänger aus Insekten Panzern mit Federn (rot/gelb) am Ende” [Chain pendant made of insect armor with feathers (red/yellow) at the end]. In the last column, the object is attributed, with doubts, to the collection “Jankausky (?)”.

Located on another shelf, a few steps away from the drawer holding the pendant made of beetle’s elytra, there it was an entire beetle exemplar, exhibited as an object with an inventory tag attached to one of its legs (BASA Inv. –No. Hm35). A giant insect of more than 60 mm long and 25 mm wide, with iridescent integument showing hues from green to purple particularly in the elytra. Its shape and general aspect indicated with certainty its membership to the Buprestids, a family of Coleoptera which are commonly called “jewel beetles”. Observation of additional details suggests it is the species Euchroma gigantean (Linnaeus), a wood borer beetle inhabiting the Neotropical rain forests, and considered the largest buprestid of South America. Without further collection data, a direct link of this “object” with the previous one could not be established. But it was tempting to do an association because, as it will be explained later, beetles of this species are among the main sources of the gleaming elements that people from the Amazonian lowlands use to create ornaments.

The characteristics observed in object No. 5724 indicate it is one of the typical ear pendants made by the Jivaroan people (e.g., Shuar and Achuar) from the Amazon lowlands between Ecuador and Peru (Rivers 2003; AMNH 2017). People from the Amazon Basin are known for their variety of personal ornaments that they wear for special occasions, made with materials taken from their natural environment, like colorful bird feathers, little stones, seeds, plant fibers, and iridescent beetle elytra. The wing covers (elytra) of two different beetles have been documented to be used in the elaboration of their ornaments: Euchroma gigantean (Linnaeus) from the family Buprestidae and Chrysophora chysochlora (Latreille) from the Scarabaeidae. In object No. 5724 from BASA, the elytra from its upper part are longitudinally striate, greenish shimmering purple and gold, and longer and more flat than the elytra strung on the rest of the pendant, which are shorter, apically more curved, and strikingly sparkling green colored with a thickly punctuated texture. The former elytra are most likely from buprestids, and the latter, from scarabs.

This was a short story about a lucky day for a coleopterist visiting an ethnographic collection. In the end, it looks like the elytra are meant to provide beauty and protection, not only to the beetles.

References

AMNH. 2017. Beetle-Wing Body Art: Shuar Ear Ornaments. https://www.amnh.org/explore/news-blogs/from-the-collections-posts/beetle-wing-body-art-shuar-ear-ornaments.

Lawrence, J F & Newton, Jr. AF. 1982. Evolution and Classification of Beetles. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 13 (1): 261-290.

Rivers, VZ. 2003. Emeralds on wings: Jewel beetles in textiles and adornment. Pp. 163-174. In Motte-Florace, E. and Thomas, J. M. C. (Eds.) Les ‘insectes’ dans la tradition orale/ Insects in oral literature and traditions. Paris: Peeters.

Saranathan V, Seago AE, Sandy A, Narayanan S, Mochrie SGJ, Dufresne ER, Cao H, Osuji CO, Prum RO. 2015. Structural diversity of arthropod biophotonic nanostructures spans amphiphilic phase-space. Nano Lett. 15, 3735-3742 (doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b00201).

Seago AE, Brady P, Vigneron J-P, Schultz TD. 2009. Gold bugs and beyond: a review of iridescence and structural colour mechanisms in beetles (Coleoptera). J. R. Soc. Interface 6, S165-S184 (doi:10.1098/rsif.2008.0354.focus).

Traveling skulls. About some skulls and casts from France kept in the storerooms of the Museum of La Plata

By Nathalie Richard, Le Mans Université

The historiography of science museums has mostly emphasized the circulation of specimens from the Souths to the Nords or from the peripheries to the centres. The skulls and casts kept in the collections of the anthropology section of the Museum of La Plata (Argentina) tell a more intricate story.

Certainly, many specimens related to the history of physical anthropology were collected in Argentina and sent to museums in the Western world, for example to the Natural History Museum in Paris or to the Anthropology Society of Paris. But other specimens traveled in the other direction. The catalogue of the anthropology section of the Museum of La Plata, compiled by the director of this section, Robert Lehmann-Nitsche, in 1911, demonstrates this, as well as specimens currently kept in the reserves.

