Archives of natural history 43.

2 (2016): 191–207
Edinburgh University Press
DOI: 10.3366/anh.2016.0378
# The Society for the History of Natural History
www.euppublishing.com/loi/anh

The Dupont family: collectors, dealers and naturalists

in nineteenth-century Paris
RICHARD MEARNSA, LAURENT CHEVRIERB and CHRISTOPHE GOURAUDC
A
(corresponding author) Connansknowe, Kirkton, Dumfries, DG1 1SX, UK (e-mail: richard.mearns@tiscali.co.uk)
B
285 rue de la Pierrière, 79230 Aiffres, France (e-mail: laurent.chevrier@orange.fr)
C
Baillon Collection, Musée George Sand et de la Vallée Noire, La Châtre, France (current address: 6 route de
Chef Boutonne, Vezançais, 79170 Brioux sur Boutonne, France (e-mail: collection.baillon@gmail.com))

ABSTRACT: In the early part of the nineteenth century the Dupont brothers ran separate natural history
businesses in Paris. Relatively little is known about their early life but an investigation into the family
history at Bayeux corrects Léonard Dupont’s year of birth from 1795 to 1796. In 1818 Léonard joined
Joseph Ritchie’s expedition to North Africa to assist in collecting and preparing the discoveries but he did
not get beyond Tripoli. After 15 months he came back to Paris with a small collection from Libya and
Provence, and returned to Provence in 1821. While operating as a dealer-naturalist in Paris he published
Traité de taxidermie (1823, 1827), developed a special interest in foreign birds and became well known
for his anatomical models in coloured wax. Henry Dupont sold a range of natural history material and
with his particular passion for beetles formed one of the finest collections in Europe; his best known
publication is Monographie des Trachydérides (1836–1840). Because the brothers had overlapping
interests and were rarely referred to by their forenames there has been confusion between them and the
various eponyms that commemorate them. Although probably true, it would be an over-simplification to
state that birds of this era named for Dupont refer to Léonard Dupont, insects to Henry Dupont, and
molluscs to their mother.
KEY WORDS: ornithology – entomology – type specimens – Chersophilus duponti – Tilmatura
dupontii – Baillon Collection, La Châtre.

INTRODUCTION

In the nineteenth century Paris was the centre of a thriving trade in all kinds of natural
history items. In the 1850s there were said to be more than 3,000 mammals, 40,000 birds
and 200,000 shells stored in the warehouses of Maison Verreaux, a vast business run
by various members of the Verreaux family (Stresemann 1975: 162–163). There were many
smaller enterprises run by dealers and naturalists such as Charles and Émile Parzudaki
(Gouraud et al. 2016), Adolphe Boucard, Aimé Bouvier, Louis Petit, and the Dupont
brothers (Figures 1 and 2), who all traded specimens and sometimes contributed to scientific
journals (Mearns and Mearns 1998: 96). The Dupont brothers appear often in the natural
history literature of the day, usually as “M[onsieur]. Dupont” or simply “Dupont”.
Occasionally the elder Dupont is defined as “Dupont aı̂né” and the younger as “Dupont
jeune”. Such simplified designations have led to confusion between the two brothers as
well as to complete misidentifications, the elder Dupont being sometimes identified as
unrelated other Duponts.1 The best biographical source for Léonard Dupont, including
a drawing of his grave (Figure 3), is a 690-word sketch by Caplin (1829), and for
192 DUPONT FAMILY: COLLECTORS, DEALERS AND NATURALISTS IN PARIS

Figure 1. Portrait by Auguste Raffet
(charcoal and white chalk, height
116 mm). The inscription below reads:
“1827–1828 M. Dupont Naturaliste” and
is thought to refer to Léonard Dupont (see
below p. 201). Courtesy of Le Louvre,
Paris.
Figure 2. Henry Dupont by
an unknown photographer.
Note that 1832 is the year
when he became a member
of Société Entomologique de
France. Courtesy of Société
Entomologique de France, Paris.
Figure 3. An engraving of Léonard
Dupont’s grave by J. Marchand
entitled “A DUPONT aı̂né
Naturaliste Membre de L’Athénée
des Arts” (Caplin 1829). The
monument has not been located.

Henry Dupont a short obituary by Desmarest (1873). A few helpful lines on the brothers
were provided by Dejean (1825: xxi), Silbermann (1835: 20) and Philbert (1855), and other
small details can be found in the Parisian publications of the day. More recently, Mearns and
Mearns (1988: 135–136, 440) gave a brief account of Léonard Dupont but could not prove
his link to Chersophilus duponti (Sirli de Dupont, Dupont’s Lark) and failed to identify
Henry Dupont. In 1990 there was a suggestion that the lark’s French name should be
changed because Dupont was too little known (Géroudet 1990). In this paper we seek to
rescue the Duponts from obscurity by expanding upon previous knowledge, clarifying their
varied contributions to natural history and attempting to establish the correct Dupont for
their various eponyms.

