Introduction<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nIn 1874, a meeting of the Commission des Mus\u00e9es was concerned about a dramatic lack of space for the collections of the Mus\u00e9e cantonal, created in 1818 and housed in the Acad\u00e9mie building in the Cit\u00e9. As the Conseil d'\u00c9tat had just acquired the Maison Gaudard south of the Cathedral, it o\ufb00rit the possibility of transferring the geology collections and the botany cabinet to the first and second floors of this house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Free from other natural science collections, the new \"Mus\u00e9e g\u00e9ologique vaudois\" will en\ufb01n its first visibility. This is thanks to Professor Eug\u00e8ne Renevier, honorary curator Philippe de la Harpe and the preparators who will take the greatest care of this heritage and welcome numerous new collections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When it moved to the Palais de Rumine in 1906, the museum acquired an international reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Picture2.jpg\")
Title page of the Museum guidebook, written by Renevier in 1894.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\nBut who is Eug\u00e8ne Renevier?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier, son of Charles, a well-known lawyer, was born on March 26, 1831 in Lausanne. His mother Henriette died when he was a child. His father remarried and took an active interest in his son's education, first attending secondary school in Lausanne and then the Polytechnic School in Stuttgart, where his father had sent him to boarding school. There, he learned the rudiments of the geology of the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Picture3.jpg\")
Eugene Renevier<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Picture4.jpg\")
Albert Oppel, German paleontologist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIt was here that he met Albert Oppel, a young man the same age as him, with a passion for paleontology. During his vacations in Lausanne, from the age of 16, Renevier ventured into the rock faces of the Diablerets massif to look for fossils, which he took to Stuttgart to trade with Albert Oppel, who already had a very extensive collection and was to become a renowned German paleontologist.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier: his studies and first publications<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAt the age of 19, he presented his first paper to the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 vaudoise des sciences naturelles on the Jorat molasse. At the age of 20, he moved to Geneva to study with paleontologist Fran\u00e7ois-Jules Pictet de la Rive, and began to study the geology of the Pertes du Rh\u00f4ne region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Picture5.jpg\")
Fran\u00e7ois-Jules Pictet, Geneva<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Picture6.jpg\")
Edmond H\u00e9bert, academician, Paris <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Picture7.jpg\")
Memoir on the Nummulitic fauna of the Alps, 1854<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn 1854, he went to Paris to study with paleontologist Edmond H\u00e9bert, and with him published a major paper on the Nummulitic fauna of the Alps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He returned to Lausanne in 1855, armed with a wealth of scientific knowledge and a well-deserved reputation. The authorities understood the importance of attaching the young scientist to the Academy. As early as 1856, he was put in charge of a zoology course, taken over in 1858 by Auguste Chavannes. In 1859, at the age of 28, he was appointed Professor Extraordinaire of Geology.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
The Cantonal Museum and Philippe de la Harpe<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nFrom the outset, Eug\u00e8ne Renevier surrounded himself with enthusiasts of geology and paleontology. First, in 1858, physician Philippe de la Harpe (1830-1882) succeeded Charles Lardy as curator of the geology and mineralogy collections at the Mus\u00e9e Cantonal, in the Acad\u00e9mie building... In 1863, however, Philippe de la Harpe resigned from this position, having become too busy. It was then Eug\u00e8ne Renevier who, in addition to his position as Professor Extraordinaire, took over the curatorial activity, which he retained until his death, giving Philippe de la Harpe the honorary title of Assistant Curator of Paleontology. Until his death in 1882, Philippe de la Harpe came to work and study at the Museum on a regular basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Philippe-de-la-Harpe-paleontologue-et-medecin-902x1024.jpg\")
Philippe de la Harpe, paleontologist and physician<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Picture9.jpg\")
The former Academy: the Cantonal Museum was housed in the right wing (arrow) from 1818 to 1874.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier and events in his life as a teacher<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nFour events will mark Professor Eug\u00e8ne Renevier's fifty years of teaching:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Eugene-Renevier1-798x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n- The opening of an independent Faculty of Sciences at the Acad\u00e9mie, which separated from Lettres et Sciences in 1869.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The provision of premises for geology and mineralogy collections and teaching at the Maison Morave or Maison Gaudard (the latter name was adopted in the 20th century) south of the Cathedral in 1874.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The creation of the University of Lausanne in 1890.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The opening of the Palais de Rumine in 1905, with the installation of all the dispersed geology, paleontology and mineralogy collections and the opening of the new teaching rooms, just before his accidental death in 1906.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Creation of the Geological Museum at Maison Gaudard<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nIn 1874, the State of Vaud provided premises for the geology and mineralogy collections and for teaching purposes. The premises were located in the Maison Morave, also known as the Maison Gaudard, to the south of the cathedral. This building, whose earliest elements date back to the 15th and 16th centuries, was purchased and restructured between 1671 and 1673 by the bailiff lieutenant Gaudard, who gave it much of its current appearance. The house remained in the hands of the Gaudard family until 1780, and from 1837 it housed the Moravian Institute until it was bought by the State of Vaud in 1873, hence its two names.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Renevier also obtained the installation of an auditorium for teaching geology and botany. Following this transfer, the relocation of the collections marked the first phase in the creation of geology and botany museums independent of the Mus\u00e9e cantonal, also known as the Mus\u00e9e vaudois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/1887-Vue-des-facades-nord-et-ouest-de-la-maison-Gaudard-1024x763.jpg\")
View of the north and west facades of the Gaudard house, engraving of 1887<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/maison-gaudard-fig.-1.png\")
The Gaudard house before 1900<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Picture13.jpg\")
The Maison Gaudard after 1900<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n A cross-section shows the organization and access to the floors referred to here as - rez inf., rez sup., \u00e9tages and combles. A spiral staircase from the rue Saint-Etienne no. 7 entrance provided access to the auditorium, collections and exhibitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/maison-gaudard-fig.-2.png\")
The west wing of the Gaudard house, along rue Saint-Etienne, in the late 1880s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/maison-gaudard-fig.-8-1024x869.jpg\")
Cross-section with attic, second and second floors, then upper and lower ground floor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Picture16.jpg\")
View of the north and east facades of the Gaudard house.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Geological Museum's exhibits were located on the 1st and 2nd floors, on the light side. The second floor included the preparator's and curator's rooms, with windows overlooking the cathedral, and the two general and regional geology rooms. The second floor housed the paleontology and mineralogy exhibits, while the storerooms were on the ground floor (the view here dates from the 1930s, long after the Museums had left).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nRenevier's description of the showrooms<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nThese new spaces were opened to the public in 1880. In 1894, in his book on the Geological Museum, Renevier describes the layout of the exhibits, which we have transferred to the floor plans found in the Vaud Cantonal Archives (ACV).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Picture17.jpg\")
<\/figure>\nSecond floor exhibition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nFirst, on the second floor on the right as you enter :<\/p>\n\n\n\n
a) The general geology room displays collections of stratigraphy, sedimentary rocks and Cretaceous fossils from the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
b) The regional geology room features rocks and fossils from the Alps, Plateau and Jura.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\nSecond floor exhibition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nRenevier also describes the layout of the second-floor exhibits, with the Paleontology Room on the right as you enter, and the Fossil Mammals grouped in the center of the room. The Mineralogy Room, the second room at the back, includes the general Mineralogy collection, displayed in twelve showcases, as well as minerals and rocks from the Urals from the collection given by Tsar Alexander I to Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric C\u00e9sar De La Harpe.<\/p>\n<\/div>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Picture18.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier describes in detail the contents of the two rooms on each floor. These descriptions can be found in Appendices I and II.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Maurice Lugeon, Museum designer<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nMaurice Lugeon, then a young teenager with a passion for the natural sciences, was welcomed to the Museum in 1882 by G. Leresche, botany preparator, who taught him how to determine plants and minerals. After Hermann Goll's departure in 1883, Renevier hired a new preparator, the young naturalist Th\u00e9ophile Rittener, who had already been working under Renevier on geological surveys in Savoy. So, after Leresche, it was Rittener who took the young Lugeon into the field and gave him a taste for the observations in which he was to excel throughout his life. However, Lugeon's parents felt that studying natural sciences was too costly, so they placed him in an apprenticeship at a bank in Lausanne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To his bosses, he was a poor apprentice, spending his time preparing labels for his collections or herbarium, or furtively reading natural science books. His parents gave up, and by chance in 1886, a position as a preparator at the Museum became available, and the position was offered to Lugeon, who was then just 18 and had just started Gymnasium! Fascinated, he prepared his first paper for the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 vaudoise des sciences naturelles on fossil plants discovered in the Lausanne molasse, which he presented at a meeting on January 23, 1889.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Maurice-Lugeon-devenu-professeur-en-1906.jpg\")
Maurice Lugeon became a teacher in 1906<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Picture19.jpg\")
Portrait of Henri Lador, Museum preparator<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Cantonal Geological Museum and its preparators<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nBut from 1888 onwards, Lugeon was entirely taken up with his studies. Renevier then hired Charles Bertschinger, who had worked\u0301 with Goll in Professor Albert Heim's collections at Zurich Polytechnic, to replace him, and who would work as a preparator until 1893. Lugeon, on the other hand, between his lectures, will be busy classifying cantonal herbariums at the request of Professor Schnetzler. Following the illness and death of Charles Bertschinger in 1893, Renevier hired Henri Lador, a young Swiss watchmaker and naturalist who had emigrated to N\u00eemes, in 1894. The gifted Henri Lador had a remarkable career as a preparator at the Museum, where he remained until his death in 1932.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Relocation of the botanical cabinet and new premises for teaching and the Geology Museum in 1896<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Picture20.jpg\")