Among these specimens from Europe, many belonged to the collection of Francisco Pascasio Moreno (1852-1919), a wealthy amateur who had built an important collection, kept in a family estate. He donated this collection to the Province of Buenos Aires, allowing the foundation, in 1878, of the Anthropological and Archaeological Museum of the Province, of which he was appointed curator. Moreno travelled to Paris in 1880-1881, where he continued his anthropological research and strengthened his contacts with French scholars, for example with Paul Broca (1824-1880). The Société d’anthropologie de Paris (1859), of which he was the founder, was then an important center for Western physical anthropology. The methods, models of interpretation and practices it promoted served as an inspiration for the creation of many similar associations in Europe and North America. Back in Argentina, Moreno devoted his efforts to the creation of a national museum of which his anthropological museum would be the core. This project failed, and another museum in the city of Buenos Aires became the national museum, but Moreno’s efforts led to the foundation of the Provincial Museum of La Plata, which was gradually established from 1884 onwards in the new provincial capital, where his collections were transferred (see bibliography).

These collections reflected Moreno’s scholarly explorations in Argentina, but also his contacts with scientists and merchants, both locally and abroad. It is thus not surprising that the anthropological series gathered by Moreno contained not only American but also French and European remains. Paul Broca, the Society and its Laboratory of Anthropology founded in 1867 were important providers. Thus, the Museum of La Plata now possesses, among others, original French skulls from the 17th century collected by Broca in Parisian cemeteries.

Fig. 1. Photograph by Nathalie Richard.

Among the skulls from France kept at the La Plata Museum, some have traveled more than others, since they have crossed the Atlantic twice. This is the case, for example, of the skull numbered 1760 in the 1911 catalog (Fig. 1). This cast from the Museum of Natural History in Paris demonstrates the existence of exchanges in both directions between La Plata and Paris (also Lyon, since some series came from the Museum of Natural History in that city). It is an outcome of the relationship established between Moreno and the professor of anthropology of the Paris Museum, Armand de Quatrefages. In 1874, the former sent five skulls to Paris. In return, Quatrefages sent him twelve casts of American busts and skulls (from the north and south) taken from the Parisian collections for his collection, which was still private at that time (Farro 2009). This skull bears an inscription that tells more about its history: “Skull of the ancient inhabitants of the coasts of Peru found in the huacas or tombs of the ruins of the temple of Pachacamac, situated 6 leagues south of Lima – given by Mr. J. Deville”. This important site was excavated in a more systematic way from the end of the 19th century onward, but it was explored by curious and collectors well before this date. In France for example, Joseph Dombey brought back an important collection of ethnographic and archaeological objects of Peru, for part coming from this site in 1785, and gave it to the Royal Cabinet in 1786. From this time on, a somewhat imprecise geographical area called “Peru”, associated with a somewhat vague “Inca” civilization, became an object of curiosity and covetousness among French amateurs of archaeology and from institutions. Numerous objects from this region thus entered private and public collections, through the agency of scholars, often commissioned by institutions, but also through soldiers and merchants (Riviale, 1996). The skull #1760 is the result of this history, while the arrival of its cast in Argentina is related to the will of the Argentinian amateur Moreno to establish his reputation and a dialogue with more famous professional European scholars. Later the transfer of the cast from the private collection to the public museum was the result of Moreno’s strategy to establish his influence on the natural, archaeological and ethnographic sciences in Argentina through the foundation of a museum that would be under his control.

Thus, the French skulls preserved in the Museum of La Plata tell us of connections between scholars, of histories of private and public collections, and of strategies of distinction and reputation based on these collections (for a comparison, Corsi 2008). They also point to a common territory in which scientific methods (anthropometry) and theoretical interpretative frameworks were shared, that of the physical anthropology of the second half of the 19th century and early 20th century. This anthropology, for which Paris was one of the main centers, used “race” as its central concept and considered skulls to be the most important part of the skeleton for assessing anatomical differences between human groups. Based on the identification of what they called “racial types”, the scientists of the time reconstructed the population histories of the various regions of the globe, including the Americas. Moreno, his collections, and later the collections of the Museum of La Plata, participated in this common space in which specimens circulated as much as ideas, and in both directions.

Selected bibliography

Pietro Corsi, Fossils and Reputations. A Scientific Correspondence: Pisa, Paris, London, 1853–1857, Pisa, Edizioni Plus – Pisa University Press, 2008.

Máximo Farro, La formación del Museo de La Plata. Coleccionistas, comerciantes, estudiosos y naturalistas viajeros a nes del siglo XIX, Rosario, Prohistoria, 2009.