MARIE-FRANÇOISE DUPONT AND HER FAMILY

Jean-Antoine Puech dit Dupont and his wife Marie-Françoise Badin lived in Bayeux in
Normandy where Jean-Antoine worked as a wigmaker. They had three sons, all born at
Bayeux: the first was born on 3 February 1795 but died just three years later on 10 February
1798; Léonard was born on 10 January 1796, and Richard Henry was born on 1 November
1798 and was referred to as Henry (occasionally Henri).2 Although the boys were baptized
with the surname Puech dit Dupont, in later life the surviving brothers were more commonly
known under the name Dupont: Léonard as the elder was known as Dupont aı̂né and Henry
as the younger was Dupont jeune. As youngsters they were said to be greatly drawn towards
objects of natural history by the example of their mother (Philbert 1855), a conchologist of
some repute with a significant shell collection that attracted the attention of eminent French
DUPONT FAMILY: COLLECTORS, DEALERS AND NATURALISTS IN PARIS 193

scientists. L. C. Kiener named several of her specimens as new species, including

Conus dupontii (Kiener 1846–1850: 273); Léon de Joannis (1835) named one of her shells
Cyrenoida dupontia; and C. A. Récluz (1841: 273, 275) twice mentioned her shells, once
referring to her as “madame veuve Dupont” (Récluz 1841: 275) – so she was a widow by
1841. Her name also appears in Boitard and Canivet’s Manuel du naturaliste préparateur
(1828: 71) for having taught Boitard a better way of packing butterfly specimens for
transport. Madame Dupont remains a relatively obscure figure and though she may well
have had a life-long interest in natural history, the known events suggest an active period
from about 1828 to 1850. It is therefore possible that some of her expertise and many of
her shell specimens originated from her sons. Her dates of birth and death have not been
traced.3

Léonard Dupont (1796–1828) – Dupont aı̂né

At some point, the family moved to Paris where Léonard succeeded his father as a modest
employee of Martin Gaudin, Duc de Gaëte, Napoleon’s minister of finance. In his spare time
Léonard collected insects and other animals in the surrounding countryside and discussed
his recent finds at the Jardin des Plantes where he attended a variety of courses. With the fall
of Napoleon in 1815, he lost his position and was unable to continue these studies.
At around this time Joseph Ritchie (1792–1819)4, an English surgeon and private
secretary to the British ambassador in Paris, began making plans to penetrate southwards
across the Sahara to establish the course of the River Niger. In 1818, with Léonard now
22 years old and seemingly working as a preparator5 at the Jardin des Plantes, Ritchie hired
him “for the purpose of collecting and preparing objects of natural history” (Lyon 1821: 1),
perhaps encouraged to do so by their shared enthusiasm for entomology. They broke
their journey in Provence staying several weeks at Marseille, Dupont busily “enriching the
cabinets of Europe” by exploring the surrounding area (Zalse 1819: 102, 105). In September
they sailed from Marseille to Malta where there was time to collect a few insects and
crustaceans, and where George Francis Lyon (1795–1832), a Royal Navy lieutenant, and
John Belford, a shipwright, both volunteered to join them. At the end of November
they were all assembled at Tripoli (now in Libya) finalizing their plans for the journey
southwards. Ritchie had spent much of his limited funds on scientific instruments and
equipment for collecting, among other things taking a camel load of cork for mounting
insects, two camel loads of brown paper for botanical work, and 600lbs of lead and two
chests of arsenic bottles for obtaining and preserving vertebrates. By the end of the following
year Ritchie had died at Murzuk, 450 miles to the south, while Lyon and Belford managed to
struggle only a little further into the Libyan desert before returning homewards. Ritchie’s
specimens from Malta, Tripoli and Murzuk were brought back to England for William
Elford Leach (1791–1836) at the British Museum (Harrison and Smith 2008: 479, footnote
38). Some of the insects were acquired by William Sharpe Macleay (1792–1865); one
from Murzuk he named Mnematium Ritchii (sic), now Scarabaeus ritchiei (Macleay 1821:
502–506). Some of Ritchie’s specimens from Malta and Tripoli6 could have been collected
and prepared by Léonard.
Unfortunately, Lyon’s account (1821) of the expedition gives us little information
about Léonard’s activities since he is not mentioned beyond page 20. Just before Ritchie’s
party set out from Tripoli on 7 February 1819, Léonard resigned, “influenced, as we
had reason to think, by the advice and suggestions of some of his supposed friends” (Lyon
1821: 20). Lyon gave no further detail but Amedée (1821: 382–386) was not shy about
194 DUPONT FAMILY: COLLECTORS, DEALERS AND NATURALISTS IN PARIS

