Muséum d'histoire naturelle d’Angers

Muséum des sciences naturelles d'Angers

Established	5 May 1801 (1801-05-05)
Location	Central Site (main) 43 rue Jules Guitton 49100 Angers, France Arboretum Site 9 rue du château d'Orgemont 49000 Angers, France
Type	municipal museum
Accreditation	Inscrit MH 1995 pour l'Hôtel Demarie-Valentin[1]
Collections	Zoology Earth Sciences Botany Prehistory
Collection size	600,000 objects
Visitors	18,838 (2012) 17,448 (2013) 24,432 (2014)[2]
Website	angers.fr/museum

The Muséum des sciences naturelles d'Angers (commonly called Muséum d'Angers) is a municipal museum in Angers, France. Dedicated to Natural History, the Muséum d'Angers houses in its collections about 600,000 objects, including 3,000 birds, 20,000 shells, 50,000 fossils, 150,000 insects and 350,000 herbarium samples, as well as hundreds of specimens taxidermised or in liquid, skeletons, minerals, technical instruments and Documents^[3]. The Muséum d'Angers receives annually some 20,000 visitors^[4], as well as school groups, interns, researchers and volunteers.

History

Open to the public since 1801, the Muséum d'Angers has a long and rich history.

The initial nucleus of the collections dates from the French Revolution. By the Decree of 1790, Gabriel Eleanor Merlet de la Boulaye (1736–1807) is responsible for gathering all books and natural history collections seized in the national houses. Gathered from the whole department, especially from the houses of emigrants, they are initially stored in the abbey Saint-Serge d'Angers. Unfortunately, they were plundered by the Vendéens who besieged Angers in December 1793^[5].

In 1795 the Central School of Maine-et-Loire was established in the Barrault House. Joseph-Étienne Renou (1740–1809), collaborator of Merlet, is applointed to the chair of Natural History and, with what remained of the collections at the abbey Saint-Serge, forms a natural history cabinet for teaching in the brand new school. The collections were enriched thanks to Louis-Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux (1753–1824), member of the Directory:

Le citoyen Lépeaux a fait ces jours derniers une demande très importante pour votre école d'Histoire naturelle. ... Vous aurez un herbier avec une collection d'insectes et de minéraux, cela formera un commencement de cabinet qui s'enrichira par la suite. Le grand but en demandant ces objets est d'obtenir un Muséum dans la ville d'Angers.^[6]

— Lettre du citoyen Mamert Coullion, membre du Conseil des Cinq-Cents, aux administrateurs du département de Maine-et-Loire, 1796.

Moreover, La Révellière-Lépeaux invites Renou in 1798 to Paris, where he is allowed to bring back for his cabinet objects from the collections of the National Museum of Natural History, including a collection of 12 fossil fish brought from Italy (Monte Bolca) by Bonaparte in 1797, which still exist and with their original labels^[7]. The cabinet finally opens its doors to the public as a Museum of Natural History on 5 May 1801. In 1805, when the Central School was abolished, the museum became municipal, while remaining in the Barrault House, together with the Museum of Fine Arts.

The Muséum d'Angers quickly attracts interest and its collections increase. In 1806, Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772–1844) sent to the Muséum d'Angers, on behalf of the National Museum, important fossils and casts. The number of visitors is high:

Il vient beaucoup d'étrangers tous les jours et, ceux d'ouverture publique, il y a affluence de personnes, les unes par curiosité, les autres pour leur instruction, tels que les écoliers qui se sont instruits à l'école et qui se font un plaisir de venir y revoir les objets qu'ils ont étudiés, ils y amènent d'autres élèves qu'ils font : les professeurs des écoles secondaires y amènent aussi leurs élèves, ils y viennent voir les objets dont on les a entretenus et apprendre le nom et comparer ce qu'ils ont pu recueillir. Les chimistes pour la minéralogie, les orfèvres et les joailliers pour les pierres, les cailloux et les cristaux. Les peintres, les potiers et faïences viennent pour imiter les coquillages et les marbres ; enfin, chacun s'attache plus particulièrement à examiner l'objet qu'il veut reconnaître, imiter ou qui l'affecte d'avantage.^[8]

— Rapport de Guilloteau, aide-naturaliste, sur le Cabinet d'Histoire naturelle, 1807.

