|
The legendary plan to rescue the emperor Napoleon from his exile on the island St. Helena, to spirit him to la Nouvelle
Orleans and to hide him in the home of Mayor Nicolas Girod on Chartres Street did not, of course, materialize. But Napoleon
did, in a manner of speaking, find his way to the Vieux Carre from St. Helena. With this letter, the emperor's personal
physician, Dr. F. Antommarchi, offered Bonaparte's bronze death mask to the Mayor of New Orleans. City officials accepted
the offer and displayed the relic in the old City Hall on Jackson Square. It apparently disappeared during the Civil War and
did not find its way back into municipal ownership until 1909. Mayor Martin Behrman subsequently gave the mask to the newly
established Louisiana State Museum which now displays it in the Cabildo which was, of course, the old City Hall. [City Archives.
Letters, petitions and decrees of the Conseil de Ville] From http://www.nutrias.org/~nopl/exhibits/ccmem/6.htm
|