revealing the cause: for the purposes of disguise, Léonard had accepted the need to adopt full
Moorish dress, have his head and beard shaved, and take the Arab name Mourad, but he had
absolutely refused to be circumcised. This refusal, and Léonard’s general outspokenness,
soured his relationship with Ritchie, and their differences were further exacerbated when
Léonard had had to rescue Ritchie from marauding Bedouins during a short field excursion
(Caplin 1829: 179–180) – an incident not mentioned by Lyon. Léonard’s resignation turned
into a minor diplomatic incident: he was stranded in Tripoli without funds so the French
consul addressed an official letter to the British consul demanding redress from the British
government. When this was unsuccessful, the French consul had little option but to secure
Léonard a passage to Livorno, on the west coast of Italy, where another consul ensured that
the naturalist was able to get back to Paris.
When Léonard arrived home after an absence of 15 months he had with him a collection
of birds, reptiles, amphibians and insects, over 200 of which were said to be new to science.7
A portion of the material appears to have been sold, widely scattered to various naturalists,
though a live chameleon was presented to the Jardin du Roi (Verneur 1821: 384) and
depicted in 1819 by Nicolas Huet (1770–1830).8 The renowned coleopterist Comte Dejean
(1780–1845) said he had received insects brought back from Tripoli by Dupont aı̂né and
though he described some of them as new in his Species général des coleoptères (Dejean
1825–1831; see also Aubé 1838) none were named after Léonard. An African Green Toad
(Pseudepidalea boulengeri Lataste, 1879), from Tripoli would have been a new species if
Duméril (1841: 686) had properly described it instead of lumping it with Bufo viridis in
his Erpétologie générale, ou, histoire naturelle complète des reptiles. The only surviving
bird specimen we have traced from Léonard’s time in Libya is a Cream-coloured Courser
(Cursorius cursor Latham, 1787), within the Baillon Collection at La Châtre. It has no
original label but bears an inscription by L. A. F. Baillon, which translated reads: “collected
by Mr Dupont near Tripoli, in Africa during the journey of Mr Ritchie to discover
Tombouctou” (Figures 4 and 5).9
There are 35 other birds at La Châtre attributed to “Dupont”, five of which are from
Marseille and three from neighbouring Toulon. These eight birds from Provence could have
been collected on his way to Tripoli or as he returned, or when he made a journey there in
August 1821 (Vieillot 1824: 190). Two of the specimens have the dates 1825 and 1826
which could indicate that he repeatedly travelled to the south of France or could just refer
to the years they were registered by Baillon. Only one specimen (MLC.2011.0.811,
a Mediterranean Gull (Larus (Chroicocephalus) melanocephalus Temminck, 1820) collected
near Marseille) specifically mentions Dupont aı̂né but it seems likely that Léonard collected
all eight birds10. The best known Dupont specimen from Provence is the type for
Chersophilus duponti (see below).
On returning to Paris, Léonard renewed his links with the Jardin des Plantes and in 1820
signed up for a course of lectures there by Lamarck (as did his brother Henry).11 In 1823,
Léonard published Traité de taxidermie, ou l’art de conserver et d’empailler les animaux.
The first edition was credited to “Dupont, naturaliste” and was advertised for 4 francs,
available from the author at 41 rue Saint Jacques, 5th arrondissement, Paris. The first part
covered methods of hunting for mammals, birds, reptiles and insects, the second enumerated
all the instruments and materials required, while the remaining six parts dealt with the
preparation of the various groups, including fish, butterflies, crustaceans and molluscs.
According to Silbermann (1835: 20) Léonard’s brother Henry had assisted him (and Guyot
de Fère (1837: 162–163) stated that Henry had published it). Having seen Léonard’s African
DUPONT FAMILY: COLLECTORS, DEALERS AND NATURALISTS IN PARIS 195

specimens and the rest of his collection, Vieillot (1823a) considered that Léonard’s
taxidermy skills “left nothing to be desired” and gave the book an excellent review. He
praised its modest price and was especially pleased that it was in a single handy volume,
useful for foreign travellers, as he regretted that hitherto the only worthwhile account,
by Louis Dufresne (1752–1832), was tucked away in one of the 36 volumes of Nouveau
dictionnaire d’histoire naturelle (1816–1819) – and it had appeared in the earlier edition
(1803–1804) of 24 volumes (Dufresne 1803, 1819). A second edition of Traité de taxidermie
appeared in 1827 and cost only 3.50 francs (Anonymous 1827a). The author was referred to
as “Dupont aı̂né, naturaliste, préparateur pour la Faculté de médecine de Paris, des pièces
d’anatomie modelées en cire, membre de plusieurs sociétiés savantes, etc” (Dupont 1827b).
A few years later, further praise appeared at the end of an article on taxidermy where
readers were encouraged to learn more on the subject by reading the works of several authors
(including René Primevère Lesson) but, above all, by consulting Dupont’s Traité
(Belfield-Lefèvre 1839: 418–420).
In 1825 Léonard was reported by Dejean (1825: xxi) to be a natural history dealer but
no longer pursuing entomological studies (“Il ne s’occupe plus d’entomologie”). By
then, Léonard had become increasingly drawn to anatomy and achieved a modest degree
of fame through his skill in modelling faces and figures in coloured wax for French and
foreign institutes and collectors (see, for example, Anonymous 1826; Philbert 1855). In
Almanach du Commerce de Paris for 1825 and 1827 Léonard was listed under “Ouvrages
anatomiques” at 9 rue Saint Séverin, 5th arrondissement, Paris (Bottin 1825: 310, 1827:
320) but in 1827 he either moved or maintained another address at 9 rue Coq-Saint-Honoré,
nowadays Rue de Marengo, 1st arrondissement, Paris; and he had an exhibition of his
anatomical models at 15 boulevard Saint-Martin, 3rd and 10th arrondissements, Paris, for
which he brought out Catalogue raisonné du Cabinet de M. Dupont ainé: pièces modelées
en cire représentant l’anatomie humaine, et comparée, l’histoire de la grossesse et du foetus,
la pathologie; comprenant plusieurs espèces des maladies les plus curieuses (Dupont
1827a). By now he was styling himself “préparateur pour la Faculté de Médecine de Paris,
de l’Ecole royale d’instruction de Val-de-Grâce, et membre du plusieurs sociétés savantes”
(Anonymous 1827b). Two of his busts, of Laplace and Linnaeus, were placed in the
Musée Impériale (Philbert 1855). Some of his wax models showed the symptoms of his own
disease (Boitard and Canivet 1828: 71, footnote).
Throughout this time, Léonard was also acquiring foreign birds for trade as well as for
his personal collection. The Dupont specimens in the Baillon Collection at La Châtre, which
were not from Provence, were mostly from India or Brazil, with others from Argentina,
French Guiana, Senegal and Spain. Support for a widening commitment to foreign birds is
also evident in Dupont’s article (1826) about a new bird from Bengal, wherein it was noted
that the specimen had been sent to the author “par un des mes voyageurs” – perhaps
someone he had paid to travel to India but more likely a contact who had agreed to supply
him with specimens. In addition, Lesson (1829: viii) stated that in the preparation of Histoire
naturelle des oiseaux-mouches he had consulted the beautiful hummingbird collection
of Henry Dupont’s late brother. Léonard had died in Paris on 7 February 1828, just short
of his thirty-third birthday, and an impressive monument was erected in his memory,
probably in Paris (Figure 3). In his last days he had made notes upon his own illness
declaring that he was assisting in the autopsy of his own cadaver (Caplin 1829).12 He never
married and the ownership of all his collections apparently transferred to Henry. This not
only included Léonard’s hummingbirds but some or all of the wax models.
196 DUPONT FAMILY: COLLECTORS, DEALERS AND NATURALISTS IN PARIS

Figure 5. Label on base of specimen stand (in L. A. F.

