Online Resources on 19th Century France
General Resources | Literature | History | Graphic Arts | Universal Exhibits |
Photography | Professional conferences & associations
General Resources on Nineteenth Century Paris
Dix-neuf: sites et ressources sur le dix-neuvième siècle
Sponsored by the the Society of Dix-Neuviémistes at the University of Bristol, the web site disseminates announcements for publications, symposia, societies, exhibits, and news in the field. It features electronic resources organized by subject for: Literature, Music, Philosophy and Politics, History and Society, Language and Linguistics, Science-Medicine-Technology, Francophonie, Bibliographies, Iconography, and other related sites. In French.
History of Paris Bibliography
A very large bibliography compiled and edited by Philip Whalen, this site gives references for searchers interested in Paris and its history. A search engine is included. One can also browse through many categories: Research Guides, Tools, and Resources; Legal and Administrative; Art, Fashion, and Representation; Infrastructure, Transportation, and Communications; Religion and Spirituality; Documentary, Film, and Cinema; Historical Surveys and Overviews; Social and Economic; Literary, Critical, and Intellectual; Fairs, Festivals, and Expositions; Race, Gender, and Identity; Web Pages (links to which are available); General and Political Works; Mentality and Culture; Urbanization, Architecture, and Monuments; Parks and Gardens; and Music, Spectacle, and Performance. The site is not nineteenth century specific, though it is helpful for researchers to use the search engine if they wish to find nineteenth-century specific material. In English.
Nineteenth Century Paris
A website designed at San Jose State University. Sections about fashion, Architecture, furniture, technology, History, social classes, etc.
Literature [ top ]
Gallica classique
The Bibliothèque Nationale de France's Gallica is a site that is dedicated to giving free access to the library's digital collections on the internet. Gallica Classique is a sub-section that concentrates on the classics of French literature. Access to works and information from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century gives a very broad overview of the history of French literature. Within the nineteenth century sub-section, an alphabetical list of authors gives access to texts (in either a scanned PDF or an online text format). A chronology is also available. For further research, an alphabetical list of links to other sites about many nineteenth century authors and about the nineteenth century in general can be found in the "Autres Sites" sub-section. In French.
The ARTFL Project
"The Project for American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language (ARTFL) is a cooperative enterprise of Analyse et Traitement Informatique de la Langue Française (ATILF) of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the Division of the Humanities, the Division of the Social Sciences, and Electronic Text Services (ETS) of the University of Chicago." ARTFL is a very large database of French and English resources. Its search engine enables users to find textual indices, tables of contents, and partial text entries. Nineteenth-century specialists will be mostly interested in the main database FRANTEXT which can be searched through Philologic, a powerful search engine, and in Pamphlets and periodicals of the French Revolution of 1848 (see description). There are reference works in the form of dictionaries (both historic and more recent). Users can search and browse the bibliography as well as the full texts. Parts of the ARTFL site are for subscribers only and Brown University users off campus will need to authenticate to access these resources. In English, French, and some parts in other languages.
Langue du XIXe siècle
Created by Jacques-Philippe Saint-Gérand (of the Université Blaise Pascal Clermont-Ferrand II) and Russon Wooldridge (of the University of Toronto) this is a mirror site of the École Normale Supérieure de Paris. Need link here "This page — a home page — gives access to a site about the French language of the 19th century. It includes several links that lead to 19th century sites; others will appear in the future." This site that deals with the language of 19th century France includes links to a general introduction and further reading; a general documentation; a section on grammar and grammaticographie; dictionaries and lexicographies; a section on history, philology and comparisons; a link to several articles from the Journal de la langue Française; a section on spoken language; a section entitled La Science des Langues: Morgan Kavanagh et le Prix Volney; a section on spelling and normativities; a section on syntax and etymology; a section on style, rhetoric, and poetics; further links to databases, images, and music. Site in French.
