Building the collections of the Musée académique de Genève: the contribution from Odessa of Léonard Revilliod

Abstract

The attempt to found a museum in Geneva faced many challenges, but the nature of the city also provided some unusual opportunities. Against a background of the French Revolution, political upheaval, war and the creation of a new Swiss state, a few members of the academic and scientific community, led by Henri Boissier and Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle, created an institution in 1818 that was to become famous. Harnessing the patriotism of the population, the presence of eminent scientists, the interest of wealthy patrons, and local and international networks, they began to build a collection. The aim was to establish an educational resource, both for the formal teaching at the Académie de Genève and for public instruction. To attract the public, the donation of spectacular objects was of great help, and many individuals and institutions gave specimens in an early form of crowdsourcing. The academic ambitions required a more systematic effort and detailed collection data to augment the value of the specimens. To achieve this, the friendship and kinship networks of Geneva were brought into play; a comparison of the letters from the museum administration preserved by Léonard Revilliod (1786–1867) and entries in the museum's acquisition register provides a case study of how this interaction worked in practice.