Baillon’s handwriting):
Court-vite isabelle. Tem[minck]
Cursorius isabellinus. Meyer
Figure 4. Cream-coloured Courser (Cursorius cursor)
Charadrius gallicus. Gmelin
(specimen MLC.2011.0.910).
Court-vite.
Buff[on]. pl[anche]. 795
Tué par M. Dupont près de Tripoli
En affrique, dans le voyage de
(Figures 4 and 5 # Christophe Gouraud, Musée George M. Ritchie pour découvrir
Sand et de la Vallée Noire, La Châtre, France.) Tombouctou.

Henry Dupont (1798–1873) – Dupont jeune

Henry had also studied in Paris at the Jardin des Plantes, and afterwards operated as a natural
history dealer for more than 30 years13, conveniently situating his business on the
banks of the Seine in the centre of Paris, firstly at 9 Quai Saint-Michel, 5th arrondissement,
and later at 25 Quai Saint-Michel (Bottin 1827: 320, 1833: 89, 1837: 5; Boué 1836: 558–559
under the surname Puech). Although selling a range of material, he specialized in insects
(Boitard 1852: 9), sometimes making wax models of particular species for entomologists
(Roche and Lebon 1843: 626). He built up a particularly impressive personal collection
of beetles by reserving the more unusual specimens for himself, adding new items
almost daily and occasionally buying up whole collections from other naturalists. By 1825
Henry was supplying material to Dejean who reported that Henry already had a wonderful
collection of beetles, and that amateur entomologists could deal with him with
confidence. Throughout Species général des coléoptères, Dejean (1825–1831) appears to
consistently make a distinction between the brothers, several times acknowledging
Dupont aı̂né (Léonard) for specimens from Tripoli, occasionally using the term Dupont
jeune for Henry but nearly always referring to the younger brother as “M. Dupont”.
For example, in 1826 he thanked “M. Dupont” for a tiger beetle from Cochin China
when naming it Cicindela Duponti (Dejean 1826: 149) – the first insect believed to be
named after Henry Dupont. By 1828 Henry had 10,000 species of beetle in his collection
(Boitard 1828: 1) and two years later acquired some 15,000 specimens from Jules Goudot
when he returned from Madagascar (Anonymous 1839; Guérin-Méneville 1839; Candèze
1895: 50).
Henry joined Société Entomologique de France in 1832, the year that it was founded,
and was happy to show off his collection to visiting members; a co-founder now considering
it to be one of the finest collections of beetles in Europe (Boisduval 1832: 60). Henry
DUPONT FAMILY: COLLECTORS, DEALERS AND NATURALISTS IN PARIS 197

published numerous entomological articles (White et al. 1868: 410; Anonymous 1889)
mostly in the Magasin de zoologie, beginning in its first volume with a description of the
genus Heterosternus (with H. buprestoides as the type – a Central American scarab beetle).
He is best known for his comprehensive Monographie des Trachydérides de la famille des
longicornes14 based on his own beetle specimens and others of Dejean or in the French
national collection. Dupont (1839: iii) noted that in 1833 he had acquired Mexican beetles
from Charles Alexandre Lesueur (1778–1846), and other collections from Guatemala and
Argentina. On the death of his friend Félix Louis l’Herminier (1779–1833) he received part
of L’Herminier’s collections from Guadeloupe and South Carolina (Fleutiaux and Sallé
1889: 352) and Dupont’s later specimens included those from Vincenzo Piccolomini’s time
in California (Ferté-Sénectère 1848: 51, 53, 201, 217) and Auguste Langle’s Angola and
Congo expedition (Anonymous 1841).
Henry was listed in Almanach du commerce as “Dupont jeune, naturaliste, entomologiste
et préparateur”, later increasing his status to “naturaliste du duc d’Orléans” (that is, Henri
d’Orléans (1822–1897)), and “naturaliste des princes de la famille royale, entomologiste
et préparateur” (Bottin 1827: 320, 1833: 89, 1837: 5). The latter styling appeared on the
title-page of his Monographie (1839) where he was listed as a member of the entomological
societies of London and Stettin, and of other scientific societies in France, Moscow
and Boston. He was also a porte-queue for Marie-Caroline de Bourbon-Sicile, Duchesse
de Berry (1798–1870) who had married into the French royal family – a porte-queue being
someone whose ceremonial duty was to follow behind and carry the train of a robe. It earned
Henry the nickname “le Macao” amongst the French entomological community (Mahul
1869: 11, 134) because “Grand Porte-queue” and “Macaon” are the French names for the
Old World Swallowtail Papilio machaon.
Henry lived through the heyday of the Parisian dealer-naturalists and he would have
sold a lot more besides insects. Vast numbers of birds, the so-called trade skins, poured into
the city from around the world, arriving on merchant ships and government expeditions.
As an example of the latter, he is known to have bought items from Charles René
Augustin Leclancher (1804–1857), the surgeon of Vénus after its round-the-world voyage
of 1836–1839; one Hawaiian bird from this expedition he sold to Baron Lafresnaye
(1783–1861) for 25 francs (Bangs 1930: 363–364). It would be a surprise if Henry did not
regularly trade in hummingbirds as they were in such demand in those days as curiosities
and household ornaments. He might well have added to Léonard’s old collection if new or
better specimens were obtained.
In 1835 at least 200 wax models that had once belonged to Léonard were loaned
to various medical schools on the understanding that payment to Henry would soon be
forthcoming. Two years later a special commission valued the models at 30,000 francs
but no payment was received until 1846 when the French government paid 20,000 francs
to retain them (Bouillaud 1846; Anonymous 1847). This may have given Henry the idea of
retiring, at the age of 50, and in 1846 he disposed of his magnificent insect collection,
of 23,000 species, to Jerzy Wandalin Mniszech (1822–1881), a Polish nobleman (Candèze
1895: 51). The final impetus for total retirement probably came from disillusionment
following the forced abdication of King Louis Philippe I (1773–1850) in the revolution
of February 1848, though Henry is said to have bought the beetle collection of the deposed
king (Barthelet 2000: 192, footnote 371). By mid July 1848 the Dupont insect collection was
being packed up with the help of the writer Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850), a friend of
Count Mniszech, for its successful transport to Odessa (Ukraine).15 In the following
198 DUPONT FAMILY: COLLECTORS, DEALERS AND NATURALISTS IN PARIS