La comédie humaine de Balzac
A collaboration between the Groupe International de Recherches Balzaciennes, la Maison de Balzac (musée de la Ville de Paris), and ARTFL, this site provides access to the full text of Honoré de Balzac's La comédie humaine. Novels that make up the text are listed in alphabetical order and in the order that they appear in the first edition by Furne. The text is taken from this first edition, printed before Balzac's death when Balzac had some control of editorial decisions. In addition to the full text of each story, there are summaries of each text (although the claim is made that the intrigue is never given away), descriptions of the characters in each text, the history of each text, and bibliography and short historic or other commentary on each text. Illustrations from the original edition are also available. The site provides a very detailed biography of Balzac's life, from five different points of view: the man of literature, the collector, the entrepreneur, the printer, and the man of the world. For those more interested in research, there is a section of the site devoted to dossiers and thematic commentary about Balzac and his oeuvre. A general bibliography is included in the main menu. The site explains that it is easily accessible for the visually impaired. Site in French.
Centre d'études du 19e siècle français Joseph Sablé
A large private collection that has been made public can be found at the Centre d'études du 19e siècle français Joseph Sablé. The collection is comprised of La Collection Romantique and Les Archives Émile Zola. The center's website includes a very large database that gives the reference information about the collection's contents. There is also a large section about Naturalist authors. In addition, one may find essays, images, and other documents related to the subjects that are covered. To navigate, it is recommended that searchers use the site plan, which concisely summarizes the site's contents. Parts in English and parts in French.
The W. T. Bandy Center for Baudelaire and Modern French Studies
Site of W. T. Bandy Center at the Jean & Alexander Heard Library, Vanderbilt University. Features the Baudelaire database, online exhibitions, and annual bibliographies of new publications about Baudelaire.
History [ top ]
Le XIXème siècle (1815-1914)
Hosted by the publisher Anovi and compiled by Marc Nadaux, this site focuses on the history of France from 1815 to 1914. The articles it offers provide a contextual framework to the time period, bibliographies, detailed chronologies, documents, a forum, a glossary, links, biographic information about important figures of the time period, and a search engine.
L'Histoire de France par l'image
Designed for students, this site gives a history, through images, of France from 1789 to 1939. Images are searchable thematically (Economie et Société, Politique, et Culture), chronologically, or with a search engine. Each image is shown, analyzed, and interpreted. In French.
Pamphlets and periodicals of the French Revolution of 1848
Pamphlets and periodicals of the French Revolution of 1848
The 1848 Project is jointly administered by CRL (Center for Research Libraries), The University of Chicago, and ARTFL (American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language). The 1848 collection houses more than 100 pamphlets and periodicals form 1848 to 1851. A search engine and a list of titles and call numbers are available.
Napoleon III and Paris
Special Exhibition held at the Metropolitan Museum, NY. June9, 2009-September 7, 2009. The site provides a collection of photographs of Paris taken during the reign of Napoleon III.
Siege and Commune 1870-71
Northwestern University's Siege and Commune Collection's digitized image database is housed here. In addition to a search engine, visitors to this site may browse the master subject and title indexes, or browse the portrait, landscape/architecture, political caricatures, and documentation sections. In English.
Americans in Paris 1860-1900
Online digital exhibit created by the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The website deals primarily with American artists living and painting in Paris. It has many reproductions of paintings and views of the capital from the second half of the nineteenth century.
Affaire Dreyfus
Site of the interactive permanent exhibit of the Musée de Bretagne.
Universal Exhibits [ top ]
Official site of the Eiffel Tower
The section "Documentation" of this website has many documents and illustrations dealing with the history of the tower, its engineering and building, and the many debates and controversies that it triggered at the time of its construction.
Les expositions universelles à Paris
Digital exhibit created by the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The website is very richly illustrated and focuses on the nineteenth century Paris World Fairs which were documented by photographs (in 1867, 1878, 1889, and 1900). For more information and images of the exhibits, see also the section in the present website.