Irina Podgorny, “Du Musée au Panthéon en Argentine. Le destin des collections anthropologiques dans l’Argentine contemporaine », Politika, 2019, https://www.politika.io/fr/article/du-musee-au-pantheon-argentine

Irina Podgorny, Margaret Lopes, El desierto en una vitrina. Museos e historia natural en la Argentina, Mexico, Limusa, 2008 (2e éd., Rosario, Prohistoria, 2014)

Pascal Riviale, Un siècle d’archéologie française au Pérou (1821-1914), Paris, L’Harmattan, 1996 (traduction espagnole, https://books.openedition.org/ifea/3568 ).

Des crânes voyageurs. A propos de quelques crânes et moulages venus de France conservés dans les réserves du Musée de La Plata

Par Nathalie Richard, Le Mans Université

L’historiographie des musées de sciences a surtout mis en exergue le mouvement des spécimens des suds vers les nords ou des périphéries vers les centres. Les crânes et moulages conservés dans les collections de la section d’anthropologie du Musée de La Plata (Argentine) racontent une histoire plus complexe.

Certes de nombreux spécimens liés à l’histoire de l’anthropologie physique ont été collectés en Argentine et ont été envoyés vers les musées du monde occidental, par exemple au Muséum d’histoire naturelle de Paris ou à la Société d’anthropologie de Paris. Mais d’autres spécimens ont voyagé dans l’autre sens. Le catalogue de la section d’anthropologie du Musée de La Plata, rédigé par le directeur de cette section, Robert Lehmann-Nitsche, en 1911 le démontre, de même que des pièces actuellement conservées dans les réserves.

Parmi ces spécimens provenant d’Europe, plusieurs appartenaient à la collection de Francisco Pascasio Moreno (1852-1919), riche amateur qui avait réuni dans une propriété familiale une importante collection dont il fit don à la Province de Buenos Aires, permettant la fondation, en 1878, du Musée anthropologique et archéologique de la Province dont il fut nommé conservateur. Moreno effectua un séjour à Paris en 1880-1881, où il poursuivit ses recherches anthropologiques et renforça ses contacts avec des savants européens, par exemple avec Paul Broca (1824-1880). La Société d’anthropologie de Paris (1859), dont il était le fondateur, était alors un important foyer de l’anthropologie physique occidentale. Les méthodes, les types d’interprétation et les pratiques qu’elle promouvait servirent d’inspiration pour la création de nombreuses associations similaires en Europe et en Amérique du nord. De retour en Argentine Moreno consacra ses efforts à la création d’un musée national dont son musée anthropologique serait le noyau. Ce projet échoua, et un autre musée de la ville de Buenos Aires devint musée national, mais les efforts de Moreno aboutirent à la fondation du Musée provincial de La Plata, inauguré progressivement à partir de 1884 dans la nouvelle capitale provinciale, où ses collections furent transférées (voir bibliographie).

Ces collections étaient le reflet des prospections savantes de Moreno en Argentine, mais aussi de ses contacts avec des scientifiques et des marchands, localement et au-delà des frontières. Aussi n’est-il pas étonnant que les séries anthropologiques rassemblées par Moreno aient contenu des vestiges humains américains, mais aussi français et européens. Paul Broca, la Société et son Laboratoire d’anthropologie fondé en 1867 étaient des pourvoyeurs importants. Aussi le Musée de La Plata possède-t-il, parmi d’autres, des crânes français originaux du XVIIe siècle collectés par Broca dans les cimetières parisiens.

Fig. 1. Photograph by Nathalie Richard.