March Henry severed his ties with entomology by resigning from Société Entomologique
de France (Anonymous 1849).
Two decades later, during the Franco-Prussian War that led to the siege of Paris
of 1870–1871, Henry was forced to flee from his home at Bellevue (municipality of
Meudon, former department of Seine-et-Oise, nowadays the department of Hauts-de-Seine,
Île-de-France) and he retreated to central Paris where he was sometimes seen at the Muséum
National d’Histoire Naturelle. When peace was restored he returned to Bellevue but was
greatly discouraged by the damage to his property. His health declined markedly in the
last two years of his life and he died at Bellevue on 2 July 1873, aged 75, a month before
his son’s wedding. In 1823 Henry Dupont had married Rose Marguerite Julie Baudry by
whom he had at least two children: Léonie Eugénie Augustine born 20 February 1828 and
François Henri, born 22 April 1833.16 In 1873, shortly after his father’s death, François
Henri gave a collection of 350 bird sternums to Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris
(Desmarest 1873). In 1951 Henry Dupont’s beetles returned to Paris when the Muséum
National d’Histoire Naturelle received René Oberthur’s collection, Oberthur having bought
many of Dejean’s specimens in 1859 and the Mniszech’s collection in 1885 (Cambefort
2006: 249).

EPONYMS
Chersophilus duponti (Vieillot, 1824): Sirli de Dupont, Dupont’s Lark
The type specimen for Chersophilus duponti cannot be traced at the natural history museums
in Paris, Leiden, Tring or Marseille, and it is not at La Châtre.17 If there is a specimen of
Dupont’s Lark in the portion of the Baillon Collection at Abbeville it would be difficult to
prove that it was the holotype studied by Vieillot.18
When Louis Vieillot described this unusual lark in Faune française (1824: 173, plate 76,
figure 2)19 he gave it the name “Alouette Dupont, Alauda Duponti” stating that it had
been made known to him by “M. Dupont, naturaliste, qui l’a trouvée en Provence”. Although
Vieillot may have pinpointed its year of discovery as 1821 (Vieillot 1824: 190), he does not
identify the Dupont to whom the honour was intended. The only publication of the time that
certainly identified Dupont appears to be Polydore Roux’s Ornithologie Provençale (1829:
285)20 where the discoverer of Dupont’s Lark was acknowledged as the recently deceased
creator of anatomical figures in wax. Jean Louis Florent Polydore Roux (1792–1833) stated
that it was through this wax-modeller’s kindness in sending him a specimen that he was able
to personally prepare a drawing of the bird, so he would not have confused the brothers.
Therefore Dupont’s Lark is certainly named for Léonard Dupont.
The type locality of Provence has proved somewhat controversial as this lark has never
been known to breed in France. The possibility that Dupont’s specimen (or specimens)
were mixed up with material collected near Tripoli is unlikely because neither Vieillot’s
description nor Roux’s well-executed colour plate (Roux 1829: plate 186. Figure 6) give any
indication of the rufous upper parts of the eastern race Chersophilus duponti margaritae
that occurs in Libya. Dupont’s specimen may have been found in the markets at Marseille
or on Îsles d’Hyères off Toulon (Roux 1829: 286; Dresser 1871–1881: 4: 279–280), perhaps
brought across the Mediterranean by violent winds, as suggested by Roux. Alternatively,
there may have been a small breeding population in Provence at that time, perhaps in the dry
Crau, an apparently suitable habitat near Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte
DUPONT FAMILY: COLLECTORS, DEALERS AND NATURALISTS IN PARIS 199

Figure 6. “l’Alouette Dupont, Alauda Duponti”: Chersophilus duponti (Dupont’s Lark) drawn by
Polydore Roux (1829: plate 186) from a Léonard Dupont specimen from Provence (reduced:
original 195 r 235 mm). (By courtesy of Université de Strasbourg, Service Commun de la
Documentation.)

d’Azur (Belis and Olioso 2011: 119). Dubois and Yésou (1976: 238) went so far as to state
that several nineteenth-century specimens came from the Crau amongst which was the type
described by Vieillot.21

New World birds named for “Dupont”

In 1823 when Vieillot described a Green-backed Becard, said to have come from
Trinidad, he named it Platyrhynchus dupontii (now a junior synonym of Pachyramphus
viridis Vieillot, 1816) and wrote: “Cet oiseau, que M. Dupont, naturaliste, possède dans
sa collection, constitue une espèce inédite” (Vieillot 1823b: 843). At this date Vieillot was
almost certainly referring to Léonard Dupont who was then still alive.
200 DUPONT FAMILY: COLLECTORS, DEALERS AND NATURALISTS IN PARIS

