Images

Here are some links to photos and other images of people, objects, places, and events in Hearts at Dawn. You'll also find a few photos of objects from my personal collection or photos taken by me at museums and exhibitions.

You can find more information about the world of Hearts at Dawn on the Resources and Historical Figures pages on this site.

Two cartes de visite. These date to later than 1870, but the basic format and idea remained the same, including the backs of the cartes, which are often quite beautifully decorated. This type of decoration was my inspiration for the metal plaque on the Turins' studio door. (personal collection)

A ration card from shortly after the end of the Siege, when the city was still being reprovisioned. (image taken by the author at the awesome exhibit France Allemagne(s), at the Musee de l'Armee in Paris, April 13-July 30, 2017)

~ Lots of Siege-related images

~ A fascinating collection of information and images related to the pigeon post.

~ Les Ballons Montés Pendant le Siège de Paris, an article by Yves Cocual. Even if you can’t read French, it’s worth taking a look for some interesting images, including what postage on letters sent by balloon looked like.

~ The last image on this webpage shows a Prussian gun used to shoot down balloons. Fortunately, most balloons managed to avoid this fate.

~ Video taken in 1956 of the frozen Seine. It’s very unusual for the Seine to freeze.

~ Contemporary drawing of a cat, dog, and rat butcher’s stall

~ To me, Joseph looks a bit like this fellow, although he’d never take such a “well behaved” photo – there’d be a mischievous glimmer in his eyes. He’d also have some sort of fashionable accessory, as any dandy should.

~ Old photos of the viaduct on top of the Pont du Jour (including some images of a Petite Ceinture train): and the view of the fortifications that could be seen from it

~ A brief overview of the evolution of fashion from the 1860’s to the 1870’s (at the beginning of the article), and several images of clothing worn ca. 1870.

~ Some fashionable hats from the era

~ Paintings, sketches, and photos of the Bal Mabille

~ But my absolute favorite image of the Bal Mabille is this one, by August Barry. I saw it blown up so that its figures were life-size at the exhibition Les Nuits Parisiennes at the Hôtel de Ville here in Paris, and it was such a surprising, amazing sight that brought to life the wild energy that must have reigned there.

~ A photograph of part of the Bal Mabille

~ Information about the Bal Mabille, including a lively image of the revelries there.

~ One of the many models of Paris in bygone centuries in the collections of the Musée Carnavalet (the museum dedicated to Paris’s history). The Musée Carnavalet is my favorite museum in Paris, and Claire’s hobby is directly inspired by the many afternoons I wandered there, looking at the models (not to mention the nearby collection of historical tavern and shop signs).

~ Images of and information about magic lanterns and slides

~ Various models of magic lanterns and slides

~ The first part of this video shows two models of magic lanterns in use, even how the candle sits inside of them. But I personally don’t like the magic lantern show itself – the sound effects are jarring and as far as I know, there’s no proof they would have been done that way.

~ For a lovely magic lantern show, projected by yet another magic lantern model, I recommend this video.

A magic lantern slide that my husband and I found at an antiques market a few years ago. Now I need a magic lantern! (personal photo. Thanks to my son for holding the slide while I took the picture. I would certainly have dropped it if our roles had been reversed!)

~ A 20^th-century performance of Robert-Houdin's famous orange tree trick

~ A video of Robert-Houdin’s automaton Antonio Diavolo

~ A blog post that describes and features images of a few more of Robert-Houdin’s famous tricks

~ Some information about Cleverman (François Lahire), including images of some of his tricks, as well as a photograph of the magician.

~ A photo of the interior of the Theatre Robert-Houdin, from a blog post on the magic career of Georges Méliès, who became a pioneer of movie special effects (you may know him from the movie or book Hugo and you may have seen extracts or the entire version of his iconic film Un voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon)). However, I haven’t been able to establish if this is how it looked when Cleverman ran it.

~ More images and videos of Robert-Houdin’s theater and tricks

~ The bouquinstes’ famous stalls wouldn’t appear on the parapets of the Seine for another few decades. This article (which is a good concise history of the bouquinistes) features a few images of what the bouquinistes’ crates looked like when Orin and Claire browsed there. The second photo on this webpage is my favorite photo of the bouquinistes’ crates. Those avid book browsers are my kindred spirits.

~ A mid-19^th century photograph of the Pont au Change, with some bouquinistes’ boxes on its parapet.

~ You can see the complete set of engravings from Hiroshige’s One Hundred Famous Views of Edo via the book’s Wikipedia page.

~ This very helpful and thorough video of a guided tour of the Paris Catacombs. Unfortunately, I don’t know the name of the tour guide or the company he’s with (the video was filmed and posted by someone who took the tour).

~ View of a multi-lens camera and the kinds of images it took for cartes de visite

~ Some images of “skylight studios” – that is, a photography studio at the top of a building or beneath the roof of a home. Although these images come from American photography studios and date to slightly later than 1870, they give a good general idea of what Claire’s studio looks like.

~ Some photos of mid-19th century photography studios around the world

Award seals on the back of another carte de visite (personal collection)

~ Barnum’s American Museum - Images here include an engraving of the lecture room where Orin and Joseph liked to sit and plan Orin’s performance.

~ A broadsheet advertisement for À la Porte Chinoise, one of the earliest shops to sell goods and artwork from China and Japan in France.

~ A close-up image of the souvenir coin you would get if you bought pencils from Mengin.

~ Cartoons, including the Album du siège de Paris 1870-71 by famous caricaturists Cham et Daumier, were very popular and show the Parisians’ tendency to laugh at their everyday troubles during the Siege. The drawing Le danger de manger de la souris est qu’ensuite votre chat ne coure après(“The dangers of eating mice is that your cat might chase after them”) is the one that Émile shows Orin and Claire after their discussion about buying food.

~ Here are some more examples of cartoons published during or shortly after the Siege – including a few that are NSFW.

A common souvenir sold after the Siege and Paris Commune. The paper mentions various major events that happened during that time, as well as the price of food during the Siege and subsequent Commune. There's a medallion and dried flowers, but what I love most is that all of these also include a small piece of the notoriously terrible bread people had to eat during that time! In some other souvenirs like this that I've seen, the bread even has a slightly gray or blue tint to it. Good bread is still important to Parisians today; there's an annual competition for the best baguette in the city. (photo taken by the author at the awesome exhibit France Allemagne(s), at the Musee de l'Armee in Paris, April 13-July 30, 2017)

You can find more information, including additional sources with images, on the Resources page.

If you'd like to continue your exploration of the world of Hearts at Dawn, the Historical Figures page gives a list of real-life people who appear in the book, with details about each one.

Book cover designed by Natasja Hellenthal of Beyond Book Covers