Graphic Arts [ top ]
Daumier et ses héritiers
A virtual exhibit by the BnF on Honoré Daumier. This site combines excellent scholarship with high quality images. The images can be viewed through a thematic approach and enlarged. Interesting texts on the historical context of Daumier’s work, caricature in general, lithographic techniques, a bibliography and a glossary add to this excellent resource.
Honoré Daumier and his Lithographic Work
A very large and in-depth site, compiled by Lilian and Dieter Noack of Switzerland, dedicated to Daumier and his works. The site provides links to a biography which includes information about his life, images of portraits of Daumier painted by other artists, an iconography of portraits of Daumier, stamps showing his work, and a section on the cost of living in Daumier’s time (subtitled Some not too serious observations about the cost of everyday life in 19th century Paris); a link to the Daumier Register (the new digital Catalogue on DAUMIER’s complete lithographic work); a link to a section about Daumier’s charicatures, which includes books and magazines in which they appear, an online museum with changing Daumier exhibitions, images of Daumier’s signature, and a section that deals with imitations and fakes of Daumier’s works; a link to a reference section that includes a bibliography and filmography; a visitor’s forum with discussion area and articles by visitors; a marketplace to buy Daumier prints and books; a “Daumier News” section; and a guide to collecting Daumier. In English, but links to Google translations into French and German are available.
Image de France
Binghamton University's George D. McKee presents this database of images of France authorized for public distribution between 1811 and 1821. "[…] an index of all of the printed imagery (engravings, lithographs, woodcuts, etc.) authorized for publication in France, pursuant to legislation of 5 February 1810, 14 October 1811, 8 October 1817, etc. These listings are transcribed from notices printed in the Bibliographie de la France on the dates indicated, beginning in November 1811. The Image of France is now complete up to 1831 (January) and comprises about 19,000 notices." The database is searchable by Artistic personnel, title phrases, keywords, publisher, date, and identification number. Images are not available online. In English with a French version available.
Photography [ top ]
Des photographes pour l’empereur
Digital exhibit created by the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Many photographs from Napoleon III’s albums are reproduced and commented on the site. There are sections about portraits, imperial palaces in the capital, and construction and urbanism in both Paris and the rest of France.
Gustave Le Gray
Digital exhibit created by the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Gustave Le Gray was a photographer during the Second Empire. He was part of the famous Mission Héliographique, which was a state sponsored photographic survey of the French monuments, both in Paris and in the rest of the country. The website has sections on views of Paris, of the Fontainebleau forest, and on monuments that Le Gray took pictures of for the imperial Mission.
Professional conferences & associations about nineteenth-century Paris [ top ]
Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies
"INCS is an international group of scholars dedicated to interdisciplinary discussion and research. The organization sponsors annual meetings and enjoys a collaborative relationship with Nineteenth-Century Contexts: An Interdisciplinary Journal. INCS encourages scholarly work that transcends disciplinary boundaries in its approach to cultural studies." The Journal published by the Association, Nineteenth-Century Contexts, is available online at http://josiah.brown.edu/record=b2029432~S7 .
Nineteenth-Century French Studies Association
"The Nineteenth-Century French Studies Association consists of a group of researchers in the United States, Canada, France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere, whose work focuses on a wide variety of aspects of nineteenth-century literature, history, arts, and cultures in France and the French-speaking world. Founded in 1974, the association holds an annual meeting in the autumn of each year, in which researchers present their current work."
Nineteenth Century Studies association
"The Nineteenth Century Studies Association (NCSA), formerly known as the Southeastern Nineteenth Century Studies Association, is an interdisciplinary association for the study of nineteenth-century world cultures. Founded in 1979 as a forum to encourage interdisciplinary exchange, the membership has grown to include scholars whose disciplinary focus ranges from art, architecture, and literature to religious, scientific, and legal writing, to social, political, and economic debate. Nineteenth Century Studies is an interdisciplinary journal published annually by the Nineteenth Century Studies Association."