Lafayette Microfilm Collection: 1757-1990

About the Lafayette Microfilm Collection

The Lafayette Microfilm Collection at Cleveland State University Michael Schwartz Library depicts in detail the life and times of the Marquis de La Fayette (1757–1834), the "The Hero of the Two Worlds". Lafayette was a French nobleman and military officer who volunteered to join the George Washington's Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War before returning home to France and becoming a hero in in the French Revolution of 1789 and the July Revolution of 1830. The 6,400 feet of microfilm contain more than 25,000 documents found tucked away in Chateau LaGrange, one of the ancestral homes of Lafayette. This material, although discovered in 1956, was not made publicly available until Lafayette descendent Count Rene de Chambrun authorized the Library of Congress to microfilm them in 1995-1996.

                                                  

About the LaGrange Archive

The 1956 discovery of the papers of the Marquis de Lafayette in a fifteenth century French chateau was an event of great excitement, widely reported in the press.

The late Count Rene de Chambrun, a direct descendant of Lafayette, discovered a trove of over 25,000 documents in the tower at Chateau La Grange, one of the ancestral homes of Lafayette. The Count hired a professional archivist designated by the École nationale des chartes, a French grande école specialising in the historical sciences, to assist him in the task of sorting, organizing and transcribing many of the important documents. Yet for forty years, the collection remained hidden at the Chateau.

     

The archive first attracted the attention of James Billington, Librarian of Congress, when he was researching his book, Fire in the minds of men: origins of the revolutionary faith (1980), about nineteenth century revolutions. Billington suggested high-resolution microfilm as a means of preserving the documents. After years of discussion, a contract between De Chambrun and the Library of Congress was signed and the collection was microfilmed for the Library of Congress in 1995-1996. The project was underwritten by an endowment established at the Library of Congress in 1925 by James B. Wilbur to reproduce archival sources on American history housed in foreign repositories.

 

Cleveland State University acquired a copy of the microfilm in 1997 through the direct influence of John Horton, benefactor and friend of the Library. Read “The Story Behind CSU’s Lafayette Collection OR: How a French Aristocrat Brought Two ‘Ohio Sons’ Together” by Tama L. Engelking, CSU Faculty Emerita in EngagedScholarship @ CSU at https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/clmlang_facpub/85/. 

Using the Collection

The microfilm is housed in Cleveland State University Michael Schwartz Library's Special Collections area. The Finding Aid prepared by the Library of Congress is the starting point for researchers using the collection. The Finding Aid, available on Reel #1 of the microfilm and on the Internet, is an outline, reel-by-reel, mf the contents of the microfilm. The scope notes and content notes are in English; the contents of each reel are listed in French. However, the researcher should be aware that the Finding Aid is not a complete listing of every document filmed. In addition to the Finding Aid, there is a system of Folders which the researcher will find useful, available only on the microfilm. Each reel of microfilm is sub-divided into folders, following the Count's classification system. There are introductory notes to each folder, in French, which may be quite extensive, detailing the folder contents with comments on the more significant items. Many documents have been selectively transcribed and typed, in French, with extensive commentary and annotations. French history has been more thoroughly treated than American history. It is apparent the task was left unfinished. There are notes throughout, that certain folders are "Not Filmed." Anyone needing access to material beyond what is contained in the microfilm must apply to The Josée and René de Chambrun Foundation, which owns the papers at Chateau La Grange in France.

 

Finding Aid URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms997004

To access the Microfilm Collection at the Michael Schwartz Library or for questions, please fill out the Special Collections consultation form at https://library.csuohio.edu/speccoll/contact.html

Cleveland State University Michael Schwartz Library's Special Collections link https://library.csuohio.edu/speccoll/