Municipal Museum of Semur-en-Auxois / e-ReColNat Infrastructure

The Semur-en-Auxois museum kept its 19th century museography displaying geology and zoology collections in a “Cabinet of Curiosities” fashion, as well as archeology collection (prehistoric objects, and also gallo-romans items with an exceptional collection of ex-voto). The Gallerie des Plâtres (Plaster Gallery) and the Beaux-arts hall showcase the 19th century with numerous statues, of which the original of the Génie de la Bastille de Paris by Augustin Dumont, as well as numerous paintings of diverse genre, landscapes, portraits, and historic paintings.

In 1844, the paleontology and Geology collections were donated to the Museum, then in contact with renown national and international paleontologists of the time, and were visited multiple times by the Société Géologique de France (Geology Society of France) at the beginning of the 20th century.
The Collections harbor over 11,000 items, and are especially noteworthy for 4 reasons:
- They are internationally recognized for their role in the definition of the Sinemurian age ;
- The diversity and richness of the specimens coming exclusively from Auxois ;
- The large number of types and figured specimens: over 250 specimens published between 1862 and 2012 ;
- The museum kept its original layout from the 19th century.

Although centering on the region, this collection is of global interest as it enables the study of the paleobiodiversity of the North-West, from the Tethys in the Hettangian age (-200Ma) to the Bathonian age (-165 Ma). From a scientific point of view, this collection has an important international impact, and various authors have written articles based upon the study of the specimens preserved in Sémur.

Computerization and digitization of the whole collection started in 2012, thanks to the University of Bourgogne and the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle of Paris. The goal was to computerize the inventory kept on paper, digitize specimens, treat images (orienting, cropping, and scaling), and transfer all the data on Trans’Tyfipal®, thus making all specimens (including types and figured specimens) available on the Explore database of the RECOLNAT portal.

Contact

Alexandra Bouillot-Chartier
Musée de Semur-en-Auxois Director
musee.semur@gmail.com
03 80 97 24 25

Jérôme Thomas
Museum Collection Curator
Laboratoire Biogéosciences (UMR CNRS / uB 6282)
UFR Sciences de la Vie, de la Terre et de l'Environnement
jerome.thomas@u-bourgogne.fr
03-80-39-63-73

Excerpt- Paleontology collection donation - Municipal archives (1M34)

Portraits of the donators – Photography – Museum collection