<\/figure>\nFollowing the relocation of the Mus\u00e9e botanique to another government building in the Cit\u00e9 in 1895, geology, which had been very cramped in the Maison Gaudard, was given additional space, and in 1896 the two rooms vacated were made available for the laboratory and for the museum's repositories. A new arrangement of the collections was organized, with the creation of a study and, from 1898, a new workroom for practical geology.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
This is how Lugeon later described it in his memoirs (LUGEON 1940):<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\" What, in the ambition of a young scientist, I had pompously called a geological laboratory, consisted of a small, damp basement chamber. To improve the light that the sky was trying to let into this den through two small windows overlooking a narrow street, I had obtained, after a long justificatory report, two butterfly gas spouts. At each window, there was a small table, in the center a larger one, against the walls a meager bookcase with a few books bought at the lowest possible price from antique dealers, a few caned chairs borrowed from who knows where, so that when there were three or four of us working, it was crowded and we had to share space and light as best we could. But in this palace of science, enthusiasm, faith, belief, hope, joy, the desire to live and the thirst to learn reigned supreme.<\/em>. \"<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier and Henri Golliez<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nIn 1887, Renevier entrusted another geologist, Henri Golliez, a young engineer from Vaud trained at Zurich Polytechnic, science teacher at the Coll\u00e8ge de Sainte-Croix and member of the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles, who regularly came to the Museum to make determinations, with a professorship in geology and mineralogy at the Facult\u00e9 Technique. The same year, Golliez was appointed General Secretary of the Department of Public Instruction, and took part in negotiations to transform the Academy into a modern university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1889, he teamed up with Maurice Lugeon to describe turtle faunas discovered in new molasse outcrops at a construction site on rue de la Borde in Lausanne. This discovery was presented in the auditorium of the Mus\u00e9e Industriel on rue Chaucrau, where meetings of the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles were held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Henri-Golliez-professeur-806x1024.jpg\")
Henri Golliez, professor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Picture21.jpg\")
Facade of the Mus\u00e9e Industriel, rue Chaucrau, Lausanne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier and the new University<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Fe\u0302te-dinauguration-de-lUniversite\u0301-le-18-mai-1891-le-corte\u0300ge-arrive-a\u0300-la-Grenette..jpg\")
<\/figure>\nThe transformation of the Academy into the University of Lausanne, inaugurated with great fanfare in May 1891, provided the occasion for a major popular celebration. For geology, it brought a new development with the opening of two separate laboratories and two teaching chairs. The geology laboratory was housed in a room in the Gaudard house, and linked to the Museum's collections.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Henri<\/strong> Golliez, professor at the School of Engineering and the Mineralogy Laboratory<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n\nAs Professor Extraordinaire at the newly named \"\u00c9cole d'Ing\u00e9nieur\", Golliez creates the mineralogy laboratory, which, along with the zoology laboratory, will be located at no. 9 Place du Tunnel, in the Sollichon building leased by the State of Vaud. Renevier provides him with the Museum's collections for teaching mineralogy and petrography, as well as specialized books in this field.<\/p>\n<\/div>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Picture23.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier rector and Maurice Lugeon teacher<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nIn 1898, following Renevier's appointment as Rector of the University for two years (\" You'll be led by a Rector fossilis instead of a Rector magnificus<\/em> \"In 1900, Lugeon took over as director of the Institut and the geology laboratory, with an important part of Renevier's teaching, namely paleontology and stratigraphy.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn 1902, the 100-page synthesis by Lugeon (1902) was published, extending the ideas developed by Bertrand (1884), then by Schardt (1893, 1898) and Bertand & Golliez (1897), showing that the northern front of the Alpine chain, from the Arve valley to Salzburg, is formed of large superimposed nappes that completely cover the true autochthonous front, hidden at depth. This synthesis, extended to the Carpathians and the Tatras in Poland by Lugeon and Termier at the International Geological Congress in Vienna in 1903, was to revolutionize the geological sciences and have a lasting impact on our understanding of Alpine tectonics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The geological mastery displayed by the Lausanne School acquired an international reputation, and the new students attracted by Renevier and Lugeon, such as Emile Argand, Alphonse Jeannet and Ferdinand Rabowski, extended this reputation through their work in the fields of global tectonics and paleontology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1905: opening of the Palais de Rumine and relocation of the museum<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nFor Lausanne geology, 1905 was a very important year. First of all, there were the new students who came to Lausanne to prepare their thesis in geology. With them, Lausanne's impact on the earth sciences would grow on a Swiss and European scale! It's also the end of construction work on the Palais de Rumine and the start of the relocation of the laboratories, the Science Museums and the Cantonal Library. The transfer of collections from the Maison Gaudard to the Palais de Rumine is supervised by Renevier, and carried out by Lugeon with the preparator Lador and new assistants Argand, Jeannet and Rabowski.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On November 3, 1905, the Palais de Rumine opened to the University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Picture24.jpg\")
1904: the Palais de Rumine is under roof, but the two entrance columns are still missing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Rumine-plan-de-le\u0301tage-des-expositions-de-ge\u0301ologie-pre\u0301pare\u0301-par-larchitecte-Andre\u0301.jpg\")
Rumine - plan of the geology exhibition floor prepared by the architect Andr\u00e9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n1906: The death of Eug\u00e8ne Renevier<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nOn May 5, 1906, Renevier accidentally fell down an open elevator shaft in his home and died the following day, ten days before the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the start of his teaching at the Academy and the posthumous awarding of an honorary doctorate by the University of Geneva. At Lugeon's request, the large exhibition hall devoted to geology and stratigraphy, which has just been set up in the Palais de Rumine, will bear the name \"Renevier\", engraved on the entrance pediment. The other large room, dedicated to paleontology, will bear the name \"De la Harpe\", also engraved. Through perseverance and hard work, Renevier succeeded over a period of some forty years in transforming a small geological cabinet, housed in an early 19th-century museum, into a large, independent and internationally renowned museum of geological sciences, superbly housed in the Palais de Rumine from 1906 onwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But who is Eug\u00e8ne Renevier?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier, son of Charles, a well-known lawyer, was born on March 26, 1831 in Lausanne. His mother Henriette died when he was a child. His father remarried and took an active interest in his son's education, first attending secondary school in Lausanne and then the Polytechnic School in Stuttgart, where his father had sent him to boarding school. There, he learned the rudiments of the geology of the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nEugene Renevier<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nAlbert Oppel, German paleontologist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIt was here that he met Albert Oppel, a young man the same age as him, with a passion for paleontology. During his vacations in Lausanne, from the age of 16, Renevier ventured into the rock faces of the Diablerets massif to look for fossils, which he took to Stuttgart to trade with Albert Oppel, who already had a very extensive collection and was to become a renowned German paleontologist.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier: his studies and first publications<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAt the age of 19, he presented his first paper to the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 vaudoise des sciences naturelles on the Jorat molasse. At the age of 20, he moved to Geneva to study with paleontologist Fran\u00e7ois-Jules Pictet de la Rive, and began to study the geology of the Pertes du Rh\u00f4ne region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nFran\u00e7ois-Jules Pictet, Geneva<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nEdmond H\u00e9bert, academician, Paris <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nMemoir on the Nummulitic fauna of the Alps, 1854<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn 1854, he went to Paris to study with paleontologist Edmond H\u00e9bert, and with him published a major paper on the Nummulitic fauna of the Alps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He returned to Lausanne in 1855, armed with a wealth of scientific knowledge and a well-deserved reputation. The authorities understood the importance of attaching the young scientist to the Academy. As early as 1856, he was put in charge of a zoology course, taken over in 1858 by Auguste Chavannes. In 1859, at the age of 28, he was appointed Professor Extraordinaire of Geology.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
The Cantonal Museum and Philippe de la Harpe<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nFrom the outset, Eug\u00e8ne Renevier surrounded himself with enthusiasts of geology and paleontology. First, in 1858, physician Philippe de la Harpe (1830-1882) succeeded Charles Lardy as curator of the geology and mineralogy collections at the Mus\u00e9e Cantonal, in the Acad\u00e9mie building... In 1863, however, Philippe de la Harpe resigned from this position, having become too busy. It was then Eug\u00e8ne Renevier who, in addition to his position as Professor Extraordinaire, took over the curatorial activity, which he retained until his death, giving Philippe de la Harpe the honorary title of Assistant Curator of Paleontology. Until his death in 1882, Philippe de la Harpe came to work and study at the Museum on a regular basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nPhilippe de la Harpe, paleontologist and physician<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe former Academy: the Cantonal Museum was housed in the right wing (arrow) from 1818 to 1874.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier and events in his life as a teacher<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nFour events will mark Professor Eug\u00e8ne Renevier's fifty years of teaching:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n- The opening of an independent Faculty of Sciences at the Acad\u00e9mie, which separated from Lettres et Sciences in 1869.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The provision of premises for geology and mineralogy collections and teaching at the Maison Morave or Maison Gaudard (the latter name was adopted in the 20th century) south of the Cathedral in 1874.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The creation of the University of Lausanne in 1890.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The opening of the Palais de Rumine in 1905, with the installation of all the dispersed geology, paleontology and mineralogy collections and the opening of the new teaching rooms, just before his accidental death in 1906.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Creation of the Geological Museum at Maison Gaudard<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nIn 1874, the State of Vaud provided premises for the geology and mineralogy collections and for teaching purposes. The premises were located in the Maison Morave, also known as the Maison Gaudard, to the south of the cathedral. This building, whose earliest elements date back to the 15th and 16th centuries, was purchased and restructured between 1671 and 1673 by the bailiff lieutenant Gaudard, who gave it much of its current appearance. The house remained in the hands of the Gaudard family until 1780, and from 1837 it housed the Moravian Institute until it was bought by the State of Vaud in 1873, hence its two names.