A previous investigation into the identity of the brother honoured by Tilmatura dupontii
(Dupont’s Hummingbird) could only conclude that it was named for either Léonard or
Henry Dupont.22 This Central American hummingbird (now more often known as the
Sparkling-tailed Woodstar) was first described and depicted in R. P. Lesson’s Histoire
naturelle des colibris (1832: 101) where the author related only that he was beholden to
“M. Dupont” for the “communication” of the only known specimen. More hummingbirds
in the collection of “M. Dupont” were mentioned by Lesson (1829–1830: 56, 59, 81;
1830–1832: x, 116; 1832–1833: 159) without specifying which Dupont (for dates of
publication see Dickinson et al. 2011: 118–121).
Late nineteenth-century hummingbird specialists have not helped to clarify matters.
Adolphe Boucard in Genera of humming birds (1893: 20) stated only that Dupont’s
Hummingbird was “Dedicated by Lesson to M. Dupont, a dealer naturalist of Paris”. A few
years earlier, Mulsant and Verreaux’s Histoire naturelle des oiseaux-mouches ou colibris
(1877: 14) declared that Dupont’s Hummingbird was named after “M. Dupont, alors
marchand naturaliste de Paris, mort près de cette ville en juillet 1873, âgé de soixante-quinze
ans”. This was obviously a reference to Henry Dupont but how plausible is this statement
and does this publication also confuse the two brothers? Édouard Verreaux had taken
over Maison Verreaux in 1834 and was passionate about hummingbirds but he died in
1868 and is not thought to have written any of the text of Histoire naturelle des oiseaux-
mouches.23 Étienne Mulsant spent most of his life in Lyon, and as the principal author of a
multi-volume study of French beetles (Mulsant 1854–1862); Mulsant and Rey 1863–1879)
who had joined Société Entomologique de France in the same year as Henry Dupont,
he would have been more familiar with the name of Henry than that of Léonard Dupont.
After the passage of 45 years since the hummingbird was named, one wonders if Mulsant
knew any more about Lesson’s intentions than can be deduced from examining Lesson’s
text today.
To find the most critical statement we should perhaps pass over Lesson’s 1832 original
description of the hummingbird and return to Histoire naturelle des oiseaux-mouches,
the first volume of Lesson’s hummingbird trilogy, where, in the opening “Avertissement
de l’Auteur” dated 10 January 1829, he stated that he had consulted (through the courtesy
of Henry Dupont) the beautiful collection of hummingbirds that Henry’s late brother
had created at great expense (Lesson 1829: viii). In view of the fact that the Dupont’s
Hummingbird specimen was originally from Léonard’s collection, it seems much more
likely that Lesson named the hummingbird after Léonard Dupont. Léonard’s death within
the past twelve months perhaps providing Lesson with further incentive to commemorate
this Dupont. Nevertheless, the matter remains unresolved, with the additional possibility that
Lesson’s intention was meant to be a compliment to both Léonard and Henry.

Beetle eponyms
Between 1826 and 1850, more than 30 insects were named for “Dupont” (Sherborn 1926:
2051–2052); almost all of them were beetles, originating from widely scattered locations
such as Madagascar, Senegal, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Australia, Cape of Good Hope and
Straits of Magellan. The intentions of the various authors are either certain dedications to
Henry Dupont or apparent dedications deduced from the context. Both brothers may be
referred to in the original description of Tetralobus duponti where Hope (1842: 73–74)
stated the specimen was probably from Africa and “received by Mr. Dupont (in whose
honour it is named) from a foreign traveller, who is lately dead”. Hope is known to have
DUPONT FAMILY: COLLECTORS, DEALERS AND NATURALISTS IN PARIS 201

visited Henry Dupont’s collection in Paris and has certainly dedicated the insect to Henry
Dupont. The foreign traveller who collected the beetle could be Léonard Dupont as we know
that Henry possessed some of Léonard’s insects from Tripoli (Solier 1838: 167) but if so, it
seems unlikely that he would not have been identified more precisely. A possible exception
that only refers to Léonard Dupont is Clytus duponti that followed an unpublished name
coined by Dejean for a specimen found, at an unspecified date, in woods near the capital by
“M. Dupont, de Paris” (Mulsant 1839: 84–85).

