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When a Société de Géographie was first mooted on the 19 July 1821, with the

intention of creating a practical and socially valuable geography, the first task of its founders was not to call a public meeting, but to appoint five of their number to write a constitution.®^ The society constitution’s function was two-fold: it had to provide an open forum where everyone could exercise the right to emulate (and to contribute towards the progress of their science) and had to control the composition of its membership to ensure that harmony reigned in their conception of what that "progress" involved.®® The regulations drawn up by

®^ Maurice Agulhon, Le Cercie dans la France Bourgeoise, 1810-1848: étude

d'une mutation de sociabilité (Paris: Armand Colin, 1977) uses the term "bourgeois" to connote a "middle class", neither aristocratic nor "popular". However, since members of both aristocratic families and artisan clans belonged

to the societies, it is difficult to accept this definition. Furthermore, as seen

above, society members differentiated between themselves and others on the grounds of specific differences of taste or education rather than by social "class".

®® Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF), Cartes et Pians (CP): Société de

Géographie (SG), Colis n° 26 (3748), 1-3.

®® Importantly, this did not include the exclusion of women: a motion for the inclusion of women members, proposed in February 1823 by Barbié du Bocage,

Langlès, Walckenaer, J-D. Barbié du Bocage, Fourier and de Rosse! (ail

respected members of the Institut de France) for the Society of Geography

commenced by laying out the object of the society's efforts and the means by which they could provoke emulation of its goals:

The society is set up to work towards the progress of geography; it will have voyages undertaken in new and unknown lands; it will propose and judge prizes; it will correspond with learned societies, voyagers and geographers; it wiil publish unedited manuscripts ... and wiil have maps engraved.^

Sharing knowledge, judging the quality of current research, and directing the ways in which that research was conducted, the architects of the new Society believed that it couid wield a tremendous influence on the development of geography as a useful science.

was debated and carried [Bulletin de la Société de Géographie, (Paris: Éverat,

1822), vol. I, p. 165]. The absence of female members was not an expression of

the members' misogyny. The makeup of the society's membership was

circumscribed, not by gender, but by professional utility: the society's masculine complexion reflected the professions of map-making and geography, navigation

and exploration. Nevertheless, while nothing in the sociability of the

institutionalised public sphere forbade the membership of women, the belief that their "natural" vocation was to care for their children meant that their contribution to civil society was effectively limited to participation in societies such as the Société de la Charité Maternelle. These associations, too, took an institutionalised form - in correspondence with organised religion as well as their masculine equivalents - and policed their own emulative order, organising educational programmes for young women under the watchful surveillance of their central commissions. These societies were public, even if they were not "published": on the "silence" of these associations compared to their male counterparts, see Catherine Duprat, "La Silence des Femmes: Associations féminines du premier XIXe siècle", in Alain Corbin, Jacqueline Lalouette & Michè

Riot-Sarcey (eds.). Femmes dans la Cité, 1815-1871 (Grâne: Créaphis, 1993),

pp. 79-100. The search by female societies for a "tradition" to emulate may also have been, in part, responsible for an upsurge in the veneration of Saints during the Restoration.

^ The society constitution can be found in Bulletin de la Société de Géographie,

vol. I, pp. 3-8. Article 1 states "The Society is instituted to contribute to the progress of Geography; it wiil have voyages undertaken in unknown countries; it

will propose and award prizes, establish correspondence with sociétés savantes,

voyagers and geographers; published unedited accounts as well as finished works, and will have maps engraved."

An eighteenth-century precursor to the Société de Géographie, proposed by Jean-Nlcolas Buache (a Ministry of Foreign Affairs geographer), had already envisioned the collaboration of mapmakers to better their craft.^® The 1821 Society - also championed by a Ministry of Foreign Affairs geographer, Jean- Denis Barbié du Bocage - was not limited like its predecessor to a discussion of drafting techniques or cartographic minutiae. It believed that perfection of the science of geography was intimately linked to the advancement of all other sciences, to the progress of civilisation and the prosperity of commerce and industry^®: it was progressive, looking to unite the efforts of mapmakers and explorers; it was expansionist, looking to map a new science of geography by

expanding its frontiers. Barbie du Bocage's involvement was not incidental:

working in the Napoleonic administration had forced him to accept a constantly shifting geographical world. The reputation of the Foreign Affairs geographer had

been made by his map-book for the Abbé Barthélemy's popular Le Voyage du

jeune Anaroharsis, an account of life in ancient Greece. His initial assignment in the Ministry had been to catalogue the collection left to the department by his deceased mentor, d'Anville (famous for his renderings of Greece under Roman occupation). Yet, Barbié du Bocage's recall to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1803 was to work on a modern geography of movement and change.®^ Static maps, frozen in time and space, no longer satisfied the need of a Europe drawn and redrawn by Imperial armies.®®