After the death of Renou (1809), the administration of the Museum went through a troubled period. Guilloteau, the naturalist's assistant, manages the museum during the time of the directors Bastard (who is also director of the Jardin des Plantes d'Angers and pays less attention to the museum) and de Tussac (who worked in Paris). In 1821, Auguste Nicaise Desvaux (1784–1856), a botanist, replaced Guilloteau as naturalist's assistant and was appointed director in 1822. Desvaux tries to put an order to the collections and quarrels with the municipality to solve the numerous logistical problems of the museum, without results.

It was only under the direction of Alexandre Boreau (1803–1875) that the expansion of the museum took place, with new halls on the first floor of the Barrault House being inaugurated in 1849. The same year the museum was enriched with the collection of Pierre-Aimé Millet de la Turtaudière (1783–1873), doyen of natural history in Anjou. Its collection consisted mainly of fossils from the limestone and faluns of Anjou, but today they have almost entirely disappeared. In 1864 a temporary exhibition of geology became the permanent exhibition. In 1871 the creation of the Society of Scientific Studies of Anjou (SESA) is to note, being so by a group of scholars strongly linked to the museum. In 1883 Alphonse Milne-Edwards (1835–1900), professor of ornithology at the National Museum, donated 65 birds to the Muséum d'Angers.

The main site of the museum remained the Barrault House, but in 1885 the town of Angers decided to purchase the Soye collection, made up of several thousand fossil samples, and the palaeontology collections became too large in the premises of the Barrault House and are placed in the Old Town Hall, constituting a Palaeontological Museum. The geological collections joined them soon after. In the same year, a Holzmaden ichthyosaur cast is added to the collections, purchased at the Cantonal Museum of Geology in Lausanne, where the original still stands. An original ichthyosaur fossil from Holzmaden will be added to the collections later.

Botanical collections had been developed in Angers since the creation of the Society of Botanophiles in 1777. Preserved in the Jardin des Plantes during most of the 19th century, the herbaria were housed in 1895 in the old house of mayors, the north wing of the Old Town Hall, adjacent to the Palaeontological Museum. The SESA followed suit. Alexandre Boreau's herbarium was bought by the municipality in 1875, and that of James Lloyd (1810–1896) was bequeathed to the city in 1897. All herbaria are grouped at the Gaston-Allard Arboretum from 1964; the SESA accompanies this move. From 1898 to 2005 these collections formed the Botanical Museum.

Under the director Georges Bouvet (1850–1929) many objects entered the museum (the number of samples has more than quintupled) and a general classification of the collections is completed. His successor, Olivier Couffon (1882–1937), brings 12,000 local geological and palaeontological samples from his own collection. Prehistory collections started at the end of the 19th century, and especially thanks to the Paleolithic site of Roc-en-Pail, Chalonnes-sur-Loire (Maine-et-Loire).

In 1958, under the direction of Philippe Maury (1892–1978), the zoology collections left the Barrault House and were installed in the Demarie-Valentin House, which became the Zoological Museum, near the Paleontological Museum. The Zoological Museum opens 28 April 1963. The two establishments were eventually reunited to recreate the Museum of Natural History in 1990 and the two buildings were connected in 1991 by the public opening of a small garden nestled on the ancient walls of the town of Angers, allowing visitors a continuous journey between the zoological rooms and the palaeontology gallery. In 2005 the Botanical Museum, while remaining on the site of the Arboretum, is absorbed by the Museum of Natural History, which changes its designation to Museum of Natural Sciences. 1 January 2017, the Muséum d'Angers is attached administratively to the other five museums of the town of Angers, under the same directorship.

Unlike almost all other natural history museums in France, the Muséum d'Angers and its collections have not suffered much with the two World Wars. Moreover, no fire, flood or disaster destroyed or damaged the museum's collections; the greatest hazard being likely the Vendean pillage in 1793. Even if over time many pieces have been lost, even stolen, the Muséum d'Angers retains a continuity and rare integrity for a museum more than 200 years old.

