the National Maritime Museum, Paris
Above, "Sceneftom the Battle ojTrafalgar, "by Auguste Mayer (1805-1890), waspainted in 1836 as one ofsix canvases depicting the battle of the Bucentaure against five English vessels. Oil on canvas, 162 x 105 cm (64 x 41 inches) Below, the V ill e de Paris silver and steel model was crafted by a silversmith and may have been a gift to Napoleon !. H eight: 34 cm (13 inches)
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ing. C harles X signed the official act fo r the fo unding of the M usee de la Ma rine in D ecember 1827 . T he "Musee D auphin," nam ed for his so n, was established at the Louvre with the intent o f making th e royal collectio ns access ibl e to the general public. T he inspector general of the Navy, H enri Louis Duham el du Mo nceau (1700-1 782), had al ready installed his own collectio n of model ships and dockyard machinery there in 1748 to be used in the instructio n of students at the School of Naval Architecmre, whi ch he had established a few yea rs ea rli er. A number of o th er coll ecti o ns we re added, so me fro m the Navy itself, o thers fro m the dockyards at Brest, Rochefo rt and Toulo n, where models of vessels had been p roduced prio r to construction of the actual ships. Whi le the m useum was ini tia.lly devoted enri rely to the navy, arti facts fro m voyages of scientific explo rati o n we re also incl ud ed from abo ut 1830, by which time the instimrion was called rh e M usee Naval. As of 1836 the coll ectio n was exten ded
SEA HISTORY 100, SPRING 2002
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