Georges-Henri Rivière (1897–1985) was a French

museologist Museology or museum studies is the study of museums. It explores the history of museums and their role in society, as well as the activities they engage in, including curating, preservation, public programming, and education. Terminology The w ...

, and

innovator Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction of new goods or services or improvement in offering goods or services. ISO TC 279 in the standard ISO 56000:2020 defines innovation as "a new or changed entity ...

of modern French

ethnographic Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

museology Museology or museum studies is the study of museums. It explores the history of museums and their role in society, as well as the activities they engage in, including curating, preservation, public programming, and education. Terminology The w ...

practices.

Biography

Rivière studied

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

until 1925, when he began

museum studies Museology or museum studies is the study of museums. It explores the history of museums and their role in society, as well as the activities they engage in, including curating, preservation, public programming, and education. Terminology The w ...

at the

École du Louvre The École du Louvre is an institution of higher education and grande école located in the Aile de Flore of the Louvre Palace in Paris, France. It is dedicated to the study of archaeology, art history, anthropology and epigraphy. Admission is ...

from which he graduated in 1928. During the following years, he cared for the D. David-Weill collection, which included Chinese porcelains, Greek and Roman antiquities, and European decorative arts and paintings. In 1928, Rivière curated his first show of ancient American art at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and joined

Paul Rivet Paul Rivet (7 May 1876, Wasigny, Ardennes – 21 March 1958) was a French ethnologist known for founding the Musée de l'Homme in 1937. In his professional work, Rivet is known for his theory that South America was originally populated in p ...

as his vice-director to begin the renovation of the dusty Musée du Trocadéro, which was reintroduced to the public as a fully modernized

Musée de l'Homme The Musée de l'Homme ( French, "Museum of Mankind" or "Museum of Humanity") is an anthropology museum in Paris, France. It was established in 1937 by Paul Rivet for the 1937 ''Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne' ...

in 1938. In 1929 and 1930, Rivière was on the editorial board of ''

Documents A document is a writing, written, drawing, drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation of nonfiction, non-fictional, as well as fictional, content. The word originates from the Latin ''Documentum'', w ...

'', to which he also contributed articles, such as “The Ethnographical museum of the Trocadéro" (1929, issue 1), as well as chronicles on popular culture such as “Religion and ‘Folies-Bergère’” (1930, issue 4), and profiles on jazz musicians such as

Eddie South Edward Otha South (November 27, 1904 – April 25, 1962) was an American jazz violinist. Biography South studied classical music in Budapest, Paris, and Chicago. He turned to jazz because, as a Black musician, there was no room for him in class ...

and Hayman Swayze. During the thirties, Rivière financed ambitious research projects such as the Dakar-Djibouti mission, headed by

Marcel Griaule Marcel Griaule (16 May 1898 – 23 February 1956) was a French author and anthropologist known for his studies of the Dogon people of West Africa, and for pioneering ethnographic field studies in France. He worked together with Germaine Die ...

, and the Sahara-Soudan mission, which provided in-depth research and enough material for over seventy ethnographic exhibitions between 1928 and 1937. That year, he launched the Musée National des Arts et Traditions Populaires, also based on the Trocadéro museum's ethnographic collections. Oriented toward public education, its collection and exhibitions programme first focused on popular traditional art forms before dedicating itself to science and research with the introduction of the Centre d'Ethnologie Française, inaugurated shortly after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Between 1948 and 1965, Georges-Henri Rivière served as the first acting director of ICOM, the

International Council of Museums The International Council of Museums (ICOM) is a non-governmental organisation dedicated to museums, maintaining formal relations with UNESCO and having a consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Founded in 1946, I ...

, to which he returned as Permanent Advisor in 1968. Widely credited for introducing the concept of the

ecomuseum An ecomuseum is a museum focused on the identity of a place, largely based on local participation and aiming to enhance the welfare and development of local community, local communities. Ecomuseums originated in France, the concept being develope ...

, which attempts to portray civilizations in their natural environments, he was one of the most highly esteemed museological entrepreneurs in modern France. The review ''Museum'' dedicated an entire issue to ecomuseums (No. 148, 1985), and included an article by Georges-Henri Rivière titled, "The ecomuseum, an evolutive definition". '' La muséologie selon Georges-Henri Rivière'', was published posthumously in 1989.

Works

* ''La muséologie selon Georges-Henri Rivière'' (1989)

Articles

* Isac Chiva, ''George-Henri Rivière: un demi-siècle d'ethnologie de la France'', Terrain, Numéro 5 — Identité culturelle et appartenance régionale (Octobre 1985), put online 17 July 200

(in French)

Sources

French Ministry of Culture

(in French) * Definition of the ecomuseum according to Georges-Henri Rivière (197

(in French)

External links

Musée du Quai Branly

Musée national des Arts et Traditions Populaires
(in French) {{DEFAULTSORT:Riviere, Georges-Henri 1897 births 1985 deaths French curators International Council of Museums Museologists École du Louvre alumni