Dominique Lejeune, Les Sociétés de géographie en France et l'expansion

coloniale au XIXe siècle (Paris: Albin Michel, 1993), p. 21; Alfred Fierro, La Société de Géographie, 1821-1846 [\/: Hautes Études Médiévales et Modernes: 52] (Geneva: Droz & Paris: H. Champion, 1983), pp. 4-5.

®® BNF CP SG Colis n° 26 (3750).

For an outline of Barbié du Bocage's career, see his various necrologies:

□acier. Notice Historique sur ia Vie et les Ouvrages de M. Barbié du Bocage, lue

dans ia séance publique de l'institut Royale de France, 28 juillet 1826 [extrait du Moniteur du 18 août 1826] (Paris: veuve Agasse, 1826); La Renaudière, "Éloge

de M. Barbié du Bocage", Bulletin de la Société de Géographie (Paris: Arthus

Bertrand, 1826), vol. VI, pp. 251-260.

®® Barbié du Bocage, we are told, resisted this change. According to Lacour- Gayet, he was a "convinced pacifist" frustrated that Napoleon's conquests had

him constantly redrawing the map of Europe: see G. Lacour-Gayet, Talleyrand

The particular conditions created by Napoleonic expansion make it unsurprising that, in general, government officials dominated the Society registers: in all, 73%

of the members could claim to be fonctionnaires of some description, including

army and naval officers, academicians, and university professors; 36 of the 217

initial members worked in ministry bureaux in Paris.^® Thus, the Société de

Géographie, no less than the S.E.I.N. was formed in the interaction of the

administrative with the practical world. The S.E.I.N. needed ministerial protection

to guarantee the sanctity of intellectual property; it operated alongside the ministries in moulding French industrial policy to its vision of "progress". The Society of Geography worked even more directly with the ministries, gaining access to their store of important cartographic material^ and exploiting their

regular communication routes across the globe.^^ While friends of friends

continued to do errands, delivering pamphlets and instructions to out-of-town correspondents, the bulk of the Society’s business was transacted via diplomatic channeis. The society’s initial list of contacts therefore focused not only on

"friends of science" but on fonctionnaires at home and abroad.^^

Though this list of contacts was extensive^, and the Society enjoyed a healthy membership rate in the first years of its existence, its constitution ensured a

Fierro, La Société de Géographie, pp. 21,271 (table).

^ See the Society’s letter to the Minister of War, 26 June 1824, asking for maps

published by the Ministry of W ar to add to their library: BNF CP SG Colis n° 6 bis

(2020). Another ietter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, 12 August 1824, tells of their gift from the Ministry of W ar and asks that Foreign Affairs, too, should donate its geographical productions: ibid. (2022). A final letter to the Minister of the Marine, 12 August 1824, asks for the maps published by the Ministry of the Marine: ibid. (2023).

BNF CP SG Coiis n° 18 (2921) contains the Society of Geography's decision to solicit this aid in transmitting their correspondence from the ministries of Marine and Foreign Affairs. A letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Society of Geography, 6 June 1822 [ibid. (2906)] agreed to their request, and offered to recommend their travellers to French diplomatic personnel. The secretary of the French mission to the United States, Bresson, proved of particular value as a correspondent: ibid. (2916 & 2917).

Bulletin de la Société de Géographie, vol. I, p. 29-30.

^ The Section de Correspondance distributed circulars inside journals, including

socially and intellectually "elitist" composition.^ Article 6 of Section 2 prescribed an annual membership subscription of 36 francs, as well as an up-front levy of 25 francs; furthermore, applicants had to secure the nomination of two existing members and approval by the Central Commission."^ Once accepted, however, membership also had its rewards: one could use the society library (stocked mainly with unpublished manuscripts unavailable elsewhere), and express one’s voix consultative at the fortnightly discussions of geographical nouveautés in the

Central Commission. Eventually, one could aspire to election to one of the

sections of the Central Commission (publication, correspondence and finance) and translate one’s activity as an ordinary member into a more involved administrative role."^ Ensuring that those with ambition could only succeed by joining the society and emulating the dedication of Central Commissioners, the society formed a class of correspondents, not formally envisioned in the constitution, but which allowed it to benefit from the work of non-adherents as well as to influence the direction of their studies.^^

In this vein, the Société de Géographie made an express commitment to ignore

national rivalries, calling not only on Frenchmen journeying or living abroad, but also on foreigners (or, more usually, fellow Europeans) to contribute to their

proceedings.^ The society was to function as a vast collaborative project; its

members had to ensure that "all enlightened men can contribute by their support, their subscription or by their scientific communications".'^® Indeed, working with

^ Initially there were 217 members, which increased to 300 by 1828-9: for a

breakdown of membership, see Lejeune, Les Sociétés de géographie en France,

p. 25.

^ Bulletin de la Société de Géographie, vol. I, p. 4.

^ The Central Commission was divided into sections purely to ensure that all

members would be required to take an active role: BNF CP SG Colis n° 26

(3748), 5.

See, for example, the despatch of a circulaire de correspondant to Adrien

Partarieux, a "man of color" en route to Sénégal asked to deliver letters to

different people in that part of Africa: Bulletin de la Société de Géographie, vol. I,

p. 71.

^ "Circulaire Imprimée datée de 1822, appellant à adhérer à la Société de

Géographie", BNF CP SG Coiis n° 6 bis (2013).

BNF CP SG Colis n° 18 (2921), 50. This claim to internationalism did not

prevent a Société de Géographie deputation from presenting the Dauphin with

the first volume of their Recueil de Voyages et de Mémoires and expressing their

non-affiliated geographers was a necessity: the society’s finances did not stretch

to financing its own voyages of discovery.®® It looked instead to direct the

science more generally, while protecting against the "vain impulses" and "individual inspiration" that uninitiated voyagers often manifested in their choice of research.®^ Establishing links both institutionally - with journals of all sorts, with learned, evangelical and commercial societies and with military, political and commercial establishments - and individually - drawing up lists of unresolved geographical questions, to be presented to whosoever might answer them, and offering modest prizes on domestic and international topics - the purpose of its correspondence was not only to gather information, but also to "excite the interest and emulation of all friends of science and civilisation".®^ Though the Society had neither the funds to finance voyages of discovery nor to lavish large prizes on innovative young geographers, the Commission used its weakness to excite, rather than dampen, the members' enthusiasm. Anyone could serve the science of geography, whatever their level of instruction, as long as they were guided by firm principles and emulated "professional" methodology.®®

desire to extend France's honour - in collaboration with savants from across

Europe and the World - is analogous to the desire of the individual member to extend his own reputation, through collaboration in the progress of geographical science.

®° This was a very real problem: subscription - even with rapid growth to 300 members - could not hope to finance all the Society's objectives. The Society recognised that they could not fit out expeditions with only 5000 francs in the society coffers: letter, J-P. Du Gros to De Rossel, President of the Central

Commission, 25 April 1822, BNF CP SG Colis n° 19 (2927). Despite the

Society's close links to several ministries, it received only 1000 francs in government subvention per annum during the Restoration. After the Revolution of July, they renewed their claim, to the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of

Public Instruction, requesting an annual subvention of 4000 francs: BNF CP SG

Coiis n° 6 bis (2038 & 2039). A further request was addressed to the Ministry of

Commerce and Public Works at the end of 1831 : BNF CP SG Colis n° 7 (2088).

®^ "Proposition sur les moyens à donner une direction méthodique aux travaux géographiques en général, et ceux de la Société de Géographie en particulier,

lue dans la Séance du 15 février (1822) par Malte-Brun", Bulletin de la Société

de Géographie, vol. I, p. 48.

®® BNF CP SG Colis n° 18 (2921 ), 14, 50.