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Renevier also obtained the installation of an auditorium for teaching geology and botany. Following this transfer, the relocation of the collections marked the first phase in the creation of geology and botany museums independent of the Mus\u00e9e cantonal, also known as the Mus\u00e9e vaudois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nView of the north and west facades of the Gaudard house, engraving of 1887<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Gaudard house before 1900<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Maison Gaudard after 1900<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n A cross-section shows the organization and access to the floors referred to here as - rez inf., rez sup., \u00e9tages and combles. A spiral staircase from the rue Saint-Etienne no. 7 entrance provided access to the auditorium, collections and exhibitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nThe west wing of the Gaudard house, along rue Saint-Etienne, in the late 1880s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nCross-section with attic, second and second floors, then upper and lower ground floor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nView of the north and east facades of the Gaudard house.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Geological Museum's exhibits were located on the 1st and 2nd floors, on the light side. The second floor included the preparator's and curator's rooms, with windows overlooking the cathedral, and the two general and regional geology rooms. The second floor housed the paleontology and mineralogy exhibits, while the storerooms were on the ground floor (the view here dates from the 1930s, long after the Museums had left).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nRenevier's description of the showrooms<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nThese new spaces were opened to the public in 1880. In 1894, in his book on the Geological Museum, Renevier describes the layout of the exhibits, which we have transferred to the floor plans found in the Vaud Cantonal Archives (ACV).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\nSecond floor exhibition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nFirst, on the second floor on the right as you enter :<\/p>\n\n\n\n
a) The general geology room displays collections of stratigraphy, sedimentary rocks and Cretaceous fossils from the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
b) The regional geology room features rocks and fossils from the Alps, Plateau and Jura.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\nSecond floor exhibition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nRenevier also describes the layout of the second-floor exhibits, with the Paleontology Room on the right as you enter, and the Fossil Mammals grouped in the center of the room. The Mineralogy Room, the second room at the back, includes the general Mineralogy collection, displayed in twelve showcases, as well as minerals and rocks from the Urals from the collection given by Tsar Alexander I to Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric C\u00e9sar De La Harpe.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier describes in detail the contents of the two rooms on each floor. These descriptions can be found in Appendices I and II.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Maurice Lugeon, Museum designer<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nMaurice Lugeon, then a young teenager with a passion for the natural sciences, was welcomed to the Museum in 1882 by G. Leresche, botany preparator, who taught him how to determine plants and minerals. After Hermann Goll's departure in 1883, Renevier hired a new preparator, the young naturalist Th\u00e9ophile Rittener, who had already been working under Renevier on geological surveys in Savoy. So, after Leresche, it was Rittener who took the young Lugeon into the field and gave him a taste for the observations in which he was to excel throughout his life. However, Lugeon's parents felt that studying natural sciences was too costly, so they placed him in an apprenticeship at a bank in Lausanne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To his bosses, he was a poor apprentice, spending his time preparing labels for his collections or herbarium, or furtively reading natural science books. His parents gave up, and by chance in 1886, a position as a preparator at the Museum became available, and the position was offered to Lugeon, who was then just 18 and had just started Gymnasium! Fascinated, he prepared his first paper for the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 vaudoise des sciences naturelles on fossil plants discovered in the Lausanne molasse, which he presented at a meeting on January 23, 1889.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nMaurice Lugeon became a teacher in 1906<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nPortrait of Henri Lador, Museum preparator<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Cantonal Geological Museum and its preparators<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nBut from 1888 onwards, Lugeon was entirely taken up with his studies. Renevier then hired Charles Bertschinger, who had worked\u0301 with Goll in Professor Albert Heim's collections at Zurich Polytechnic, to replace him, and who would work as a preparator until 1893. Lugeon, on the other hand, between his lectures, will be busy classifying cantonal herbariums at the request of Professor Schnetzler. Following the illness and death of Charles Bertschinger in 1893, Renevier hired Henri Lador, a young Swiss watchmaker and naturalist who had emigrated to N\u00eemes, in 1894. The gifted Henri Lador had a remarkable career as a preparator at the Museum, where he remained until his death in 1932.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Relocation of the botanical cabinet and new premises for teaching and the Geology Museum in 1896<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\nFollowing the relocation of the Mus\u00e9e botanique to another government building in the Cit\u00e9 in 1895, geology, which had been very cramped in the Maison Gaudard, was given additional space, and in 1896 the two rooms vacated were made available for the laboratory and for the museum's repositories. A new arrangement of the collections was organized, with the creation of a study and, from 1898, a new workroom for practical geology.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
This is how Lugeon later described it in his memoirs (LUGEON 1940):<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\" What, in the ambition of a young scientist, I had pompously called a geological laboratory, consisted of a small, damp basement chamber. To improve the light that the sky was trying to let into this den through two small windows overlooking a narrow street, I had obtained, after a long justificatory report, two butterfly gas spouts. At each window, there was a small table, in the center a larger one, against the walls a meager bookcase with a few books bought at the lowest possible price from antique dealers, a few caned chairs borrowed from who knows where, so that when there were three or four of us working, it was crowded and we had to share space and light as best we could. But in this palace of science, enthusiasm, faith, belief, hope, joy, the desire to live and the thirst to learn reigned supreme.<\/em>. \"<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier and Henri Golliez<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nIn 1887, Renevier entrusted another geologist, Henri Golliez, a young engineer from Vaud trained at Zurich Polytechnic, science teacher at the Coll\u00e8ge de Sainte-Croix and member of the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles, who regularly came to the Museum to make determinations, with a professorship in geology and mineralogy at the Facult\u00e9 Technique. The same year, Golliez was appointed General Secretary of the Department of Public Instruction, and took part in negotiations to transform the Academy into a modern university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1889, he teamed up with Maurice Lugeon to describe turtle faunas discovered in new molasse outcrops at a construction site on rue de la Borde in Lausanne. This discovery was presented in the auditorium of the Mus\u00e9e Industriel on rue Chaucrau, where meetings of the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles were held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nHenri Golliez, professor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nFacade of the Mus\u00e9e Industriel, rue Chaucrau, Lausanne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier and the new University<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\nThe transformation of the Academy into the University of Lausanne, inaugurated with great fanfare in May 1891, provided the occasion for a major popular celebration. For geology, it brought a new development with the opening of two separate laboratories and two teaching chairs. The geology laboratory was housed in a room in the Gaudard house, and linked to the Museum's collections.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Henri<\/strong> Golliez, professor at the School of Engineering and the Mineralogy Laboratory<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n\nAs Professor Extraordinaire at the newly named \"\u00c9cole d'Ing\u00e9nieur\", Golliez creates the mineralogy laboratory, which, along with the zoology laboratory, will be located at no. 9 Place du Tunnel, in the Sollichon building leased by the State of Vaud. Renevier provides him with the Museum's collections for teaching mineralogy and petrography, as well as specialized books in this field.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier rector and Maurice Lugeon teacher<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nIn 1898, following Renevier's appointment as Rector of the University for two years (\" You'll be led by a Rector fossilis instead of a Rector magnificus<\/em> \"In 1900, Lugeon took over as director of the Institut and the geology laboratory, with an important part of Renevier's teaching, namely paleontology and stratigraphy.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn 1902, the 100-page synthesis by Lugeon (1902) was published, extending the ideas developed by Bertrand (1884), then by Schardt (1893, 1898) and Bertand & Golliez (1897), showing that the northern front of the Alpine chain, from the Arve valley to Salzburg, is formed of large superimposed nappes that completely cover the true autochthonous front, hidden at depth. This synthesis, extended to the Carpathians and the Tatras in Poland by Lugeon and Termier at the International Geological Congress in Vienna in 1903, was to revolutionize the geological sciences and have a lasting impact on our understanding of Alpine tectonics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The geological mastery displayed by the Lausanne School acquired an international reputation, and the new students attracted by Renevier and Lugeon, such as Emile Argand, Alphonse Jeannet and Ferdinand Rabowski, extended this reputation through their work in the fields of global tectonics and paleontology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1905: opening of the Palais de Rumine and relocation of the museum<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nFor Lausanne geology, 1905 was a very important year. First of all, there were the new students who came to Lausanne to prepare their thesis in geology. With them, Lausanne's impact on the earth sciences would grow on a Swiss and European scale! It's also the end of construction work on the Palais de Rumine and the start of the relocation of the laboratories, the Science Museums and the Cantonal Library. The transfer of collections from the Maison Gaudard to the Palais de Rumine is supervised by Renevier, and carried out by Lugeon with the preparator Lador and new assistants Argand, Jeannet and Rabowski.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On November 3, 1905, the Palais de Rumine opened to the University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n1904: the Palais de Rumine is under roof, but the two entrance columns are still missing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nRumine - plan of the geology exhibition floor prepared by the architect Andr\u00e9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n1906: The death of Eug\u00e8ne Renevier<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nOn May 5, 1906, Renevier accidentally fell down an open elevator shaft in his home and died the following day, ten days before the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the start of his teaching at the Academy and the posthumous awarding of an honorary doctorate by the University of Geneva. At Lugeon's request, the large exhibition hall devoted to geology and stratigraphy, which has just been set up in the Palais de Rumine, will bear the name \"Renevier\", engraved on the entrance pediment. The other large room, dedicated to paleontology, will bear the name \"De la Harpe\", also engraved. Through perseverance and hard work, Renevier succeeded over a period of some forty years in transforming a small geological cabinet, housed in an early 19th-century museum, into a large, independent and internationally renowned museum of geological sciences, superbly housed in the Palais de Rumine from 1906 onwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was here that he met Albert Oppel, a young man the same age as him, with a passion for paleontology. During his vacations in Lausanne, from the age of 16, Renevier ventured into the rock faces of the Diablerets massif to look for fossils, which he took to Stuttgart to trade with Albert Oppel, who already had a very extensive collection and was to become a renowned German paleontologist.