Fondation Napoléon

The Fondation Napoléon (English: Napoleon Foundation) is a registered French non-profit organization which was established on 12 November 1987. It supports academic research and public understanding of the First French Empire and the Second French Empire.

Fondation Napoléon

Formation	12 November 1987; 37 years ago (1987-11-12)
Headquarters	7 Rue Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, 75005, Paris, France
President	Victor-André Masséna
Vice President	Nicolas Walewski
Website	https://fondationnapoleon.org/

The organization’s scope also encompasses the periods of the French Directory and the Consulate, during which Napoleon Bonaparte served as First Consul following the Coup of 18 Brumaire.

Mission and activities

The Fondation Napoléon supports research on the history of the First French Empire and Second French Empire by awarding six annual research grants to French and international PhD candidates. It also awards an annual history prize for works related to the two French empires. Additionally, the foundation supports academic conferences, bicentennial and sesquicentennial commemorations, Napoleonic book publishing, and the production of exhibition catalogues.^[1]

Saving Longwood, Napoleon's house on St. Helena

The foundation launched an international appeal to save Napoleon's Longwood house on the island of St Helena in December 2010.^[2] The funds collected were intended to finance the restoration of the buildings in which Napoleon and his entourage had lived in exile on St. Helena from 1815 to 1821. The appeal was supported by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.^[3]

Opposition to the removal of the statue of Napoleon in Rouen

In September 2020, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, the mayor of Rouen, sought to replace the statue of Napoleon with a statue or work of art dedicated to the recently deceased feminist Gisèle Halimi, a proposal that Fondation Napoléon opposed.^[4] Later, in December 2021, the statue was registered as a monument historique (English: historic monument).^[5]

Publication of the General Correspondence of Napoleon Bonaparte

In 2002, the Foundation launched a project in partnership with the French Archives Nationales, the French Archives du Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, and with the support of the Fondation La Poste, to publish the most complete version of the General Correspondence of Napoleon I. In November 2011, Editions Fayard published Volume 8, which contains letters from the Peninsular War in 1808. The project was completed in 2018 with the publication of the fifteenth and final volume.^[6]

From 2020 to 2023, the Foundation digitized the fifteen volumes, alongside previously unpublished letters, and made them available to view online. The digital collection contains more than 40,000 letters.^[6][7]

Libraries, websites and e-review

Libraries

• The Napoleonic Digital Library^[8] provides downloadable e-texts (books, offprints, etc.) from 2010.
• The Fondation Napoléon's library, the Bibliothèque Martial-Lapeyre, is open to the general public.^[9]

Websites

• napoleon.org^[10] was founded in 1996.
• Napoleonica.org^[11] was founded in 1999.

E-review

• Napoleonica La Revue^[12] (founded in 2008) is a bilingual international peer-reviewed periodical of articles on the two Napoleonic empires.

Art and historical memorabilia collection

The Fondation Napoléon organizes exhibitions showcasing its collection of fine art and historical memorabilia, including in Paris (2004), São Paulo, Brazil (2003), Monterrey, Mexico (2005), Minden, Germany (2006), and loans items from the collection to exhibitions worldwide.

Leadership

President: Victor-André Masséna, Prince d’Essling (since 13 December 2005).^[13]

Vice President: Count Nicolas Walewski.^[13]