University of Pennsylvania Finding Aids

The international news agency Agence Havas, ancestor of Agence France-Presse (AFP) Reuters, was founded in 1832 by Charles-Louis Havas (1783-1858), who translated reports from foreign papers and distributed them to Paris and provincial newspapers. This collection consists of 101 lithographed news reports from 1845 to 1848, though most of the reports are from 1847. The reports focus primarily on economic and political news of the time, specific to Spain, Italy, and France.

Annales de chimie is a scientific journal that was founded in Paris, France, in 1789 by Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau (1737-1816) and Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794). This collection contains letters, pamphlets and manuscripts relating to Guyton de Morveau and his work as a lead editor of the Annales de chimie. Documents include foreign language originals, copy texts, or the actual printer's copy.

The Belle Époque, dating from the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 to the outbreak of World War I in 1914, is described as a period of optimism, regional peace, economic prosperity, and techonological, scientific, and cultural innovations during the French Third Republic. It is particularly known as an era in which the arts flourished in Paris and other European Francophone centers. This collection contains programs, publications, advertisements and tickets which document classical music and operatic performances at a variety of concert venues and music halls.

A parchment bound volume spanning from 1835 to 1855 containing handwritten recipes and instructions for varnishes, lacquers, and dyes.

Two notebooks dated 1870 written in French by Alexandre Brun comprising a treatise on perspective with several figures and drawings.

Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic era. This collection consists of letters from Camille Saint-Saëns to various correspondents. A great many of the letters are to Princess A. Bibesco. Other addressees include Edouard Dern, Marianne Eissler, Richard Pohl, a Monsieur F. Hueffer, a Monsieur Alboize, Dandelot and Sardou.

This collection contains 47 notebooks, dating from 1824 to 1836, written by Claire Sallard (circa 1821-1896), which provide examples of the type of education received by prosperous young ladies in France in the 1820s and 1830s. With a focus on the skills of literary form, the notebooks contain short stories, moral speeches, diary entries, and a “cahier de bonne conduite” (a good conduct notebook).

Compagnie de Commerce de Lorraine was founded by Duke Leopold of Lorraine in 1724, with Regard d'Aubonne as director general and Claude Regnault among its other directors, and dissolved by the 1760s. One purpose of the company was to protect commerce in the duchy from the French economic crisis precipitated by the inflation and crash of the stock of John Law's Compagnie des Indes. These 31 files include a few printed documents pertaining to the establishment of the Compagnie and numerous account calculations and documents concerning the liquidation of the Compagnie.

Volume containing lecture notes in French by an unknown student probably between the years 1770 to 1780. The lecture course in materia medica was taught by Alphonse Vincent Louis Antoine Leroy.

Collection of various documents, mostly from 1830-1870, relating to a distillery located in Annecy, France.

Documents relating to the Académie des sciences (Paris) in the mid- to late-1800s, including letters to Ernest Maindron from members of the Académie.

Eugène Labiche (1815-1888) was a French comic playwright known for popular and amusing comedies who traveled to Italy in 1834 at the age of 18. He recorded the daily experiences of his journey through the south of France, Italy, and Switzerland in 44 rough notebooks and 2 fair copy notebooks. His friend, Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (1820-1910), more commonly (and much more famously) known as Nadar, helped Labiche make a fair copy of a portion of his travel diary from his notes and provided a few illustrations in the 2 volumes.

A collection of playbills and other ephemera of a young lady's travels in Europe, particularly Paris, collected by Florence Bayard Kane, daughter of the prominent Kane family of Philadelphia, primarily between 1899 and 1900.

François-Vincent Raspail (1794-1878) was a French scientist and politician known for his opposition to the French monarchy and for his scientific work in the fields of histochemistry, cellular theory and the microbial theory of disease. This volume of Opuscules divers, dating from 1822 to 1880, consists of twenty-one items, including pamphlets, notes, and newspaper clippings about François-Vincent Raspail.

The collection comprises 169 items dating from 1711 to 1714, with one item from 1702. Most of the correspondence consists of letters addressed to or drafts written by the abbé François Gaultier, a French diplomatic agent stationed in London who moved in the circles of the Tory opposition. Of 88 letters by Torcy in the collection, 79 are addressed to Gaultier. Most of these are entirely or partially in cipher. Original keys for coding and decoding are in the collection.

Jean Baptiste Colbert served as the French minister of finance under King Louis XIV and achieved a reputation for his work of improving French manufacturing and bringing the economy back from bankruptcy. The letters deal with a variety of subjects ranging from trade regulations, licensing, taxes, and imprisonment to simple requests for the expedition of certain orders.

The collection comprises 492 items dating from 1775 to 1824: among these are letters, municipal documents, police records, trial transcripts, and some of Lingaud’s personal papers. The pre-Revolutionary documents mainly include bureaucratic correspondence between Limoges and the court in Versailles and Paris. After 1792 there emerges a vast number of name lists and secret surveillance records as well as arrest warrants for aristocrats and their sympathizers. Most notable in this part of the collection are letters and documents from the Revolutionary Committee and the Surveillance Committee.

Oversize volume written in French comprising a treatise on making liquors. The detailed and densely written volume was created by an unknown compiler around 1810.

A volume of eighteenth-century French songs from the Acadian region of Kennebec, Maine compiled by Demerise Cowette between the years 1920 to 1930.

A volume comprising a manuscript portion from volume 2 of Lévis work entitled Les voyages de Kang-Hi, ou nouvelles lettres chinoises. The manuscript was written in French around 1806 and is probably in Lévis hand.

This collection contains two volumes of poems and ballads titled Mes vers by Herminie Delavault spanning the years 1840 to 1879. Written in French, the works also include verse created for the musical compositions by Delavault's husband Germain-Eugène Delavault (1814-1892). In addition, volume two contains a French translation of John Gay's libretto for Handel's Acis and Galatea.

A portfolio of fifty-three architectural and interior decoration drawings by J. E. Cazes of Vincennes, France.

Copy of a manuscript work regarding the theological status of the Jewish people.

An eighteenth century, leather-bound volume with a fish scale pattern spine stamped in gold and a label that reads "recettes diverses." The volume contains a collection of pharmaceutical recipes providing remedies for various ailments on 140 pages. Each page has a black ink double ruled border. A majority of the recipes have explanations for usage and dosage

A sketchbook by an unknown artist containing sketches and drawings of buildings, monuments, and architectural elements around Paris and Northern France spanning from 1827 to 1843.