20 Oct 2022
Standing at the crossroads of life sciences, Earth sciences and human sciences and evolution, the Museum has been devoted to biological diversity and to relationships between nature and human society for nearly 400 years. It was created in 1635 in Paris as a royal garden with medicinal purposes, and had a second role as a seat of learning. It became the Muséum d'Histoire naturelle, or Museum of Natural History, during the French Revolution, in 1793.
The Museum has since played a big part in preserving and passing on memory of the Earth's past, thanks to its significant scientific heritage. A research center, museum and university all in one, it helps maintain conservation, enrichment and showcasing of its extraordinary collections and make them available for education and research to a wide public, both national and international.
The Museum is particularly in step with our society's concerns, such as the loss of biodiversity. The Museum works for the future: natural history allows one to go beyond the limits of time and space, to retrace and understand the history of the Earth and of life, to record and catalogue global biodiversity, to analyze the complexity of our ecosystems, to understand the evolution of the living world and to define Man's place on the planet.
By working with the national Museum of natural History, Carrière Frères has chosen to reconnect with botany's historical wealth and centuries of enlightened research. Beginning in the 19th Century, when Carrière Frères was established, the sciences and botany worked to serve industry and progress. The Museum is the guarantor of this legacy. In the heart of its archives is a collection of vellum paper that is unique in the world, rich of 70,000 pieces : plants and animals are represented on parchment made of calfskin.
Its partnership with the Museum allows Carrière Frères to reinforce its interest in the rich botanical illustrations that date from the early 17th Century to the beginning of the 21th Century. These drawings are of a fineness rarely seen; the coloured plates making up the Museum's vellums reveal rare or unusual plants, and inspire new geographic and olfactory exploration.
As a public and learning institution, the Museum leads ongoing endeavours in research, conservation and education, which shed light on the past as well as on the future. A vital link between yesterday and tomorrow, the Museum works to preserve Earth's biodiversity. It is an action that lies at the heart of Carrière Frères' commitments as well, as it financially supports the Museum's many missions and activities through this partnership.
Botany makes perfect sense as the focus of Carrière Frères' approach and commitment. Its close association with the National Museum of Natural History's unique collection of vellums and illustrations allows Carrière Frères to highlight plants that are unusual, exotic or packed with history, and rekindle ties with centuries of great botanical exploration. The partnership with the Museum's researchers and with Robertet Group perfumers in Grasse, has produced three original and innovative fragrances:
