Correspondence from Marie Paul Tannery to Olympe Gevin-Cassal, 4 June 1923 (letter no. 58, 2/2) (1923) by Marie Paul TanneryÉcole Polytechnique
The archival fonds
From 1904 (and until 1942), Marie Paul Tannery, bereaved by the death of her husband, Paul Tannery, carried out a project to publish his scientific memoirs. She documented this work through her correspondence with her friend Olympe Gévin-Cassal, a feminist figure.
Correspondence from Marie Paul Tannery to Olympe Gevin-Cassal, 2 March 1907 (letter no. 13, 1/4) (1907) by Marie Paul TanneryÉcole Polytechnique
A correspondence between women
Some letters are kept in the archives of the École Polytechnique, in the Marie Paul Tannery collection (IX Tannery), a private collection.
Marie Paul Tannery
Marie Paul Tannery, whose birth name was Marie-Alexandrine Prisset, was born on November 27, 1856 and died on January 28, 1945. Daughter of a notary father, elected mayor of Brion-près-Thouet (Deux-Sèvres) and an annuitant mother, she was educated in a convent.
Marriage
In 1880, then aged 24, she married Paul Tannery, a polytechnician, attached to the Le Havre tobacco factory. She accompanied him on numerous trips required by his role and thus made contact with Parisian scientific circles.
Paul Tannery
Paul Tannery was born on December 20, 1843 and died on November 27, 1904. Son of a railway engineer and Euphrosine Perrier, he joined the École Polytechnique in 1861.
Engineer and historian
He subsequently joined the Tobacco engineers. His work in the history of science earned him recognition on a European scale. He was involved in numerous scientific circles and worked for the academic development of the history of science.
Frontispiece and title page in Paul Tannery, Johann Ludvig Heiberg and Herinymus Georg Zeuthen, Mémoires scientifiques, livre I, Sciences exactes dans l'Antiquité, 1876-1884, Paris; Toulouse, Gauthier-Villars; Edouard Privat, 1912, 465 p. (1912) by Marie Paul Tannery, Johan Ludvig Heiberg, and Georg ZeuthenÉcole Polytechnique
Joining the male academic world
When the latter died in 1904, Mrs. Tannery, deeply bereaved, decided to take over her husband's editing work on Descartes' correspondence, then to have his memoirs published. This earned her numerous nominations within scientific circles.
Frontispiece and title page in Paul Tannery, Johann Ludvig Heiberg and Herinymus Georg Zeuthen, Mémoires scientifiques, livre I, Sciences exactes dans l'Antiquité, 1876-1884, Paris; Toulouse, Gauthier-Villars; Edouard Privat, 1912, 465 p. (1912) by Marie Paul Tannery, Johan Ludvig Heiberg, and Georg ZeuthenÉcole Polytechnique
Posthumous edition
This collection is particularly interesting for the information it provides on her role in the edition of the scientific memoirs of Paul Tannery. His contribution is essential, but her name is not mentioned on the title pages.
His contributions
Mrs. Tannery distinguishes herself by working closely with the sources, her husband's writings: she researches, collects, archives, reads, inventories and partially writes. She entrusted the analysis to various collaborators, including Heiberg and de Waard.
Scientific places
Marie-Paul Tannery’s attitude towards this project is that of a scientist. Her correspondence shows us her places of scientific practice: her home, other private spaces, libraries...
A middle-class woman and science
However, she does not have a university education. We know little about the nature of her education, which Waard describes in correspondence as expected for a woman of her background. However, her letters bear witness to her marked interest in science.
In the last third of the 19th century, a diversification of educational offerings took place, after several decades of debates on the education of young girls, notably led by socialist feminist voices. The number of religious and secular establishments with education for girls and young women is growing. This movement encourages a diversification of the offer in education.
It has allowed women to gain significant influence in the private sphere without having been thought of as a tool for emancipation.
These perspectives were not accessible to everyone.
The level of education is synonymous with a certain social level, as confirmed by the case of Ms. Tannery. There is a real difference in treatment and access between bourgeois women and the proletarian population, both men and women.
A woman in the shadow of scientists?
The role of Ms. Tannery is in the background, she is not mentioned as the author of the works. The nature of the tasks she completed were rarely credited.
Editorial cooperation
However, she is not discredited by her scientific interlocutors: They and she worked together, far from relegating her to a subordinate status. Thus, Heiberg regularly travels to France to analyze and write volume 1 of the memoirs with Ms. Tannery.
Freedom of action
She also wrote the forewords: her status as the widow of an eminent historian of science, as well as her age, certainly had a role in this treatment. She gained a certain freedom of action.
Strategic roles?
If she is not identified as the author, she retains a central economic and political role. Thus, around 1909, she acted to obtain a prize from the French Academy of sciences for Heiberg for his work on Volume 1 with the help of G. Darboux (portrait), E. Bouty and B. Baillaud.
G. Darboux: perpetual secretary of the Academy of Sciences
E. Bouty: French physicist, professor at the Paris Faculty of Sciences
B. Baillaud: French astronomer and mathematician
Social rank
If the term strategy can be applied here, the role that Marie-Paul Tannery took here does not deviate from the functions of women of her social rank.
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Insight into the life of a middle-class woman
Mrs. Tannery lived between different homes, which she took care of. So, she used to go to Brion-près-Thouet during the harvest season. She punctuates her days with encounters, takes care of different parents...
On the right, a view of her last address, 16 rue Bouchut.
Replace men
Sometimes, these letters allow us to recontextualize her work in the political context of her time: “And tomorrow I'm leaving for Poitou, I no longer have any hands there. Those who still remained have just joined the army in Cliouré.”
This correspondence also underlines her agency. She travels frequently for her project, even as far as the Netherlands. She is considering the request for a rail traffic card, intended for journalists, which she is requesting from the Ministry of the Interior. She moves with a specific purpose, an essential defining element of female mobility of this era.
Her feeling
The very nature of these archives offers us a precious and intimate testimony of some of her thoughts and feelings as an editor. She explicitly expresses to her correspondent the impact of her erasure, or at least of the disregard to which her work is subject.
The social norms that are expected of them can only allow us to glimpse a limited and altered part of them.
Correspondence from Marie Paul Tannery to Olympe Gevin-Cassal, circa 1920 (letter no. 40, 2/4 and 3/4) (1920) by Marie Paul TanneryÉcole Polytechnique
Conclusion
These archives provide insight into collaborative and female publishing work. Far from wanting to elevate her to the rank of figure, the aim here is to help restore visibility to Ms. Tannery's work.
École Polytechnique, Historical Resource Center (2024)
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