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Eug\u00e8ne Renevier: his studies and first publications<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nAt the age of 19, he presented his first paper to the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 vaudoise des sciences naturelles on the Jorat molasse. At the age of 20, he moved to Geneva to study with paleontologist Fran\u00e7ois-Jules Pictet de la Rive, and began to study the geology of the Pertes du Rh\u00f4ne region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nFran\u00e7ois-Jules Pictet, Geneva<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nEdmond H\u00e9bert, academician, Paris <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nMemoir on the Nummulitic fauna of the Alps, 1854<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nIn 1854, he went to Paris to study with paleontologist Edmond H\u00e9bert, and with him published a major paper on the Nummulitic fauna of the Alps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He returned to Lausanne in 1855, armed with a wealth of scientific knowledge and a well-deserved reputation. The authorities understood the importance of attaching the young scientist to the Academy. As early as 1856, he was put in charge of a zoology course, taken over in 1858 by Auguste Chavannes. In 1859, at the age of 28, he was appointed Professor Extraordinaire of Geology.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
The Cantonal Museum and Philippe de la Harpe<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nFrom the outset, Eug\u00e8ne Renevier surrounded himself with enthusiasts of geology and paleontology. First, in 1858, physician Philippe de la Harpe (1830-1882) succeeded Charles Lardy as curator of the geology and mineralogy collections at the Mus\u00e9e Cantonal, in the Acad\u00e9mie building... In 1863, however, Philippe de la Harpe resigned from this position, having become too busy. It was then Eug\u00e8ne Renevier who, in addition to his position as Professor Extraordinaire, took over the curatorial activity, which he retained until his death, giving Philippe de la Harpe the honorary title of Assistant Curator of Paleontology. Until his death in 1882, Philippe de la Harpe came to work and study at the Museum on a regular basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nPhilippe de la Harpe, paleontologist and physician<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe former Academy: the Cantonal Museum was housed in the right wing (arrow) from 1818 to 1874.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier and events in his life as a teacher<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nFour events will mark Professor Eug\u00e8ne Renevier's fifty years of teaching:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n- The opening of an independent Faculty of Sciences at the Acad\u00e9mie, which separated from Lettres et Sciences in 1869.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The provision of premises for geology and mineralogy collections and teaching at the Maison Morave or Maison Gaudard (the latter name was adopted in the 20th century) south of the Cathedral in 1874.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The creation of the University of Lausanne in 1890.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The opening of the Palais de Rumine in 1905, with the installation of all the dispersed geology, paleontology and mineralogy collections and the opening of the new teaching rooms, just before his accidental death in 1906.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Creation of the Geological Museum at Maison Gaudard<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nIn 1874, the State of Vaud provided premises for the geology and mineralogy collections and for teaching purposes. The premises were located in the Maison Morave, also known as the Maison Gaudard, to the south of the cathedral. This building, whose earliest elements date back to the 15th and 16th centuries, was purchased and restructured between 1671 and 1673 by the bailiff lieutenant Gaudard, who gave it much of its current appearance. The house remained in the hands of the Gaudard family until 1780, and from 1837 it housed the Moravian Institute until it was bought by the State of Vaud in 1873, hence its two names.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Renevier also obtained the installation of an auditorium for teaching geology and botany. Following this transfer, the relocation of the collections marked the first phase in the creation of geology and botany museums independent of the Mus\u00e9e cantonal, also known as the Mus\u00e9e vaudois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nView of the north and west facades of the Gaudard house, engraving of 1887<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Gaudard house before 1900<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Maison Gaudard after 1900<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n A cross-section shows the organization and access to the floors referred to here as - rez inf., rez sup., \u00e9tages and combles. A spiral staircase from the rue Saint-Etienne no. 7 entrance provided access to the auditorium, collections and exhibitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nThe west wing of the Gaudard house, along rue Saint-Etienne, in the late 1880s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nCross-section with attic, second and second floors, then upper and lower ground floor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nView of the north and east facades of the Gaudard house.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Geological Museum's exhibits were located on the 1st and 2nd floors, on the light side. The second floor included the preparator's and curator's rooms, with windows overlooking the cathedral, and the two general and regional geology rooms. The second floor housed the paleontology and mineralogy exhibits, while the storerooms were on the ground floor (the view here dates from the 1930s, long after the Museums had left).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nRenevier's description of the showrooms<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nThese new spaces were opened to the public in 1880. In 1894, in his book on the Geological Museum, Renevier describes the layout of the exhibits, which we have transferred to the floor plans found in the Vaud Cantonal Archives (ACV).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\nSecond floor exhibition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nFirst, on the second floor on the right as you enter :<\/p>\n\n\n\n
a) The general geology room displays collections of stratigraphy, sedimentary rocks and Cretaceous fossils from the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
b) The regional geology room features rocks and fossils from the Alps, Plateau and Jura.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\nSecond floor exhibition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nRenevier also describes the layout of the second-floor exhibits, with the Paleontology Room on the right as you enter, and the Fossil Mammals grouped in the center of the room. The Mineralogy Room, the second room at the back, includes the general Mineralogy collection, displayed in twelve showcases, as well as minerals and rocks from the Urals from the collection given by Tsar Alexander I to Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric C\u00e9sar De La Harpe.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier describes in detail the contents of the two rooms on each floor. These descriptions can be found in Appendices I and II.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Maurice Lugeon, Museum designer<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nMaurice Lugeon, then a young teenager with a passion for the natural sciences, was welcomed to the Museum in 1882 by G. Leresche, botany preparator, who taught him how to determine plants and minerals. After Hermann Goll's departure in 1883, Renevier hired a new preparator, the young naturalist Th\u00e9ophile Rittener, who had already been working under Renevier on geological surveys in Savoy. So, after Leresche, it was Rittener who took the young Lugeon into the field and gave him a taste for the observations in which he was to excel throughout his life. However, Lugeon's parents felt that studying natural sciences was too costly, so they placed him in an apprenticeship at a bank in Lausanne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To his bosses, he was a poor apprentice, spending his time preparing labels for his collections or herbarium, or furtively reading natural science books. His parents gave up, and by chance in 1886, a position as a preparator at the Museum became available, and the position was offered to Lugeon, who was then just 18 and had just started Gymnasium! Fascinated, he prepared his first paper for the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 vaudoise des sciences naturelles on fossil plants discovered in the Lausanne molasse, which he presented at a meeting on January 23, 1889.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nMaurice Lugeon became a teacher in 1906<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nPortrait of Henri Lador, Museum preparator<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Cantonal Geological Museum and its preparators<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nBut from 1888 onwards, Lugeon was entirely taken up with his studies. Renevier then hired Charles Bertschinger, who had worked\u0301 with Goll in Professor Albert Heim's collections at Zurich Polytechnic, to replace him, and who would work as a preparator until 1893. Lugeon, on the other hand, between his lectures, will be busy classifying cantonal herbariums at the request of Professor Schnetzler. Following the illness and death of Charles Bertschinger in 1893, Renevier hired Henri Lador, a young Swiss watchmaker and naturalist who had emigrated to N\u00eemes, in 1894. The gifted Henri Lador had a remarkable career as a preparator at the Museum, where he remained until his death in 1932.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Relocation of the botanical cabinet and new premises for teaching and the Geology Museum in 1896<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\nFollowing the relocation of the Mus\u00e9e botanique to another government building in the Cit\u00e9 in 1895, geology, which had been very cramped in the Maison Gaudard, was given additional space, and in 1896 the two rooms vacated were made available for the laboratory and for the museum's repositories. A new arrangement of the collections was organized, with the creation of a study and, from 1898, a new workroom for practical geology.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
