Léon-Eugène Méhédin (21 February 1828, L'Aigle – 4 March 1905, Bonsecours) was a French

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

, architect and photographer. Méhédin's was a fervent Bonapartist and his career was greatly facilitated when he erected two triumphal arches in L'Aigle in 1851 to celebrate

Napoléon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...

's French coup of that year. In 1855, he designed Civitavecchia's train station and went on a mission of photo reconnaissance to the Crimean War with Jean-Charles Langlois. In 1859, he drew a portrait of Napoleon III. He compiled an archaeological album on Egypt. In 1865, he photographed the ruins of Xochicalco for the Scientific Commission of Mexico in Paris. He also made a papier-mâché cast of a planned Luxor Obelisk for the Exposition Universelle of 1867 which never came to be when Emperor

Maximilian I of Mexico Maximilian I (german: Ferdinand Maximilian Josef Maria von Habsburg-Lothringen, link=no, es, Fernando Maximiliano José María de Habsburgo-Lorena, link=no; 6 July 1832 – 19 June 1867) was an Austrian archduke who reigned as the only Emperor ...

fell in 1867. Some of his collections lay in the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle de Rouen and others are at the City Library of the same city.

Honors

* Officer of the Imperial Order of Medjidie (1862) * Officer of the Order of Guadalajara (1866) * Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur (1867) * Knight of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (1867)

Works

* ''Campagne d’Italie en 1859: vues de Magenta, Milan, Melegnano, Dezensano, Valeggio, Villafranca et du pont de Buffalora'', .l.s.n. 1859. * ''Description de l’Égypte, commencée sous les auspices de Napoléon I^er, continuée par ordre de Napoléon III'', Paris, Firmin-Didot, 1859. * ''Divinité mythique de la mort, à laquelle on offrait les victimes humaines par plusieurs milliers à la fois dans les rites religieux de l’antiquité mexicaine'', Paris, Lainé et Havard, 1867. * ''Projet de fêtes publiques à Paris'', Paris, Bailly, Divry & Cie, 1852. * ''Souvenirs de la guerre de Crimée: 29 photographies de Charles Langlois et Léon Méhédin, entre 1855–1856'', .l.s.n. 1856.

Collections

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art ...

* Musée de l'Armée *

Bibliothèque nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...

Exhibitions

* Bibliothèque municipale de

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...

, 1992

References

* Roger Biot, ''Fameux Rouennais, Rouennais fameux'', PTC,

, 2005 * Frédéric Gerber, ''Un Américaniste inconnu, Léon Méhédin: 1828–1905'', Paris, DEA, 1991 * Frédéric Gerber, Christian Nicaise, Christian Robichon, ''Un aventurier du Second Empire: Léon Méhédin 1828–1905'', Bibliothèque municipale de Rouen, 1992, 263 p. __NOTOC__ {{DEFAULTSORT:Mehedin, Leon-Eugene French archaeologists 19th-century French architects 19th-century French photographers Pioneers of photography People from Orne 1828 births 1905 deaths Knights of the Legion of Honour Knights of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus