IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0120 MSS.1998-1999, 7904
Held at: Wellcome Library
Title: Cuvier, Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert de (1769-1832)
Date(s): 1798-1832
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 7 items
Name of creator(s): Cuvier | Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert de | 1769-1832 | paleontologist and anatomist
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Born in Montbéliard, in Burgundy, 1769; Went to Caroline University, near Stuttgart, Germany, to study administrative, juridical, and economic sciences, 1784. Also studied natural history and comparative anatomy. Education complete, he served as a tutor for a French family in 1788; Moved to Paris in 1795 where he was invited by French naturalist Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire to study and work at the newly reorganized Museum of Natural History. Immediately appointed Professor of Zoology and Assistant Professor of Animal Anatomy. Became Professor at the Collège de France in 1800; Broke with doctrine that all life could be organized into a continuous series beginning with the simplest organism and ending with humans in favour of the idea that four basic body plans existed in the animal world: the Vertebrata, Articulata, Radiata, and Mollusca; his 1817 Le Regne Animal dominated natural history in England and France until the publication in 1859 of On the Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin. Also served in other public service positions: Councillor of State in 1814 and Head of the Interior Department of the Council of State, 1819.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Manuscript papers on 'académies d'Italie'; a translation of a paper by Georges Léopold Cuvier and autograph letters signed by Cuvier to correspondents including: Arsène Thiebaut de Berneaud (1777-1850), agriculturalist, secretary of the Société Linnéenne de Paris (no.19); Jean Pierre Casimir, Baron de Puymaurin (1757-1841), administrator, politician and author of scientific treatises, son of the administrator and painter N.J. de Marcassus Puymaurin (1718-1791) geologist and director of the Dictionnaire universel (no.23); Charles Marie Dessalines d'Orbigny (1806-1876) (no.24); the mineralogist Jean Jacques Nicolas Huot (1790-1849) (no.26); the government minister Count André Jean Chabrol de Cronsul (1771-1836) (no.33); the archaeologist and writer Jacques Crèvecoeur de. Boucher de Perthes (1788-1868) (no.36); Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1805-1861), Zoologist (no.44) 48 Volume comprising 2 letters from Cuvier and notes by Cuvier 49-107 Notes, certificates, petitions etc signed or endorsed by Cuvier including pension request by M. Des Langeac, 14 July 1815 (no.55), 5 diplomas from the Commission de l'Instruction Publique(nos.57, 59, 62-64), various disconnected notes by Cuvier (some dated) (nos.70-90), notes by Cuvier with 2 pecil sketches of mollusques (no.100), 4 students entrance cards to the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle au Jardin du Roi (signed by Cuvier) (nos.75, 96-98), plans by Cuvier of dissection rooms (no.99) 108 Letters to Cuvier J L Fouimer, 16 July 1829 109-111 Letters by member of Cuvier's family (not to Cuvier) Mme. Anne Cuvier: Mme. Delpech, 1 June 1832 (no.109) M. Ampière de L'Academie des Sciences, n.d. (no.110) Sophie Duvanul (Cuvier's daughter) M. le Préfect, 20 June 1820(no.111) Printed items: 'Memoir of Baron Cuvier' from The London Review and Literary and Scientific Gazette(no.112), extract of an obituary of Cuvier(no.113), cover (edge has been cut off) of a publication, reprinted by Cuvier's students in his honour(no.114).
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
MS.7904 arranged chronologically, in sections.
Conditions governing access:
The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Photocopies/photographs/microfilm are supplied for private research only at the Archivist's discretion. Please note that material may be unsuitable for copying on conservation grounds, and that photographs cannot be photocopied in any circumstances. Readers are restricted to 100 photocopies in twelve months. Researchers who wish to publish material must seek copyright permission from the copyright owner.
Finding aids:
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Received in several accessions between 1919 and 1935.
ALLIED MATERIALS
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Archivist's note: Copied from the Wellcome Library catalogue by Sarah Drewery.
Date(s) of descriptions: Feb 2009