This is how Lugeon later described it in his memoirs (LUGEON 1940):<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\" What, in the ambition of a young scientist, I had pompously called a geological laboratory, consisted of a small, damp basement chamber. To improve the light that the sky was trying to let into this den through two small windows overlooking a narrow street, I had obtained, after a long justificatory report, two butterfly gas spouts. At each window, there was a small table, in the center a larger one, against the walls a meager bookcase with a few books bought at the lowest possible price from antique dealers, a few caned chairs borrowed from who knows where, so that when there were three or four of us working, it was crowded and we had to share space and light as best we could. But in this palace of science, enthusiasm, faith, belief, hope, joy, the desire to live and the thirst to learn reigned supreme.<\/em>. \"<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier and Henri Golliez<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nIn 1887, Renevier entrusted another geologist, Henri Golliez, a young engineer from Vaud trained at Zurich Polytechnic, science teacher at the Coll\u00e8ge de Sainte-Croix and member of the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles, who regularly came to the Museum to make determinations, with a professorship in geology and mineralogy at the Facult\u00e9 Technique. The same year, Golliez was appointed General Secretary of the Department of Public Instruction, and took part in negotiations to transform the Academy into a modern university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1889, he teamed up with Maurice Lugeon to describe turtle faunas discovered in new molasse outcrops at a construction site on rue de la Borde in Lausanne. This discovery was presented in the auditorium of the Mus\u00e9e Industriel on rue Chaucrau, where meetings of the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles were held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nHenri Golliez, professor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nFacade of the Mus\u00e9e Industriel, rue Chaucrau, Lausanne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier and the new University<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\nThe transformation of the Academy into the University of Lausanne, inaugurated with great fanfare in May 1891, provided the occasion for a major popular celebration. For geology, it brought a new development with the opening of two separate laboratories and two teaching chairs. The geology laboratory was housed in a room in the Gaudard house, and linked to the Museum's collections.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Henri<\/strong> Golliez, professor at the School of Engineering and the Mineralogy Laboratory<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n\nAs Professor Extraordinaire at the newly named \"\u00c9cole d'Ing\u00e9nieur\", Golliez creates the mineralogy laboratory, which, along with the zoology laboratory, will be located at no. 9 Place du Tunnel, in the Sollichon building leased by the State of Vaud. Renevier provides him with the Museum's collections for teaching mineralogy and petrography, as well as specialized books in this field.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier rector and Maurice Lugeon teacher<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nIn 1898, following Renevier's appointment as Rector of the University for two years (\" You'll be led by a Rector fossilis instead of a Rector magnificus<\/em> \"In 1900, Lugeon took over as director of the Institut and the geology laboratory, with an important part of Renevier's teaching, namely paleontology and stratigraphy.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn 1902, the 100-page synthesis by Lugeon (1902) was published, extending the ideas developed by Bertrand (1884), then by Schardt (1893, 1898) and Bertand & Golliez (1897), showing that the northern front of the Alpine chain, from the Arve valley to Salzburg, is formed of large superimposed nappes that completely cover the true autochthonous front, hidden at depth. This synthesis, extended to the Carpathians and the Tatras in Poland by Lugeon and Termier at the International Geological Congress in Vienna in 1903, was to revolutionize the geological sciences and have a lasting impact on our understanding of Alpine tectonics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The geological mastery displayed by the Lausanne School acquired an international reputation, and the new students attracted by Renevier and Lugeon, such as Emile Argand, Alphonse Jeannet and Ferdinand Rabowski, extended this reputation through their work in the fields of global tectonics and paleontology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1905: opening of the Palais de Rumine and relocation of the museum<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nFor Lausanne geology, 1905 was a very important year. First of all, there were the new students who came to Lausanne to prepare their thesis in geology. With them, Lausanne's impact on the earth sciences would grow on a Swiss and European scale! It's also the end of construction work on the Palais de Rumine and the start of the relocation of the laboratories, the Science Museums and the Cantonal Library. The transfer of collections from the Maison Gaudard to the Palais de Rumine is supervised by Renevier, and carried out by Lugeon with the preparator Lador and new assistants Argand, Jeannet and Rabowski.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On November 3, 1905, the Palais de Rumine opened to the University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n1904: the Palais de Rumine is under roof, but the two entrance columns are still missing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nRumine - plan of the geology exhibition floor prepared by the architect Andr\u00e9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n1906: The death of Eug\u00e8ne Renevier<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nOn May 5, 1906, Renevier accidentally fell down an open elevator shaft in his home and died the following day, ten days before the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the start of his teaching at the Academy and the posthumous awarding of an honorary doctorate by the University of Geneva. At Lugeon's request, the large exhibition hall devoted to geology and stratigraphy, which has just been set up in the Palais de Rumine, will bear the name \"Renevier\", engraved on the entrance pediment. The other large room, dedicated to paleontology, will bear the name \"De la Harpe\", also engraved. Through perseverance and hard work, Renevier succeeded over a period of some forty years in transforming a small geological cabinet, housed in an early 19th-century museum, into a large, independent and internationally renowned museum of geological sciences, superbly housed in the Palais de Rumine from 1906 onwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1854, he went to Paris to study with paleontologist Edmond H\u00e9bert, and with him published a major paper on the Nummulitic fauna of the Alps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He returned to Lausanne in 1855, armed with a wealth of scientific knowledge and a well-deserved reputation. The authorities understood the importance of attaching the young scientist to the Academy. As early as 1856, he was put in charge of a zoology course, taken over in 1858 by Auguste Chavannes. In 1859, at the age of 28, he was appointed Professor Extraordinaire of Geology.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
The Cantonal Museum and Philippe de la Harpe<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nFrom the outset, Eug\u00e8ne Renevier surrounded himself with enthusiasts of geology and paleontology. First, in 1858, physician Philippe de la Harpe (1830-1882) succeeded Charles Lardy as curator of the geology and mineralogy collections at the Mus\u00e9e Cantonal, in the Acad\u00e9mie building... In 1863, however, Philippe de la Harpe resigned from this position, having become too busy. It was then Eug\u00e8ne Renevier who, in addition to his position as Professor Extraordinaire, took over the curatorial activity, which he retained until his death, giving Philippe de la Harpe the honorary title of Assistant Curator of Paleontology. Until his death in 1882, Philippe de la Harpe came to work and study at the Museum on a regular basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nPhilippe de la Harpe, paleontologist and physician<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe former Academy: the Cantonal Museum was housed in the right wing (arrow) from 1818 to 1874.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier and events in his life as a teacher<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nFour events will mark Professor Eug\u00e8ne Renevier's fifty years of teaching:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n- The opening of an independent Faculty of Sciences at the Acad\u00e9mie, which separated from Lettres et Sciences in 1869.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The provision of premises for geology and mineralogy collections and teaching at the Maison Morave or Maison Gaudard (the latter name was adopted in the 20th century) south of the Cathedral in 1874.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The creation of the University of Lausanne in 1890.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The opening of the Palais de Rumine in 1905, with the installation of all the dispersed geology, paleontology and mineralogy collections and the opening of the new teaching rooms, just before his accidental death in 1906.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Creation of the Geological Museum at Maison Gaudard<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nIn 1874, the State of Vaud provided premises for the geology and mineralogy collections and for teaching purposes. The premises were located in the Maison Morave, also known as the Maison Gaudard, to the south of the cathedral. This building, whose earliest elements date back to the 15th and 16th centuries, was purchased and restructured between 1671 and 1673 by the bailiff lieutenant Gaudard, who gave it much of its current appearance. The house remained in the hands of the Gaudard family until 1780, and from 1837 it housed the Moravian Institute until it was bought by the State of Vaud in 1873, hence its two names.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Renevier also obtained the installation of an auditorium for teaching geology and botany. Following this transfer, the relocation of the collections marked the first phase in the creation of geology and botany museums independent of the Mus\u00e9e cantonal, also known as the Mus\u00e9e vaudois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nView of the north and west facades of the Gaudard house, engraving of 1887<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Gaudard house before 1900<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Maison Gaudard after 1900<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n A cross-section shows the organization and access to the floors referred to here as - rez inf., rez sup., \u00e9tages and combles. A spiral staircase from the rue Saint-Etienne no. 7 entrance provided access to the auditorium, collections and exhibitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nThe west wing of the Gaudard house, along rue Saint-Etienne, in the late 1880s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nCross-section with attic, second and second floors, then upper and lower ground floor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nView of the north and east facades of the Gaudard house.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Geological Museum's exhibits were located on the 1st and 2nd floors, on the light side. The second floor included the preparator's and curator's rooms, with windows overlooking the cathedral, and the two general and regional geology rooms. The second floor housed the paleontology and mineralogy exhibits, while the storerooms were on the ground floor (the view here dates from the 1930s, long after the Museums had left).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nRenevier's description of the showrooms<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nThese new spaces were opened to the public in 1880. In 1894, in his book on the Geological Museum, Renevier describes the layout of the exhibits, which we have transferred to the floor plans found in the Vaud Cantonal Archives (ACV).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\nSecond floor exhibition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nFirst, on the second floor on the right as you enter :<\/p>\n\n\n\n
a) The general geology room displays collections of stratigraphy, sedimentary rocks and Cretaceous fossils from the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
b) The regional geology room features rocks and fossils from the Alps, Plateau and Jura.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\nSecond floor exhibition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nRenevier also describes the layout of the second-floor exhibits, with the Paleontology Room on the right as you enter, and the Fossil Mammals grouped in the center of the room. The Mineralogy Room, the second room at the back, includes the general Mineralogy collection, displayed in twelve showcases, as well as minerals and rocks from the Urals from the collection given by Tsar Alexander I to Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric C\u00e9sar De La Harpe.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier describes in detail the contents of the two rooms on each floor. These descriptions can be found in Appendices I and II.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Maurice Lugeon, Museum designer<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nMaurice Lugeon, then a young teenager with a passion for the natural sciences, was welcomed to the Museum in 1882 by G. Leresche, botany preparator, who taught him how to determine plants and minerals. After Hermann Goll's departure in 1883, Renevier hired a new preparator, the young naturalist Th\u00e9ophile Rittener, who had already been working under Renevier on geological surveys in Savoy. So, after Leresche, it was Rittener who took the young Lugeon into the field and gave him a taste for the observations in which he was to excel throughout his life. However, Lugeon's parents felt that studying natural sciences was too costly, so they placed him in an apprenticeship at a bank in Lausanne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To his bosses, he was a poor apprentice, spending his time preparing labels for his collections or herbarium, or furtively reading natural science books. His parents gave up, and by chance in 1886, a position as a preparator at the Museum became available, and the position was offered to Lugeon, who was then just 18 and had just started Gymnasium! Fascinated, he prepared his first paper for the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 vaudoise des sciences naturelles on fossil plants discovered in the Lausanne molasse, which he presented at a meeting on January 23, 1889.