Museum Missions

The Museum of Angers follows the National Museum by adopting five main missions^[9]: preservation of collections, dissemination of knowledge, expertise, pedagogy and scientific research (yet the latter two are only achieved in Angers through mediation, object loans and hosting of trainees and external researchers; a scientific project is sometimes set up under the aegis of the Museum). The Museum is part of networks dedicated to museums and contributes to national and international patrimonial databases for the benefit of scientists and the general public. The Muséum d'Angers subscribes to ICOM 's definition of museum and is thus "a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment"^[10]. The Muséum d'Angers is labeled Musée de France, law nr 2002-5 of 4 January 2002 ^[11].

Collections

The collections of the Muséum d'Angers are classified in four major scientific fields: zoology, earth sciences, botany, and prehistory. The museum also preserves minor collections of ethnology, technology and fine arts. It continues to be enriched with donations, customs seizures and new acquisitions.

The oldest preserved object is a trilobite fossil of the genus Paradoxides of the Cambrian period, about 500 million years old. Historically the oldest objects are 18th century herbaria (and even a few from the 17th century). Herbaria and animal taxidermy from before the 19th century have a considerable heritage value, but the largest part of the collections came from the 19th and 20th centuries. In zoology, palaeontology and botany, the collections of the Muséum d'Angers house several type-specimens, including lepidoptera, trilobites and asteraceae.

Zoology

In the field of zoology, the Muséum d'Angers has collections of entomology (150,000 specimens), malacology (20,000 specimens), ornithology (4,000, including oology and nestology), mammalogy (500 specimens), herpetology (400 specimens), ichthyology (150 specimens) and marine invertebrates (60 specimens)^[12]. Apart from taxidermy specimens, there are osteological specimens, teratological specimens, specimens in liquid, casts, models etc. Of special interest is the reconstruction of the cabinet of the Angevin entomologist Gustave Abot (1843–1926), specialist on beetles of Maine-et-Loire. The Muséum d'Angers houses the reference collection of spiders of Maine-et-Loire^[13]. It also retains the Servain and Surrault collections (freshwater malacology), which together with the Letourneux collection (world malacology) form a remarkable ensemble. With the Boursicot legacy in 1999, the zoology collections gained tens of thousands of specimens, especially insects and shells^[14]. In addition, the ornithological collections are particularly rich, with eggs, nests and taxidermy of all of the birds of Maine-et-Loire. There are also specimens belonging to extinct species, including a Carolina parakeet and a migratory pigeon; casts of Æpyornis egg and a moa's leg can be seen. There are also historical specimens, including one of the last sturgeons fished in the Loire in 1811, and cetacean bones of the same period. Among the last remarkable acquisitions, the arrival of an okapi (accompanied by its skeleton) is noteworthy.

Earth sciences

The Muséum d'Angers has important collections of paleontology (50,000 fossils, including palaeobotany, paleozoology and paleoichnology) tracing the history of life since the Cambrian, 500 million years ago. The Maine-et-Loire fossils come mainly from the Cretaceous limestone and tertiary faluns of the region, but also from fossiliferous Armorican levels such as Ordovician or Devonian. A composite skeleton of the Miocene fossil sirenian Metaxytherium medium, an ancestor of the extant dugong, is a major asset of the palaeontological collections. Mineralogy (5,000 samples, of which 2,000 are from Maine-et-Loire) and petrography (600 samples) include a collection of slates, a monumental block of sharp acicular quartz, samples of native gold and meteorites^[15]. The meteorite of L'Aigle, which fell in 1803 at L'Aigle (Orne, Normandy), is at the origin of the study of meteorites. The meteorite of Angers fell in 1822 (3 June, 8:15 pm) in Angers (La Doutre), it is classified L6, chondrite with olivine. A native gold nugget found at Blaison-Gohier (Maine-et-Loire) is exhibited, as well as a sample of native apatite lamellar gold, found around 1858 on the road going from Rennes to Nantes – one of the rare samples known in the region (they exist only in the National Museum in Paris and in Nantes). Other samples are mainly French regional minerals, and minerals from Madagascar and Chile, but all mineral families are present.