DUPONT PORTRAIT BY AUGUSTE RAFFET

It is little surprise that a portrait of one of the Dupont brothers has the unhelpful, ambiguous
caption: “1827–1828 M. Dupont Naturaliste” (Figure 1). Is it Léonard Dupont at the height
of his fame as the creator of anatomical figures in coloured wax? Or must we conclude that
it is his younger brother Henry because if it had been a portrait of Léonard it would perhaps
have shown a disfigurement as a result of the after-effects of a skin affliction contracted
when dissecting a lion at Paris (Anonymous 1817). Auguste Raffet (1804–1860) is now
one of the best known military artists, remembered for his work in North Africa and Italy,
for numerous battle scenes and sketches of military personnel. He also portrayed several
naturalists, sketching the members of the scientific expedition to Crimea that included Louis
Rousseau of Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, Alexander von Nordmann
(1803–1866) and Anatoli Demidoff (1813–1870); and at another time the soldier-zoologist
General Jean Levaillant (1790–1876) (see, for example, Giacomelli 1862). Raffet’s chalk
sketch of “M. Dupont Naturaliste” may be one of the two sketches of Dupont listed in a
1911 sale catalogue: “Lot 128. Mr Billioux. Projet de programme pour la Société des Frileux,
1835 – Dupont, naturaliste. Deux dessins” (Courboin 1911: 30). Société des Frileux was an
eating, drinking, singing and card-playing club for poets, writers, journalists and artists
(including Raffet) that flourished in nineteenth-century Paris. It met only from November to
May, so the date on the portrait may refer to the winter session of 1827–1828. The date 1835
in the catalogue suggests that it is a portrait of Henry, the only brother then surviving, but
it could have been a retrospective look at past club members – and in the winter session
of 1827–1828 Léonard was still alive. The photograph of Henry Dupont (Figure 2) shows a
man of about 50 to 60 years of age so it would have been taken between about 1848 and
1858, 20 to 30 years after Raffet completed his sketch. The subjects have some similar
features, as one might expect from brothers, but the general impression is that they are not
the same person and that Raffet’s sketch is therefore of Léonard Dupont.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Richard Mearns and Christophe Gouraud are greatly indebted to Laurent Chevrier for all the genealogical research,
for locating the portraits of “H. Dupont” and “M. Dupont Naturaliste”, and much additional help regarding
the Duponts. We would also like to thank Claire Voisin, Département Ecologie et Gestion de la Biodiversité,
Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, and curators Jean-Nicolas Magnan and Sylvie Pichard, Muséum
d’Histoire Naturelle, Marseille, for kindly searching for the type of Chersophilus duponti. Georges Colas and
Société Entomologique de France, provided the portrait of H. Dupont, Sébastien Dalloyau provided one of the
references for Dupont’s Lark and Martin Schneider kindly supplied information regarding the authorship of
Mulsant and Verreaux’s Histoire naturelle des oiseaux-mouches ou colibris constituant la famille des Trochilidés
(1874–1877).
202 DUPONT FAMILY: COLLECTORS, DEALERS AND NATURALISTS IN PARIS

NOTES
1
As examples: “Edouard Dupont” was incorrectly credited as the author of Traité de taxidermie in Quérard
(1828: 709). This error was repeated in many subsequent works especially from the 1840s onwards, for example
Agassiz and Strickland (1850: 297). “E. Dupont” also appeared as Henry’s brother in Hayek (1973: 274).
There may sometimes have been confusion with Édouard-François Dupont (1841–1911), director of Musée
royal d’histoire naturelle, Brussels, from 1868–1909, but this does not account for the untraced “Édouard Dupont”
named in earlier works. Two detailed botanical papers (1818 and 1819) credited to Dupont aı̂né (White et al
1868: 409–410) are out of character and must surely refer to a different Dupont, perhaps Jean Dominique Dupont
or Jean Hiacinthe Lambert Dupont (both students of Lamarck, see http://www.lamarck.cnrs.fr/auditeurs/index.
php?lang=fr&rech=gene&send=gene (accessed 1 November 2014). Ronsil (1948: 163, n 946–949) listed Léonard
Dupont (but not Henry Dupont because he did not publish anything about birds) as well as an Alfred Dupont (still
alive in 1873), Ch. Dupont (who wrote about birds 1920–1933), and the Édouard Dupont (1841–1911) mentioned
above.
2
Note that the first son was also named Henry. Birth and death certificates for the three sons were examined,
and dates before 1800 (French Republican Calendar) were converted to the Gregorian Calendar.
Henry Puech dit Dupont. Birth: Departmental Archives of Calvados – Parish records and Marital status:
BAYEUX N.M.D. 1793–1796 [5 MI-EC 1830]. Death: Departmental Archives of Calvados – Parish records and
Marital status: BAYEUX N.M.D. 1797–1800 [5 MI-EC 1831].
Léonard Puech dit Dupont. Birth: Departmental Archives of Calvados – Parish records and Marital status:
BAYEUX N.M.D. 1793–1796 [5 MI-EC 1829]. Death: Archives of Paris – Alphabetical records of reconstituted
marital status, death, puech, 11th arrondissement, 07/02/1828. V3E/D 1242.
Richard Henry Puech dit Dupont. Birth: Departmental Archives of Calvados – Parish records and Marital
status: BAYEUX N.M.D. 1797–1800 [5 MI-EC 1831]. Death: Departmental Archives of Hauts-de-Seine – Parish
records and Marital status: NANTERRE Image 29, Cote: E_NUM_MEU272.
3
The archives of Paris (1793 to 1859) were destroyed by fire during the Paris Commune in 1871, and though
reconstituted afterwards there are some mistakes. Madame Marie-Françoise Dupont is just possibly the Marie Rose
Badin who died in Paris on 19 November 1852.
4
Joseph Ritchie is known to have been born in Otley, Yorkshire, but his birth year is variously given as 1786,
1788 and 1790. The only Joseph Ritchie traced for this period and location was baptized on 1 August 1792; his
parents named John and Elisabeth (www.ancestry.co.uk, accessed 22 April 2015).
5
He was referred to as “Dupont, préparateur au cabinet d’histoire naturelle” (Anonymous 1817). Amedée (1821:
382) stated, using an alternative name, that Dupont “belonged” to the Jardin des Plantes (“M. Dupont, appartenant
au jardin du roi”).
6
A few of Ritchie’s beetles from Tripoli are currently in the Macleay Collection in Sydney, Australia
(Blackburn 2012).
7
Although an online search was made for information regarding Léonard Dupont’s specimens from Libya
and Provence, no proper attempt was made to trace surviving specimens in the museums of Europe or further
afield.
8
“[Chameleon] Grandeur naturelle, d’après le vivant, apporté de Tripoli par Mr Puech dit Dupont”, vellum,
inventory number V31635, bibliothèque centrale, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris. Image du MNHN
http://photo.rmngp.fr/archive/09–544021-2CLC2SZWYPT.html (accessed 10 April 2015).
9
The portion of the Baillon Collection at La Châtre has specimens that are well labelled for the standards of the
time, and has been well studied (see, for example, Gouraud 2014a, 2014b, Gouraud 2015).
10
No trace was found for Henry Dupont being in the south of France until much later: in February 1838 Henry
reported that he had visited the south and inspected the insect collection in the museum at Marseille (Anonymous
1838).
11
See “Auditeurs de Jean-Baptiste Lamarck” – a database of Lamarck’s pupils: http://www.lamarck.cnrs.fr/
auditeurs/index.php?lang=fr&rech=gene&send=gene (accessed 1 November 2014).
12
Caplin (1829: 180) also mentioned that Mozart’s Requiem mass in D minor was sung at Léonard Dupont’s
funeral (“Mozart composait quelques heures avant sa mort, la messe qui fut chantée à ses funérailles.”)
13
Desmarest (1873) stated that Henry Dupont had been in business as a natural history dealer for “nearly thirty
years”. Dupont retired in 1848 so would have begun in about 1818. He does not seem to appear as a dealer in
Almanach du commerce de Paris until 1825 but could have worked alongside his brother or for another dealer
before setting up his own business.
DUPONT FAMILY: COLLECTORS, DEALERS AND NATURALISTS IN PARIS 203