®® For example, an entry, in German, for the prize for a memoir establishing a "description of Europe's mountain chains" in 1824 was disqualified for revealing its author, in the cover letter, on the seal of the cover letter, and in the text of the

The Society’s first publication, the Instruction générale sur les lacunes actuelles de la Géographie et les moyens de la remplir, therefore, was drawn up to "satisfy the impatience of the public, encourage active members and excite the emulation of those who did little, in order to spread the Society name to the most faraway

nations".^ It aimed to structure correspondents’ research. Having used the

society constitution to organise a hierarchy of emulation at its centre, the Central Committee hoped to police non-adherents by delineating what had yet to be

achieved in the perfectionnement of geography. Yet, while the society was keen

to give the impression that it had identified the main gaps in geographical

knowledge - topographically and theoretically - in the Instruction Générale, the

transmission of this common agenda did not prevent the addition of supplementary questions and notes relative to the particular situation and

location of the correspondent. When the Instruction générale was transmitted by

Jaubert, a member of the Section for Correspondence, to Fontanier, a young French voyager in Tauriés, he adjoined an additional three pages of notes specifically on Persia, drawn up by his Section, and a series of questions he himself wanted answered.®® While the members of the Society were conscious of the need to apply its principles strenuously, and to protect the legitimacy of their instruction against rival programmes of geographic science, the content of the Society's own instruction was clearly suggestive, and not prescriptive.®® Aimed at policing emulative action and not at the rigorous pursuit of definable

scientific goals, the Société de Géographie avoided openly choosing between the

preoccupations of its members. While an "official" instruction presented an

overview of the basic geographical questions to be answered in any situation, their correspondents were encouraged to respond to them innovativeiy, to develop their abilities as they wished, within the confines of the Society’s instruction.

The possibility of openly challenging their collaborator’s reputations was denied to the members, not oniy by the choice of uncontroversial (and wide-ranging)

“ BNF CP SG Colis n° 18 (2921), 70

“ Ibid. (2921), 56-60. 56 II

Proposition sur les moyens à donner une direction méthodique aux travaux

géographiques ... par Malte-Brun", Bulletin de la Société de Géographie, vol. I,

basic principles to send to their correspondents, but also by making prize competitions anonymous. Nevertheless, some geographers tried to stake their claim for recognition in other ways.®^ In an arena where the society regulations made comparison of the quality of their work taboo, they sought to compete quantitatively. An anonymous letter in February 1825 argued that the society should open a register, to collect the signatures of those ordinary members regularly attending Central Commission meetings. This, the anonymous writer argued, would be a way to encourage member participatiorT I n society administration and to make the rank and file more useful.®® The "regulars" (not those who had been most eloquent or whose work was most innovative) should then be incorporated into the various sections. Routine attendance was also on the mind of the ex-Secretary-General of Commerce, Coquebert de Montbret, when he offered his resignation as vice-president on the 16 December 1824.®® Moving to the country for reasons of ill health, he could no longer attend meetings and therefore, despite his formidable reputation as a statistician, had no right to hold his position.

The Central Commission seemed content to accept that emulation should be based on documented participation and not public praise of individual production. It regularly resisted any suggestion that the Society for Geography should provide a regular vehicle for the publication of members' work (already, they

claimed, sufficiently accomplished by existing publications, such as the Annales

Martitimes, the Journal and Annales des Voyages).^ As Langlès, the Commission's Vice-President, explained, the society refused to take the position

®^ In this, the Society of Geography differed from the S.E.I.N., perhaps because

the differences between their scientific methods could be so extreme: see, for example, the overview of the different geographic metholodogies in the early

1800s in Anne Marie Claire Godlewska, Geography Unbound: French

Geographic Science from Cassini to Humboldt (Chicago: Chicago U.P., 1999), pp. 312-313. The categories of "perfection" that the geographers operated had therefore to be much less defined than those used by the oil-lamp manufacturers.

®® BNF CP SG Coiis n° 19 (3058).

®® Ibid. (3044). ®°lbid. (3039), 11.

of rédacteur and favour some of its members over the others.®^ The Bulletin de la Société de Géographie thus simply made mention of the correspondence,

objects, unedited manuscripts and published works which had been