Botany

The collections of botany represent numerically the greatest heritage of the Muséum d'Angers, with more than half of the total number of samples, all field together. The herbaria contain more than 350,000 samples, mainly dating from the nineteenth century^[16]. They are organized around three important collections^{[17] [18]}: the general herbarium, that of Alexandre Boreau and that of James Lloyd, the three herbaria making up about 80% of the total samples. The general herbarium contains several type-specimens, including types of the island of Reunion, collections of Commerson (journey of Bougainville), La Billardière (expedition of Entrecasteaux), Poiteau (Santo Domingo) and even some rare samples from the seventeenth century). The Boreau herbarium contains probably more than 100,000 samples, material used for the writing of the flora of the center of France, the most famous regional flora of its time. The Lloyd herbarium (100,000 collections) contains 24,000 species, the basis of the flora of western France; it is accompanied by an imposing library. There are also herbaria of mosses (Bouvet, Bruneau), lichens (Decuillé, Thuillier), mushrooms (Gaillard, Guépin, Rabenhorst) and algae (Lloyd, Bory, Corillion). Specialized botany is preserved in Angers, where one of the most important bathology collections (herbaria of the genus Rubus) in Europe is housed. A seed library is made up of, on the one hand, pedagogical samples (about 1,000 French and 200 tropical species) and, on the other hand, a Vilmorin collection of early 20th century tree seeds, with additions from the National Museum and Roland Bonaparte (approximately 1,100 samples). The xylotheque, also made up of two parts, gwthers harvested trees from the Jardin des Plantes d'Angers and the Gaston-Allard Arboretum, as well as a collection of 69 samples of French Guyanese precious woods collected in 1802^[19].

Prehistory

The collections of prehistory total about 30,000 objects mainly thanks to the Paleolithic site of Roc-en-Pail^[20]. Known since the beginning of the 20th century, the site of Roc-en-Pail, in Chalonnes-sur-Loire, has produced a great diversity of objects: mammoth teeth, reindeer antlers, various bones and lithic tools, evidence of an ancient human occupation of the site. The systematic excavations of Michel Gruet (1912–1998) in the 1940s–1980s were particularly happy, and the discovery of Neanderthal bones (maxilla, isolated tooth and humerus), partially exhibited at the Muséum d'Angers, confirmed the importance of the site for the study of prehistory in Anjou and even in Europe. New excavation campaigns at Roc-en-Pail are underway and the resulting material will also be part of the collections of the Muséum d'Angers. The permanent exhibition of prehistory has recently been enriched with showcases relating to human evolution, including a showcase showing fossil skull casts on the human phylogenetic tree and a primatology installation.

Specimens

Scientific

• Type-specimens (insects, shells, herbaria, fossils)

Historic

• Les poissons du Monte Bolca (apportés par Napoléon 1797)
• Le pangolin (transféré de Paris 1798)
• Les os de baleine historiques
• L'esturgeon historique (1811)
• L'herbier Patrin

Zoology

• entomology: la collection Abot
• malacology: faune marine exotique et faune locale dulçaquicole
• ornithology: pigeon migrateur ; œuf de grand pingouin ; kakapo
• mammalogy: okapi ; nombreuses espèces de félins
• herpetology: tortues à charnière ; crapauds de Blomberg
• ichtyology: poisson lune ; herbier de poissons
• marine invertebrates: corail de l’océan indien

Earth Sciences

• palaeozoology: Metaxytherium ; Palaeotherium ; baleine des faluns ; plésiosaure
• palaeobotany: grès à plantes ; troncs de Lepidodendron
• palaeoichnology: empreintes de dinosaures
• mineralogy: pépite d’or ; quartz aciculaire radié
• petrography: météorite d’Angers ; ardoises

Botany

• herbaria: algues de Lloyd
• carpothèque: coco fesse, fruit de Corozo
• xylothèque: bois de rose de Guyane

Prehistory

• Roc-en-Pail: Neanderthal bones

Buildings

The Muséum d'Angers is established in two sites: the central and main site of the museum, in the town centre of Angers, and the site of the Gaston-Allard Arboretum^[21].