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nMaurice Lugeon became a teacher in 1906<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nPortrait of Henri Lador, Museum preparator<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Cantonal Geological Museum and its preparators<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nBut from 1888 onwards, Lugeon was entirely taken up with his studies. Renevier then hired Charles Bertschinger, who had worked\u0301 with Goll in Professor Albert Heim's collections at Zurich Polytechnic, to replace him, and who would work as a preparator until 1893. Lugeon, on the other hand, between his lectures, will be busy classifying cantonal herbariums at the request of Professor Schnetzler. Following the illness and death of Charles Bertschinger in 1893, Renevier hired Henri Lador, a young Swiss watchmaker and naturalist who had emigrated to N\u00eemes, in 1894. The gifted Henri Lador had a remarkable career as a preparator at the Museum, where he remained until his death in 1932.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Relocation of the botanical cabinet and new premises for teaching and the Geology Museum in 1896<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\nFollowing the relocation of the Mus\u00e9e botanique to another government building in the Cit\u00e9 in 1895, geology, which had been very cramped in the Maison Gaudard, was given additional space, and in 1896 the two rooms vacated were made available for the laboratory and for the museum's repositories. A new arrangement of the collections was organized, with the creation of a study and, from 1898, a new workroom for practical geology.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
This is how Lugeon later described it in his memoirs (LUGEON 1940):<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\" What, in the ambition of a young scientist, I had pompously called a geological laboratory, consisted of a small, damp basement chamber. To improve the light that the sky was trying to let into this den through two small windows overlooking a narrow street, I had obtained, after a long justificatory report, two butterfly gas spouts. At each window, there was a small table, in the center a larger one, against the walls a meager bookcase with a few books bought at the lowest possible price from antique dealers, a few caned chairs borrowed from who knows where, so that when there were three or four of us working, it was crowded and we had to share space and light as best we could. But in this palace of science, enthusiasm, faith, belief, hope, joy, the desire to live and the thirst to learn reigned supreme.<\/em>. \"<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier and Henri Golliez<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nIn 1887, Renevier entrusted another geologist, Henri Golliez, a young engineer from Vaud trained at Zurich Polytechnic, science teacher at the Coll\u00e8ge de Sainte-Croix and member of the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles, who regularly came to the Museum to make determinations, with a professorship in geology and mineralogy at the Facult\u00e9 Technique. The same year, Golliez was appointed General Secretary of the Department of Public Instruction, and took part in negotiations to transform the Academy into a modern university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1889, he teamed up with Maurice Lugeon to describe turtle faunas discovered in new molasse outcrops at a construction site on rue de la Borde in Lausanne. This discovery was presented in the auditorium of the Mus\u00e9e Industriel on rue Chaucrau, where meetings of the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles were held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nHenri Golliez, professor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nFacade of the Mus\u00e9e Industriel, rue Chaucrau, Lausanne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier and the new University<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\nThe transformation of the Academy into the University of Lausanne, inaugurated with great fanfare in May 1891, provided the occasion for a major popular celebration. For geology, it brought a new development with the opening of two separate laboratories and two teaching chairs. The geology laboratory was housed in a room in the Gaudard house, and linked to the Museum's collections.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Henri<\/strong> Golliez, professor at the School of Engineering and the Mineralogy Laboratory<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n\nAs Professor Extraordinaire at the newly named \"\u00c9cole d'Ing\u00e9nieur\", Golliez creates the mineralogy laboratory, which, along with the zoology laboratory, will be located at no. 9 Place du Tunnel, in the Sollichon building leased by the State of Vaud. Renevier provides him with the Museum's collections for teaching mineralogy and petrography, as well as specialized books in this field.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier rector and Maurice Lugeon teacher<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nIn 1898, following Renevier's appointment as Rector of the University for two years (\" You'll be led by a Rector fossilis instead of a Rector magnificus<\/em> \"In 1900, Lugeon took over as director of the Institut and the geology laboratory, with an important part of Renevier's teaching, namely paleontology and stratigraphy.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn 1902, the 100-page synthesis by Lugeon (1902) was published, extending the ideas developed by Bertrand (1884), then by Schardt (1893, 1898) and Bertand & Golliez (1897), showing that the northern front of the Alpine chain, from the Arve valley to Salzburg, is formed of large superimposed nappes that completely cover the true autochthonous front, hidden at depth. This synthesis, extended to the Carpathians and the Tatras in Poland by Lugeon and Termier at the International Geological Congress in Vienna in 1903, was to revolutionize the geological sciences and have a lasting impact on our understanding of Alpine tectonics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The geological mastery displayed by the Lausanne School acquired an international reputation, and the new students attracted by Renevier and Lugeon, such as Emile Argand, Alphonse Jeannet and Ferdinand Rabowski, extended this reputation through their work in the fields of global tectonics and paleontology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1905: opening of the Palais de Rumine and relocation of the museum<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nFor Lausanne geology, 1905 was a very important year. First of all, there were the new students who came to Lausanne to prepare their thesis in geology. With them, Lausanne's impact on the earth sciences would grow on a Swiss and European scale! It's also the end of construction work on the Palais de Rumine and the start of the relocation of the laboratories, the Science Museums and the Cantonal Library. The transfer of collections from the Maison Gaudard to the Palais de Rumine is supervised by Renevier, and carried out by Lugeon with the preparator Lador and new assistants Argand, Jeannet and Rabowski.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On November 3, 1905, the Palais de Rumine opened to the University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n1904: the Palais de Rumine is under roof, but the two entrance columns are still missing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nRumine - plan of the geology exhibition floor prepared by the architect Andr\u00e9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n1906: The death of Eug\u00e8ne Renevier<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nOn May 5, 1906, Renevier accidentally fell down an open elevator shaft in his home and died the following day, ten days before the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the start of his teaching at the Academy and the posthumous awarding of an honorary doctorate by the University of Geneva. At Lugeon's request, the large exhibition hall devoted to geology and stratigraphy, which has just been set up in the Palais de Rumine, will bear the name \"Renevier\", engraved on the entrance pediment. The other large room, dedicated to paleontology, will bear the name \"De la Harpe\", also engraved. Through perseverance and hard work, Renevier succeeded over a period of some forty years in transforming a small geological cabinet, housed in an early 19th-century museum, into a large, independent and internationally renowned museum of geological sciences, superbly housed in the Palais de Rumine from 1906 onwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eug\u00e8ne Renevier and events in his life as a teacher<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nFour events will mark Professor Eug\u00e8ne Renevier's fifty years of teaching:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n- <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n- The opening of an independent Faculty of Sciences at the Acad\u00e9mie, which separated from Lettres et Sciences in 1869.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The provision of premises for geology and mineralogy collections and teaching at the Maison Morave or Maison Gaudard (the latter name was adopted in the 20th century) south of the Cathedral in 1874.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The creation of the University of Lausanne in 1890.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The opening of the Palais de Rumine in 1905, with the installation of all the dispersed geology, paleontology and mineralogy collections and the opening of the new teaching rooms, just before his accidental death in 1906.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Creation of the Geological Museum at Maison Gaudard<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nIn 1874, the State of Vaud provided premises for the geology and mineralogy collections and for teaching purposes. The premises were located in the Maison Morave, also known as the Maison Gaudard, to the south of the cathedral. This building, whose earliest elements date back to the 15th and 16th centuries, was purchased and restructured between 1671 and 1673 by the bailiff lieutenant Gaudard, who gave it much of its current appearance. The house remained in the hands of the Gaudard family until 1780, and from 1837 it housed the Moravian Institute until it was bought by the State of Vaud in 1873, hence its two names.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Renevier also obtained the installation of an auditorium for teaching geology and botany. Following this transfer, the relocation of the collections marked the first phase in the creation of geology and botany museums independent of the Mus\u00e9e cantonal, also known as the Mus\u00e9e vaudois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nView of the north and west facades of the Gaudard house, engraving of 1887<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Gaudard house before 1900<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Maison Gaudard after 1900<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n A cross-section shows the organization and access to the floors referred to here as - rez inf., rez sup., \u00e9tages and combles. A spiral staircase from the rue Saint-Etienne no. 7 entrance provided access to the auditorium, collections and exhibitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nThe west wing of the Gaudard house, along rue Saint-Etienne, in the late 1880s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nCross-section with attic, second and second floors, then upper and lower ground floor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nView of the north and east facades of the Gaudard house.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Geological Museum's exhibits were located on the 1st and 2nd floors, on the light side. The second floor included the preparator's and curator's rooms, with windows overlooking the cathedral, and the two general and regional geology rooms. The second floor housed the paleontology and mineralogy exhibits, while the storerooms were on the ground floor (the view here dates from the 1930s, long after the Museums had left).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nRenevier's description of the showrooms<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nThese new spaces were opened to the public in 1880. In 1894, in his book on the Geological Museum, Renevier describes the layout of the exhibits, which we have transferred to the floor plans found in the Vaud Cantonal Archives (ACV).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\nSecond floor exhibition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nFirst, on the second floor on the right as you enter :<\/p>\n\n\n\n
