I. Exhibit Description

Of Elephants and Roses: Encounters with French Natural History, 1790–1830

When the exploring ships Geographe and Naturaliste returned to from Australia in 1803 and 1804 respectively, they were carrying seeds, plants, and animals that would be divided between two French gardens: the Jardin des Plantes, the great national botanic garden that had been in existence since 1626; and Malmaison, the private pleasure garden of the Empress Josephine, ’s wife. The Jardin des Plantes was the product of centuries of royal patronage, and a remarkable survivor of the French Revolution. Malmaison, in contrast, was only four years old, fueled by imperial power and Josephine’s passionate commitment to the study of the natural world. These two gardens, though seemingly so different, were at the center of French natural history at the turn of the nineteenth century.

Historian of science Charles Gillispie has argued that French science from 1770 to 1830 “predominated in the world to a degree that no other national complex has since or had ever done.” Of Elephants and Roses will explore French practices in the natural sciences during the last forty years of this period—a tumultuous political time in a country that was lurching from bloody revolution to republic, then to empire, and ultimately back to monarchy.

The exhibition will consider how plants and animals arriving in France from around the world were acclimatized and assimilated into French culture. Removed from their natural habitats, these “wonders” of nature acquired multiple meanings and uses, from serving as symbols of empire to enhancing agriculture and shipbuilding. Their strangeness resulted in new scientific theories about flora and fauna along with new artistic standards for scientific renderings. At the same time, an ever-broader general public became aware of natural history through entertaining public spectacles and informative lectures open to all.

Using the two French gardens as a backdrop, the exhibition will introduce visitors to the kinds of encounters with science and nature that Parisians experienced on their own excursions in the Jardin des Plantes—or, for the elite, at Malmaison. The displays will be drawn from objects in the collections of the American Philosophical Society and other institutions in France and the United States, including objects never before shown in this country. On view will be a broad array of materials, from scientific documents and specimens to related artworks and other artifacts—watercolors, hand-painted porcelain, and popular everyday objects decorated with exotic flora and fauna.

The first section (or “encounter”) of the show, titled “Hunting Trees for France,” will consider two trees in particular, the oak and the flowering Franklinia—the first valued for its utility, and the second for its rarity and beauty. Included will be scientifically accurate renderings of the trees in watercolors and books, and on porcelain. The story of these trees is directly linked to French naturalist André Michaux, who was dispatched by the French government to North America to find trees that could help reforest France and provide wood for shipbuilding and other purposes. Before returning to France penniless, Michaux sent thousands of tree seeds and seedlings, including the Franklinia, which had been discovered by John and William Bartram of

Exhibition Preview. January 2011 1 Philadelphia and named for Benjamin Franklin; in France it was first cultivated by Josephine.

Another encounter is titled “Music for Elephants,” where visitors will see the musical scores used in a concert performed for two Asian elephants (Hans and Parkie) soon after they arrived at the Jardin des Plantes from Holland in 1798. The purpose of the concert was to discover whether music would induce an emotional reaction in the elephants—an early investigation of live animal behavior. This section will also introduce visitors to the birth of paleontology through the work of . An elephant jawbone will be juxtaposed with the fossil teeth of a mammoth and a mastodon that Thomas Jefferson sent to Cuvier, and the French scientist used the different characteristics of these mammals’ teeth to identify them as separate species. Finally, an image of the grandiose elephant fountain Napoleon commissioned for the Place de la Bastille will demonstrate how elephants were also used as symbols of empire.

On view in “A Flower Blooms” will be watercolors, drawings, and prints by Pierre-Joseph Redouté of plants in the magnificent gardens at Malmaison, an estate managed by Napoleon’s wife Josephine, herself a knowledgeable naturalist. Sèvres porcelain dinnerware decorated with hand-painted images based on Redouté’s watercolors will offer a small sampling of the hundreds of flowers Josephine cultivated: roses, lilies, and Venus flytraps—curious insect-devouring plants native to North America and highly prized in Europe. Redouté, sometimes called the Raphael of flowers, raised botanical painting to a high level. This section will also reveal the science behind his artistry.

In “Black Swans for an Empress,” a stuffed swan specimen will introduce visitors to another of Josephine’s accomplishments. She was the first to successfully propagate black swans in captivity outside of Australia, and she also raised many other exotic birds in her aviary. This section will also feature a series of exotic and colorful South American birds painted by Pauline de Courcelles Knip, the only female artist at the time who worked for the Sèvres porcelain manufacture. Knip, renowned for her illustrated publications on tanagers and pigeons, insisted on painting from actual bird specimens housed at the Jardin des Plantes. Craftsmen at Sèvres then decorated the edges of the plates with designs based on plants from the birds’ habitats.

In a final encounter titled “Everything Giraffe,” the exhibition will tell the story of a female giraffe given to Charles X in 1826 by the Egyptian viceroy and paraded on foot from Marseilles to by African handlers and the acclaimed French naturalist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. More than 500,000 Parisians went to see her at the Jardin des Plantes in just over five months, and a mad craze immediately swept through France, resulting in depictions of the curious creature on everything from ceramic plates, handbags, and wallpaper to tea warmers and everyday clothing irons—objects that will be on display in this section. In contrast to the Sèvres porcelain on view elsewhere in the show, these items will reveal how the craze for “everything giraffe” reached into all levels of society.

Exhibition Preview. January 2011 2