Parmi les crânes venus de France du Musée de La Plata, certains ont plus voyagé que les autres, puisqu’ils ont traversé deux fois l’Atlantique. Tel est le cas, parmi d’autre, du crâne numéroté 1760 dans le catalogue de 1911 (Fig. 1). Ce moulage issu du Museum d’histoire naturelle de Paris manifeste l’existence d’échanges dans les deux sens entre La Plata et Paris (et également Lyon puisque des séries proviennent du Muséum d’histoire naturelle de Lyon). Il est le produit de la relation établie entre Moreno et le professeur d’anthropologie du musée parisien, Armand de Quatrefages. En 1874, le premier envoie cinq crânes à Paris et en retour, Quatrefages lui adresse pour sa collection (qui est alors encore privée), douze moulages de bustes et de crânes américains (du nord et du sud) issus des collections parisiennes (voir Farro 2009). Ce crâne porte une inscription qui renseigne sur son histoire : « Crâne des anciens habitants des côtes du Pérou trouvé dans les huacas ou tombeaux des ruines du temple de Pachacamac à 6 lieues au sud de Lima – donné par M. J. Deville ». Ce site important a été fouillé de manière systématique à partir de la fin du XIXe siècle, mais il est exploré de manière ponctuelle par des curieux et des collectionneurs bien avant cette date. En France par exemple, Joseph Dombey a rapporté en 1785 une importante collection d’objets ethnographiques et archéologiques du Pérou, pour partie issus de ce site et donnés au Cabinet du roi en 1786. A partir de cette date, une zone géographique un peu imprécise appelée « Pérou », associée à la civilisation « Inca », fait l’objet de la curiosité et de la convoitise des amateurs français d’archéologie et des institutions. De nombreux objets de cette région arrivent ainsi dans des collections privées et publiques, par l’intermédiaire de savants, souvent missionnés par les institutions, mais aussi de militaires et de commerçants (Riviale, 1996). Le crâne numéro 1760 est le produit de cette histoire, tandis que l’arrivée de son moulage en Argentine est liée à la volonté de l’amateur argentin Moreno d’établir sa réputation et d’entrer en dialogue avec des savants professionnels européens plus reconnus que lui. Le transfert du moulage de la collection privée vers le musée public est quant à lui le résultat des stratégies de Moreno afin d’établir son influence sur les sciences naturelles, archéologiques et ethnographiques en Argentine grâce à la fondation d’un musée qui serait sous son contrôle.

Aussi les crânes français conservés au Musée de La Plata nous parlent-ils de contacts entre savants, de constructions de collections privées et publiques, de stratégie de prestige et de réputation fondées sur ces collections (pour une comparaison, voir Corsi 2008). Ils évoquent aussi un espace commun de méthodes scientifiques (l’anthropométrie) et de grilles d’interprétation théoriques, celui de l’anthropologie physique de la deuxième moitié du XIXe siècle et des premières décennies du XXe siècle. Cette anthropologie, dont Paris est l’un des premiers foyers, fait de la « race » son concept central et du crâne la partie du squelette la plus importante pour qualifier anatomiquement les différences entre les groupes humains. A partir de l’identification de ce qu’ils appellent des « types raciaux », les savants d’alors reconstruisent l’histoire du peuplement des diverses régions du globe, dont les Amériques. Moreno, ses collections, puis les collections du Musée de La Plata, participent de cet espace communs dans lequel les spécimens circulent autant que les idées, et ce dans les deux sens.

Bibliographie indicative

Pietro Corsi, Fossils and Reputations. A Scientific Correspondence: Pisa, Paris, London, 1853–1857, Pisa: Edizioni Plus – Pisa University Press, 2008.

Máximo Farro, La formación del Museo de La Plata. Coleccionistas, comerciantes, estudiosos y naturalistas viajeros a nes del siglo XIX, Rosario, Prohistoria, 2009.

Irina Podgorny, “Du Musée au Panthéon en Argentine. Le destin des collections anthropologiques dans l’Argentine contemporaine », Politika, 2019, https://www.politika.io/fr/article/du-musee-au-pantheon-argentine

Irina Podgorny, Margaret Lopes, El desierto en una vitrina. Museos e historia natural en la Argentina, Mexico, Limusa, 2008 (2e éd., Rosario, Prohistoria, 2014)

Pascal Riviale, Un siècle d’archéologie française au Pérou (1821-1914), Paris, L’Harmattan, 1996 (traduction espagnole, https://books.openedition.org/ifea/3568 ).

First SciCoMove secondments to La Plata (November-December 2021)

Nathalie Richard (Le Mans University), and Silvano Montaldo (Lombroso Museum, University of Turin) are now in La Plata.

Cast Skeleton of Diplodocus Carnegii, Museo De La Plata, Argentina (photograph by S. Montaldo).

Silvano Montaldo is working, with the help of the anthropology and Museum Archive teams at La Plata, on the circulation of Cesare Lombroso’s ideas on physical anthropology and criminology in Argentina (case study). He discovered some interesting archives in the La Plata Police Museum. This museum keeps the archives of Juan Vucetich, who devised a system of fingerprint identification in the 1890’s, and was in contact with Lombroso.

Nathalie Richard is working with the La Plata Museum team and the team at the Museum Archive, on communication and dissemination. She helps planning the training session on “archives and collections”, designed for PhD students (July 4-8 2022). Together with the La Plata teams, she is selecting interesting specimens and archive files, attesting to the circulation of collections between Europe and Argentina, which could be included in the mooc and the digital exhibition.