Lot 398

French Physics, 4 Generations! 50+pp Archive Re: Henri Becquerel, His Grandfather Antoine César, His Father Alexandre-Edmond, & His Son Jean Antoine!

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French Physics, 4 Generations! 50+pp Archive Re: Henri Becquerel, His Grandfather Antoine César, His Father Alexandre-Edmond, & His Son Jean Antoine!

Estimate: $3,000 - $5,000

Current Bid: $1,000

(1 Bid)

June 17, 2026 10:00 AM EDT
Live Auction
Wilton, CT, US

Description:

Becquerel Family
various, ca. 1906-1946
French Physics, 4 Generations! 50+pp Archive Re: Henri Becquerel, His Grandfather Antoine César, His Father Alexandre-Edmond, & His Son Jean Antoine!
Archive

A sizable French-language archive documenting the scientific research and associated academic interests of four generations of the legendary Becquerel Family, who dominated 19th and 20th C. French physics: Antoine Henri Becquerel (1852-1908), who in 1903 was co-awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics (along with Pierre and Marie Curie) for his work on radioactivity; Henri's grandfather, Antoine César Becquerel (1788-1878), who made important discoveries in electricity; Henri's father, Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel (1820-1891), who created the world's first photovoltaic cell; and Henri's son, Jean Antoine Becquerel (1878-1953), who investigated magnetism and was one of the first academics in the 1920s to teach the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. The archive provides us with insights into the research and careers of all four Becquerel men, as well as of their contemporaries and collaborators, such as Curie, Rutherford, and Röntgen. The Becquerels certainly benefited from a vigorous intellectual environment fostered by French scientific societies, museums, universities, and institutes.

The archive, which numbers approximately 56pp total, consists of manuscript speech notes, annotated manuscript drafts of an academic nature, partly manuscript and partly typed notes, an autograph letter signed, and printed posthumous tributes to Henri Becquerel. Several of the items are annotated in the hand of Jean Antoine Becquerel, and one of them is signed by him as "Jean Becquerel." Ca. 1906-1946. Various places. Expected wear including toning, isolated edge darkening, closed tears, chipped edges, staple and pin holes. Please refer to catalog photos for additional information related to condition, which is overall very good. The largest document measures 9.125" x 14.325".

The lot includes, in roughly chronological order:

1. A 2pp manuscript draft of a speech to be delivered by Henri Becquerel at the January 6, 1906 session of the Société Nationale d'Agriculture de France; along with a 1p manuscript draft of a speech attributed to be authored by Léon Teisserenc de Bort (1855-1913), whom Henri Becquereal was succeeding as president. Ca. January 3, 1906. N.p. Headlined: "Henri Becquerel." Secretarially inscribed on three legal sized sheets. With red colored pencil pagination at the top. Scattered foxing, staple holes, and chips. 7.75" x 12".

In the speech draft, Henri Becquerel humbly accepts the presidency of the Société Nationale d'Agriculture, of which Becquerel was a member between 1892 and his death in 1908. The Société Nationale d'Agriculture was
established in 1761. Its select French and foreign-born members studied agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, weather and climate, and the environment. (Today, the society operates under a different name, the Académie d'Agriculture de France.) Towards the conclusion of the speech, Henri Becquerel summarizes the important work which the society does. The speech illustrates that Becquerel's interests extended past physics into meteorology and agriculture.

Translated in part:

"Haven't we heard here, last year, about beautiful studies on domestic animals, their work, their products, on the more diverse cultivation, from those of the trees of our forests to a new variety of potato, of considerations on economic conditions which require the sale of farming products, of communications as important as they are varied, on the extension of the industrial application of alcohol, on the electrical fabrication of lime nitrate to the cost of atmospheric nitrogen, on the efficacy, real or problematic, of anti-hail defense, and many others still…" (p. 1-2)

2. A 13pp manuscript draft of a speech to be delivered by Henri Becquerel at the December 19, 1906 session of the Société Nationale d'Agriculture de France. Ca. December 19, 1906. N.p. Headlined: "Official Meeting of 19 December 1906, Discourse of M. Becquerel, President." Secretarially inscribed on legal sized sheets. With a handful of in-line edits. Red colored pencil pagination at the top. Scattered foxing, pin holes, and chips. 8" x 12.25".