a) The general geology room displays collections of stratigraphy, sedimentary rocks and Cretaceous fossils from the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
b) The regional geology room features rocks and fossils from the Alps, Plateau and Jura.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\nSecond floor exhibition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nRenevier also describes the layout of the second-floor exhibits, with the Paleontology Room on the right as you enter, and the Fossil Mammals grouped in the center of the room. The Mineralogy Room, the second room at the back, includes the general Mineralogy collection, displayed in twelve showcases, as well as minerals and rocks from the Urals from the collection given by Tsar Alexander I to Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric C\u00e9sar De La Harpe.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier describes in detail the contents of the two rooms on each floor. These descriptions can be found in Appendices I and II.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Maurice Lugeon, Museum designer<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nMaurice Lugeon, then a young teenager with a passion for the natural sciences, was welcomed to the Museum in 1882 by G. Leresche, botany preparator, who taught him how to determine plants and minerals. After Hermann Goll's departure in 1883, Renevier hired a new preparator, the young naturalist Th\u00e9ophile Rittener, who had already been working under Renevier on geological surveys in Savoy. So, after Leresche, it was Rittener who took the young Lugeon into the field and gave him a taste for the observations in which he was to excel throughout his life. However, Lugeon's parents felt that studying natural sciences was too costly, so they placed him in an apprenticeship at a bank in Lausanne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To his bosses, he was a poor apprentice, spending his time preparing labels for his collections or herbarium, or furtively reading natural science books. His parents gave up, and by chance in 1886, a position as a preparator at the Museum became available, and the position was offered to Lugeon, who was then just 18 and had just started Gymnasium! Fascinated, he prepared his first paper for the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 vaudoise des sciences naturelles on fossil plants discovered in the Lausanne molasse, which he presented at a meeting on January 23, 1889.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nMaurice Lugeon became a teacher in 1906<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nPortrait of Henri Lador, Museum preparator<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe Cantonal Geological Museum and its preparators<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nBut from 1888 onwards, Lugeon was entirely taken up with his studies. Renevier then hired Charles Bertschinger, who had worked\u0301 with Goll in Professor Albert Heim's collections at Zurich Polytechnic, to replace him, and who would work as a preparator until 1893. Lugeon, on the other hand, between his lectures, will be busy classifying cantonal herbariums at the request of Professor Schnetzler. Following the illness and death of Charles Bertschinger in 1893, Renevier hired Henri Lador, a young Swiss watchmaker and naturalist who had emigrated to N\u00eemes, in 1894. The gifted Henri Lador had a remarkable career as a preparator at the Museum, where he remained until his death in 1932.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Relocation of the botanical cabinet and new premises for teaching and the Geology Museum in 1896<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\nFollowing the relocation of the Mus\u00e9e botanique to another government building in the Cit\u00e9 in 1895, geology, which had been very cramped in the Maison Gaudard, was given additional space, and in 1896 the two rooms vacated were made available for the laboratory and for the museum's repositories. A new arrangement of the collections was organized, with the creation of a study and, from 1898, a new workroom for practical geology.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
This is how Lugeon later described it in his memoirs (LUGEON 1940):<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\" What, in the ambition of a young scientist, I had pompously called a geological laboratory, consisted of a small, damp basement chamber. To improve the light that the sky was trying to let into this den through two small windows overlooking a narrow street, I had obtained, after a long justificatory report, two butterfly gas spouts. At each window, there was a small table, in the center a larger one, against the walls a meager bookcase with a few books bought at the lowest possible price from antique dealers, a few caned chairs borrowed from who knows where, so that when there were three or four of us working, it was crowded and we had to share space and light as best we could. But in this palace of science, enthusiasm, faith, belief, hope, joy, the desire to live and the thirst to learn reigned supreme.<\/em>. \"<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier and Henri Golliez<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nIn 1887, Renevier entrusted another geologist, Henri Golliez, a young engineer from Vaud trained at Zurich Polytechnic, science teacher at the Coll\u00e8ge de Sainte-Croix and member of the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles, who regularly came to the Museum to make determinations, with a professorship in geology and mineralogy at the Facult\u00e9 Technique. The same year, Golliez was appointed General Secretary of the Department of Public Instruction, and took part in negotiations to transform the Academy into a modern university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1889, he teamed up with Maurice Lugeon to describe turtle faunas discovered in new molasse outcrops at a construction site on rue de la Borde in Lausanne. This discovery was presented in the auditorium of the Mus\u00e9e Industriel on rue Chaucrau, where meetings of the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles were held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nHenri Golliez, professor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nFacade of the Mus\u00e9e Industriel, rue Chaucrau, Lausanne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier and the new University<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\nThe transformation of the Academy into the University of Lausanne, inaugurated with great fanfare in May 1891, provided the occasion for a major popular celebration. For geology, it brought a new development with the opening of two separate laboratories and two teaching chairs. The geology laboratory was housed in a room in the Gaudard house, and linked to the Museum's collections.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Henri<\/strong> Golliez, professor at the School of Engineering and the Mineralogy Laboratory<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n\nAs Professor Extraordinaire at the newly named \"\u00c9cole d'Ing\u00e9nieur\", Golliez creates the mineralogy laboratory, which, along with the zoology laboratory, will be located at no. 9 Place du Tunnel, in the Sollichon building leased by the State of Vaud. Renevier provides him with the Museum's collections for teaching mineralogy and petrography, as well as specialized books in this field.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier rector and Maurice Lugeon teacher<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nIn 1898, following Renevier's appointment as Rector of the University for two years (\" You'll be led by a Rector fossilis instead of a Rector magnificus<\/em> \"In 1900, Lugeon took over as director of the Institut and the geology laboratory, with an important part of Renevier's teaching, namely paleontology and stratigraphy.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn 1902, the 100-page synthesis by Lugeon (1902) was published, extending the ideas developed by Bertrand (1884), then by Schardt (1893, 1898) and Bertand & Golliez (1897), showing that the northern front of the Alpine chain, from the Arve valley to Salzburg, is formed of large superimposed nappes that completely cover the true autochthonous front, hidden at depth. This synthesis, extended to the Carpathians and the Tatras in Poland by Lugeon and Termier at the International Geological Congress in Vienna in 1903, was to revolutionize the geological sciences and have a lasting impact on our understanding of Alpine tectonics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The geological mastery displayed by the Lausanne School acquired an international reputation, and the new students attracted by Renevier and Lugeon, such as Emile Argand, Alphonse Jeannet and Ferdinand Rabowski, extended this reputation through their work in the fields of global tectonics and paleontology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1905: opening of the Palais de Rumine and relocation of the museum<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nFor Lausanne geology, 1905 was a very important year. First of all, there were the new students who came to Lausanne to prepare their thesis in geology. With them, Lausanne's impact on the earth sciences would grow on a Swiss and European scale! It's also the end of construction work on the Palais de Rumine and the start of the relocation of the laboratories, the Science Museums and the Cantonal Library. The transfer of collections from the Maison Gaudard to the Palais de Rumine is supervised by Renevier, and carried out by Lugeon with the preparator Lador and new assistants Argand, Jeannet and Rabowski.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On November 3, 1905, the Palais de Rumine opened to the University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n1904: the Palais de Rumine is under roof, but the two entrance columns are still missing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nRumine - plan of the geology exhibition floor prepared by the architect Andr\u00e9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n1906: The death of Eug\u00e8ne Renevier<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nOn May 5, 1906, Renevier accidentally fell down an open elevator shaft in his home and died the following day, ten days before the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the start of his teaching at the Academy and the posthumous awarding of an honorary doctorate by the University of Geneva. At Lugeon's request, the large exhibition hall devoted to geology and stratigraphy, which has just been set up in the Palais de Rumine, will bear the name \"Renevier\", engraved on the entrance pediment. The other large room, dedicated to paleontology, will bear the name \"De la Harpe\", also engraved. Through perseverance and hard work, Renevier succeeded over a period of some forty years in transforming a small geological cabinet, housed in an early 19th-century museum, into a large, independent and internationally renowned museum of geological sciences, superbly housed in the Palais de Rumine from 1906 onwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>- \n
- The opening of an independent Faculty of Sciences at the Acad\u00e9mie, which separated from Lettres et Sciences in 1869.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The provision of premises for geology and mineralogy collections and teaching at the Maison Morave or Maison Gaudard (the latter name was adopted in the 20th century) south of the Cathedral in 1874.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The creation of the University of Lausanne in 1890.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- The opening of the Palais de Rumine in 1905, with the installation of all the dispersed geology, paleontology and mineralogy collections and the opening of the new teaching rooms, just before his accidental death in 1906.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Creation of the Geological Museum at Maison Gaudard<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