14
H. Dupont’s Monographie appeared in parts in Magasin de zoologie 1836: 6: Class IX, pp. 1–49, plates
141–164; 1838: 8: Class IX, pp. 1–59, plates 186–200, 204–224; 1840: 2: pp. 1–16, plates 28–38. The first two parts
were also bound separately (Dupont 1839).
15
Balzac to Count Orloff, 14 July 1848: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, Balzac Correspondence, Garnier,
volume V, p. 323 (URL http://www.ader-Paris.fr/html/fiche.jsp?id=2456398&np=1&lng=fr&npp=20&ordre=1&
aff=1&r accessed 13 January 2015). See also Billy 1944: 270.
16
Record of wedding between Henry Puech dit Dupont and Rose Marguerite Julie Baudry in 1823 and 1841:
Archives of Paris – Alphabetical records of reconstituted marital status, marriages, puech, 12th arrondissement,
25/11/1823. V3E/M846.
Record of birth of Léonie Eugénie Augustine Puech dit Dupont in 1828: Archives of Paris – Alphabetical
records of reconstituted marital status, birth, puech, 20/02/1828. V3E/N1879.
Record of birth of François Henri Puech dit Dupont in 1833: Archives of Paris – Alphabetical records of
reconstituted marital status, birth, puech, 11th arrondissement, 22/04/1833. V3E/N1879.
The reconstituted Paris Archives contains some discrepancies (see note 2 above). For example, there are two
dates for the marriage of Henry Dupont with Rose Marguerite Julie Baudry: 25 November 1823 and 19 January
1841. The earlier date seems more likely to be correct.
17
Information supplied by Claire Voisin, Département Ecologie et Gestion de la Biodiversité, Muséum National
d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris; Jean-Nicolas Magnan, Centre d’Etude et de Conservation, Muséum National d’Histoire
Naturelle, Marseille; and Christophe Gouraud, Baillon Collection, Musée George Sand et de la Vallée Noire,
La Châtre, France. The type of Chersophilus duponti is not listed at Leiden in Dekker (2003); nor in Warren (1966)
and Warren and Harrison (1971–1973) for Tring. The museum of Marseille houses a single specimen of Dupont’s
Lark (NHNM .12621) but it is unlikely to be the type of Vieillot or the bird used by Roux as it was not present in the
Marseille institution until 1889; the specimen could pre-date 1889 but the label is incomplete (J.-N. Magnan to
C. Gouraud, pers. comm., 29 January 2015).
18
The portion of the Baillon Collection at Abbeville still survives at Musée Boucher-de-Perthes but there
is currently no natural history curator and there is no proper inventory of the approximately 3,000 specimens.
Christophe Gouraud saw some of the birds in 2011 and did not see labels on the pedestals (as at La Châtre) so there
appears to be no details of collector, location or date for each bird.
19
Mearns and Mearns (1988: 135) gave 1820 as the year of Vieillot’s original description of Dupont’s Lark, the
year stated by numerous authorities. The correct date of publication is 28 February 1824, see Chersophilus duponti
in www.zoonomen.net (accessed 12 October 2014) for discussion and additional references.
20
The first volume of Roux’s Ornithologie Provençale is often dated 1825, as printed on the title-page, but below
the main date the “Typographie” is dated “Marseille. 1829”. This later date is supported by Roux’s comment on
page 285 that shows that it was published after the death of Léonard Dupont in 1828: “C’est à M. Dupont, célèbre
par ses préparations anatomiques en cire, et que la mort vient d’enlever aux sciences, que l’on doit la connaissance
de cette rare espèce.”
21
Dubois and Yésou (1976: 238) stated “quelques rares captures ont été faites en Crau, Bouches-du-
Rhône, au siècle dernier [19e], parmi lesquelles le spécimen qui a permis à Vieillot de décrire l’espèce en
1820 [sic].”
22
J. A. Jobling, 2015 “Key to scientific names in ornithology”, in J. Del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal,
D. A. Christie and E. de Juana (editors), 2015 Handbook of the birds of the world alive. Barcelona (URL
www.hbw.com, accessed 27 January 2015).
23
Although the title suggests co-authorship, it is unlikely that Édouard Verreaux wrote any of the text for this
four-volume monograph on hummingbirds. Martin Schneider (to R. Mearns, pers. comm., 2 June 2013) pointed out
that Édouard had died in 1868 and Mulsant seems to have put Verreaux’s name on the title-page because of help
received in advance and because Édouard’s widow continued to allow him access to the hummingbird specimens
(Mulsant 1878: 116–117).

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Received 18 June 2015. Accepted 8 July 2015.