Tracing the Public of the First Parisian Library for Art and Archaeology: On the Readership at Doucet’s Library, 1910-1914

In 1908, the fashion designer and collector Jacques Doucet inaugurated in Paris the Library of Art and Archaeology, which was founded on his private initiative. Given in 1918 to the University of Paris, it forms the historical core of the current library of the Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art (INHA). As part of a research program dedicated to this first major art history library, the INHA has addressed the issue of readers from the archives, in particular the readers' file for the period 1910 to 1914.

Containing nearly 1,500 individual files and data such as names, dates of attendance, but also sometimes address, profession and institutional affiliation, this register enables us to document the diverse public attending this library. Geolocation data makes it possible to assess certain aspects of the readers' socio-economic background and the positioning of this scholarly network in the urban infrastructure (fig. 1). The network analysis reveals links between the Library and other institutions around which the practice of art history was articulated (museums, archaeological institutes, libraries, learned societies, decorative arts, etc.) (fig. 2). Through a quantitative approach but also a closer prosopographical study of readers, my paper will trace the role played by the library at a time when art history was becoming a university discipline in its own right.