A new digital library

9/10/25 - Internet - Charenton-le-Pont, Médiathèque du patrimoine et de la photographie - Working to promote its rich collections – already presented on our pages (see the news items) – the Médiathèque du patrimoine et de la photographie has recently launched a digital library (ill. 1). Put online in December 2024 and since regularly enriched, it offers access to a previously unavailable selection of books and periodicals relating to the many activities of the Monuments historiques department since its creation in 1830, to iconographic collections from the rare books holdings, and to a group of 173 Albums du CRMH published before 2000, reference works on traditional building techniques issued by the Centre de recherches sur les Monuments historiques since the 1950s.

As of today, the site comprises nearly 500 documents, representing tens of thousands of images, from digitisation campaigns conducted over the past ten years. Accompanying this launch is a series of “posts”, short articles written by Gabrielle Cohen and Ludivine Javelaud, former heads of the library, and Camille Duclert, deputy director of the Médiathèque. These are still few in number, but describe specific iconographic groups or major works from the holdings. Three documents are presented, taken from two of the highlighted collections: for periodicals, the journal Les Monuments historiques de la France, later Monuments historiques, published from 1936 to 1996 (now partly succeeded by Monumental), of which over 200 issues are now available; and for iconographic materials, the illustrated report comprising ten watercolour plates by Eugène Millet produced in 1855 as part of the restoration project for the château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye (ill. 2), and a sketchbook of 62 drawings, in graphite, brown ink, and watercolour, made by architects Jacob Ignaz…