In 1874, the State of Vaud provided premises for the geology and mineralogy collections and for teaching purposes. The premises were located in the Maison Morave, also known as the Maison Gaudard, to the south of the cathedral. This building, whose earliest elements date back to the 15th and 16th centuries, was purchased and restructured between 1671 and 1673 by the bailiff lieutenant Gaudard, who gave it much of its current appearance. The house remained in the hands of the Gaudard family until 1780, and from 1837 it housed the Moravian Institute until it was bought by the State of Vaud in 1873, hence its two names.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Renevier also obtained the installation of an auditorium for teaching geology and botany. Following this transfer, the relocation of the collections marked the first phase in the creation of geology and botany museums independent of the Mus\u00e9e cantonal, also known as the Mus\u00e9e vaudois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n View of the north and west facades of the Gaudard house, engraving of 1887<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n The Gaudard house before 1900<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n The Maison Gaudard after 1900<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n A cross-section shows the organization and access to the floors referred to here as - rez inf., rez sup., \u00e9tages and combles. A spiral staircase from the rue Saint-Etienne no. 7 entrance provided access to the auditorium, collections and exhibitions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n The west wing of the Gaudard house, along rue Saint-Etienne, in the late 1880s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Cross-section with attic, second and second floors, then upper and lower ground floor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n View of the north and east facades of the Gaudard house.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n The Geological Museum's exhibits were located on the 1st and 2nd floors, on the light side. The second floor included the preparator's and curator's rooms, with windows overlooking the cathedral, and the two general and regional geology rooms. The second floor housed the paleontology and mineralogy exhibits, while the storerooms were on the ground floor (the view here dates from the 1930s, long after the Museums had left).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nRenevier's description of the showrooms<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
These new spaces were opened to the public in 1880. In 1894, in his book on the Geological Museum, Renevier describes the layout of the exhibits, which we have transferred to the floor plans found in the Vaud Cantonal Archives (ACV).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\nSecond floor exhibition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, on the second floor on the right as you enter :<\/p>\n\n\n\n
a) The general geology room displays collections of stratigraphy, sedimentary rocks and Cretaceous fossils from the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
b) The regional geology room features rocks and fossils from the Alps, Plateau and Jura.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\nSecond floor exhibition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Renevier also describes the layout of the second-floor exhibits, with the Paleontology Room on the right as you enter, and the Fossil Mammals grouped in the center of the room. The Mineralogy Room, the second room at the back, includes the general Mineralogy collection, displayed in twelve showcases, as well as minerals and rocks from the Urals from the collection given by Tsar Alexander I to Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric C\u00e9sar De La Harpe.<\/p>\n<\/div>
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier describes in detail the contents of the two rooms on each floor. These descriptions can be found in Appendices I and II.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Maurice Lugeon, Museum designer<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Maurice Lugeon, then a young teenager with a passion for the natural sciences, was welcomed to the Museum in 1882 by G. Leresche, botany preparator, who taught him how to determine plants and minerals. After Hermann Goll's departure in 1883, Renevier hired a new preparator, the young naturalist Th\u00e9ophile Rittener, who had already been working under Renevier on geological surveys in Savoy. So, after Leresche, it was Rittener who took the young Lugeon into the field and gave him a taste for the observations in which he was to excel throughout his life. However, Lugeon's parents felt that studying natural sciences was too costly, so they placed him in an apprenticeship at a bank in Lausanne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To his bosses, he was a poor apprentice, spending his time preparing labels for his collections or herbarium, or furtively reading natural science books. His parents gave up, and by chance in 1886, a position as a preparator at the Museum became available, and the position was offered to Lugeon, who was then just 18 and had just started Gymnasium! Fascinated, he prepared his first paper for the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 vaudoise des sciences naturelles on fossil plants discovered in the Lausanne molasse, which he presented at a meeting on January 23, 1889.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n Maurice Lugeon became a teacher in 1906<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Portrait of Henri Lador, Museum preparator<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n The Cantonal Geological Museum and its preparators<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
But from 1888 onwards, Lugeon was entirely taken up with his studies. Renevier then hired Charles Bertschinger, who had worked\u0301 with Goll in Professor Albert Heim's collections at Zurich Polytechnic, to replace him, and who would work as a preparator until 1893. Lugeon, on the other hand, between his lectures, will be busy classifying cantonal herbariums at the request of Professor Schnetzler. Following the illness and death of Charles Bertschinger in 1893, Renevier hired Henri Lador, a young Swiss watchmaker and naturalist who had emigrated to N\u00eemes, in 1894. The gifted Henri Lador had a remarkable career as a preparator at the Museum, where he remained until his death in 1932.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Relocation of the botanical cabinet and new premises for teaching and the Geology Museum in 1896<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\nFollowing the relocation of the Mus\u00e9e botanique to another government building in the Cit\u00e9 in 1895, geology, which had been very cramped in the Maison Gaudard, was given additional space, and in 1896 the two rooms vacated were made available for the laboratory and for the museum's repositories. A new arrangement of the collections was organized, with the creation of a study and, from 1898, a new workroom for practical geology.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
This is how Lugeon later described it in his memoirs (LUGEON 1940):<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\" What, in the ambition of a young scientist, I had pompously called a geological laboratory, consisted of a small, damp basement chamber. To improve the light that the sky was trying to let into this den through two small windows overlooking a narrow street, I had obtained, after a long justificatory report, two butterfly gas spouts. At each window, there was a small table, in the center a larger one, against the walls a meager bookcase with a few books bought at the lowest possible price from antique dealers, a few caned chairs borrowed from who knows where, so that when there were three or four of us working, it was crowded and we had to share space and light as best we could. But in this palace of science, enthusiasm, faith, belief, hope, joy, the desire to live and the thirst to learn reigned supreme.<\/em>. \"<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Eug\u00e8ne Renevier and Henri Golliez<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
In 1887, Renevier entrusted another geologist, Henri Golliez, a young engineer from Vaud trained at Zurich Polytechnic, science teacher at the Coll\u00e8ge de Sainte-Croix and member of the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles, who regularly came to the Museum to make determinations, with a professorship in geology and mineralogy at the Facult\u00e9 Technique. The same year, Golliez was appointed General Secretary of the Department of Public Instruction, and took part in negotiations to transform the Academy into a modern university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1889, he teamed up with Maurice Lugeon to describe turtle faunas discovered in new molasse outcrops at a construction site on rue de la Borde in Lausanne. This discovery was presented in the auditorium of the Mus\u00e9e Industriel on rue Chaucrau, where meetings of the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Vaudoise des Sciences Naturelles were held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n Henri Golliez, professor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Facade of the Mus\u00e9e Industriel, rue Chaucrau, Lausanne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n Eug\u00e8ne Renevier and the new University<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\nThe transformation of the Academy into the University of Lausanne, inaugurated with great fanfare in May 1891, provided the occasion for a major popular celebration. For geology, it brought a new development with the opening of two separate laboratories and two teaching chairs. The geology laboratory was housed in a room in the Gaudard house, and linked to the Museum's collections.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Henri<\/strong> Golliez, professor at the School of Engineering and the Mineralogy Laboratory<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\nAs Professor Extraordinaire at the newly named \"\u00c9cole d'Ing\u00e9nieur\", Golliez creates the mineralogy laboratory, which, along with the zoology laboratory, will be located at no. 9 Place du Tunnel, in the Sollichon building leased by the State of Vaud. Renevier provides him with the Museum's collections for teaching mineralogy and petrography, as well as specialized books in this field.<\/p>\n<\/div>
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nEug\u00e8ne Renevier rector and Maurice Lugeon teacher<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
In 1898, following Renevier's appointment as Rector of the University for two years (\" You'll be led by a Rector fossilis instead of a Rector magnificus<\/em> \"In 1900, Lugeon took over as director of the Institut and the geology laboratory, with an important part of Renevier's teaching, namely paleontology and stratigraphy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1902, the 100-page synthesis by Lugeon (1902) was published, extending the ideas developed by Bertrand (1884), then by Schardt (1893, 1898) and Bertand & Golliez (1897), showing that the northern front of the Alpine chain, from the Arve valley to Salzburg, is formed of large superimposed nappes that completely cover the true autochthonous front, hidden at depth. This synthesis, extended to the Carpathians and the Tatras in Poland by Lugeon and Termier at the International Geological Congress in Vienna in 1903, was to revolutionize the geological sciences and have a lasting impact on our understanding of Alpine tectonics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The geological mastery displayed by the Lausanne School acquired an international reputation, and the new students attracted by Renevier and Lugeon, such as Emile Argand, Alphonse Jeannet and Ferdinand Rabowski, extended this reputation through their work in the fields of global tectonics and paleontology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1905: opening of the Palais de Rumine and relocation of the museum<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
For Lausanne geology, 1905 was a very important year. First of all, there were the new students who came to Lausanne to prepare their thesis in geology. With them, Lausanne's impact on the earth sciences would grow on a Swiss and European scale! It's also the end of construction work on the Palais de Rumine and the start of the relocation of the laboratories, the Science Museums and the Cantonal Library. The transfer of collections from the Maison Gaudard to the Palais de Rumine is supervised by Renevier, and carried out by Lugeon with the preparator Lador and new assistants Argand, Jeannet and Rabowski.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On November 3, 1905, the Palais de Rumine opened to the University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1904: the Palais de Rumine is under roof, but the two entrance columns are still missing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Rumine - plan of the geology exhibition floor prepared by the architect Andr\u00e9<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n 1906: The death of Eug\u00e8ne Renevier<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
On May 5, 1906, Renevier accidentally fell down an open elevator shaft in his home and died the following day, ten days before the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the start of his teaching at the Academy and the posthumous awarding of an honorary doctorate by the University of Geneva. At Lugeon's request, the large exhibition hall devoted to geology and stratigraphy, which has just been set up in the Palais de Rumine, will bear the name \"Renevier\", engraved on the entrance pediment. The other large room, dedicated to paleontology, will bear the name \"De la Harpe\", also engraved. Through perseverance and hard work, Renevier succeeded over a period of some forty years in transforming a small geological cabinet, housed in an early 19th-century museum, into a large, independent and internationally renowned museum of geological sciences, superbly housed in the Palais de Rumine from 1906 onwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/hist-geol-unil.ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Picture26.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>