Henri Becquerel provides an overview of meteorological advances over the last 150 years, and discusses the work of his colleague, Léon Teisserenc de Bort, in collecting temperature data from balloons. De Bort conducted many "upper air" experiments, and was the co-discoverer of the stratosphere.

Translated in part:

"But it is in the nature of man to quickly forget the proofs of the past; soon, the exact prediction of weather will no longer seem to him anything but a banal thing, as has become our usage of steam or of electricity.

Already our children cannot conceive of how their fathers were able to live without railroads and without automobiles, without telegraph nor telephone; maybe also our great-nephews will have difficulty one day imagining that there was a time when one didn't know if it would rain the next day." (p. 13)

3. A 2pp printed posthumous tribute to Henri Becquerel. Ca. 1908. N.p. Laid down to larger sheets measuring 7.875" x 12".

4. A 14pp manuscript draft with autograph corrections by Jean Becquerel, being a summary of his father's work as Physics Chair at the National Museum of Natural History. N.d., n.p. Headlined: "The principal works of the Physics Chair professors of the National Museum of Natural History." Secretarially inscribed on paper, some of which are blank "Chambre des Députés" letterhead. Numerous edits by Jean Becquerel including cross-outs and rewrites. Isolated pinholes. 7.5" x 10.125".

All four generations of the Becquerel Family - Antoine César, Alexandre-Edmond, Antoine Henri, and Jean Antoine - would hold the Physics Chair at the National Museum of History. In this draft, Jean Becquerel describes how his father, Henri, incorporated phosphorescence research compiled by his grandfather, Edmond, which eventually led to Henri's conclusions about radioactivity. The manuscript refers to the scientists by their names, but also in terms of relation to the author, ex. "mon père," "mon grand père," "mon arrière-grand père," etc. Jean Becquerel mentions other notable scientists in the manuscript, such as Henri Poincaré (p. 6); Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (p. 7); Marie Curie (p. 9); Emile Armet de Lisle (p. 9); and Ernest Rutherford (p. 10).

Translated in part:

"On the other hand, the continuity of the work accomplished here is certainly one of the causes of its fecundity. Among the many examples that I could take, I cite only the most striking: the study of electrical phenomena conducted by Antoine-César Becquerel to study the action of electric shock from phosphorescent substances; Edmond Becquerel, who collaborated in this work, [and who] continued, alone, the study of phosphorescence, and recognized the exceptional qualities of uranium salts. Henri Becquerel, [who] wanted to deepen still more [our understanding of] this question and found radioactivity there…"

5. A 7pp manuscript with autograph corrections by Jean Becquerel, being a summary of his family's scientific legacy. N.d., n.p. Headlined: "Note on M. H. Becquerel." Secretarially inscribed on paper, some of which is hand-stamped "Société Nationale / d'Agriculture de France / Rue de Bellechasse, 18" at upper left. Numerous edits by Jean Becquerel including cross-outs and rewrites. Isolated surface roughness. 5.875" x 7.625".

6. A group of manuscript and typed documents, approximately 16pp in all, discussing the work of Henri Becquerel and Antoine César Becquerel. N.d., n.p. The group includes a 6pp partly manuscript and partly typed draft entitled: "23 January 1878 Session / M. César Becquerel"; as well as a 2pp partly manuscript and partly typed draft by Jean-Augustin Barral entitled "Bibliographic Praise of Antoine-César Becquerel"; and a 6pp manuscript draft beginning, "The principal research of Henri Becquerel has posed some very special questions to physics..." Flattened transmittal folds and professional restoration of several pages. The largest page measures 9.125" x 14.325".

7. A 1p autograph letter signed by Jean Antoine Becquerel as "Jean Becquerel" at the conclusion. March 12, 1946. [Fontainebleau, France.] Inscribed on bifold paper with a mourning border. Translated in part: "Monsieur le Président, being ill, I just came to learn by telephone that a convocation dispatched to my laboratory invites me to go testify at the trial of M. Georges Dayras…" Georges Dayras (1898-1968) served as the Secrétaire Général du Ministère de la Justice in Vichy France. Three days after Jean Becquerel sent this letter, Dayras was sentenced to death; his punishment was later commuted to a lifetime of hard labor.

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