Darwin Manuscripts : Mécanisme de la physionomie humaine, ou, Analyse électro-physiologique de l'expression des passions: Album

Duchenne, Guillaume-Benjamin, 1806-1875

Darwin Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>The <i>Mécanisme de la physionomie humaine</i> … was published by Veuve Renouard in Paris in 1862. A general edition was widely released in a bound, octavo format, this particular edition is extremely rare: according to scholars, the <i>Album</i> owned by Charles Darwin is likely to be an example of an unpublished deluxe grand-in-quarto edition that was to accompany the release of <i>Mécanisme</i> in 1862. Though Veuve Renouard circulated a notice of publication for this deluxe <i>Album</i>, this was never fulfilled and it is thought that Darwin’s copy could be a rough draft of this special edition. Previously thought to be incomplete, the re-collation of the <i>Album</i> in December 2016 found it to be intact, making it the only known complete copy in existence.</p><p>The <i>Album</i> is comprised of a series of full-sized mounted photographs that illustrate Duchenne’s electrophysiological experiments into human expression and are accompanied with printed text. Duchenne was one of the first scientists to incorporate photography into his research: he sent small electrical impulses into isolated facial muscle groups to recreate human expressions and capture them with photography. Duchenne enlisted the help of Adrien Tournachon, brother to Felix Nadar, a renowned portrait photographer of his day, with whom he took and developed over 80 glass plate negatives of various facial expressions.</p><p>It is not known how Darwin came to acquire his copy of the <i>Album</i>. Letters show that he lent it to James Crichton-Browne in 1869 and there are annotations in both their hands throughout. It is not known when the interleaving was added although it is thought to be Charles Darwin’s addition.</p><p>Rebecca Goldie, Conservation and Collection Care, Cambridge University Library<br /> Paul White, Darwin Correspondence Project</p></p>