Lessons for Today from an Early Outreach Effort in Oceanography: The 1884 Exposition of the Travailleur and the Talisman as Presented by the Press

Abstract

AbstractThe campaigns of the Travailleur and the Talisman (1880–1883) were the first French expeditions to explore the deep sea. In early 1884, the campaign participants mounted a temporary exhibition in the Paris Natural History Museum displaying specimens collected and the equipment used. The exhibition included not only fantastic creatures but also “hands‐on” items, such as water samplers and sounders that could be touched, and microscopes to examine sediment samples. It was an enormous success with the public. The success was probably partly due to the fact the main organizer, Alphonse Milne Edwards, was somewhat of a media figure of the time. Complaints that the exhibition space was too small for all the objects exhibited and the crowds attracted were explained by a claim that it was conceived to show expedition results to funding agencies and the scientific community; the crowds were unexpected. However, a review of the press coverage suggests that the organizers used the media very skillfully to promote it. Here the Exposition of the Travailleur and Talisman is presented as described through the press coverage to underline lessons for outreach today from this effort 136 yr ago.