Joshua Provan

Historian Hive Mind: Quelqu’un saurait-il si le carnet de Théodore Devin de Fontenay a déjà été publié ? Je n’en trouve aucune référence bibliographique. Does anyone know whether Devin de Fontenay’s 1812 diary has ever been published? I haven’t been able to find any references to it. It’s a short and very concise work (I only wish he had been a more verbose!), but it contains a few interesting details, particularly on the movements of Beaumont’s cuirassier brigade in 1812.

The wait is over! After five years, I finally landed my Kickstarter white whale: Coalitions by @PHALANX_LTD. Now I just need some brave volunteers to help me figure out if it was worth the wait. :) – at Keithville, LA

The three highlights of the Gálvez and Lafayette exhibits at the Cabildo in New Orleans: I have long wanted to see Galvez's portrait, among the most original, striking, and memorable works from the Revolutionary Era. Its vivid presence and unusual composition immediately command attention, and the fact that it has never before been exhibited in the United States makes its appearance here all the more significant. The Lafayette exhibit, by contrast, is comparatively restrained. While it offers an informative look at Lafayette’s visit in 1825, it lacks the visual impact of the Gálvez exhibit (the new paintings by Mitchell Nolte help in this regard). Ironically, the dominant image in the Lafayette gallery is not the man himself, but Napoleon. The emperor’s enormous portrait towers over the exhibit, drawing the eye away from the Marquis and serving as a reminder that Napoleon has long eclipsed Lafayette in the public imagination. Even two centuries later, Lafayette remains, quite literally, under Napoleon’s gaze (if not in his shadow). Another standout is Thure de Thulstrup’s famous Hoisting Colors, Louisiana Cession. Painted nearly a century after the 1803 transfer of Louisiana, the work has become the defining visual representations of the event.