Grand Pensionnat de Jeunes Filles. Situation Exceptionelle d’Hygiène & d’Agrément
Institution Belle-Vue, ca. 1895
(Education) (Girls) Institution Belle-Vue. Grand Pensionnat de Jeunes Filles. Situation Exceptionelle d’Hygiène & d’Agrément. Paris: A. Breger Frères, n.d. [ca. 1895]. Oblong 17.5 x 13 cm., 24 plates (printed recto only). Plates printed by “neo-bromure” method (similar to an Albertype or heliotype) with captions; in pictorial wrappers, very good.
Promotional book for a girls’ boarding school located in Fontenay sous Bois, now a suburb of Paris. Fine views of the interior facilities, many with students at study and play, including classrooms, the gymnasium, the art studio, and the dormitories, as well as the expansive grounds (30,000m2 de parc) used for “le tennis” and “étude en plein air.” Extensive photographs of these activities testify to a growing belief in healthful outdoor activity as an aspect of the “complete” education of girls and a cure for modernity’s spiritual and moral ailments.
The school seems to have operated under the direction of Catholic nuns from 1893 through WWI, adding classes for poor children in 1904 and a free parish school in 1911. Transformed into a Francisican seminary in 1923, the building is known locally as the center of the area’s antifacist Resistance activities during WWII.
Not located in OCLC.
$300