With the Académie des Sciences in 2013-2014

PROmOtinG Science teAchinG

louis Pasteur, memory of the world

Because of the importance of Louis Pasteur’s bequest (in science and medicine),

the Académie des sciences and Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) have filed an

application for the inscription of its archives in the memory of the World Programme

created in 1992 by UneScO. the documents concerned range over a period of time of

almost fifty years (1838 -1895):

his training period (1838-1849): documents from school (exercise books, notes

and class work); course notes taken as a student at the école normale Supérieure,

then as an agrégé-préparateur there; lessons taught at Lycée Louis-le-Grand and

école normale Supérieure;

his teaching activities (1849-1857): lessons in chemistry, geology and physics in Strasbourg, Lille and Paris;

his laboratory records and various notebooks (1848-1877): experiments relating to crystallography and molecular dissymmetry,

experiments on fermentation, notebooks on wine,

Cholera Commission

, research investigations on the silkworm, research on beer,

research on virulent diseases (anthrax, rabies, vaccination);

work and research notes: lectures, conferences, articles;

his correspondence (1840-1887);

his notes, reports and other presentations before the Académie, in particular on his main discoveries.

An inventory of Louis Pasteur’s archives held by the Académie des sciences has been made and these have been digitised in 2014. they

shall be fully available for consultation on the website of the Académie in the course of 2015. As for the outcome of the application to the

memory of the World Programme, it shall be known in summer 2015.

museums with an educational purpose

louis Pasteur’s house

Louis Pasteur’s (1822-1895), family house, located in Arbois in the department

of Jura, is a memorial site, both as a typical example of a 19

Century bourgeois

residence and because of its laboratory, where Pasteur used to work in the

summer, and where all his instruments have been kept. Here, in particular, did

his experiments definitely put an end to the theory of spontaneous generation.

Owned by the Académie des Sciences since 1991, Louis Pasteur’s house,

which received the label

Maisons des illustres

[Houses of the Illustrious] from

the Ministry of Culture and Communications in 2011, is open for visits all

year long and hosts events, particularly intended for school audiences. On 21

November 2013, the Académie des Sciences created, with the Conseil général

du Jura [Departmental Council of Jura] and the communes of Arbois and Dole,

the Établissement public de coopération culturelle [Public Institution for Cultural Cooperation, EPCC]

Terre de Louis Pasteur

. The

house of Pasteur in Arbois, which is a central part of it, has been at the disposal of this EPCC since July 2014. As for the Académie

des Sciences it has refocused its activity on Louis Pasteur’s historic vineyard, near Arbois. It will host, from 2015, a major research

programme devoted to vine wood diseases, which affect about 13% of French vineyards.