Central Site

The central site is housed in two buildings of distinct origins, connected by a small garden sitting on top of the medieval walls, the Demarie-Valentin House and the Old Town Hall.

The Demarie-Valentin House was built by Jean-François Demarie around 1800 on the site of the former parish church of Saint-Michel-du-Tertre, destroyed during the Revolution. The interior layout of the Demarie-Valentin House is surprising and unique in its neo- classical style: from the front door, a staircase leads to a circular courtyard dominated by a round balcony; the vestibule to the garden-floor connects two octagonal rooms together, each in its turn giving passage toward wings overlooking the garden; a colonnade lends the garden façade an "antique" allure. Dedicated to the city of Angers by its last owner in 1958, the house was used to host the zoology collections^[22][23]. This building houses the museum's reception desk, the laboratory of taxidermy-restoration and part of the reserves. The Demarie-Valentin House has been registered as an historic monument since 28 August 1995^[24].

The building of the Old Town Hall dates from the 13th century. The palaeontology collections have been installed since 1885 in the former Great Hall of the Municipal Council (1529–1823, then the Great Chamber of the Court of Appeal between 1823 and 1885), which includes beautiful woodwork and a door carved by the woodcarver Pierre-Louis David, father of the famous Angevin sculptor of the same name, known as David d'Angers. Today, the office of the director, other working offices, the library and part of the reserves are housed in this building.

Arboretum Site

The site of the Gaston-Allard Arboretum houses mostly herbarium collections, in the residence of Gaston Allard (1838–1918). Allard, an Angevin botanist, started the plantations around his beautiful mansion of the Maulévrie in 1863. The creation of the Arboretum dates back to 1882^[25]. In 1916, Allard donated his Arboretum to the Institut Pasteur. In 1959, the town of Angers bought back the Gaston-Allard Arboretum from the Institut Pasteur. The site also hosts the Society for Scientific Studies of Anjou and the Society of Horticulture of Angers and Maine-et-Loire.

Museum life

A museum is not composed only of showcases and visitors: there is at the Muséum d'Angers a dynamics often unknown to the public.

The welcome team is the most visible face for visitors. Responsible for ticket sale, surveillance of exhibition rooms, monitoring of exhibits, and visitor safety, welcome agents are the hinge between the public and other professionals behind the scenes of the museum.

The curators are responsible for the preservation and management of the collections as well as for the setting up of permanent and temporary exhibitions. The laboratory , with its taxidermist-restorer , is equipped for the preparation of specimens dedicated to exhibitions, conservation or even research . A technical team can intervene for the manufacture of showcases, shelves, storage, transport, etc. From time to time, the Museum's collections are enriched by donations from individuals or institutions seeking long-term conservation of their collections, which are often carefully collected throughout a lifetime, and it is up to these professionals to take Decision whether to accept them or not, to restore them or not, to expose them or not.

The collections of the Muséum d'Angers are constantly in demand by researchers, trainees, students, teachers. The museum welcomes also volunteers and temporary staff to work on particular points of its collections. These are either scientists or amateurs specialized in particular fields, for example, beetles, paleobotany or malacology. Proofing, inventory and digitization campaigns are underway, particularly in the fields of herbaria, entomology and malacology. Loans of specimens for exhibitions, research or teaching are also regular.

The scientific library contains approximately 6,000 documents (distributed on the central site and the site of the Arboretum) for the disciplines related to the collections.

The mediation team organizes workshops and guided tours for school groups, families and the general public, using high-quality teaching materials (including a variety of animal skull models, educational games and thematic publications). As the Muséum d'Angers is part of an environmental education programme, themes and pedagogical cards adapted to all school grades are available for teachers. An activities programme for the young is offered, especially during school holidays. Other activities of scientific and cultural mediation are organized, including animations, conferences and even artistic events.

