The Making of the Carnavalet Museum of the History of Paris

Ulysse Jardat, Curator and Head of the Decor, Furniture and Decorative Arts Department at the Carnavalet Museum of the History of Paris, will explain how Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann, Prefect of the Seine under Napoléon III between 1853 and 1870,  proposed the creation of a  museum dedicated to the history of the city that he had done so much to transform; how in 1866 the City of Paris acquired the 16th century Hôtel Carnavalet, one of the first and finest hôtels particuliers to be built in the Marais, for that purpose; how the museum was inaugurated in 1880; how its eclectic collection of paintings, sculptures, engravings, drawings, stained glass windows, models, manuscripts, photographs, furniture, signs and posters grew, and its buildings were enlarged, over the years, ultimately resulting in the annexation of an adjacent hôtel particulier in 1989; how the museum was completely renovated between 2017 and 2021 and now has 40 decorated rooms and galleries organized as a visit “pathway” (parcours) through eight different periods in the city’s history, from Gallo-Roman times until today.

Every Thursday at 12pm Central Time in Chicago/1 pm Eastern Time in Miami/19h Central European Time in Paris – From January 11 through February 22, 2024

Following the success of Grands Châteaux of the Loire and Ile-de-France, The Making of the French Gardens and The Great Churches of Paris series of online talks, our curator extraordinaire, Russell Kelley returns to offer an enthralling new series about an essential pillar of France’s cultural heritage: the extraordinary museums that were established in Paris starting during the Revolution and continuing through the end of the 19th century. We know you will love The Making of the Great Museums of Paris!

Ulysse Jardat is Curator and Head of the Department of Decor, Furniture and Decorative Arts at the Carnavalet Museum of the History of the City of Paris. He is a graduate of the National Heritage Institute, the École du Louvre, the Institute of Political Sciences, among other institutions. Most recently, he co-curated, and co-authored the related catalogue for, the Carnavalet’s current exhibition on “The Regency in Paris”.

Russell Kelley is the curator and moderator of the past three winter’s Zoom lecture series on the Grands Châteaux of the Loire and Ile-de-France , The Making of the French Gardens and The Great Churches of Paris. He has lived in Paris for 30 years and is the author of The Making of Paris: The Story of How Paris Evolved from a Fishing Village into the World’s Most Beautiful City (Globe Pequot Press, 2021), and has lived in Paris for 30 years.

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*Through our Entrée Libre initiative, free admission to this series is offered to students enrolled in French Studies in universities and French schools in Chicago and the Midwest. Students MUST register with .edu address