Finally, the Muséum d'Angers participates every year in international cultural events such as the European Heritage Days and the European Night of Museums.

Visitors

Chiffres de fréquentation du muséum (2001–2014)^[2]

2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
11,410	16,976	15,235	15,400	13,887	11,295	14,553	15,550	16,025	17,068	13,751	18,838	17,448	24,432

Exhibitions

In 2016 and 2017 the Muséum d'Angers set up the exhibition " Drôles d'Oiseaux ".

In 2008 the Muséum created an exhibition about the geology of Anjou called " L'Anjou sous nos pieds ".

The year 2007 was an occasion to celebrate the tricentennial of Swedish naturalist Carl von Linné.

In 1990 the Muséum created the exhibition " Roc-en-Pail : 50 000 ans de Préhistoire angevine "^[26] presenting results from Michel Gruet's archaeological excavations at Roc-en-Pail. Part of this exhibition is still visible in the permanent exhibition of the Muséum d'Angers.

Directors

Muséum

1. Joseph-Étienne Renou, 1798–1809
   open to the public 1801
2. Toussaint Bastard, 1809–1816 ^a
   - Toussaint Grille, June–October 1816 (par intérim)
3. François Richard de Tussac, 1816–1822 ^a
   - Guilloteau, directeur de facto, 1809–1821
   - Desvaux, director de facto, 1821
4. Auguste Nicaise Desvaux, 1822–1838 ^a
5. Alexandre Boreau, 1838–1875 ^a
6. Émile Lieutaud, 1875–1881 (1^e fois) ^a
   - Deloche, officieusement directeur, 1875–1881
7. Édouard Louis Trouessart, 1881–1885
8. Émile Lieutaud, 1885–1895 (2^e fois) ^b
9. Georges Bouvet, 1895–1929 ^{a, b, c}
10. Olivier Couffon, 1929–1937 ^b
11. Joseph Péneau, 1937–1944 ^b
12. Philippe Maury, 1944–1976 ^{d, e}
13. Michel Gruet, 1976–1990 ^e
    - Catherine Lesseur, 1990–1993 (par intérim)
14. Robert Jullien, 1993–2000
15. Vincent Dennys, 2001–2015
    - Benoît Mellier, January–December 2016 (par intérim)
16. Anne Esnault, depuis 2017
    merger with Musées d'Angers in 2017

Musée Botanique

1. Albert Gaillard, 1898–1903
2. Georges Bouvet, 1904–1929 ^c
3. Ernest Préaubert, 1930–1933
4. Georges Bioret, 1934–1953
5. Robert Corillion, 1953–1956 (1^e fois)
6. Philippe Maury, 1957–1976 ^d
7. Robert Corillion, 1977–1988 (2^e fois)
8. Denise Moreau, 1988–2010
   merger with the Muséum in 2005

^a at the same time Director of the Jardin des plantes d'Angers
^b at the same time Director of the Musée Paléontologique (créé 1885)
^c Georges Bouvet was at the same time Director of the Muséum and of the Musée Paléontologique (1895–1929), Director of the Jardin des plantes (1895–1929) and Director of the Musée Botanique (1904–1929)
^d Philippe Maury was at the same time Director of both Musées Paléontologique and Zoologique (established 1958) and Director of the Musée Botanique
^e Director of both Musées Paléontologique and Zoologique, reunited in 1990

Image Galery

Collections vitrines Collections réserves (herbiers) Collections réserves (entomo) Collections réserves (oiseaux) Sale Abot Sale de paléontologie Metaxyterium Okapi Coin de primatologie

Notes and references

See also

Related articles

• List of museums in Maine-et-Loire
• List of natural history museums

External links

• Official site
• Muséum des Sciences Naturelles – Angers
• Les Musées d'Angers
• Le Muséum d'Histoire naturelle d'Angers
• Présentation du muséum d'Histoire Naturelle d'Angers

Coordinates: 47°28′25″N 0°32′47″W / 47.47361°N 0.54639°W / 47.47361; -0.54639